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People are dumb and abandon awesome animals, it's just a thing unfortunately.
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Jul 29, 2012 20:03
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Is it weird that I'm worried that if I take Max somewhere that someone will see him and go "that's my dog!!" and want him back? At this point it doesn't even matter. If he was at the shelter for a month, that was ample time to, you know, check the shelter to see if their dog was there. You legally adopted him from a shelter, who will have all of his paperwork.
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Jul 29, 2012 21:13
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Skizzles posted:Shadow is officially a Good Dogge. This awesome, congratulations! Shadow was more compliant than the dog the testing person brought 
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Jul 29, 2012 21:17
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Yeah, he's microchipped with my name and address and I have all the adoption paperwork so he's clearly legally mine and they should've tried harder to find him. It would just be an uncomfortable situation.
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Jul 29, 2012 21:36
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Is it weird that I'm worried that if I take Max somewhere that someone will see him and go "that's my dog!!" and want him back? I got Quaffle in February and I still feel exactly like this. I'm also afraid someone is just going to steal him some day because he's so awesome. I don't get why someone would go through all the annoying puppy stage stuff then miss out on all the great adult dog stuff by just letting him wander off and not try to find him. Their loss.
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Jul 29, 2012 21:43
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Amberlyn posted:This awesome, congratulations! Shadow was more compliant than the dog the testing person brought That's Mirko, her rescued staffy. He is a good boy, really, but we were at a huge, distracting event and Shadow's butt was practically put in his face when he was doing the down stay. Honestly I feel like I almost cheated because Shadow's always been so naturally chill and well-behaved. He had no behavioral issues to fix and training the basics was a breeze, so I had it easier than most test takers. Our other friend's dog, Sirius (Shadow's boyfriend), did not pass, haha. Poor guy is super sweet, but a bit spazzy and energetic (and his owner won't really put her foot down on training him consistently). I'm just glad our tester is not the kind of person who will pass dogs practically just because they belong to friends, which I know some people in this city do.I do feel kinda bad because the tester is also a vet and she said his teeth look a little nasty.  They used to be in really good shape. Guess someone's getting a dental appointment in the near future.
Skizzles fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Jul 29, 2012 |
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Jul 29, 2012 22:04
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Man. I just did a home necropsy on one of my feeder mice. I euthed her because she got irrevocably stuck in labor and all/most of the fetuses died in the process. There was no way she was going to pass them and it was getting pretty sad, so. (this is  i guess) All of the fetuses had fully formed heads and the rest of their bodies were sacks of bone and organs. They were all about twice the size of normal newborn mice and while none of them were necrotic, all but one or two had necrotic placentas. All of her organs looked pretty okay. She was a big, healthy mouse who has had a few successful litters and they've all been normal and uneventful. I just scrubbed my hands and arms for like an hour and I still feel like I'm gonna barf. IT WAS REALLY GROSS YALL!! 
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Jul 29, 2012 22:18
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did you wear gloves??
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Jul 29, 2012 22:24
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You had me at "home necropsy"  But when you say the fetuses were "sacks of bone and organs," do you mean all the bones were present, just like... floating around, not attached to each other? Cos that's really creepy.
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Jul 29, 2012 22:43
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Topoisomerase posted:did you wear gloves?? yeah but I think it burned through them, directly into my soul. quote:You had me at "home necropsy" Haha it was par for the course when I was into rats to necropsy everything that died and lots of rat breeders do, so I usually extend that to feeder rodents so I can get an idea of what they died of and weed out the bad stuff v  v quote:But when you say the fetuses were "sacks of bone and organs," do you mean all the bones were present, just like... floating around, not attached to each other? Cos that's really creepy. I stopped at "this is a gross and horrible sack of parts" and went no further!
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Jul 29, 2012 23:24
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Is it wrong that I am FASCINATED by that?
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Jul 30, 2012 00:48
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CompactFanny posted:Is it wrong that I am FASCINATED by that? *looks at avatar* I guess it isn't... 
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Jul 30, 2012 00:49
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CompactFanny posted:Is it wrong that I am FASCINATED by that? It reminds me of when they find people who have had like... tumor-twins, you know? Like someone would have had a fraternal twin but one of the fetuses didn't survive and wound up as some sort of benign tumor inside the healthy person. And then when removed, the tumor is full of bits of teeth and hair and such. I'm not sure if that really happens or if it's just the premise of a 1980's Stephen King book I read, but it's gross regardless
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Jul 30, 2012 00:53
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kaworu posted:It reminds me of when they find people who have had like... tumor-twins, you know? Like someone would have had a fraternal twin but one of the fetuses didn't survive and wound up as some sort of benign tumor inside the healthy person. And then when removed, the tumor is full of bits of teeth and hair and such. I'm not sure if that really happens or if it's just the premise of a 1980's Stephen King book I read, but it's gross regardless Teratomas are a real thing. They're different from parasitic/vanishing twins, though. Both are very creepy, very real things. :  :
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Jul 30, 2012 01:07
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Robo Kitty posted:Teratomas are a real thing. They're different from parasitic/vanishing twins, though. I kind of wish I had taken pictures but I was just kind of like "wow gently caress this I would like for this to be away from me!" I've seen mice deliver stillborn babies that looked like these- and now that I think about it, they've usually been older mice on their last litter or two. Its usually just been maybe one messed up baby and I've only had it happen a handful of times so I never really thought much of it. Definitely never been an entire litter before, and these were all just about the size of newborn rats, they were so big. Do any of the vet people here know why the placentas would all be necrotic, but not the fetuses? They had all managed to live and develop up until the labor, and only actually stopped moving towards the end after she was unable to deliver any of them (due to the fact that they were all massive) which is I guess when they died. ALL of the placentas were totally dead and looked like they'd been decomposing for a while, but all of the tissue of the actual fetuses looked healthy. The mother acted totally normal up until she went into labor. The walls of the uterus looked like they were starting to become infected in a few spots, but it hadn't spread much and the whole rest of her body looked great. Really great, in fact, considering that she was kind of old. Sorry, trying to spoiler the gross stuff so no one has to read about mouse deformities against their will. I am just so curious hnngh 
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Jul 30, 2012 02:17
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Just when I think Super is pretty weird, I find out she cuts open her dead feeder mice at home and takes a good poke-about inside.  Also you know how I was saying that Bull Mastiff is the size of a small horse? Well he also poops the same amount as a small horse. It took me a solid 5 minutes today to clean up. But I got to leave 30 minutes early. To go to urgent care. V V
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Jul 30, 2012 05:04
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You okay, man?
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Jul 30, 2012 05:07
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Probably threw his back out picking up all the poop.
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Jul 30, 2012 05:10
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When you say the placentas looked "necrotic" can you describe it better, Super?
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Jul 30, 2012 05:12
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Invalid Octopus posted:You okay, man? Bad Munki posted:Probably threw his back out picking up all the poop. Yep.  I have no clue! I was so hot today that I could barely think. Plus, every time I cough it's like my lungs are filled with fire, and I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. Turns out I have a temperature of 103. EKG and chest x-ray were clear. So the doctor just gave me two prescriptions. One for cough suppressant with codeine(  ) and another for an antibiotic to keep me from getting pneumonia.Trying to keep a Pit Bull from pulling you off your feet while you're burning hot and gasping for breath is an interesting experience.  edit: Oddly enough, the 190lb Mastiff is incredibly easy to lead around on a leash. Also a drool factory.
Deep Thoreau fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Jul 30, 2012 |
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Jul 30, 2012 05:17
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I think thats incredibly fascinating with the mice and I wish there were picture 
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Jul 30, 2012 06:46
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Super, did you try looking for similar pictures on google? I wonder if that sort of thing happens often in other mice or rats. I also would love to see this amazing grossness
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Jul 30, 2012 06:50
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Is it weird that I'm worried that if I take Max somewhere that someone will see him and go "that's my dog!!" and want him back? Well I don't think you're weird, but I don't know if that's any consolation. I have a dumped but almost certainly purebred GSD who I'm doing search and rescue with, and even though we're still a long ways away from it I'm already paranoid that maybe he'll find someone and be featured in a news story and his previous owners will try to get him back. Like, this is a real thing I worry about even though it's totally irrational on so many levels, not the least of which is that even if he is mentioned in a news article I've never yet seen one with a picture of the dog that found the victim and it's not like they'll know my name or the one I gave him. But still...  In your case, you legally adopted him from a shelter so you are in the clear. I'm not a lawyer of course, but if it helps any I was witness to a case where a horse was stolen, resold meeting all legal requirements, then the original owners saw him at a show. I was friends with the new owners. It was a really terrible case but my friends were considered the legal owners of the horse since they had purchased him in good faith and all the legal requirements were met (in my state we have state-issued ID cards for livestock sales, and one was done for this horse). That seems to be the case--if the new owners do everything by the book and old owners surface wanting the animal back, the new owners win out. Since you adopted him from a shelter, I'm pretty sure you win by default. Also, this: RazorBunny posted:People are dumb and abandon awesome animals, it's just a thing unfortunately. is totally true. All my dogs are rescues. George the GSD is tied for the most amazing dog I've ever met with Dan the heeler cross, but George was also unneutered and untrained and 78 pounds (healthy weight 86, he was skinny) when I got him, so I can at least understand why he was dumped. Dan was a shelter adoptee, but so amazing. He was intact and a year old but you would never know it (shelter in that area required a $100 deposit and didn't desex the animals, but gave you a voucher for a free one and a $70 refund if you brought in proof the surgery had been done), totally well-trained and just so gentle and obedient it makes me want to cry that anyone would dump him or even just lose him and not look for him. Breed-wise he's a dime a dozen in my area but drat. I've had him 15 years and never met a dog close to him. But I'll stop there because I could write an essay about Dan. I've really met so many amazing dogs that no one wanted, I don't even blink when I hear about a good dog in a shelter. The first dog my family ever had when I was a kid was an 8 year old Lab mix from a shelter, and that dog was fantastic. Great basic obedience, and would let us climb all over him and use him as a pillow to boot. We had him for 6 years before he passed and he never misbehaved except literally every Christmas Eve he would find a way to disappear. I am not joking at all, and even in my 30s I'm pretty sure my childhood dog was Santa. Especially because he was always home by the time we woke up Christmas morning. My parents were always super upset and still say that no matter what they did, no matter what kept him in the other 364 days a year, he'd get out on Christmas, so I'm pretty sure it's fact. He's what made me into a dog lover, before that I was afraid of them.So yeah, good shelter dogs shouldn't be a cause for concern. There are a lot of them and I'm glad you have one. Ginny Field posted:There are a few other cattle dog owners here in PI who I'm sure can chime in as well, but for me the key was just giving my dog an outlet for her energy, mental stimulation and a consistent routine. My fiance and I managed a high-energy cattle dog in a one-bedroom apartment for a year before moving into our own home. I found that once she learned what we expected of her, everything began to go smoothly. Sorry for not quoting the post this is in reply to, but I'm one of those PI cattle dog owners and I agree. I have 4 cattle dogs (well, one's almost certainly a cattle dog/border collie cross) and used to do ACD breed rescue, so have fostered many more. My first one was a total accident though, I just went to the city shelter and fell in love and then they kept coming because apparently I'm good with ACDs (mostly my first one made me look that way, then I just was able to keep up). I've kept them everywhere from a studio apartment in the city to a 500+ acre working ranch and it just all is about management. They are high energy. Even the lazy ones will require at least an hour+ exercise a day. They don't seem wound up, but they'll get into mischief if they have excess energy. This is the biggest trap. For an example, I'm sitting here with my 4 ACDs passed out around me. I've been gone on a weekend camp trip with my GSD; we were doing search and rescue training, which is pretty intense. He's wound up, they seem half-dead. However if I were to leave them in the house right now, even for just 15 minutes, I'd come home to find my refrigerator and pantry opened, throw pillows chewed, cats terrorized, etc. And my youngest ACD is 8, though he hasn't changed much since I got him at age 2. Give them a job and tire them out and you'll have the best companion ever. They take their cues from their owners so they may seem relaxed, but they really do need a job and plenty of exercise if you ever want a social life or to be able to work outside the home. The job is key. As with most working-bred dogs, if you don't give them a job, they'll find one. You probably won't like it. Flyball, agility, competitive obedience, anything...it doesn't matter as long as they're working. It also doesn't have to be that time-consuming. I spend as little as 20 minutes a day actually working (as opposed to exercising) my dogs, but it's enough. They just need that focus. Also yeah, they're assholes. They're the most amazing, loyal, wonderful dogs in the world in my opinion, but they will not do what you want unless you give them a reason to. Positive training methods (clicker!) are best in my experience. ACDs will bite and are stubborn, and I've seen the combination turn more than a few into biters. They love praise and positive reinforcement and respond so well to it. Once you get past basic obedience though, you do have to give them a reason to listen to you. They're super smart and independent, and they want to see both an immediate reaction and a reason. They do very well at agility (for that, your reward is reason enough if they do it right). In herding work I've noticed that my ACDs tend to get frustrated if the drat sheep don't stay in the drat pen (or whatever the exercise is), as opposed to the border collies who don't give a poo poo as long as the sheep move where they say. In response I've made a point of making those drat sheep (or whatever) stay where they're supposed to until I remove the dog, even if it's just a practice exercise. Works well for me anyway. ACDs can also be mouthy very often. 2 of my 4 give love chews. They'll just grab your hand, hold it, maybe chew it a little, but gently--a favorite game in my house is "finger tug," where I hook a finger or two around a canine tooth and we tug, and they always let go before I even think of it. I really like it so actually encourage it a bit in my lifetime dogs, and even at their roughest it never hurts (if it does, yelping like a hurt dog has always worked for me--they're much more gentle after, they don't want to hurt). My other two heelers are still really mouthy, they've just been trained not to bite by previous owners so they lick like crazy. It annoys me honestly, so in my pets I encourage biting over licking, though I do the opposite in our foster dogs since it's safer for a dog to over-lick than to chew on human appendages.Just some of my thoughts. I love the breed though am a total amateur. They're great dogs though and aren't that intimidating, you just can't expect them to live in an apartment with no exercise forever like a lot of people seem to. 2tomorrow fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Jul 30, 2012 |
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Jul 30, 2012 07:25
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Topoisomerase posted:When you say the placentas looked "necrotic" can you describe it better, Super? They were black, grey, and green, and smelled way more than something the size of a pencil eraser should be able to smell! I know that pockets of necrosis are normal in most things as they near delivery but yeah no, these were just totally rotten and horrible. A sleepy budgie, I googled a ton and found absolutely nothing helpful. Also GISing "mouse fetal deformity" sure gets you a lot of dead human babies, that's good to know! Schnooks posted:I think thats incredibly fascinating with the mice and I wish there were picture These are very heavily inbred feeders from one local mom and pop store who literally have not had anything new bred in since the early 90s. They've got lots of pretty brindling, merleing, and stuff you don't usually see in pet store feeder mice so I've been crossing in outside mice to see if I can improve all their bullshit while still keeping their colors and markings. The females are all huge and aggressive for females and fight almost as much as male mice, there's a lot of genetic obesity (which I've gotten rid of pretty quick since it's just a simple recessive,) lots of birth defects, lots of tumors. The females also want to eat all of their babies, forever. I'm bored waiting for my partner's immigration to finish so fixing gross hosed up mice is fun and passes the time ok 
Supercondescending fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Jul 30, 2012 |
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Jul 30, 2012 11:55
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Sorry to interrupt the gross mouse chat, but what have people's experiences with leather leashes been? Have been using nylon with a padded handle, and thinking of classin' it up with leather, but I was wondering if they will end up getting smelly and stinky, especially after getting wet.
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Jul 30, 2012 12:01
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2tomorrow posted:ACD stuff Right now he's decided that his job is keeping the chinchillas in their cages, which isn't terribly difficult but he goes and makes sure they're still there about once an hour. He gets put in another room when we take them out of their cages so he doesn't try to herd them back in. You're right about the praise thing, he gets as excited and wiggly if I tell him he's the best doggy in the world as when I have a treat for him He doesn't seem to like to play very much, so we go out on lots of walks. He gets a couple short walks during the day and a longer one at night when it's not hot as balls out (central Texas).
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Jul 30, 2012 13:02
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rawrr posted:Sorry to interrupt the gross mouse chat, but what have people's experiences with leather leashes been? I've had a leather set for Koji for a while and I love it. The inside of the handle of the leash and his collar are lined with a suede for padding and is so comfortable to use, though it did take some time to break in the leather. I don't recommend leather ever getting wet, so if you know the dog is going to go out and swim or be in the rain or whatever, I'd definitely switch to nylon for that outing (I have a nylon collar and leashes for fosters or Koji when it's hot or like, when we went to the beach.) Now my set has gotten wet before, but all it did was slightly stain Koji's neck a little redder and other than that, no smell. You can use a leather cleaner and a stiff brush to keep it looking nice, though.
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Jul 30, 2012 13:18
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A Sleepy Budgie posted:Super, did you try looking for similar pictures on google? I wonder if that sort of thing happens often in other mice or rats. Eeeeewwwwwwwww! Seriously? Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to judge my bad. To each his own. But Super, if you do post more 'amazing grossness,' I would personally appreciate it if you would be kind and do what you did last time and black it out. That way I have warning of said grossness and can back out really, really fast. Thank you.
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Jul 30, 2012 13:40
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k edited in spoilers
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Jul 30, 2012 13:42
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Superconsndar, sounds gross but very interesting. Reminds me of that freak beaky-looking rat baby one of my rats had.
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Jul 30, 2012 14:44
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I think something in my house makes otherwise-house trained dogs want to pee here. Our friends came over for our usual Sunday craft night and they brought their new foster dog. He hasn't had any accidents at their house. He peed on the corner of the bookshelf where I keep my cookbooks...twice. This is about the fourth or fifth dog who has urinated inside my home, and all but one of them was completely house trained. I always treat the hell out of any accident spots with Nature's Miracle, and it's not like all these dogs go to the same corner to pee. Anyway, this is Wizard:  He seems like a very sweet dog. I didn't pet him because he also looks like dog allergy city, but he got lots of love from everybody else. I just wish I knew why dogs pee in my house. I know the old couple that lived here before used to have a crotchety old dog, and there are a couple of urine scalds on the hardwood floor where they didn't clean up after him, but the whole house has been mopped and carpet-steamed and wiped down many times over. It would be very surprising to me if anything in this house still smells like dog urine.
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Jul 30, 2012 15:42
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That spotted tongue reminds me, could you guys throw out some common dog misconceptions? Behavior, appearance, history, anything. Common little things like "it has black on its tongue so it must be a Chow mix" and such. I'm compiling a list for a big myth-busting blog post, and I always forget some. Any helpful links would be super appreciated too. In other news, I learned that my very picky dog likes crackers, of all things. Won't eat most of the dog treats or kibble on the market, but he'll gladly take crackers.
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Jul 30, 2012 16:38
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Skizzles posted:That spotted tongue reminds me, could you guys throw out some common dog misconceptions? Behavior, appearance, history, anything. Common little things like "it has black on its tongue so it must be a Chow mix" and such. I'm compiling a list for a big myth-busting blog post, and I always forget some. Any helpful links would be super appreciated too. Here's one, courtesy of Dr. Jim Ha, CAAB. Did you know that there are only 9 breeds of dog that can read and understand social dominance cues? It's true. Those 9 breeds are also the ones that are genetically indistinguishable from grey wolves. No modern European breed is capable any longer of reading the behaviors that indicate social dominance, which also means that those dogs do not form social hierarchies. There are some incredibly rare exceptions among individual herding dogs, but maybe 1 trainer in thousands have seen this. The 9 that do, in no particular order (and surprising literally no one): Siberian Husky Alaskan Malamute Afghan Hound Saluki Chow Chow Shar Pei Basenji Akita Inu Shiba Inu
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Jul 30, 2012 17:21
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Skizzles posted:That spotted tongue reminds me, could you guys throw out some common dog misconceptions? Behavior, appearance, history, anything. Common little things like "it has black on its tongue so it must be a Chow mix" and such. I'm compiling a list for a big myth-busting blog post, and I always forget some. Any helpful links would be super appreciated too. Mixed breed dogs always act like the breed they look the most like and/or what your dog looks like determines behavior. If your dog looks like a retriever it will be a gentle angel, if it looks like a GSD it will kill a baby. Retrieverman has a number of posts about that myth.
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Jul 30, 2012 17:45
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ButWhatIf, is that the myth or the truth, that only those 9 dogs can understand dominance cues? I had never heard of it! Will definitely include that, Instant Jellyfish, good one. In other news, I just got a job at the Kentucky Humane Society's doggie daycare, woo.
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Jul 30, 2012 17:57
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ButWhatIf posted:Here's one, courtesy of Dr. Jim Ha, CAAB. Did you know that there are only 9 breeds of dog that can read and understand social dominance cues? It's true. Those 9 breeds are also the ones that are genetically indistinguishable from grey wolves. No modern European breed is capable any longer of reading the behaviors that indicate social dominance, which also means that those dogs do not form social hierarchies. There are some incredibly rare exceptions among individual herding dogs, but maybe 1 trainer in thousands have seen this. I'd like to read this study, if you have a link/article handy. I remember hearing that a great deal of the "language" of dominance/submission has disappeared from a number of dogs' repertoires, but I feel like I've seen a wide variety of appeasement type signals coming from Cohen in dog social situations (more than the article claimed existed in most dogs). Thus far I've just taken it with a grain of salt.
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Jul 30, 2012 18:19
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I've been told by a lot of people that a dog pressing its body against you is a dominance display, and that Husker leaning on me is a sign that he doesn't respect my place in our pack  Even if I believed in the dominance theory stuff, it baffles me how affectionate leaning could possibly be a sign of dominance. He's not pushing me, just pressing his shoulder against my thigh.
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Jul 30, 2012 18:19
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Im reading culture clash. How about the whole My dog is looking guilty thing?
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Jul 30, 2012 18:47
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Yes, I am definitely going to add that one. Here's a list of what I'm gonna try and do so far: - Dominance theory myths (but it'll be brief, or else it'll end up being a post in and of itself). - The guilty look. - Mixed breed behavior. - Comforting a terrified dog reinforces its fear. - A dog wagging his tail means he's happy. - All shelter dogs are broken. - If a shelter dog is shy/fearful it was probably abused. - Neuter/spay myths like "but he'll miss his balls!" or "she'll be sad she never got to be a mom!" - Old dogs can't be trained/broken of bad habits. I thought about adding the "blue pits are rare, special dogs" myth but I think I'll save that for my big pit post.
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Jul 30, 2012 20:10
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Skizzles posted:- Neuter/spay myths like "but he'll miss his balls!" or "she'll be sad she never got to be a mom!"
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Jul 30, 2012 20:20
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