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2tomorrow posted:I guess I just wanted to throw this out there since I know PI has some trainers and a lot of people who work seriously with trainers. It's just a really basic thing that I kind of see as community service in a way. We're a kind of remote community without a lot of dog knowledge and I think it could help people a lot. But I never really thought about training dogs like that before and I wanted to know if I'm missing anything or hear what you guys think. Would you know all the people that you would be helping out or would you be opening this up to anyone in your community? I believe you when you say that you feel prepared to take on basic obedience and challenging dogs, but I feel like the hardest part of being a dog trainer is not necessarily the dogs, but the owners. You've already thought of insurance, which is great. I would also write up a "contract" that lays out exactly what you're going to do and your policies regarding safety and removing a dog from class if it turns out that that dog's problems are beyond your expertise (or that the owners can't follow instructions and are making their dog worse and are disrupting or, worst case scenario, putting others in danger). I never witnessed any dangerous behavior from owners during our reactive dog classes (on purpose anyway), but when I assisted, owners would tell me stories about how their dog that bites was having a hard time during Christmas with all the people coming over and wanting to pet him  . People are dumb and stubborn and I would just be afraid that if you're too informal, you may get someone who is initially very nice and willing who turns on you and starts demanding why you haven't fixed their dog yet or why their dog won't play dead or whatever. It kind of seems to me like the amateur wedding photographer thing. Your friend asks you to shoot their wedding because they can't afford a pro and you explain to them your level a million times and when the pics come back, they get mad because they thought it was easy and didn't listen*.Anyway, that was a long way of saying to set up your own and your "clients" expectations very carefully so that your covered for owner stupidity. I think that a certain level of professionalism offers you some protection, at the very least from drama. *yes, I agreed to shoot a friend's wedding next fall 
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Dec 17, 2012 20:46
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Nione posted:FANTASTIC CAT. Augh. That's terrible. Now I want to go give my local pet-supply-store cats an extra patting. I hope Kramer recovers. 
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Dec 17, 2012 20:49
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Kiri koli posted:Would you know all the people that you would be helping out or would you be opening this up to anyone in your community? That's a really good point, and I totally understand what you're saying. I was a professional horse trainer for about 15 years until an accident made it not really physically possible anymore, so I absolutely agree that owners are the hardest part. The context is a little different since the horse isn't in their home, but I am definitely used to people doing stupid things/not following instructions and have dropped clients over it. I haven't really decided yet who I would invite/allow. I'm very early in the planning stages (like literally "I never thought about doing it until this weekend" early) so nothing is set in stone. I think I will have a contract like you describe regardless of who I open it up to, though.
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Dec 17, 2012 20:55
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Nione posted:Kramer That poor kitty..I hope he recovers completely. That's so sad...do you know if the owners of the dog are helping in any way?
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Dec 17, 2012 21:33
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Kiri koli posted:
Professional wedding photographer here... get out while you still can. Don't do iiiiiiiit.
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Dec 17, 2012 21:59
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I finally got a new charger for my computer, so here is a dump of all the pictures I've been taking but had no way to upload! Well, all the ones that aren't blurry anyway. I hate you for doing this to me. My feet weren't THAT dry.   Did I mention I hate you? Stop having so much fun embarrassing me.  Horse poo sighted!     Plus have some videos of the toy my dog wanted so badly he climbed into a sweater display after it. There's no sound because my dad was on the phone the whole time, but just imagine him whining sadly and maybe barking shrilly a few times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=?7IvuGDFuCAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=?vz284aOTjHA
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Dec 17, 2012 22:03
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Explosions is he a puppy or do you just keep his face in a puppy/short beard?
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Dec 17, 2012 22:09
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Wonder Bra posted:Professional wedding photographer here... get out while you still can. Don't do iiiiiiiit. If I don't do it, they'll just have their cousin do it (and I've seen her work, ugh). I resisted for several months while it looked like the parents were going to chip in, but now they're paying for it all and they're poor and definitely not willing to spend the money to get anyone decent (grad student + teacher, yay!). But thanks for reaffirming how screwed I am though. 
Kiri koli fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Dec 17, 2012 |
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Dec 17, 2012 22:13
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Greycious posted:Explosions is he a puppy or do you just keep his face in a puppy/short beard? I just keep it short. He's always outside sticking it down mole holes or getting gravy in it during breakfast then he looks pathetic when I comb it out, so it's not worth the trouble of going longer.
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Dec 17, 2012 22:46
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Nione posted:Kramey at the Hospital getting love from his Pet Store Family: Your coworkers are nicer than me if they didn't kick the poo poo out of that dog until it let the poor kitty go. I hope Kramer is doing ok, and the dog's stupid owners pay for his treatment.
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Dec 18, 2012 01:03
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Explosions! posted:I just keep it short. He's always outside sticking it down mole holes or getting gravy in it during breakfast then he looks pathetic when I comb it out, so it's not worth the trouble of going longer. I've always liked their beards, but they do sure look like puppies when they are trimmed short 
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Dec 18, 2012 02:27
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wtftastic posted:What do people think about this book? http://www.amazon.com/Brain-Games-Dogs-Provide-Stimulation/dp/1554074908/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355762704&sr=1-17 I flipped through this book at work today and while the beginning is kind of basic and simplistic, it seems like it has some fun tricks and the methods are all laid out nicely and well illustrated with pictures. Plus it's cheap.
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Dec 18, 2012 04:47
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So I think my boyfriend's dog trolled my cat seriously hard last night. My boyfriend was in the bathroom and had a good chuckle, pointing out the enormous poo poo the cat had taken. Seriously enormous. There is no way that thing came out of my cat. It is three times as big as one of his poops. The dog must have jumped into the cat's box in secret and dropped a deuce in there. I can only imagine how pissed the cat must have been. 
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Dec 18, 2012 04:49
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So, my nine-year-old nephew has expressed an interest in training the dogs in his household, which is really nice because no one else there can be bothered to do it. I'll be visiting in Feb and I can give him some of the tips I've gleaned from reading these boards (like don't use an entire bag of dog food as treats in one training session, which he has apparently done!), but can anyone recommended a book or, even better, a video about training aimed at younger kids that I can send him? What I've seen on Amazon so far seems to be more informative about dogs as a pet than helpful in learning to train them.
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Dec 18, 2012 11:27
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Puppy Shack! Many breeds including Tiboodle, Cavocker, Cavoodle, Shoodle,Maltalier, Bichoodle and Lhoodle!
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Dec 18, 2012 14:00
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A Magical Unicorn posted:Puppy Shack! quote:HYDROBATHING
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Dec 18, 2012 14:25
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Rixatrix posted:And they can hydrobathe your dog! Oh my god who ever came up with that phrase should be beaten.
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Dec 18, 2012 15:17
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I mean, I know there are such things as dust baths and all... But is there seriously another kind of bathing I don't know that doesn't involve water? 
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Dec 18, 2012 15:29
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paisleyfox posted:I mean, I know there are such things as dust baths and all... "We urinebathe your dogs~"
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Dec 18, 2012 15:36
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Hydrobaths are a specific kind of bath where the soap is mixed in with the water. They're pretty common here at vets and grooming salons?
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Dec 18, 2012 15:58
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6-Ethyl Bearcat posted:Hydrobaths are a specific kind of bath where the soap is mixed in with the water. They're pretty common here at vets and grooming salons? I think the issue is more that the name is from the redundancy department of repetition. A bath usually has water in it.
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Dec 18, 2012 16:00
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Goddamn I am getting really tired of dealing with the kids while out at the park. When I was there today with Vecna, a group of little girls ran up to him yelling "ein hund! ein hund!" and calling him so he started running up to them. Well I guess him moving made the littlest one decide she was absolutely terrified and she ran away screaming. She slipped and fell and Vecna sniffed her and she started crying about screaming about the mean dog. And then a bunch of concerned mothers started yelling at me so I left the park  This is like the fourth time a bunch of kids have run up to him and then flipped their poo poo when he did anything besides stand completely still. Parents also actively encourage their kids to run up to my dog without even so much as talking to me first. And last week some idiot put her two year old down in the middle of five off leash dogs playing. Who the gently caress does this? Seriously every single time I see a kid now I cringe. I have never once had a parent or child listen when I ask them to please leave us alone. Not once. Sorry for ranting, it was just a really terrible experience and I'm kind of upset about it.
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Dec 18, 2012 16:27
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Triangulum posted:Goddamn I am getting really tired of dealing with the kids while out at the park. When I was there today with Vecna, a group of little girls ran up to him yelling "ein hund! ein hund!" and calling him so he started running up to them. Well I guess him moving made the littlest one decide she was absolutely terrified and she ran away screaming. She slipped and fell and Vecna sniffed her and she started crying about screaming about the mean dog. And then a bunch of concerned mothers started yelling at me so I left the park You should tell them you'll call social services.
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Dec 18, 2012 16:39
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Haha that's brilliant, I'll have to ask my husband how to say that. It sucks too because if they just give me a second to get him to sit or down and focus on me, he does great and he really, really likes kids. But the running and screaming and spamming commands gets him revved up as hell and he jumps and then kids start crying and moms start yelling. Triangulum fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Dec 18, 2012 |
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Dec 18, 2012 16:49
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I'm frustrated at the unscrupulous breeding practices I'm seeing in sport dog circles. Obviously there are going to be lovely breeders everywhere, but these are people who I call teammates... I've commented a few times on the board about how I feel like the sport of flyball in particular seems to bring out the crazy in people. I see people with so many dogs they'd be called hoarders by some. Each of my team mates have at least 6 dogs, and some have 10 or more. How they can take proper care of each one is beyond me. The two issues that are bugging me now are: 1. One woman has a litter of Border Collie - Whippet crosses on the ground. The pups are probably about 3-4 months old now. She asked me if I wanted a pup... or two... or three, which I declined. She can't get rid of them because, apparently, too many people were breeding Border/Whippets at the same time and the market is saturated. So these pups are living on her property, and know how to tug, but that's about it. When the pups DO go to a home they'll not have any basic training and minimal sport training. When moving older pups, sending them off with training is pretty much a necessity. The pups also seem nervous and flighty and don't seem to have the temperament I'd like to see in a sport dog. 2. The dam of this litter is a Border Collie who isn't yet 1 year old. The dog hasn't raced yet because she's too young. But apparently she's not too young to breed! I don't care how awesome the lines that your dog comes from, breeding an unproven animal without any proper health testing is unethical. Looking at the pups she's produced reinforces my opinion. Ugh. Come on dog people. You're supposed to know better.
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Dec 18, 2012 17:06
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I don't know if anyone saw that post I made a while back about taking 11 husky/Great Dane mix puppies to the shelter from Tennessee to South Carolina, but 6 of them have been adopted!  Here's some pictures of the remaining pups. I am also relived that the people who owned the puppies decided to get both their dogs fixed, so lesson learned hopefully.    Pretty much agreeing with a life less on puppies here. Health testing, plans for every single puppy from beginning to end, and all that. Please don't indiscriminately breed dogs anyone ever because
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Dec 18, 2012 17:40
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a life less posted:2. The dam of this litter is a Border Collie who isn't yet 1 year old. The dog hasn't raced yet because she's too young. But apparently she's not too young to breed! I don't care how awesome the lines that your dog comes from, breeding an unproven animal without any proper health testing is unethical. Did you ask the "breeder" what exactly made her think any of this was a good idea? I don't mind the idea of sport bred mutts, but you do have to prove your stock, health test and preferably make sure you have homes lined up for the puppies first, purebred or not.
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Dec 18, 2012 17:43
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A Magical Unicorn posted:Puppy Shack! Spoodles...aren't those usually called Cocker-poos or whatever here in US?
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Dec 18, 2012 18:16
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Topoisomerase posted:Spoodles...aren't those usually called Cocker-poos or whatever here in US? I also noticed they don't use "goldendoodles" for golden/poodles but instead call them "groodles". Makes more sense to me because where does the first d in doodles come from for golden/poodles. They should be goldenroodles. But then I realize that i am expecting people in the doodle business to have a brain and I just give up.
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Dec 18, 2012 18:31
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a life less posted:I'm frustrated at the unscrupulous breeding practices I'm seeing in sport dog circles. Obviously there are going to be lovely breeders everywhere, but these are people who I call teammates... That sucks and is far too common among people who should really know better. I've been half-heartedly looking in to a future working herding dog and it's a total pain because they're all either sport breeders who health test but their dogs don't have the temperament to be actually sane and functional on my farm or actual farm dogs from people who think health testing means taking Ol' Gyp to the tractor supply for shots occasionally. At least I haven't come across anyone breeding year old unproven bitches yet
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Dec 18, 2012 18:51
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a life less posted:the market is saturated The fact that there's a "market" for dogs at all is probably the root of the problem. It's time for breeders (whether for sport, show, companion, "omg its a tiny teddy bear," whatever) to stop having that mindset at all. Dogs aren't products to sell; they're alive, have needs, have wants, have opinions. Sorry, preaching to the choir, I know.
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Dec 18, 2012 19:18
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I guess I also don't like the term market, but the reality is that the dog, in these cases, is a piece of equipment needed to participate in the sport (like a tennis racket, a golf club, or more relevantly a horse). I don't think there's anything wrong with admitting that there is a certain demand for dogs of type X and a supply of them to go along with that. The problem is when people start treating them like a piece of equipment instead of realizing that they're living things that need time, attention, care, and love.I hope that doesn't sound weird. I just knew a lot of dressage/ equitation people who more or less talked about their horses that way- they loved them but they just weren't going to be able to compete in the right events or at the right level for them.
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Dec 18, 2012 19:49
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Serella posted:Your coworkers are nicer than me if they didn't kick the poo poo out of that dog until it let the poor kitty go. I hope Kramer is doing ok, and the dog's stupid owners pay for his treatment. Seriously, after a minute or so I would have said gently caress insurance and gently caress this dog. Was the dog really on him for five minutes? He's lucky to be alive. I really hope he pulls through and that he isn't too traumatized. What is the shop going to do to ensure his safety now? Do you think he'll be more proactive about avoiding dogs?
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Dec 18, 2012 19:52
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Serella posted:So I think my boyfriend's dog trolled my cat seriously hard last night. My boyfriend was in the bathroom and had a good chuckle, pointing out the enormous poo poo the cat had taken. Seriously enormous. Are you sure you're not being trolled by your boyfriend? I've gotten bored enough in a relationship where I'd pinch a loaf in the catbox just to make things interesting
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Dec 18, 2012 20:13
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Pile of Kittens posted:Seriously, after a minute or so I would have said gently caress insurance and gently caress this dog. Was the dog really on him for five minutes? He's lucky to be alive. I really hope he pulls through and that he isn't too traumatized. What is the shop going to do to ensure his safety now? Do you think he'll be more proactive about avoiding dogs? I don't know if he'll go back to the store or not. He's going to a customer's house for physical therapy and recovery when he gets out of the Hospital. I keep hearing the dog shook him for 5 to 10 minutes, I put 5 minutes since I really can't imagine it was 10 minutes (I think it seemed like 10 minutes, but...) The Owners of the dog didn't offer to do anything. I'm guessing it's not a regular customer. The store is looking into getting some kind of money from them for vet bills, but they're kind of unsure how to go about that. Meanwhile, Kramer's fans have donated over $1,000 both online and in the store and we're working on setting up a fundraiser. We do them pretty regularly for Tenth Life Cat Rescue and other groups, so now a lot of those people have been offering to help us. The community response for a little store cat is pretty incredible. He's doing good, though, guys! He's producing urine now, although not as much as they'd like, they called it "Acceptable". Apparently, he's being a complete primadonna about his food, it's some kind of vet prescription kibble whereas he usually eats raw and Solid Gold tuna, so yeah. His temperature and blood pressure are back to normal and there's currently no sign of infection, although there is a little inflammation and swelling, which they said is to be expected. I was wrong in my initial post, he's only 14, not 18. Still old, but not quite so. We're all just still so shook up. I had just gone and seen him the night before this happened. None of us can imagine the store without him. He's on Facebook, if anyone's interested, and they're putting all of the updates there https://www.facebook.com/kingpinkramer or on the store page https://www.facebook.com/petsinthecitySTL  EDIT - I just found out he's getting out of the Hospital today! He's got a feeding tube, but he's doing well enough that they're letting him leave. Nione fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Dec 18, 2012 |
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Dec 18, 2012 20:39
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Nione posted:I don't know if he'll go back to the store or not. He's going to a customer's house for physical therapy and recovery when he gets out of the Hospital. This is a cat who'd rather be back in a dogs mouth.
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Dec 18, 2012 21:01
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wtftastic posted:I guess I also don't like the term market, but the reality is that the dog, in these cases, is a piece of equipment needed to participate in the sport (like a tennis racket, a golf club, or more relevantly a horse). I don't think there's anything wrong with admitting that there is a certain demand for dogs of type X and a supply of them to go along with that. The problem is when people start treating them like a piece of equipment instead of realizing that they're living things that need time, attention, care, and love.I hope that doesn't sound weird. I just knew a lot of dressage/ equitation people who more or less talked about their horses that way- they loved them but they just weren't going to be able to compete in the right events or at the right level for them. I agree, and I actually think it would behoove some breeders, like the one a life less mentioned, to look at dogs as more of a business than less of one. Not in a money-making sense, as about the only way to turn a profit is puppy milling, but in a supply-and-demand sense. Before you start a small business you'd do market research, make sure people actually want the product you're selling, etc. Breeders should be the same way. In my mind, it's really about striking a balance between realizing the animal is a living being, and keeping a cool head and making rational business decisions. Otherwise you're going to wind up with puppies that there aren't homes for, sub-par animals being bred because "she's such a nice dog!", etc. Of course, I do come from the horse world where most people want animals that can actually do something (even if it is just mosey down the trail) and there's a lot less of the "keep the animal forever!" mindset because of how long-lived and expensive horses can be (though you definitely get some people like that in the horse world too), so it's a bit of a different perspective I guess.
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Dec 18, 2012 21:03
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ButWhatIf posted:The fact that there's a "market" for dogs at all is probably the root of the problem. It's time for breeders (whether for sport, show, companion, "omg its a tiny teddy bear," whatever) to stop having that mindset at all. Dogs aren't products to sell; they're alive, have needs, have wants, have opinions. Yeah, I think the "market" really feeds into/from the hoarder/collector type of mentality I'm seeing in the sport. People seem to get a dog, train it up to competition level then start over (while still using the earlier dogs in competition). The sport has changed so much over the years (people used to think you'd never see sub-6 second dogs, let alone sub-4) that there's immense pressure to keep speeding things up over a very short amount of time. Plus I know of a few sport people who run "rescues" which just tend to feed into a hoarder lifestyle. The dogs are cared for, but not particularly well and I know of a few rescuers who have had their water etc cut off for non-payment of bills. Scary stuff. There's a line of what is acceptable, and unfortunately some of these people are way beyond it.
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Dec 18, 2012 21:07
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a life less posted:Yeah, I think the "market" really feeds into/from the hoarder/collector type of mentality I'm seeing in the sport. People seem to get a dog, train it up to competition level then start over (while still using the earlier dogs in competition). The sport has changed so much over the years (people used to think you'd never see sub-6 second dogs, let alone sub-4) that there's immense pressure to keep speeding things up over a very short amount of time. You mean like as soon as they get the dog to competition level, they're looking for another? What's the point of that? I mean, I know plenty of people with working dogs who get a puppy when their other dog is getting older or whatever so that hopefully they don't need to take time out as they train up the younger dog, which makes sense. But it seems crazy to just move right on once you get to the level you want. I don't really know many serious sport people though, just working dog people who might also compete in a sport.
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Dec 18, 2012 21:30
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Sport people and most sport dogs freak me the hell out.
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Dec 18, 2012 21:34
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