What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

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JudyN
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by JudyN »

The instruction manual for mine is an online pdf over 250 pages long :shock:

I struggle with focusing. I'm getting better and have managed a few cracking photos of bees on flowers, but I was trying to focus on a shield bug sitting on some catmint that was swaying in the breeze yesterday and it insisted on trying to focus elsewhere. It also interferes with gardening because I'll go out to do some deadheading, spot an interesting insect and rush back in for the camera, only to find - of course - that the insect has disappeared.

One day I'm going to find a dead fly (there's plenty in the conservatory :oops: ), stick it in various locations in the garden and try things out till I work out what works.
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
JudyN
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by JudyN »

DS2 & GF have fallen in love with a wedding venue about 40 mins drive from home, with the event running from Friday morning to Sunday lunchtime, where there are lots of self-catering/B&B rooms for guests to stay, surrounding the courtyard where they'll no doubt be carousing into the small hours. Plenty of logistical issues regarding Jasper (who is welcome for the whole event, including the ceremony, meals, carousing, overexcited children running about....) :shock:

Honestly, you'd think the event was all about DS2 and GF, and not revolve completely round Jasper which of course it should :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

And then there's Monty... it's all very well asking neighbours to pop in to feed him, but when it comes to litter tray/poo on feet/poo stuck under tail problems which makes cleaning up after a nuclear disaster seem straightforward... I'm really not sure he'll last till next summer (he'd be 22 then) but I said that last summer, and the summer before.
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Ari_RR
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Ari_RR »

Can’t wait to read the report on Monday morning :lol:
Good luck!
But everyone wants this wedding to be memorable and stand out among all other weddings, right? To have a very special event, one of a kind, nothing else like it... With Jasper in attendance, this will be taken care of! I am sure no one will ever forget this wedding! :lol:
Ari, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Sept 2010 - Dec 2018.
Miles, Rhodesian Ridgeback, b. Nov 2018
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Nettle
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Nettle »

Waiting with baited breath also :lol:
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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JudyN
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by JudyN »

It should be fine...... We're so used to avoiding potential problems, and because he can flip from 'I love you and can I have your wedding cake?' to... well, yeah.... :shock: so quickly, we err on the side of safety, especially when children are involved. Actually, I think all the children will be GF's relations so I can ask her to ask their parents to have a quiet word with their children about the strange dog...

Hopefully, at worst, we'll have people wondering about the strange couple who insisted on bringing their dog despite the fact he has to be muzled the whole time, and then spending all their time sitting away from the rest of the wedding party or disappearing for walks... and the mother of the groom wearing walking boots with her posh frock :lol:

We'll inspect the accommodation before we book and aim to choose somewhere as far away from the hullaballoo as possible... but if the worst comes to the worst, we can always come back here for the night despite having paid for the accommodation, then return the next day.

We might end up having to come here more than once anyway - DS1 has ME/CFS and no way will he manage three days of festivities. Three hours more like.

All of which means we'll have to stay sober :shock:

Oh, also... DS2 has reported that there's one low wall round the courtyard where you can see rabbits in the next field :lol: :lol: :lol:
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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Nettle
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Nettle »

Whoops.........
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JudyN
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by JudyN »

DS2 and GF have booked their wedding venue :D No longer the one in the Purbecks with a view over fields of rabbits (as that venue weren't good at getting back to them to discuss their plans). It's now going to be in the New Forest - where we pretty much gave up taking Jasper as he would invariably find a deer, or at least the scent of one, to chase, and usually came back with a new injury. They also saw a cat roaming round in the garden...
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Erica
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Erica »

I'm a month or two late on the prey drive discussion but it's something I've been diving into quite a bit recently as I volunteer as the behavior consultant at DogBreederGame.com :D I had to jump in when the admin was proposing the personality traits be "prey drive, pack drive, fight/defense drive." It's hard to boil all the complex behavior of dogs down into various statistics, but we managed to get it down to 26 traits (25 on the site at the moment, but soon we'll be splitting anxiety into "anxiety" and "alertness" -- with a shared component meaning you can't have a hyper-vigilant dog without at least average levels of anxiety, nor a hyper-anxious dog without average alertness, which was the initial concern with separating them). We don't even have a separate trait for aggression as that is complex in itself; there's irritability and anxiety, which can both trigger the fight/flight trait. Territoriality is separate from those altogether, and the various stages of prey drive (scent, sight, stalk, chase, grab, kill) are separated out as well to allow for pointers being different from retrievers being different from hounds etc. It's been complicated but I feel like I am learning a lot by having to think about this all so much. I had never thought so hard about how herding works in a dog's mind until recently! Tending style herding is still strange and fascinating to me.

We've moved into a house with two roommates, and every time they or their roommates talk about how skinny Delta is I want to scream :oops: I may try to get a longer-cutting clipper blade so that he doesn't have to be taken down to the skin when it's time for a trim just so they shut up a bit lol.

Parents got their GSD puppy -- decently bred and local, and for once I am happy GSDs are fairly popular as otherwise it would have been difficult to find a breeder that was local enough for my dad and good enough for me to approve of :lol: Flint is a handful though, and will definitely keep them active and alert. A couple months ago he got an awful spider bite to his tail and had to have it amputated, so now he has a little nub. Very cute and the only way I could tell him and one of my clients' dogs apart. (Said client wrote a great book on training her first human remains detection dog. Hopefully I will get to continue working alongside her when my next puppy comes along and we test those waters!)

I am so glad we are getting into the holiday-heavy part of the year. I need some breaks before I collapse of exhaustion. :P
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Nettle
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Nettle »

Great to hear what you've been up to, Erica, and it all sounds fascinating.

What is tending style herding?
Do your lecturers explore the aspect of herding dogs working within the hunting sequence as in they herd the prey towards the shepherd so s/he can ambush/kill them?

if you want to discuss hunting-with-dogs with someone who has actually done lots of it, don't hesitate to get in touch. Your course sounds much more switched on than many, but often the learned and sincere who haven't ever actually hunted come to some very strange conclusions.

I used to specialise in aggression cases, so if you want to explore another point of view, I'm happy to help. My mantra is " aggression is a behaviour, not a dog, but some are on shorter fuses than others"

Please don't think I'm being pushy - none of us knows it all and I'm sure you could teach me as much as I could teach you. It's wonderful that we as a species are at last beginning to work out what makes dogs tick.
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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JudyN
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by JudyN »

Nettle wrote: Thu Aug 29, 2019 2:50 am My mantra is " aggression is a behaviour, not a dog, but some are on shorter fuses than others"
I am so stealing that :lol:

I'm wary of any model that aims to classify dog or human behaviour in different categories (e.g. Myers Briggs), even if the number of categories does grow exponentially as the model is refined. We (and our dogs) are so much more complicated and subtle than that. But anything that makes people realise dogs' behaviour is not simple, but that their behaviour in a given situation can depend on all aspects of their environment and their prior experiences, has to be good.
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

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JudyN
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by JudyN »

How horribly stressful for you, LoQ :( I do hope there's a happy ending - let us know, won't you?

My news - this idea that dogs are empathetic and understanding when you are ill or injured is complete BS, at least as far as Jasper is concerned. I had knee arthroscopy on Tuesday, and attempted a very short hobble on crutches yesterday with GF holding J's lead, but it was a struggle, so today poor long-suffering Mr N, as well as walking J before work, will be coming him to give him a short afternoon one too, and then go back into work. Never mind fixing the knee problem I had, I'll be happy when I'm as mobile as I was before the op!

It struck me that it must be an absolute nightmare if you're on crutches and your dog is afraid of people wielding big sticks :shock:
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Nettle
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Nettle »

I hope your knee improves quickly, JudyN, and Lotsa, I'm keeping everything crossed for a good result for you and Merlin.

My dogs have been interesting when I have been injured - some were comforters, some were so spooked by the fact that I was weak and therefore (presumably) could not protect them or might attract predators that they didn't want anything to do with me until I got better.

When I was laid up for many weeks, the dogs of the time took it in turns to lie on the bed with me. It was clearly a stressful experience as each one when relieved of duty by another would hop off the bed and fall into a deep sleep.
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by JudyN »

Jasper is 'Muum, Muum, come and PLAY with me Mum, I'm bored, Mum!' Or 'Mum, come into the garden with me, I want you to be out there with me Mum, even if all I want to do is eat grass and have a wee' :lol:

Luckily I managed to curtail his 'Oh, you want to play humpy?' response when I got up off the floor inelegantly after doing exercises :shock:
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Nettle »

:lol:
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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