#but the dogs have stopped barking

[doonarose]

Ohhh I had a dark, miserable moment there for a second. Weekend down to see my family was fine. I was mildly annoyed that when I arrived Friday night it morphed from my expectation - most of Saturday with my sister because it was her birthday and she always wants big birthday stuff, and then big family roast lunch sunday wit my mum and sister (new mother) and grandmother and like ten of us - to a reality I think they purposely didn't tell me about because I might have begged off - breakfast at the farmer's market with sister on saturday and then off to watch the most dismal game of sportsball with my dad saturday night (mostly because him and my mum are bickering and she wanted some time alone and he's lonely and wanted someone to whine to), and then roast lunch just with my parent's sunday.

Like honestly, the shitshow that is work, I might have had the guts to say: sorry, I'm not gonna drive three hours down for that, I'm going to use my weekend to recover and prepare.

But whatever, it was mostly fine. My parents are bickering, they've always bickered, but it's become a running joke that they're increasingly using me as their marriage counsellor and that's kind of fucked up.

But it also meant I'm wiped from the weekend which I cannot be because I have more teaching this weekend, and the ongoing trudge into the death of the academic sector and all of society to face, and I'm coordinator five evening events which brings science to the community (and many of my speakers are being fuckwits and we also haven't sold any tickets because society is fucked). All of which I think I'd have well in hand.

And then I got roped in to doing a live to air radio interview tomorrow morning. And all those tiktoks you see about people who have severe anxiety about talking on the phone, or talking at all, and planning out and practicing every interaction, and utter mortification and lifelong scarring for every misstep... I think that's me.

I remember when I was in grade 3 (9 yers old), I assumed the past tense for extinct was extunct and the librarian (sorry I know most of you are chill af) laughed at me in front of the whole class and I relive that weekly!

Anyhow, thing is I have more anxiety about letting people down or the perception of failure so I have developed coping skills for the terror of speaking in public but it is 100% bubbling up right now and the dogs were out the back barking and I was screaming at them and they did not care and I just wanted to burst into tears.

Anyway... marginally better now. Radio interview is at 8am. Another fucking class I'm not prepped for is at 9am. I'm going to try to switch off my brain, get up at 6am and just Be Ready.

I just hate that I'm not wired for this shit. I hate it.

[the-adventures-of-dave]

Around tumblr lately I’ve seen people with the opinion that not only are free roaming cats bad (correct) but also supervised cats in catios or on leashes (????). I assume it must stem from that “ecology of fear” post from a few months ago, but to me the sudden appearance of these kinds of posts just strikes me as odd. I’ve seen multiple posts like the below one in just this week.

—

—

If your cat is contained to your yard/catio/the sidewalk, then it still allows for predator-free safe places in your neighbourhood for wildlife, and creates predictability for them too. That’s one of the reasons why hiking trails ask people to stay on the trail— so you (and your dog, horse, cat, etc) can safely enjoy nature while still giving it space. It is possible to exist outdoors in natural spaces like that while maintaining wildlife comfort. If it wasn’t possible to do that, dog-friendly or (even just hiking trails in general, since humans are predators too) simply wouldn’t exist.

The problem with free roaming cats is that they break boundaries between human area (ie. trail, back porch) and wildlife area (foliage, etc) and there is nowhere the wildlife can go to exist that is safe from predators.

Idk, this is just my opinion but I just think there can be more nuance to the outdoor/free roaming cat issue than “never let your cat step outside under any circumstance”.

[barksbog]

when you're a big dramatic collie but the neighbours ducks outside the fence refuse to listen to you so you have to throw a tantrum about it

[darkwood-sleddog]

more and more i become of the opinion my dogs are not reactive to strange dogs but in fact it is unreasonable to expect them to NOT be reactive when the dogs we pass are unwalked, understimulated rural hellions that thrash at the windows of their houses, bark at us and follow us for entire lengths of properties, snarl at us, run at us with tense body language etc.

is this because a neighbor (who does skijor!) moved in half mile down the road from us a half a year ago with the most polite, unreactive dog that my dogs glance calmly at as they walk by? as it is unrestrained (no underground fence) on the property? absolutely is.

is this because a few years ago a neighbor's very nice pitbull mix got out and when it walked up to us with polite calm body language my dogs reacted just as calm and we were able to walk this dog home? absolutely is.

like i am a human woman and have lived in areas with much larger populations than i do now. i remember being followed by strangers, yelled at by strangers in aggressive ways. it made me tense and yes...reactive in those moments to ensure my own safety and needs were met. but was it my fault for having to react that way? To call friends and family and be on the phone any time that i walked alone? to check in when i got to where i was going? to bring pepper spray and iron knuckles to walk less than 10 minutes away from home? I don't think it is. Rather it's the failure that allows that behavior towards me which is at fault. i should not have had to carry those things with me. or call a single soul.

same with my dogs. my dogs aren't reactive, i'm just the only person who walks my damn dogs in my rural neighborhood. even though we can walk for 4+ miles either way on safe dirt roads out of our driveway before we reach pavement. nobody else. walks. their. fucking. dogs. yes i manage my dogs behaviors, it can be embarrassing when they get riled up, but know what? it is not their fault so many other dogs fucking SUCK. and it is not those dogs' fault that they suck either. i encountered more politely behaved dogs when i lived in the suburbs and city than i do now because those dogs at least had some sort of experience with being around other dogs (passing them on the sidewalk even) out of necessity. Rural people truly just throw their dogs outside and expect that to be enough. if you're lucky they install a little underground fence that will maybe keep fido in the yard (like uwu WE don't want to have a look at a fence and we're going to make all our neighbors GUESS if our dog might run into the road at them uwu).

[silverskye13]

In which there is a spar.

[notes-in-the-margins]

First Love Never Die - Soko

[threepoint14art]

deuzaggie ill take you out of the pits of hell (no one makes content for them)

i like to give them matching bangs and i also like making Deuz huge (bear) U-U

[abirddogmoment]

Two weeks with Aurora! Here's a recap of life so far.

Our targeted socialization was pretty successful, we managed a bunch of different experiences and she rocked them.

Monday: Busy street at rush hour

Tuesday: Train station

Wednesday: Construction site

Thursday: Bike path next to train line

Friday: Outside a coffee shop

Saturday: Baby hike in the wild

She's still doing great in overall good citizen behaviours. She has specifically been crushing:

✅ Sleeping through the night

✅ Name recognition

✅ Basic training skills

✅ Recovering from being startled

✅ Being crated quietly

Honestly she's doing amazing, I am so so proud of her. 💜

Areas for improvement for the week include:

✴ Bullying Pike (which is improving but still not great)

✴ Demand barking and overall noise level

✴ Chewing on the couch in excitment

Our biggest victories this week include:

🎉 Baby hike 2.0 with beautiful ranging, reasonable baby recall, and great enthusiasm

🎉 Calling off play with Pike on multiple occasions

Our big goals for next week:

🚀 Less harassment of Pinecone

🚀 Working through the foundation levels of the baby conditioning class I'm taking

Really excited for the next few weeks with this girl! 💜

[wolfrib]

i have a therian/alterhuman/etc opinion i feel would get me crucified lmao

[higgs-the-god]

hmmmm still workshopping the design but since i made my character n benrey into these fucked up zen dogs. zogs. i though why not make a gordon au/oc like ive wanted to!!!! guy whos upset abt being turned into another species

[moregraceful]

i am enjoying nesting, it's my favorite part of being in a new living space that belongs to me (we're going to buy rugs today!!!), but i would, as someone in my mid-30s, love it a lot more if i had my freaking table and chairs. there is only so much cross-referencing between amazon, target, and ikea i can do from the floor without grievously injuring myself. i am making a medium ikea purchase which will help (daybed because my friends in their 30s refuse to sleep on an air mattress, as is their right, and gave me money to buy one), but oh my GOSH i just want my table and chairs

[adaine-party-wizard]

i have figured out how to make my reactive asshole dog be really well behaved on walks: make it too hot for her to be angry

(bonus pics of happy dog)

[angelsspire]

Google non harmful sleeping pills. Google how to fall asleep and stay asleep (deep), google how to fall unconsious, google how to roofie, google whats in a roofie?, google how to get r

[spinobsessed]

Maybe my parents feel the same way about me as I do about my dog

I had a goal, some expectations for her, and I did lots of research to be able to give her only the best and how to teach her right. But it’s way harder than I thought it’d be and she has some issues that I just don’t know how to solve on my own. I’m not disappointed that she’s not what I imagined but I do wish she was better

[fennthetalkingdog]

Okay, so I saw a thing mentioning how you could wag your butt as if you have a tail to kinda mimic the feeling and that's so smart!! For me, unless I'm super super super happy, wagging my butt is usually just a shaking-water-off-my-fur motion T-T Like, I've been feeling a tail behind me pretty consistently for years now, and when I'm really happy it wags and the feeling gets stronger, but wagging for me is an exclusively tail motion. There's no physical signs because just it's moving (and that's part of why wearing a tail feels weird for me, cause mine will be wagging but since I don't move my butt the tail doesn't move with me T-T ). But I might try that sometime to let my friends know my tail is wagging :3

[weareuniqueandimportant]

YOU SHOULD JUST COMMIT SSSSCIDE... YOU'RE WORTHLESS... YOU VIEW US THIS WAY YOU'RE AN ABUSER A KILLER A MURDERER... TRULY... YOU WOULDN'T EVEN LISTEN TO US YOUR HANDS THEY'RE ON OUR THROAT... YOU'RE WORTHLESS AS RESULT... GO AHEAD... YOUR VALUE IS COMPLETE 0...

THIS POST IS ABOUT LESBIAN FOOD... NOTHING MATURE ABOUT THAT... I LOVE EATING SSSSIDE... THAT IS A TYPE OF FISH WE WOMAN TEND TO EAT TOGETHER... WHY DO THIS TO US 😢...

DAMN... I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS COMPLETELY SHADOWBANNED POST WAS CHECKED BY THE SITE... THAT'S CRAZY... WHO EVEN FOUND THIS...? OH WHATEVER... HA.