farmdogtrilogy

[farmdogtrilogy]

A sideblog with no followers? Perfect for a dumbass emotional vent.

I get so fucking hurt when I find out my friends are doing things in a group and didn't even fucking think to consider inviting me.

Like, am I that fucking annoying? Am I that had to have around? Was it a conscious decision to leave me out like lmao no they're a fucking loser don't invite them or was it just that I'm so goddamn forgettable that i didn't even cross anyone's mind.

[farmdogtrilogy]

Lost Buck, Widget, and just recently Roxie :( all three of the "farm dog trilogy," though I knew it was coming soon... they were all really old and about the same age, so it wasn't a huge shock for any of them? But still heartbreaking. Roxie especially, as she was my best friend for a lot of years.

I actually made a separate blog for Kandros (but mostly post about him on my main @nitrostreak ) because posting anything here that's not about the Three feels... weird.

Who on dogblr has lost a pet since joining dogblr? Looking for urls and dog names. For reasons 👀

[farmdogtrilogy]

So, Finnr’s going to be our first dog that we do conformation shows with and the whole idea of it makes me a little nervous. I’ve been to shows and even been a ring steward before but I’ve never been an exhibitor. So, those of you that show your dogs, do you have any advice for a newbie? Things you wish you’d known when you started, tips and tricks, advice for our first show, fun anecdotes, whatever! I’d love to hear your stories :)

[farmdogtrilogy]

Collars My Dog Needs

This work of art from FinelyTooled:

This beautiful hefty warlike thing from OLICOLLARS:

This rainbow collar:

This green concoction from SHARADA: 

This beautifully beaded item from africancollection: 

and finally this heavenly starry thing from Paco Collars:

Together these collars add up to well over a thousand dollars, so suffice to say I’m not gonna be buying a single one (except maybe the $15 rainbow one) anytime soon. BUT WHEN MY SHIP COMES IN 

#Holy snit

[farmdogtrilogy]

Whoooo vet stuff

my vet is doing a special of 96 for shots, fecal test, general check including teeth, and i can prob split the call out fee with another person or two

but then I’ll prob have to schedule again bc I bet they both need their teeth done and I’ll want another fecal done after I’ve wormed to their standards

and Walter needs her flea and tick stuff and another internal parasite check

none of it is expensive really but having to do it all at once is a pain in the ass

[farmdogtrilogy]

What are the most useful tricks your dogs know?

I’m writing a little article  for a dog magazine about the most useful every day tricks you can teach your dog. I’m not thinking the super basic ones like recall or waiting for a cue before the dog is allowed to eat, I’m thinking some tricks you might not think of right away.

So far my ideas include:

-“park” - stand between my legs 

- the trick where the dog rests their head on your hand

- “stop” - basically just a cue for the dog to stop immediately

- potty on cue

- lifting either of the front paws when the leash gets tangled 

- dog pulling the sleeves of your coat to help you take it off

Any input is much appreciated!!!!

[farmdogtrilogy]

Is there a way to train a dog to "search" my house? I get panicked when I'm alone at night (like thinking there's an intruder) and I was wondering if I could get my dog to go into all the rooms and check for me?

You can indeed!You are going to want to do this in stages. Do it room by room. Once they check one room consistently, add another on top until they search the entire house.To teach them to check a room, when you enter the house lead them around the immediate room you walk into. Walk all the way around the perimeter with them, and then give them a reward when you get back to the door. When you start the walk use a command, like “search.” I’d also say it the entire time you are walking around.Or if you want them to search the house from your room, start there.

- Nate

[farmdogtrilogy]

Lemme just get one thing straight real quick about the whole “high drive dogs have to have CONSTANT NON STOP ACTIVITY OR THEY GO CRAAAAAAYYYYYYYZZAAYY” thing.

High drives dog have more energy than mid/low drive dogs. Yes. We all know this. We all know that high drive dogs have more energy and are almost always more intense than your average mid/low drive dog. We all know they require regular stimulization, just like any dog, and may need more stimulization than a low/mid drive dog.

More. Not constant.

Repeat after me: MORE…. NOT CONSTANT.

I have a malinois. I have experience with border collies and aussies, but I own a malinois. I find a lot of mal people are notorious for saying “MY DOG HAS TO BE DOING SOMETHING CONSTANTLY OR THEY START CLIMBING THE WALLS”

That just tells me that you have never bothered to teach your dog anything other than “you only have to use your head when you’re working. As soon as you’re not working, well, that’s not my problem.”

You SHOULD be teaching your dogs to settle. Sure, some dogs will still ask for things like ball throwing. Sven does that. But she doesn’t go hard for 24 hours a day.

When she’s inside, not working, and she’s bored, she’ll ask for me to throw her ball across the room for her.

Here’s the kicker, if I say “No. Go lay down.”

SHE DOES.

HOW WEIRD IS THAT LIKE HOLY SHIT MY MALINOIS IS WILLING TO CHILL WHEN I ASK HER TO AND DOESN’T PUNCH HOLES IN MY DRYWALL WITH HER FEET WHEN I’M NOT DOING SOMETHING WITH HER???? MY DOG MUST BE SOME KIND OF BROKEN MUTATED THING RIGHT?

No.

Here’s why.

I have taught Sven that there is designated “do intense things” time and there is designated “chill” times. She respects both because that’s what I have normalized with her.

It pisses me off when people tell me that I ALWAYS HAVE TO BE WORKING MY DOG ALL DAY 24/7 OR I’M RUINING HER.

No, but YOU are ruining your dog by OVERSTIMULATING THEM. When you over stimulate a dog, they can develop anxiety and neurotic behaviour. Meaning, when they aren’t doing something, they’re freaking out because they DON’T KNOW HOW TO CHILL, because nobody has TAUGHT THEM THAT JUST CHILLING OUT AND QUIETING DOWN IS OKAY.

Dogs who don’t have breaks, become workaholics. They’re basically that business guy who’s always on his phone with his business partners. But what happens to that guy when his phone dies, and he stops having contact with his only focus in life (work), he freaks out, he gets anxious, even irritable.

Because he’s always working and his body isn’t used to just “chilling” outside of designated “sleep time”.

It’s ridiculous. People need to teach their dogs that being chill is OKAY. Now, my dog gets super excited when she’s training. She’s snappy and she probably looks like she could literally do this for hours. If I asked Sven to play disc for hours, she would. If I asked her to do flyball for hours, she would. Sven WOULD go hard all day if I asked her to. But I don’t. Because that’s not healthy for my dog. She has the drive to do something like that if I asked, but she DOESN’T NEED TO, because she UNDERSTANDS that she DOESN’T NEED TO DO THAT TO FEEL FULFILLED. She knows that she doesn’t need to be in intense mode 24/7. I have designated training times, designated play times, designated brain game time, designated work time, and designated “relax” time. And she recognizes them all equally. (Because she’s a service dog, she’s always technically “working”, but it’s not like she’s in INTENSE training mode all that time. That intense time is reserved for competition training. (disc, flyball, obedience, dock diving, agility, etc)

TL;DR: Just because you’ve got a high drive breed doesn’t mean you ned to run the engine until it explodes.

Normalize. High. Drive. Dogs. Taking. Breaks.

And while you’re at it, stop bashing the handlers who HAVE taught their dogs that NOT DOING INTENSE ACTIVITY 24/7/365, IS OKAY.

I don’t care what you say.

Your malinois does not need to go hard for activity all the time.

Your BC does not need to go hard for activity all the time.

Your Aussie does not need to go hard for activity all the time.

Your GSD does not need to go hard for activity all the time.

YOUR DOG DOES NOT NEED TO GO HARD FOR ACTIVITY ALL THE TIME.

AND IT IS YOUR JOB AS THEIR HANDLER AND PARTNER TO NORMALIZE THAT AND STOP PUSHING YOUR DOGS TO THE BREAKING POINT.

[farmdogtrilogy]

Buck always looked like I’d stolen his favorite toy, spit on him, and insulted him to his core for good measure when I did that, I FELT SO BAD. That dog expressed sadness that would make a boulder cry. 

Double coated dog friends

Who else derives a ridiculous amount of pleasure from picking the lose tufts of undercoat from your dog’s fur?

You know the ones. 

The big tufts that are sticking out just a tiny bit from under your dog’s coat

And you see it

And you lean down

and you pull it out

And your dog looks at you like you robbed him of something beautiful

[farmdogtrilogy]

500 sqft and 500 acres, please :)

Dogblr Poll

Would you rather have a small house with a yard or a large townhouse with no yard?

[farmdogtrilogy]

Iceberg illusion, as it relates to dogblr.

So I was this idea of the iceberg illusion the other day, and I automatically thought of dogblr!

What is the iceberg illusion? basically, you only see the tip of the iceberg, and not everything that lead to that success. As you can see in the top doodle.

So with dogblr. We either see the good dog moments, dogs that seem great, great pictures of awesome dogs OR we see people venting about the bad dog moments, our frustrations, our struggles. Both are totally valid! We vent in what we think is a safe environment, or we share the really good moments, and don’t talk about everything else.

Well, with either side of that, we have the bit of the iceberg we can’t see! The struggles, time, effort, and failures of the good dog ice bergs. Because they don’t tend to share that. I know some people feel sometimes disheartened, people seem to be doing SO GREAT, and we are struggling. But we aren’t getting the whole picture, remember that! It takes a lot of effort!

OR

Bad dog moment iceberg. All we see is the venting, difficulties, struggles, destroyed house, destroyed items, potty accidents. We don’t see the efforts to fix that. Or all the good moments! All the training that person may put in. How happy they are most of the time, or how good things are all other times. That’s the hidden part of this iceberg.

So I think all of dogblr are icebergs, and sometimes we see good and bad only. And not the hidden parts of the iceberg, which are so much more important. So just remember that. =]

[farmdogtrilogy]

Reblog this if you’re a dogblr who is LGBT, mentally ill or disabled? I want to follow all of you.

#sorta #quietly waves #I'm bi

[farmdogtrilogy]

Roxie arranged her stuffies...

#my dog is weird

[farmdogtrilogy]

Widget and Roxie are the aging rivals who have to work towards BECOMING drift compatible in order to save the damn world because they may borderline hate each other, but damned if they don't KNOW each other

Ah, but English does have a phrase for chimodzi-modzi... drift compatible ;)

I’ve never heard this phrase before and had to look it up! Let me just say that I am REALLY ENJOYING the image of Chalo and Priya mind-merging and piloting a giant robot together.

[farmdogtrilogy]

THERE'S A GERMAN SHORTHAIRED POINTER AT THE STARBUCKS WHERE WE'RE HANGING OUT AND SHE KEEPS COMING OVER AND HER SNOOT IS SO SOFT I WANT HER

#I want her to just stay here with me

[farmdogtrilogy]

I really don’t understand why a grown adult man needs to respond to my dog barking at him by barking back like??? What are you trying to accomplish here???

#... I bark at my dogs ... #and howl at the moon around them #... am I a bad owner for doing this

[farmdogtrilogy]

She loves her moose

#best purchase I've ever made