A blog about pets. Named for my late cat Moonshadow (1998-2014). Dog trainer at bigbox store. Current dogs: Levi (lab/husky/pit/etc mix, born Jan 2019) and Saoirse (malinois born Dec 2021). Main is @keydekyie.
i never really liked the formulation that puppies and young dogs 'push boundaries' because i feel like it suggests a kind of intent i haven't seen in our dogs, and it kinda feeds into that adversarial relationship that some trainers have been shilling for decades where you're always expecting your dog to challenge your authority or whatever.
my nephew has a puppy rn, and they described it as 'throwing out behaviours and seeing what happens' which i liked a lot better?
because at least it doesn't suggest that this semi-sentient bag of bones and slop has a crystal clear picture of the laws of conduct and is hell-bent on testing them, and it doesn't suggest they already know exactly how their behaviour affects the world. they're just behaving. and learning.
enamored lately with an asmr channel i stumbled upon on youtube that’s literally just a sweet korean lady pretending to give her enormous ragdoll cat (who she pretends is a famous and wealthy cat actress) extravagant spa treatments that are wildly, wildly overpriced (because the cat is rich)