PETS Thread

[pissydan]

MARTIN

[Merciel]

Congrats keykey!

Get ready for some crazy times. Are you going to keep his name?

[keykey]

No I changed it to Pippo. Haha

[pissydan]

pippo? but i just got used to martin. i even used it in all caps....

[keykey]

I know pissy....I didn't have the heart to tell you I changed it. Martin can be his middle name.

[pissydan]

I DONT LIKE CHANGE.

[Merciel]

I just got in trouble for telling this kid that he could have his $25 application fee back, because apparently that was an unauthorized offer. It wasn't my idea and I CC'ed literally EVERYBODY on the relevant email, but only now did I get in the shit.

This was probably the most depressing application I've processed. The kid who was actually applying for the dog was totally fine, he just had a shitty family situation and we weren't going to put a dog in that situation. Everybody felt really bad for him and he was working for minimum wage or not much above it, so $25 was not an insignificant amount of money for him. Under the circumstances, where he was a good kid and the rejection was for things that really weren't his fault, I thought everybody was on board with the suggestion to give him his money back.

Apparently not!

So like whatever I will pay for it myself, but I'm getting steadily more and more depressed and burned out doing this, and I still haven't finished doing the phone calls for today's terrible applications. I think my glorious career in dog adoptions is going to end shortly.

[Merciel]

Also I hate doing applications because I end up approving a bunch of less-than-ideal homes where people are DOING THINGS WRONG and then I get sad about these dogs' future lives.

I mean yeah sure whatever it's (probably) better than sitting in a shelter pen or dying, but jesus christ. I was happier when I could pretend that every home was going to be a great home and knowledgeable and responsible and totally devoted to the dog's needs, and you know what, it is not like that. Maybe 40% of the homes are like that. The rest are just sort of minimally okay and it sucks.

I suspect this percentage is skewed because I get all the shitty applications, but it is really fucking bumming me out to get all the shitty applications.

[Milquetoaster Strudels]

My roommates' dogs Abita and Deuce


They are incredibly chill and Deuce (on the right) loves to get high

[Merciel]

More bitching about shitty rescue stuff to come later, but first!, a happier post.

Mab continues to do awesomely at training. She's been adding new commands at a rate of more than one per day, which is absurd. I'm probably going to stop adding new stuff for a while (she's finally getting to the saturation point where she gets confused about distinguishing one cue from another, although not nearly as often as most dogs do) and just work on proofing and strengthening behaviors before handing her over.

Pongu is also doing really well at some trial prep work that I won't go into because nobody would have any idea what I was talking about or care. The important thing is: nutjob spazpuppy is steadily improving! Although it is sort of bumming me out that I have to spend a month working on stuff that a mentally normal dog would just do automatically because it wouldn't be insane.

Crookytail continues to be a good-natured dimwit by comparison with the other two. I say this a lot but he's really not a dumb dog. He just seems like it because the average is ridiculous in this house right now. Poor guy's being graded on the worst curve in the world.

They are all so well behaved. I'm lucky to have them.





(I didn't prompt that one, they just all do that as soon as I move.)

[tth]

what does mab think of svc

[Merciel]

She is friendly to him because she is a very friendly dog who will go up to almost anyone with her tail wagging in great big swings. But SVC doesn't really interact with the dogs so he's kind of irrelevant to them.

[camping]

How hard will it be for Mab to transition from a 3-dog household to a 0-dog household? (Not knocking abs, I'm sure she'll be a wonderful pet owner)

I only say this because my dawg Tiki was considerably sadder once my other dawg Lola died and she didn't have any other dawgs to play with at home.

[Merciel]

I think she'll be fine.

What Mab really wants more than anything in the world is to have a special person or persons of her own. She keeps trying so hard to bond with me and it is the saddest thing.

If I take another dog out and leave her in the house, she sits by the door and cries. If I pay attention to her (especially if I pay attention to her individually, like when I take her out on a training walk by herself) she gets super happy. Left to her own devices, she follows me around and just flops wherever I go.

And I'm not even that nice to her! She has to sleep in the box and I don't cuddle with her and she isn't allowed on the couch with the rest of Dog Mob. I am intentionally a little bit distant with Mab, as I always am with the fosters, because I want her to be able to bond completely with her real person instead of latching onto me.

But god dammit she is doing her best to attach herself anyway.

So I think once she has her own family and her own people then she will be a much happier dog than she is here. Because that's the #1 thing she wants out of life.

With that said, if they decide to get a second dog someday, I imagine she'd be delighted about that too. She's clearly very dog-social and enjoys playing with Crookytail or just lying next to him and chewing bones together. With Pongu not so much, but she's been trying to engage him too. (It isn't really working, he is still just beating her up and yelling at her when she tries.)

[keykey]

Roommate just texted me to say pippo shit everywhere and was happily walking around in it. A true man's man....I'm upset that I can't give him his first bath

[bushwick jill]

DOG IN A BASKET!

[Merciel]

This made me laugh just now.



They're doing group Down-Stays because on a whim I decided I wanted a picture of them all lined up in a row.

And it turned out way better than I anticipated because their expressions are so perfect in this shot.

Pongu is completely disgusted at having to do something totally beneath him (also note that he's the only one doing a proper sphinx Down, with his body squared, back feet tucked under his body, and his front feet straight out). He was like this the whole time. The other two are way more comfortable, but Pongu is the only one who is Doing it Right, and I don't think it's stretching too far to say he was kinda nerdraged out about that.

Mab is alert and attentive and has her little sparkler tail wagging. She's all I know this one! I will work very hard now!

Crooky's all "hnaah fun! I like training! Training is good!" with a huge smile while just being all sprawled out crookedy as shit.

[mouse pad]

aw dammit, I was taught the sphinx down is wrong and to wait for the relaxed one

[Merciel]

For what purpose?

If you're doing a relaxation protocol then yes, you want the relaxed Down. The dog's still holding tension in the sphinx Down.

If you're competing in a dog sport then you want the sphinx Down and will probably get dinged on a relaxed Down, either because it's a sloppier position (Rally, freestyle, competition obedience) or because it's slower for the dog to spring out of that position and you'll lose time (agility, freestyle).

[mouse pad]

yeah so we're ok, relaxation is the focus right now. does pongu know both?

[Merciel]

Kinda-sorta. The only one I ask for these days is the sphinx Down, so that's the one he defaults to. If I leave him in position long enough he will eventually revert to a relaxed Down, but he holds the sphinx for a much longer time than the other two because he has a lot more practice.

This morning Pongu actually played nicely with Mab. The entirety of Dog Mob got in on the action. Hooray!

[pissydan]

Roommate just texted me to say pippo shit everywhere and was happily walking around in it. A true man's man....I'm upset that I can't give him his first bath

shouldnt have changed the man's name.

[Weasel]

OH AWESOME SOMEONE BROUGH US A FEAR BITER FOR AN EVALUATION DAY AND IT BIT MY FUCKING HAND AS I WAS TRYING TO PUT A LEAD ON IT. COOL.

Why in the fuck would they bing their dog to us if they know it does this? Their application severely downplays this aggression and when I called the mom she seemed unconcerned and was like "try using some peanut butter" but FUCK THAT IM NOT GONNA GET BIT AGAIN. Like, I'm fine and it didn't puncture but that shit is scary and unacceptable. I have to now call this woman to come get her shitty dog and it's going to be an awkward conversation, so thanks a lot to the bitch that just ruined my day.

Ugh. Slowly getting over this job. I love it sometimes but I don't get paid enough for this shit.

[bushwick jill]

OMG

[Dr. Norm Thagard]

[Merciel]

Sorry Weasel. :/

I haven't been bitten yet but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

Did a training consult this morning (it went well, I think/hope, although I still feel really weird about accepting money for blatherations about stuff that feels super obvious and unhelpful to me), then took Mab to the farmers' market. It's a medium-long walk and it's pretty hot today, so she pooped out hard.

On the street in Rittenhouse:



Trying to cool down under the umbrella of an artisanal vegan ice-pop cart:



(I really wanted a coconut-milk mocha latte ice pop, but the line was too long so I didn't get one.)

Collapsed in the grass of Rittenhouse Square Park, just under gehrig's apartment:



On the way home Mab found a spill of water from an air conditioning unit and flopped in it and refused to move for a while:



Then she came home and peed all over the carpet near SVC's computer, which is one of the foster dogs' favorite places to pee because it's one of the farthest-removed-from-anything-relevant corners they have access to. Dogs generally do not like to pee in high-traffic areas or sleeping/eating/playing parts of their homes (although this is a very loose rule with plenty of exceptions), so they tend to gravitate toward SVC's one small corner of the house because that is a place where nothing important ever happens and no one interesting ever goes.

Anyway, that was Mab's first potty accident since she got here. I was starting to wonder if she was already housebroken because she's been so good this past week, but evidently not!

Also!, today it is officially TEN DAYS UNTIL MAB LAUNCH.

[Dinosaurboner]

I had to feed this dude today.

[untidy]

you gonna bang him?

[keith]

Most awkward dog ever.

[pana]

you shouldn't have clipped his ears