I painted a Doberman named Wicked in watercolors!

Want a pet portrait done? My commissions are open!

I figured out a new technique with my watercolor brushes to make more realistic short/fine hairs. I am absolutely in love with this painting, I think it may be my best so far.

About my process:

So usually I’d use a cut up acrylic brush to get an uneven/jagged texture that creates strokes resembling when used to paint. This is great with long haired animals if they have flowing hair. With short haired dogs it doesn’t work as well because of the hundreds (thousands?) of tiny little strokes required to get the texture right. This time I used an actual watercolor brush (a smaller round brush) and would flick any excess water off so it was mostly dry (but with pigment) and splayed out kind of wildly (more or less depending on how sparse or heavy/dark I needed the hair to be in each area) I primarily used a Windsor & Newton Series-7 size 3 (finest sable). The paper is 9x12. Adjust your brush sizing accordingly. I used a white gel pen for corrections. Often it’s too bright for a particular area on a darker dog so I’ll often rub it in with my fingers to soften the contrast!

Pure bred dogs r awesome and great but truly nothing makes me happier than someone going to the shelter and getting the most pathetic generic mutt they can find and loving that dog like it is a 10,000$ national show champion

One of my neighbors has a Xolo and it took everything in my power not to run them down and talk about their dog

soggy setter

okay so I wanted to show @coffee-mage-sans-caffeine some terrible field Beagle stacks, so that they could see how uncomfortable the dogs look, and therefore I went hunting for field rabbit beagle kennels.

I turned up one pet "rare color" breeder and one that turned out to be a breed-specific article from a fucking content mill. Which: Gross. But the third one actually was a field rabbit-hunting beagle breeder, one who had the most good ol' boy [appreciative] blog description of his goals I've seen in a very long time:

Woodpont Beagles are a pack of dual-purpose (show and field bred) hunting hounds located in Southern Ohio, USA.  Some of our female lines now stretch back as many as 16 generations, spanning nearly 40 years.  Hounds from this kennel have been very successful in the past at field trials and shows, although the primary focus the past 20 years has been on pack work after cottontail rabbit or snowshoe hare. 

[...]

Feel free to contact us if this sounds like the type of hound for you.  Not everyone likes the same kind of beagle.  If your interest is field trials, or showing, you may want to keep looking.  If you want good, honest hounds for pack work or gunning, these just may suit you.  Puppies occasionally available.

Like, you know that is an old white man with the most rural of backgrounds and interests. His philosophy is fantastic, mind you, the dogs themselves are a blend of conformation and working beagle lines with the goal of maintaining the best of both worlds, if I wanted a beagle or to hunt rabbits I'd be on that man's doorstep in a heartbeat. I'm reading his stuff and I'm watching very carefully, and I see a post title and pre-emptively flinch:

Immediately what pops into my head is QAnon and hideous right-wing politics have invaded all kinds of circles over the years, and look I was starting to really like this guy, his opinions about working hounds are kickass, and oh no he's going to take time out of his day to make it clear he thinks people like me are scum--what does it read--oh no, oh no, what is it gonna say--

Things You Will Not See Here

Hounds with No Show Blood

Hounds with No Field Blood

Hounds in above ground kennels (i.e., raised on wire rather than being reared on the ground. always. no stacking kennels or god forbid runs.) ...

Yeah. Okay. I can live with this. It's a website straight out of 2013 (or 2003) rather than 2023. And oh, what a breath of fresh air the blog is!

pit bull owners are insane no one would ever argue that you can train the herding instinct out of border collies when you "just raise them right with lots of love ❤️ " or that they only show breed specific behaviour when they are abused by their owner. but somehow breed genetics don't apply to pit bulls

It's hard for people who own and love them to accept that their precious pibbles could in fact snap just like so many other peoples beloved pets have done (with devastating consequences), but that doesn't change the fact that they ARE uniquely dangerous due to selective breeding for aggression, gameness (including their pain sensors practically turning off when they're in fight mode-they have no sense of self preservation which is why you'll sometimes see videos of them attacking horses or buffalo. I've seen videos of pits being stabbed over and over and not letting go of the person they're attacking until they're literally dead, NO other breed behaves like this) and other physiological traits (the wide, locking jaw for example, which is nearly impossible to free yourself from).

"It's the owner not the breed" is one of their favorite excuses after the "b-but they were nanny dogs!!1!" lie (no dog should be watching your children for you let alone a fighting breed) but the fact is even beloved family pitbulls will sometimes maul their owners, like that horrid case I linked to-not to mention many shelters unethically obfuscate the background of the pit they're putting up for adoption so that ppl are more likely to adopt them. Many ARE taken from dog fighting rings and they're also more likely to pass temperament tests bc they are designed to test reactivity NOT aggression and pits often won't show warning signs before attacking so they pass even if they aren't fit for adoption. That's another trait that makes them potentially dangerous (and it's the reason I absolutely hate the temperament test shelters use-it sends good dogs to their death for giving warning signs when they're nervous, AS THEY SHOULD, and allows dangerous dogs to be put up for adoption).

But honestly as much as the pit lobby loves to lie and pay for articles to lie for them (seriously, they have DEEP pockets it's unbelievable when you look into it), the stats are there-bully breeds are responsible for over 60% of the fatal dog attacks on humans despite being a small percentage of the population. Not to mention all the non fatal maulings against humans and the killing of other pets (I personally know people who have had their cats and in one case a large dog killed by off leash pits). Bully breeds are outlawed in 40+ countries for a reason. the pattern keeps repeating and people have noticed it.

Arguing with pit mommy types is pointless though. I've seen them blame toddlers and even literal infants for their own maulings bc "well they must have provoked the poor sweetie!!1!" and campaigning to save dogs who have killed people from being euthanized. They are demented and value the lives of pitbulls over people (and other dog breeds too).

what breed of dog would ovidius get if he had the chance...

I don't remember if i answered this in the past so forgive me if I contradict myself, but I think he'd like--for lack of a better word--one of the "pudgier" or "girthy" kind of dogs that are a medium size, like pitbulls or bulldogs, etc (though he would be happy with any!)

I don't know if anyone is still up reading the main Dracula Daily tag right now (I have been casually keeping track of when it seems busiest), and this will likely be pushed back by October 2 reactions soon, but I have a genuine question, if anyone is still around!

Does anyone know where the idea that Renfield is a working-class labourer comes from? I know I've seen meta posts floating around saying he is one, and analyzing that Renfield gets treated worse in terms of his mental illness bc he's poor working-class, compared to Jonathan being a middle-class solicitor and therefore being treated respectfully at the sanatorium (which is not the same thing as an asylum, I think?) - but even if the context clues were less obvious earlier, the October 1 entry confirms that he's upper-class. Is it just extrapolation from his poor treatment? Some Victorian asylums did have forced labour, but that doesn't seem true for Seward's asylum, and even if it were, it would not change his social class.

I plan on doing a more detailed post about social class and Renfield later, if I can get into the right mindset - the decline of the British aristocracy from the late-Victorian era to the end of WWII, and skipping to the House of Lords Act 1999, used to be a deep historical interest of mine (it ties to Lucy as well, which I might also write about) - but the short version is that, 'I had the honour of seconding your father at the Windham' means Renfield helped Arthur's father (a titled lord with a peerage!) gain membership to a posh London social club that was exclusively for the upper classes, so at the very least, he is a gentleman in the formal sense of the word (ie. landed gentry), or an actual aristocrat, like Arthur and his father.

I see your “fenris is secretly a cat person” headcanon and raise you: fenris and hawke are that dog couple

We know fenris has a soft spot for dogs in canon but here are my fenhawke dog headcanons

Hawke is a dog lord and proud of it, loves their Mabari and once fenris shows interest they POUNCE on it and are like okay listen to me ramble on and on about their history and dog training and ferelden mabari culture

Hawke after becoming champion is gifted a mabari puppy from some noble and they take her on and she’s a super wild and crazy mabari pup

And maybe hawke definitely accepted the dog with the idea to gift her to fenris but knew fenris would feel odd accepting a gift like that so Hawke slowly just invites fenris to help them out

Fenris helping with the training and rearing of the puppy and just getting so wrapped around her little paw

Ends up asking hawke more and more to take her out on walks around kirkwall or handling her for bite training with aveline

Big old Black and Tan mabari puppy that loves to bite but always has sloppy kisses for her elf

Hawke and fenris sharing a bed with two giant mabari

Fenris teasing hawke that the mabari turned on its master for him just like in the tale but it was Hawke’s plan alllll along

my friends and i have spent so much time ranting about doodles recently bc god they are difficult dogs and a horrible creation

Since a lot of people have been requesting prints recently, I decided to do a limited release of Christmas tree ornaments! I’ve also brought back some of my most popular designs! 🐩 🌈 $13.50 a piece! The link to my website can be found at the top of my profile.

I have paintings of MANY more breeds (including several rare breeds), so if you want a specific one that isn’t on my site yet let me know!

bold of u to assume he wasnt always the clumsy guard dog 🙄

how early is too early to start looking for a far-future puppy

im so amused by like. the black and white thinking people have about pitbulls sometimes. none of you people know anything about dog breeds. like.

are pit bulls dangerous? well. yes. they are a large terrier breed that has a history of being bred for dog fighting.

are they a good dog for everyone? NO. they are probably a bad dog for most people, given most people are going to get them from a shelter or an unethical breeder. and in both cases you are going to end up with a dog who needs SO much support and most people can't do that.

should they be banned? ALSO no. just give people an honest "hey heres what this dog is like. heres what you can expect from this breed. are you prepared to deal with this?" (this should be done for every breed. dogs are difficult)

I had a long, (I think) eloquent post about this but Tumblr ate it.

So here's the short version.

I can be of the opinion that certain kinds of dogs are poorly bred and shouldn't continue to be produced without hating the individual dogs themselves. Can they sometimes work out? Yes! Are they worthy of love and a good life? Absolutely! Can they accomplish amazing things? Hell yeah!

But do I think they should continue to be bred? No. Because dogs deserve quality of life and breeding unsound dogs, more often than not, produce puppies/dogs with behavioral/health issues and I feel that's a gamble too far into unfavorable odds to be fair to the dogs and the people who love them.

Fanny, my sweet, beautiful girl

17.11.2012 – 14.04.2019