Ugh I hate when ppl get dogs that don’t suit their lifestyle/get a dog when their lifestyle doesn’t suit one

I am referencing when I went on a college visit today and ran into three dogs that were extremely reactive/aggressive and being handled by college students way over their head/obviously not giving the dog enough attention.

I am hesitant to say anyone should even get a service dog in training in college nevertheless a pet that can’t/shouldn’t be brought everywhere and doesn’t have to be trained to a standard.

On the bright side, multiple bystanders commented on how good Finn did and how he’s very well-trained in those interactions so that made me happy :>

We went on a trip to Canada!

Went to my summer camp this weekend :)

A majority of “indigenous dog breeds” are colonized in some way. Options include:

Given an arbitrary kennel club standard based on a limited population owned by aristocratic white people.

Stolen with their history completed rewritten and mythologized.

Created by white kennel club people and falsely attributed an indigenous past through breed myth.

Have their populations no longer under control of the population that made them in the first place.

Has its actual name replaced with a slur

“Breed split” where the actually indigenous dogs still owned by indigenous people have to go through meticulous trial and breeding to be accepted by the kennel club.

All of the above and more!

Service Dogs and Prong Collars

While I personally am a very hippy-dippy +R trainer, and do not use a prong on my dog, I wanted to make a post in response to the common notion that "no real service dog uses a prong collar." I've seen this sentiment several times in the last week or so and it's worth discussing, especially given how harmful 'fake-spotting' can be to service dog teams.

Let's start with some context about the prong, first. Unlike some training tools, it's not an inherently aversive tool, in that if no pressure is applied to it (i.e. the leash is not pulled at all), it doesn't pinch or poke. A certain level of force has to be applied for the prongs to pinch the dog. I am NOT saying that prongs are not typically used aversively or that they do not ever hurt the dog. What I'm saying is that the prong itself is just a magnifying tool, which magnifies small amounts of pressure from the leash by focusing them on very small specific points.

I also want to note that some professional service dog trainers do use prongs as aversive training tools, and while I am personally of the opinion that if your dog is service-dog quality, you should not NEED aversers to train it, other valid professional trainers in the field do use them to turn out well-bshaved effective service dogs. And of course, many unskilled owner-trainers rely on them to bridge the gap between their lack of training experience/skill and the extremely high behavioral standards required of service dogs (yes, you CAN very slowly train a dog not to sniff other people by reinforcing it each time it chooses not to and then fading out treats; you can also just do a quick leash pop when it leans over to sniff someone, and the dog will get the memo much more quickly and without the level of skill at timing needed). So this post is not intended to denigrate balanced trainers who use the prong as an averser, either.

That in mind, here are a few reasons that that service dog you just saw might be perfectly legitimate AND wearing a prong collar!

The dog was initially trained on a prong and now associates it with going into 'work mode.' Service dogs need some kind of cue to tell them when to be extremely professional and serious, and when they're okay to just be a regular old dog. My dog loves going up to people and saying hello, but obviously he can't be doing that kind of thing when he's on duty. Knowing that, I decided from the beginning to teach him that the signal was wearing a certain vest, and being 'naked' meant he could goof off. Other handlers use different signals, and if the dog was initially trained using a prong, that may be its de facto signal to get serious.

The handler's disability gives them hand strength issues and even a very small pull can cause them to drop the leash. In this case the prong provides noticeable pressure much earlier than a flat collar would and reminds the dog to be very gentle with their person.

The handler's disability gives them balance issues and even a very small pull can cause them to fall over. See above.

For some reason (cerebral palsy, wheelchair user, grip strength issues, etc), the handler needs a communication tool that can magnify very small movements of the leash into something the dog can notice and understand. I actually considered using a prong for this reason, so that I could just put a small amount of directional pressure on the leash to signal to my dog that we were turning one way or the other, but ended up going with a different method. Because the prong condenses the total amount of leash pressure into smaller, stronger points, instead of distributing it broadly the way a flat collar does, much smaller or subtler movements of the leash or the handler's hand can communicate a cue to the dog!

This is just one example of why it's so important not to assume that a service dog team is fake because they don't look the way we normally expect service dogs to look. There's an incredibly wide range of disabilities out there that affect people in a myriad of ways, and even more ways they navigate and manage those disabilities. Taking photos of people and posting them online, talking about them behind their back, or even harassing them about their legitimacy in person can be incredibly harmful and can lead to disabled people not getting the support and resources they need. Think about that the next time you see a service dog that doesn't meet your expectations!

Goggle moment

how old is finn? did you train him yourself? he’s such a good boy!!

He is almost 2 years old. I trained him myself with help from a professional. :)

Good boi in the Uber

trying to look dark and mysterious at the grocery store but this Thing can’t legally leave my side

We had a school field trip to the elementary school to read books to 1st graders, a kid insisted on reading a book to Finn, and it was adorable.Finn also did AMAZING. 

My favorite thing is when someone shows up on the sd subreddit asking people to, in one comment, explain to them how to raise a service dog from start to finish.

Dog on da school bus

Silly guy has been helping me with the senior scarys

Gotta stay protected from wind and ice and salt 😎

Me and Finn at Anthro northwest! :)

📷 furtrographer_pnw

So many people have told me stuff along the lines of “you dumb bitch get a poodle” and my response to this is

1. I didn’t actually choose this breed but I do back the decision.

2. There aren’t all that many good poodle breeders in my area that are accessible to us

3. Poodles just aren’t what I want. Finn’s breed (multigen Australian Labradoodle) is much less sensitive than most poodles and can bounce back a lot easier. They have a different personality. Also the desirable ALD coat is different to a poodle and is a lot more sensory friendly for me. 

That moment when you’re getting your back, checked out for spinal psoriatic arthritis. The doctor pushes on your back to find out where it hurts and she pushes it in the exact perfect spot to make it hurt like a bitch. It still hurts six hours later :,) she was cool, but like ow.