Seewalds 29: Still Marketing Cute Kids

[KelseyAnn]

5 hours ago, LegHumperBibleThumper said:

 

p.s. - Pit Bull is not a breed, it's a category. There is no such thing as an inherently aggressive breed. If you believe in any of this nonsense, please do us all a favor and educate yourself.

 

 

in 2015, there were 34 fatal dog attacks; 24 of the attacks (71%) were by pitbulls or pitbull mixes.  In 2016, 11 of the 14 fatal dog attacks (79%) were due to pit bulls or pit bull mixes.  In 2017, 12 of the 13 fatal dog attacks (92%) in the USA were due to pit bulls.  

If people want to own pitbulls, they should by all means, but its dishonest to imply that they don't cause a great number of mauling deaths. 

[Hokey Pokey]

On 1/8/2018 at 1:05 AM, Markie said:

One of the actors whom I follow on twitter has posted pictures of their dogs wearing "service dog" vests on the plane. They are pets and only appear to be "service dogs" while flying.

That's Horrendous! I can't believe people do that. That's like making a fake sticker and parking in the disabled parking spots

[Bad Wolf]

My dog was a therapy dog, registered for nursing home visits, etc. For her to be an emotional service dog, I would need a letter from a licensed therapist. Then I could get an ID, vest, etc. To take her on a plane, I would have to carry the letter with me. Don't know how people can get away with faking it. Maybe I just follow the rules.

[LegHumperBibleThumper]

36 minutes ago, KelseyAnn said:

in 2015, there were 34 fatal dog attacks; 24 of the attacks (71%) were by pitbulls or pitbull mixes.  In 2016, 11 of the 14 fatal dog attacks (79%) were due to pit bulls or pit bull mixes.  In 2017, 12 of the 13 fatal dog attacks (92%) in the USA were due to pit bulls.  

If people want to own pitbulls, they should by all means, but its dishonest to imply that they don't cause a great number of mauling deaths. 

 I have a hard time finding any statistics that use the phrase “pit bull” as credible, especially since you have not offered any sources. Those stats are likely inflated due to the fact that so many different breeds of dogs are lumped into this category-  American Bull Dogs, American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers are the most popular among them. Often times other breeds such as the gentle Boxer, Rottweiler mixes, Bull mastiffs, English mastiffs and Cane Corsos are also considered to be “pit bulls”. They can’t all be inherently dangerous.

I say we just agree to disagree- it’s unlikely that any information I give you will calm the fears you have. 

[nvmbr02]

42 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

My dog was a therapy dog, registered for nursing home visits, etc. For her to be an emotional service dog, I would need a letter from a licensed therapist. Then I could get an ID, vest, etc. To take her on a plane, I would have to carry the letter with me. Don't know how people can get away with faking it. Maybe I just follow the rules.

I know at least one person that has gotten a letter from a therapist online to get her dog labeled as a service dog. It was only $50.

We moved our dog over 8,000 miles from home and had to ship her as "cargo". It was a scary experience to trust that the airline is following all the rules and keeping her safe. I am already nervous about our return "home" in 17 months, and now we have 2 pups that will be at the mercy of the airlines. But even then, I can not imagine skirting the rules like that. I am hoping that at least one of us will be able to travel with the dogs on the way home so that we can keep a closer eye on them. Thankfully our dog was fine with the flight and suffered no ill affects. We had to ship a dog previously, but it was only a 3 hour flight so not as big of a deal as when we moved here. Our sweetie had to fly 4 hours, have a 4 hour layover, then a 5 hour flight followed by an overnight layover and another 7 hour flight.  She ended up getting bumped off her flight in between the 5 and 7 hour flight so her 27 hour layover ended up being 3 days. She didn't have enough food or medication for that long (we were only allowed to send her with 24 hours worth). Thankfully the quarantine facility in Hawaii where she was stuck was great and we were able to arrange for everything she needed. 

[LacyMay]

5 hours ago, AtlanticTug said:

When your off leash dog runs up to my leashed dog and he is obnoxious and barking and being aggressive, my dog feels vulnerable because he knows he is leashed and is unable to respond. Which then raises his cortisol levels and can make him reactive. 95% of the time he will still ignore and walk away but there are occasions on which he will become very aggressive in the sense that he will bark/snarl at the small dog in a way that would make the hair on your back stand up. Then I have the small dog's owner telling me  that I have no place taking such an aggressive dog out of the house??!! No, YOU need to leash your damn dog and teach it some manners else the larger dog will take it upon itself to do so.

If you bring your off leash dog into a leashed area be prepared for me (and many other dog owners) to think you are irresponsible and a shitty person.  We work so hard on MayPups confidence and comfort around other dogs (see my earlier posts about him being attacked by a pack of dogs) when someone brings an off leash dog and it engages my leashed dog we lose so much work and progress. And it sucks. I don't care how gentle your dog is or how it just wants to play, my dog is terrified and he will react as such. Seriously so many issues could be avoided if pet owners were responsible and owned their shortcomings and worked to improve them. 

 

1 hour ago, Bad Wolf said:

My dog was a therapy dog, registered for nursing home visits, etc. For her to be an emotional service dog, I would need a letter from a licensed therapist. Then I could get an ID, vest, etc. To take her on a plane, I would have to carry the letter with me. Don't know how people can get away with faking it. Maybe I just follow the rules.

I would love to hear more about your experience as a therapy dog owner. It's something we've thought about looking into but we don't know anyone else who has done it. If you don't find PMing me it would be greatly appreciated. 

 

23 minutes ago, nvmbr02 said:

We moved our dog over 8,000 miles from home and had to ship her as "cargo". It was a scary experience to trust that the airline is following all the rules and keeping her safe.

We're going to be visiting family in Newfoundland and are bringing MayPup (~3000miles) I'm terrified for the flight, any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. He'll be on the same flight with us just as checked "luggage" Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. 

[JoiseyGoil]

Are Ben and Jessa getting a dog? 

[SapphireSlytherin]

5 minutes ago, JoiseyGoil said:

Are Ben and Jessa getting a dog? 

Why do you ask that?

[nvmbr02]

13 minutes ago, LacyMay said:

We're going to be visiting family in Newfoundland and are bringing MayPup (~3000miles) I'm terrified for the flight, any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. He'll be on the same flight with us just as checked "luggage" Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. 

Make sure you check the kennel requirements ahead of time, they are generally strict about it (with good reason!). The should have all the requirements listed (size of kennel, how it should be marked, type of hard wear needed (must be metal screws) zip ties, food and water dish that are accessible, the amount of food you can pack etc...).  We made sure that her name was clearly visible on her kennel, I've heard that some of the airline workers are good about talking to the dog and calling them by name which can be reassuring. We also put down absorbent pads in her kennel as well as a blanket that she slept with the week prior to leaving so it was familiar. She is crated at home in a wire crate but we started using the airline approved kennel several weeks beforehand so that she was used to it. 

Overall, it wasn't too bad and she was perfectly happy when she saw us. She had to be under quarantine here for 5 days before she was released to us and I think it was harder on her when we would go visit and leave her there, 

Good luck with your travels! I hope it is a good experience for you. 

[Markie]

1 hour ago, Hokey Pokey said:

That's Horrendous! I can't believe people do that. That's like making a fake sticker and parking in the disabled parking spots

Apparently the dogs are "support dogs" and need to travel with his wife who oddly didn't seem to need their support on a ten day family vacation abroad but did on a five hour flight to LA. They didn't want their dogs to fly cargo...

[AlwaysExcited]

3 hours ago, KelseyAnn said:

in 2015, there were 34 fatal dog attacks; 24 of the attacks (71%) were by pitbulls or pitbull mixes.  In 2016, 11 of the 14 fatal dog attacks (79%) were due to pit bulls or pit bull mixes.  In 2017, 12 of the 13 fatal dog attacks (92%) in the USA were due to pit bulls.  

If people want to own pitbulls, they should by all means, but its dishonest to imply that they don't cause a great number of mauling deaths. 

My country doesn't have many pitbulls (they were banned until relatively recently), and we still have huge problems with dog aggression. I think we might be one of the worst in Europe with this, but I don't think there are any actual statistics. 
We happen to have a large population of terrible dog owners. Guess what? They manage to fuck up no matter what.
As far as I'm aware definition of "pitbull mix" in USA is pretty loose and based on looks (correct me if I'm wrong). As description of "pitbull mix" is not very specific, many, many dogs can be labeled as one, and it's not known how many of them actually have a pitbull heritage. 
(It also looks like public image of pitbulls has changed drastically over last few decades. It used to be quite popular dog breed, commonly associated with USA military, professional sports, and, interestingly enough, families and children. And dobermans were seen as "aggressive ones".)

[GoddessOfVictory]

I never had dogs growing up, plus friends' dogs would constantly jump up on me, no matter how forceful I tried to be in telling them no. Consequently, I tolerate dogs but I'm not overly comfortable interacting with them.

Most dog owners are pretty good about asking if they can bring their dog into where I work, which is mostly fine except that there's a cat who sometimes hangs around at work who is very aggressive toward dogs. Whenever she sees one in her territory she will hulk out and follow it around. Recently, someone brought in their adolescent malamute who had never met cats. The dog was very curious about the cat but got a bit too close and the cat bopped it on the nose. Fortunately, the owners took the dog out before things could escalate.

As for fears, my main one is spiders. My motto used to be "thou shalt not suffer a spider to live" but I have gotten better lately. My weirdest fear is cypridophobia (fear of STDs). I've gotten better about that one as well.

[SapphireSlytherin]

Cats vs. dogs:

I've noticed that it's 100% "okay" or "fine" for people not to like cats, or hate cats, or want to kill (yes) cats.

But god help you if you don't like (or hate) dogs. 

 

[Knight of Ni]

When I was four a dachshund attacked me and tore up my cheek requiring several stitches. Now I really can’t stand them. I’ve only seen one dachshund that wasn’t a snappy bastard but that may be bias on my part. What makes me angry is the couple who was babysitting me did not let my parents know that the dog was aggressive and had bitten before. They allowed a four year old child to get down on the floor and play near its bed and food and pick up its toys and try to play with it. Shockingly neglectful in my opinion. That same dog went on to bite another child in the face this time the child came close to losing an eye.

Maybe that’s why I prefer cats. 

[LegHumperBibleThumper]

54 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

Cats vs. dogs:

I've noticed that it's 100% "okay" or "fine" for people not to like cats, or hate cats, or want to kill (yes) cats.

But god help you if you don't like (or hate) dogs. 

 

I don't have any love for cats and that's ok. Some people don't like dogs and that is also ok. I was merely saying that I personally only know only 1 person who does not like dogs and she is my best friend. She has only been to my house 2 times since we got our dogs two years ago because of this dislike for my fur family. She has never personally had a bad experience with dogs and does not have an allergy she just doesn't want to and frankly, refuses to be around them. My dislike of cats wouldn't keep me from going to someones home though. Sometimes, I honestly feel like maybe I just haven't encountered the right cat yet. 

51 minutes ago, Knight of Ni said:

When I was four a dachshund attacked me and tore up my cheek requiring several stitches. Now I really can’t stand them. I’ve only seen one dachshund that wasn’t a snappy bastard but that may be bias on my part. What makes me angry is the couple who was babysitting me did not let my parents know that the dog was aggressive and had bitten before. They allowed a four year old child to get down on the floor and play near its bed and food and pick up its toys and try to play with it. Shockingly neglectful in my opinion. That same dog went on to bite another child in the face this time the child came close to losing an eye.

Maybe that’s why I prefer cats. 

This is really sad and totally unacceptable on the part of the adult humans involved. I'm sorry this happened to you and I'm sorry for the other child as well. I hope some day you can have a better experience. 

[CancerBomb]

I know I'm currently looking into obtaining a dog and training them to be an emotional comfort animal, but that's because I have severe anxiety and PTSD, in addition to being half blind. I believe having an emotional comfort animal would allow me to have a better quality of life as I have always loved animals, and having my dog (not a trained ESA but still wonderful) helps me a lot. I hate how people will just say their dog is a therapy animal when it's obviously not, it makes people who legit need one look bad if they have to travel, or once I was training a dog and someone started taunting it and it got riled up (she was a puppy in a vest) and I got so many dirty looks and side comments. 

[SapphireSlytherin]

53 minutes ago, LegHumperBibleThumper said:

she just doesn't want to and frankly, refuses to be around them.

And that is 100% her right! 

[Carm_88]

2 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

Cats vs. dogs:

I've noticed that it's 100% "okay" or "fine" for people not to like cats, or hate cats, or want to kill (yes) cats.

But god help you if you don't like (or hate) dogs. 

Completely agree. I have had people who most multiple pictures of their dog and have instagram accounts for them, tell me that I am too obsessed with my cats. That that they would never trust a cat, they're sly and so on and so forth. You can get away with it. Said friend now has mice in her apartment and she's terrified of them. Carm's comment "Wouldn't happen if you had a cat." 

[Bad Wolf]

8 minutes ago, Carm_88 said:

Completely agree. I have had people who most multiple pictures of their dog and have instagram accounts for them, tell me that I am too obsessed with my cats. That that they would never trust a cat, they're sly and so on and so forth. You can get away with it. Said friend now has mice in her apartment and she's terrified of them. Carm's comment "Wouldn't happen if you had a cat." 

No, but you might have little presents left on your bed in the night. Ask me how I know. 

[TheMustardCardigan]

I love pretty much all animals. I've had dogs and cats as family pets, but only a dog as "my own" pet. I would get a cat but one animal is enough for me at this point in time. I see "I hate cats" and "I hate dogs" as pretty much equally offensive.

[Carm_88]

13 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

No, but you might have little presents left on your bed in the night. Ask me how I know. 

Because cats show love by bringing you furry creatures!  

[VelociRapture]

9 minutes ago, Carm_88 said:

Because cats show love by bringing you furry creatures!  

My parents had a lab when I was growing up. When he was a bit older he proudly brought a possum into the house one night. It was alive and unharmed, but then he wouldn’t bring it back outside. Mom had to pick it up in a towel and do it herself - oddly enough Mom wasn’t impressed by the gift. He then tried doing it again with a baby possum (also alive and unharmed), but he got caught at the door that time. So cats aren’t the only ones to offer furry gifts. 

19 minutes ago, TheMustardCardigan said:

I love pretty much all animals. I've had dogs and cats as family pets, but only a dog as "my own" pet. I would get a cat but one animal is enough for me at this point in time. I see "I hate cats" and "I hate dogs" as pretty much equally offensive.

Same. I’m not a big cat person, but I don’t want to see them harmed in anyway at all. I just don’t like having to work for my pet’s affection, which is why I have a dog. Almost every cat I’ve ever met has demanded you earn their affection. It’s great they have standards, but I’m normally too tired to deal with that type of diva behavior.

(My dog is a diva too, but more in a, “I REQUIRE CONSTANT PETS OR ELSE I’LL BE SUPER SAD,” kind of way.)

[karen77]

All these dogs and cats, but where are my parrot people??? lol

[LegHumperBibleThumper]

58 minutes ago, karen77 said:

All these dogs and cats, but where are my parrot people??? lol

Years ago I was in a friend's wedding and all the bridesmaids spent the night at her mother's house the night before the wedding. Her mother had a middle-aged African Gray named Morris that my friend couldn't stand. I didn't know this at the time but as a young girl, whenever the bird would get loud she would yell "SHUT UP MORRIS!" and eventually the bird learned how to mimic her. 

After the wedding was over, all of us maids had to go back to her mother's house to pick up our belongings. I walked into the finished basement where Morris had a perch and I hear my friend exclaim "SHUT UP MORRIS!" I was absolutely terrified because I had just watched my friend drive off into the sunset to her honeymoon. I knew that many parrots could speak but I had no clue that they could mimic an actual voice! I wish I had more time getting to know him.

[Shadoewolf]

We've had rescue puppies, and currently have 3 cats. We've had pet rats (much more tame and sweet than hamsters), rabbits (too delicate) and a corn snake who was awesome. But cats are the only ones where we can go away for 3-4 days without needing a pet sitter so that's what we're sticking with.