The Chillout Zone (Off-Topic Thread)

TooManyDogs

We're just home from holidays and while we were away one of my dogs attacked another, luckily they're ok but it could have been much worse. 1 dog was staying elsewhere so 5 at home. I'm so sick of people telling me pack theory is debunked. There's pack theory in operation - us leaving unsettled the pack, and 1 dog missing destabilised it. Dogs trying to move into different positions resulted in a serious fight.

Pack theory for wild wolves is completely debunked, but actually the original results from studies done on non-familial wolves in captivity could in large part be applied to non-familial dogs confined to a home - why don't people get that??

Cherry Blossom

TooManyDogs wrote: »

Pack theory for wild wolves is completely debunked, but actually the original results from studies done on non-familial wolves in captivity could in large part be applied to non-familial dogs confined to a home - why don't people get that??

I think they do, people just like to call it something else. When I was a kid my nan baby sat every Saturday night and all hell broke loose when the bosses were away, kicking, screaming, biting, throwing things . . .

There were 6 of us too We didn't call it pack theory.

tk123

TooManyDogs wrote: »

We're just home from holidays and while we were away one of my dogs attacked another, luckily they're ok but it could have been much worse. 1 dog was staying elsewhere so 5 at home. I'm so sick of people telling me pack theory is debunked. There's pack theory in operation - us leaving unsettled the pack, and 1 dog missing destabilised it. Dogs trying to move into different positions resulted in a serious fight.

Pack theory for wild wolves is completely debunked, but actually the original results from studies done on non-familial wolves in captivity could in large part be applied to non-familial dogs confined to a home - why don't people get that??

I think there's kind of a natural pack that comes with respect/training if that makes sense? I don't think allowing the dog on the couch or eating before/when were eating, going thru a door first etc is going to tip the balance? I had a similar thing this week - redundant since last month so I've been home every day...doing a course this week and Bailey was really unsettled on Monday didn't sleep (he'd normally sleep most of the day) and every time a car went down the road he ran to the door thinking it was me! Then on Tues he went to daycare but was STILL out of sorts and growled at one of the girls - they knew something must have unsettled him thou and didn't expel him thank god! Yesterday he was a bit better but still unsettled - I remembered the Thunder shirt so trying him with that on today.

Heroditas

mymo wrote: »

That's exactly the way my boys behave when they have uti's, thankfully the two I have don't get them often. Stress is a big problem, also have you got them on a special food yet?I use one called specific, from the vet, they do a struvite one for crystals and I feed kidney one as my two won't eat the struvite one. It's lows potassium I think, really helps, also feed some wet and raw food, that has helped too.
Hope he's better soon.

He's been put on on Hills c/d dry food and Hills c/d wet food - it's specifically for this sort of thing.
This is his second time getting a UTI. I feel a bit bad because I had been feeding him and his "girlfriend" cheaper food recently and that probably didn't help.
His sister, on the other hand, is a right madam and will only eat the expensive stuff. :rolleyes:

mymo

Little kitten in above post now has her brother to keep her company, he was stuck in the dashboard of a car until this morning, now at my house with my daughter.
Booked them into vet this eve for a check, think they are pretty wormy, but otherwise clean. People that found them gave them milk, so loads of stinky sloppy poop in litter tray.

tk123

Excited - I'm dropping a volunteer form into a rescue up the road today!!

SillyMangoX

Getting mighty sick of the cat from across the road now, about 6 months ago he was very scrawney and sickly so I decided to give him a bit of food, well away from where I feed my own 2. He eventually fattened up a bit, but hes become so brazen. 3 times this week hes been mmeowing at 6am outside my window. I stopped feeding him a couple of weeks after i started but he still insists on coming over everyday. Its gotten to the stage where I cant leave my cats food bowls out or else he would have the food gone. The little ass has started coming into the house and spraying everywhere. I wish people would neuter their toms! Their pee stanks!

tk123

SillyMangoX wrote: »

The little ass has started coming into the house and spraying everywhere. I wish people would neuter their toms! Their pee stanks!

:eek: just :eek:!!!

Cherry Blossom

Took the pup to a little local dog show today, little bit overwhelmed at first but soon got to grips with all the commotion. I think I might be letting him play with the cat a little bit too much though because he kept bopping dogs on the head with his paw and then trying to run away the same way the cat does :pac:

RubyGirl

We went to the County show in Clarinbridge yesterday aswell. Brought Sandy our golden r. with us. Entered her into the puppy & under 14 girls group. Did'nt get anything but good fun for the kids though. Weather turned out fab aswell which was a bonus.

SillyMangoX

The tom cat I mentioned in my last post tried to kill Cream this morning. Cream gets along with every cat and would never attack another one (besides his sister playfully) but this cat had him pinned to the ground by the neck and I'd say would have killed him if I hadn't opened the window. He then chased him around our garden and across the road to a farm. I looked a right eejit running around the place in my PJ's and wellies this morning! Thankfully Cream doesn't seem too bad, definitely shaken and depressed now and his leg is starting to swell.. would you see an abscess this soon? I've an appointment made for him at 6 o clock so hopefully all will be okay

Edit: it was an abscess, caught it before lancing was needed though so a course of antibiotic shoud do the trick!

artyeva

*pokes head round the door quietly so as not not to disturb anyone*

i've only ventured into this thread today, can i have a little rant in here?

*clears throat*

i follow loads of rescues and spca's on facebook. i love animals, always have. you can take the farmer's daughter away from the farm but she'll still be a farmer's daughter and all that... so yeah i love animals and it breaks my heart when i see all these animals that need homes.

BUT... something that absolutely drives me stone daft is whenever a rescue posts a photo of a dog that has been surrendered to a rescue, a lot of the time they'll put the reason the family gave in the description. things like 'timmy's family are moving abroad and unfortunately aren't in a position to take him' or 'unfortunately, fido's owner is no longer in a position to offer him a home' etc etc... this then gives the page followers free reign to insult, patronise, be downright disgustingly nasty in their comments. calling people scum, cursing at them, all that and more...

i often think - hey - that family and that family's kids could be reading that. you know?

it's never an easy descision for anyone to give up a family pet due to emigration or financial constraints... but at least they're making the affort. they've contacted a rescue and haven't driven the dog out somewhere and dumped him.

yet they have to be the subject of a tirade of really ugly and nasty and disgusting comments by people who have no idea of their personal circumstances. it's like they have a competition amongst themselves, whoever says the nastiest thing must love animals more.... is it? even though you rarely if ever see the people who make these disgusting remarks say ''yes, i'll take the dog''. they're all mouth no trousers. :rolleyes:

it makes me sick to the pit of my stomach the way some of these animal lovers talk about people. yes, the amount of animals that need homes is a really really emotive subject for any animal lover. i have successfully disuaded a few people i know away from the 'for sale' sites to rescues, i've reported ads on these for sale sites i see that aren't kosher, i've donated to rescues, and hopefully when i'm back to full health i can donate some time too. isn't that what people should do in order to help animals rather than sitting behind their keyboard? :mad:

/rant

*sorry about that*

tk123

I'm broody for a puppy!!! :P Surely it'd be so much easier this time around
- he'll have his big brother to play with/learn from
- no dangerous garden full of crap for him to find and us to have to get off him (this was a nightmare with Bailey - we ended up paving it!)
- will be fed barf/raw so no messing trying to find a food to suit him and no runny bum bums
- I know how to teach commands so can start training him asap
- he'll be able to go to daycare (didn't realize how close it was until big boy was 6 or 7 months old)
- I'm tougher now lol

RubyGirl

tk123 wrote: »

I'm broody for a puppy!!! :P Surely it'd be so much easier this time around
- he'll have his big brother to play with/learn from
- no dangerous garden full of crap for him to find and us to have to get off him (this was a nightmare with Bailey - we ended up paving it!)
- will be fed barf/raw so no messing trying to find a food to suit him and no runny bum bums
- I know how to teach commands so can start training him asap
- he'll be able to go to daycare (didn't realize how close it was until big boy was 6 or 7 months old)
- I'm tougher now lol

Go for it I say. I had the same dilema and have ended up with 4 now. What you thinking of getting? Would you go with another retriever?

tk123

RubyGirl wrote: »

Go for it I say. I had the same dilema and have ended up with 4 now. What you thinking of getting? Would you go with another retriever?

Ah deffo another retriever boy! Need to convince mommy dearest lol!! :pac:

Whispered

Fat little Phoe snoring beside me after spending 20 mins trying to get comfy, Harley dream running, probably still chasing a ball, even in his sleep. Aw they're so special. Aren't we all so lucky to have the pets we do.

Cookie_Monster

Lonesome George, the last of his kind, died today
They reckon he was well over 100

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelonoidis_nigra_abingdoni

Whispered

:o:o:o:o

I just had the misfortune of having to call airtricity. After 7 minutes of pressing buttons and "I'm sorry I do not understand" automated stuff I was getting very frustrated and shouted "I need to speak to a fecking agent, you stupid thing, agent agent AGENT"

.........................

Timid little voice "Eh hello, can I take your account number please"


That's what I get for shouting at a robot.

1Tony1

Poor george!

Graces7

Down in Cork here and last night I had to rescue the dogs from the annexe in sheet lightning and thunder. Several inches deep already then but thankfully the house is fine. The dogs think the water is great fun of course. Splashing around in it.

Floods within a few miles of us and whole towns cut off.

Not seen the feral but am sure he is OK.

WHich is more than my garden is.

Graces7

Whispered wrote: »

:o:o:o:o

I just had the misfortune of having to call airtricity. After 7 minutes of pressing buttons and "I'm sorry I do not understand" automated stuff I was getting very frustrated and shouted "I need to speak to a fecking agent, you stupid thing, agent agent AGENT"

.........................

Timid little voice "Eh hello, can I take your account number please"


That's what I get for shouting at a robot.

tk123

Graces7 wrote: »

Down in Cork here and last night I had to rescue the dogs from the annexe in sheet lightning and thunder. Several inches deep already then but thankfully the house is fine. The dogs think the water is great fun of course. Splashing around in it.

Floods within a few miles of us and whole towns cut off.

Not seen the feral but am sure he is OK.

WHich is more than my garden is.

I feel for you because we live in a flood zone up here in Dublin (Drumcondra) and I've seen the damage that flooding causes!
No damage up here - just the river about an inch away from bursting it's original banks - they've landscaped the park like this /\_/\ since the big flood almost 10 years ago to catch the flood water if it does burst. Biggest obstacle is keeping Bailey out of the water - hydro has made him too strong a swimmer for his own good - he's fearless now!

seamus

Whispered wrote: »

:o:o:o:o

I just had the misfortune of having to call airtricity. After 7 minutes of pressing buttons and "I'm sorry I do not understand" automated stuff I was getting very frustrated and shouted "I need to speak to a fecking agent, you stupid thing, agent agent AGENT"

.........................

Timid little voice "Eh hello, can I take your account number please"


That's what I get for shouting at a robot.

Believe it or not modern automated systems are set up to do exactly this.

The call is automatically monitored and if it picks up swears words or detects the caller shouting into the phone, it'll automatically switch onto the queue to talk to an agent. Some companies even have a dedicated high-priority/difficult callers queue so that such callers get handled with kid gloves.

I remember I rang O2 once and in the middle of some automated message, I read something else on a document in my hand and said, "Oh, for fncks sake!". The automated message instantly stopped and within a couple of seconds I had an agent pick up the call.

ppink

Whispered wrote: »

:o:o:o:o

I just had the misfortune of having to call airtricity. After 7 minutes of pressing buttons and "I'm sorry I do not understand" automated stuff I was getting very frustrated and shouted "I need to speak to a fecking agent, you stupid thing, agent agent AGENT"

.........................

Timid little voice "Eh hello, can I take your account number please"


That's what I get for shouting at a robot.

dont they record calls for training, you probably are being played out over and over again as an example of an irate customer:D

Whispered

I was very nice when I finally got through. ppink so hopefully I'm not being played over and over again

Seamus, the automated service "couldn't understand" anything I said, it couldn't even "understand" when it asked me to type the number in on my phone pad. It would be a miracle if it picked up on my swearing.

Graces7

tk123 wrote: »

I feel for you because we live in a flood zone up here in Dublin (Drumcondra) and I've seen the damage that flooding causes!
No damage up here - just the river about an inch away from bursting it's original banks - they've landscaped the park like this /\_/\ since the big flood almost 10 years ago to catch the flood water if it does burst. Biggest obstacle is keeping Bailey out of the water - hydro has made him too strong a swimmer for his own good - he's fearless now!

Thankfully safe here apart from the garden and my lovely plants, but all around in each direction the roads are blocked/flooded so I am glad I did my shopping etc yesterday. The pictures of Clonakilty where I was are....

But the weather is causing the worst hay fever I have ever had. I did not realise how debilitating this was.

In Cork they did nothing after the last floods, which is culpable.

Trying to imagine our two near a river. Collie tries to drink it all.....

Oh they had to take the cattle out I think last night.

Oh for some SUMMER.. Longing for warmth. To sit out and knit and sew in the sun with the dogs... Please!

Graces7

ppink wrote: »

dont they record calls for training, you probably are being played out over and over again as an example of an irate customer:D

For the laughter, thank you!:) Needed that today

tk123

ppink wrote: »

dont they record calls for training, you probably are being played out over and over again as an example of an irate customer:D

Yeah they do - well they did where I used to work up until May (IT dept of a call centre). They keep them as examples of irate callers and go thru how you'd deal with it etc! Probably be on their LAN for 10 years if our place was anything to go by lol :pac::pac:

SillyMangoX

My house has become infested with ants EWWW!!! My parents were sitting in the kitchen and about a hundred of them crawled out from the skirting board, they hoovered them up and put down ant killer (which I'm not happy about cos now I'm going to have to keep the cats out of the kitchen). It's so disturbing because we've never even had a trace of an ant before! :(:(

On a happier note I saw 2 Alpacas today and I need one!!!!!

Graces7

SillyMangoX wrote: »

My house has become infested with ants EWWW!!! My parents were sitting in the kitchen and about a hundred of them crawled out from the skirting board, they hoovered them up and put down ant killer (which I'm not happy about cos now I'm going to have to keep the cats out of the kitchen). It's so disturbing because we've never even had a trace of an ant before! :(:(

On a happier note I saw 2 Alpacas today and I need one!!!!!

Alpacas;; beautiful creatures!

Just seen our landlord; beef and dairy famer who has cattle in the fields around us. Thought he must have taken them out last night but he says the electric fence was struck by lightning and they fled in panic. Half are still missing so they are searching the lanes now."Desperate altogether" he says.

Deluging again here in West Cork.. plese God no more thunder. Roads are blocked in every direction from here so glad I shopped etc yesterday.