Useless Conversation

[Morat20]

Crate train the little bastard.  It still sucks, because you will have to take him out at all hours of the night, and you have to train him when bed time is and no, whining won't get you out, but it only sucks for a couple months and massively decreases the housbreaking time.

Got a shih-pooh a year and a half ago, and little dog (so little bladder) almost broke me, but he was housebroken by four months.

We crate trained ours. The first week or so there was a lot of whining at night. It stopped because he learned that if he whined in his crate, water would come from nowhere and hit him.

After that, he was fine. Now? He goes and and out as he pleases. It's one of his favorite spots for naps, and he only gets bitchy (barks like crazy)  if you come back after crating him and then leave again without letting him out. That violates the rules as understood by a beagle.

[Johny Cee]

Crate train the little bastard.  It still sucks, because you will have to take him out at all hours of the night, and you have to train him when bed time is and no, whining won't get you out, but it only sucks for a couple months and massively decreases the housbreaking time.

Got a shih-pooh a year and a half ago, and little dog (so little bladder) almost broke me, but he was housebroken by four months.

We crate trained ours. The first week or so there was a lot of whining at night. It stopped because he learned that if he whined in his crate, water would come from nowhere and hit him.

After that, he was fine. Now? He goes and and out as he pleases. It's one of his favorite spots for naps, and he only gets bitchy (barks like crazy)  if you come back after crating him and then leave again without letting him out. That violates the rules as understood by a beagle.

It was hell with a little dog.  Poor bastard had a bladder the size of a pea, so needed to go out at least twice every night.  It was basically like having a newborn... But yeah, at 4 months we could leave him downstairs and there wouldn't be any messes when I came home from work for lunch.

The problem with crate-training is you have to commit.  You can't fall back on newspapers/training pads, you have to take him out regularly.  If you halfass it, they just develop even worse bad habits and it makes it harder to housetrain.


The in-laws have a young beagle.  Did you know what you were getting into getting one?  High energy, mildly destructive, and stubborn!  Sweet dogs, but holy shit.

[Endie]

The joy of a border collie: training her where to go and when took a week or so and even though I used to have to leave her for four hours or so at a time, coming home to find the newspaper wet grew rare quickly.

Edit: the collie is fine because I am active and take the time to tire her out and keep her interested in things - I am literally posting this then heading out to the beach for an hour with her to exhaust her for the afternoon.  But an under-exercised border collie would not be a happy dog.  Last November I managed to properly tire her out and it took me doing 104km in 48 hours with her off the lead for 3/4 of that, so she probably did 150km or so.  She normally tries to socialise in a pub, but I sat in the bar at the north end of the walk with her asleep on my feet and me barely conscious, and she only roused herself long enough for the rare treat of a couple of bits of venison I couldn't finish.

[IainC]

The joy of a border collie: training her where to go and when took a week or so and even though I used to have to leave her for four hours or so at a time, coming home to find the newspaper wet grew rare quickly.

The disadvantage of living with a border collie: You come home and find that she has rebuilt your home entertainment system into a doomsday device and is currently negotiating with the UN to take over the world.

I love those dogs but they are way too damn smart for their own good.

[RhyssaFireheart]

The current occupant of our house is actually doing great, but we didn't crate train him because he was already 9 mos old when we adopted him from the shelter.  He'd been there for 6 mos and I still can't figure out why he was in there so long; he's a great dog.  He went away to doggie camp for about a week before Thanksgiving (which is why we didn't see him when we went there at that time looking to adopt) and they did a great job with him.  It helps that he's very food oriented (and the little monster knows where the treat jar sits, so he goes over to it to wait) and learns fast, almost faster than our Goldens did.

We kept his name (Jasper) and yes, those ears are the first thing I noticed and fell in love with.  He's a "shepherd mix" of some sort.

[Morat20]

The in-laws have a young beagle.  Did you know what you were getting into getting one?  High energy, mildly destructive, and stubborn!  Sweet dogs, but holy shit.

I knew about the energy, but there were things about owning a beagle I did not anticipate.

The farts. I'm going to be blunt -- beagles fart a lot, because beagles WILL eat everything including rocks and slow-moving children. Now, if you keep him to dog food -- not a problem. If he gets into something, it's like the worst chemical refinery in the world.

The chewing. They like to chew. They are clever at finding things to chew. Socks, shoes, pencils, tubes of chapstick (he really likes those), expensive makeup brushes, expensive makeup, your hands, really whatever. Give them something they're allowed to chew on darn near daily, or they'll find a chew toy.

And they have three types of bark, and all of them are "loud". They have a whine that can crack glass, a bark that can wake the dead, and a howl that is impossible to ignore.

Gorgeous dogs, sweet tempered and friendly, and easy to train. But they're loud, destructive fart machines if you don't pay attention.

[MahrinSkel]

And all of this reminds me of why I prefer cats. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against dogs, had a couple when I was young, but dogs *are* like children, if you don't arrange your life for their convenience, something is going to go wrong. Cats, even the most cuddly and affectionate ones, literally do not care if you are present or not as long as food shows up and poop goes away. Want to binge-game all weekend? Just fill the bowl before you start and empty the catbox when you're done.

Dogs are slaves. It's not their fault, it isn't even bad, it's just the way they are and if you don't take care of them, they die. If you don't take care of your cats, they kill you and eat you in your sleep. I can work with that.

--Dave

[ghost]

I love my dogs, but I'm thinking that I would be much happier with no pets right now.  But the kids like them, so that's not going to happen. 

[Morat20]

And all of this reminds me of why I prefer cats. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against dogs, had a couple when I was young, but dogs *are* like children, if you don't arrange your life for their convenience, something is going to go wrong. Cats, even the most cuddly and affectionate ones, literally do not care if you are present or not as long as food shows up and poop goes away. Want to binge-game all weekend? Just fill the bowl before you start and empty the catbox when you're done.

Dogs are slaves. It's not their fault, it isn't even bad, it's just the way they are and if you don't take care of them, they die. If you don't take care of your cats, they kill you and eat you in your sleep. I can work with that.

--Dave

I'm not even sure you can say cats are domesticated. They certainly, as you note, haven't been bred for millenia to function alongside humans.

[Sky]

I'd say cats have domesticated humans quite nicely.

[Trippy]

That's actually Toxoplasma gondii.

[Endie]

That's actually Toxoplasma gondii.

RIP Tommy the best death in movies and a powerful argument for dogs:

Gavin: He wanted to see Lizzy again. Lizzy wouldn't let him near the house. So he bought a present for her, bought her a kitten.
Renton: But Lizzy told him where to fucking stick it.
Gavin: Exactly. "l'm not wantin' that cat," she says. "Get the fuck," right? So there's Tommy stuck with this kitten. You can imagine what happened. The thing was neglected... pissing and shitting all over the place. Tommy's lying about fucked out of his eyeballs... on smack or downers. He never knew you could get toxoplasmosis from cat shit.
Renton: Neither did l. What is it?
Gavin: Fucking horrible. It's like an abscess on your brain.
Renton: Fucking hell. Then what happened?
Gavin: He starts getting these headaches. So he just uses more smack, you know, for the pain. And then he has a stroke. A fucking stroke, just like that. Gets home from the hospital and dies three weeks later. He'd been dead for ages before the neighbors complained about the smell and got the police to break down the door. Tommy was lying facedown in a pool of vomit.
[long pause]
Gavin: The kitten was fine.

[Khaldun]

Beagles and bassett hounds are stubborn as fuck and unfortunately also smart. They know what they want (to smell stuff and to eat stuff) and they know how to get it, and they know exactly what you're up to with that crate and that treat and that rolled-up newspaper smack on the nose and they want you to fuck off with all that stuff and get them more treats and take them to more smells. If you won't, they're perfectly prepared to acquire the treats and smells by whatever means necessary.

Our bassett, despite her ungainly shape, is perfectly capable of methodically maneuvering chairs when she is unmonitored--sometimes with surprising speed and stealth--in order to get up onto kitchen counters and dining room tables. She knows how to push open doors that are not firmly closed, knock over garbage cans that might contain something good, and which dishcloths to pull onto the floor because they might have deliciously filthy meat juices and crumbs in them. She remembers exactly where dead things are in the yard and how to stuff them quickly into her cheeks like chewing tobacco so she can pretend she didn't do something she isn't supposed to do.

[Morat20]

Our beagle only uses his clever beagle mind to remember where he "buried" treats (the kind they need to gnaw on awhile) -- inside, since we don't let him take them outside. That got nixed the first time we saw him bring in a month old rawhide dripping mud. He likes to hide them under cushions.

He also LOVES tubes of chapstick. He's like Houdini getting to those. Also pencils, for some reason, and expensive makeup brushes.

All of which we can short-circuit by making sure he has one good rawhide or other heavy-duty chew stick a day.

He learned tricks and commands practically instantly, but it all goes out the window if he smells something interesting. Beagles are very food oriented, though. Hold up a treat and that dog is fully prepared to learn calculus to get it.

He's actually not too stubborn -- but he's got separation anxiety like crazy. It took at least six months before he could tolerate us leaving the house without him (he'd whine and bark and go nuts because he couldn't come)  -- now he's fine, even goes to sleep in his kennel in the mornings because he knows we're all about to leave. But take him in the car, and have one person leave the car? Apeshit.

Take him to someone else's house? He'll sniff everything, then literally sit on one person and stare at the other. He'll sleep lightly, and practically guard the door so we don't somehow leave him.

[Cyrrex]

That all sounds both awesome and very tiring.

[Rasix]

Apparently my officemate worked a full day with a double pinkeye infection when I was out. Neat. 

[WayAbvPar]

His roommates must have had a pillow farting fight.

[Rasix]

He's got 2 kids in diapers. Poop is his life.

[Yegolev]

No one does stereo like in California Dreaming anymore.

[Morat20]

Apparently my officemate worked a full day with a double pinkeye infection when I was out. Neat. 

I used to find the office hysteria around pinkeye funny until the first time I worked in an office where it went around.

Of course, that's what you get when your employer is a PITA about sick days.

[IainC]

Saw Henry Rollins doing his spoken word tour tonight. Really, really great show. And holy fuck he is super-intense.

[Abagadro]

It is a great show. Seen him about 4 times and have a bunch of them on CD. His podcast is pretty good too.

[Chimpy]

Henry Rollins is awesome.

He was my number one hero in around 2000-2001 when he was shackin' up with Kari Wuhrer 

[Sky]

The 80s chick from that show with Colin Quinn?

[Yegolev]

I love this guy.
https://twitter.com/MrGeorgeWallace

[Chimpy]

The 80s chick from that show with Colin Quinn?

Yes.

[WayAbvPar]

Henry Rollins is awesome.

He was my number one hero in around 2000-2001 when he was shackin' up with Kari Wuhrer 

Oh my god I was so in love with her in her heyday. And mine...

[Viin]

The new Oreo Thins with Mint are really good. Thin Mint good. Someone take these away from me!

[schild]

Cinnamon Roll Oreos are absolutely amazing.

[Merusk]

The current crying over reaction videos, "omg ur stealin mah content," and other such nonsense from "YouTube Celebrities" is deliciously ironic. The same generation that laughed about torrenting movies now bitching they can't make money because someone's stealing their content. Hah. Priceless.

[Sky]

Yeah, seeing people hit the wall of reality is always awesome. Need more of that. Given the generation behind those kids, need a LOT more of that.

[Ironwood]

Any specifics ?

[Merusk]

Nothing very specific. That was brought-on by a reddit thread last night where people in /r/videos were hating on "Reaction" videos in general.

Within that thread someone had linked a video series (Part 1 was 25mins. No I didn't watch) where a "well known" YouTuber was bitching-at-length in some terrible British accent (Cockney maybe?) about how reaction vids steal the hard work of "real" YouTubers.

Which I laughed at. Because I recall seeing a video from the same guy, or one of his friends, or referencing him, talking about the unfairness and inequity of Copyright. About how information should be free and it was "wrong" that YouTube was taking-down content just because it referenced or used too much of some "big company's" I.P.

[Paelos]

Look for the True Freak Label.

[ezrast]

The scandal isn't about reaction videos themselves - those have been around for years and nobody cares too much. It's that Fine Brothers have started having other people's reaction videos removed on copyright claims, even though they themselves sometimes use other channels' content for their reaction fuel. Apparently they also tried to Trademark the word "React".

There's a lot of collateral hate generated towards Fine Brothers for being wildly successful with their shitty, soulless videos - some of it surely by hypocrites - but in general if Youtubers are saying Fine Brothers' stuff should be taken down, it's a rhetorical argument to highlight the unfairness of copyright enforcement rather than to strengthen it.

That's what I've seen from the actual content creators I watch. Who knows where Reddit may have gone with it.