#dog's best friend

[frau-rainyfox]

#hudson and rex #hudson & rex #jesse mills #rex #jesse and rex #dog's best friend #s5e19 #my gif pack

[grison-in-space]

Specialization is so far advanced in dogdom that even among working lines there are divisions between trial and hunting or herding dogs. Whereas not too many years ago field trials were merely a way to keep a dog employed in the off-season, they have become ends in themselves. Trial dogs, be they pointers, retrievers, spaniels, setters, herders, or hounds, tend as a rule to be possessed of high energy, drive, and speed. Some of the trials are timed events with scores awarded for the number of animals treed or flushed, while others simply require precise execution of prescribed tasks. Intensely trained and drilled, the dogs work close to their handler, taking direction from him or her.

Working dogs must be more independent. Situations on the hunt, the ranch, or farm are considerably more complicated and subtle than those in a trial, where the goal is to make everything uniform so the dogs can be measured against each other or against a standard of behavior—for example, whether a retriever can follow a beeline for a duck on the ground one hundred yards away and bring it back with minimal human direction. A super trial dog, trained to point one tamed bird at a time, might forget entirely what to do when in the field on a hunt it encounters a covey of wild quail intent on scattering to all points of the compass. Or it might face pheasants whose idea of fun is to keep moving along the ground, forcing it either to hold point over empty space or to engage in a kind of moving point, which its handler has worked to discourage.

Dog’s Best Friend, Mark Derr (1997)

I think this passage really gets into what @canisitsnotlupus was discussing the other day about working vs sport in terms of behavior. Here, Derr is talking specifically about gundogs, but the general principle is fairly easy to extend to other forms of working and sport.

In particular, the dog's attention to the handler is something I think tends to get amped up and intensified when tasks transition from the demands of work into the demands of sport. Sport rewards specificity and precision as well as uniformity and often speed, and dogs and handlers alike have to dedicate intense attention to one another in order to execute the tasks of the game competitively.

By contrast, work is longer, often more boring, and simultaneously more demanding: as Derr points out, working situations are less controlled and therefore likely to throw up unanticipated hurdles for the dog and handler alike. Working situations therefore are more likely to reward a wider range of successful strategies and styles, depending on the function to which the work is put and the specific demands and uses of the job.

Moreover, the jobs themselves are likely to vary substantially depending on local conditions, including local culture, technology availability, the social context of the task, and the local opinions about how dogs should be managed... and this can heavily impact the choice of breeds used for various tasks, especially if the breeders controlling the development of a breed with the same historical purpose are no longer engaging in that purpose. For example, I made a point about St. Bernards not being very good for SAR the other day, and part of that is the increased use of cramped vehicles and helicopters for transporting dogs over large surfaces and the necessity of navigating tight spaces and precarious ground for SAR dogs, alongside the ability to cover large swathes of distance in a pinch. The way we do the task has changed, and the ideal dog to perform the task changes alongside it.

Here's another point: jobs for dogs open up all the time. The wide range of tasks service dogs are put to, for example, requires a lot of complex traits. I would submit that no one right now is producing an ideal dog for mobility service work, although Swissies and Bernese are probably the best placed to enter that niche... and both breeds have small gene pools that don't have a ton of room to change and grow in accordance with the needs of the job, either. How big does a mobility assistance dog need to be? How long lived could we make big dogs?

The trick is thinking of situations where a dog brings value to the task without creating more work to manage the dog than than that value eases. For example, herd dogs and horses can be replaced with ATVs.... but they stress cattle less, and once trained they are easy enough to control, so the niche remains. The sensory capacities of a dog are hard to replicate, so many niches for dogs depend on scentwork (and sometimes dogs' hearing) today.

In some ways, then, the fact that we use dogs for tasks in day to day life so much less is partly a cultural failure of imagination and partly a delayed response to enormous changes in technology. But tech often comes with its own drawbacks. I wonder sometimes if obedience schools might benefit from classes designed to teach useful tricks, like the kind of guided retrieves that can result in a dog that can fetch a targeted object. For all the man is, ah, a bit terrifying and not good at managing arousal, Zak George's short-lived Superfetch show did a great job of showcasing this and showing off some of the genuinely useful things dogs could be asked to do and provide, like racing upstairs for a clean diaper.

#mark derr #dog training #function #disc #dog's best friend

[paulasue53]

This is one of our cute wild baby bunnies in our yard. Our dog, Scout, loves to bark at them and they don’t even mind! We were just about ten feet from this little guy and he just continued to eat!

#baby bunny #bunnies gotta eat #dog's best friend

[outofcontext101dalmatians]

#101 dalmatians #101 dalmatians: the series #dog's best friend #cadpig #blaze #sun min co.

[stepghost]

#I'm being courted by my best friend's younger brother ~ I've never known such a black-hearted dog!~ #mine #mangacap #manga cap #h

[aroaceleovaldez]

i think a lot about how in Blood of Olympus, Nico was supposed to be sentenced to death as a traitor by the Romans alongside Reyna, and how he was just 100% ready to throw down with Michael Kahale (who is like, twice his height and weight) if Reyna gave him the word. By the end of their quest Nico was really just ready to start biting people if Reyna asked him to and gave absolutely zero shits about potentially dying.

#pjo #riordanverse #nico di angelo #by the end of BoO Reyna had gained a new pegasus a new best friend and a new dog #the new dog and new best friend are both nico #Nico became ride or die for Reyna IMMEDIATELY #nico was killing and maiming and ready to do it again for Reyna #Michael Kahale: so you're supposed to be sentenced to death as traitors | Nico: GIVE ME THE WORD REYNA I'LL KILL HIM

[yaolmao]

What everyone actually got from the recent episode:

#they’re both autistic #bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #bsd tecchou #suehiro tecchou #tecchou suehiro #kenji miyazawa #bsd kenji #myart #one of my fave chapters <33 #14 year old and a late 20’s widow become best friends

[suiheisen]

you think YOU had a bad day at work?

bonus: sid shrieking "no!!!! NO!!!!!" loud enough to be heard in the stands and on camera

#this is now my FAVOURITE game i've watched in real life knocking the game misconduct one off the number one rank #he was so annoyed the entire game and so annoying about it :') #he kept shrieking away on the bench and i couldn't hear a word from where i was seated #but you could just hear this constant yipping away dhfsgfkjshgfsjf PLEASE it was so funny your 36-year-old babygirl was BARKING #drew kept sitting there like... is mom okay... i don't think mom's okay... #also extremely good for me (since he wasn't really hurt) was the whumpfest of it all oh my god what ancient gods did he anger......... #geno kept Hovering in concern #po kept giving him little shoulder pats the way a sweet brave babyboy would try his best to soothe a rabid little dog #ek of course kept trying to slide right inside him and also kept skating up to him and STARING him in the face in concern/lust/both #also guys this is my first time in canada ever!!!!!!!! i'm excited #anyway. very good game for me sorry for this post but you know i love a #long post #sidney crosby #evgeni malkin #pittsburgh penguins #also!!! to all who celebrate #ramadan kareem/eid mubarak #<333 staying with a friend here through the eid celebration and they've been cooking and everything smells so good

[canisalbus]

#best friends can't sit in chairs properly #own art #own characters #CanisAlbus #art #artists on tumblr #Vasco #Machete #anthro #sighthound #dogs #canine #animals #I've been searching for a nice savonarola chair forever #once a local flea market I frequent had one #really sturdy and carved piece it was gorgeous #but I had no room for it and it was a bit pricey #I dillydallied a little too long and it sold and I've been bitter ever since

[cryoverkiltmilk]

I gotta say, everything about Lycion from Dungeon Meshi is some kinda mood.

and can we talk about the arched back Fleki is doing once mounted up >_> ?

#his little 'i'm doing my best' face as fleki goes over the shoulder #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #fleki #lycion #trans allegory werewolf #werewolves #shifters #good dog #jock friend saving zero con mod friend

[blackbirdless]

WHO UP THINKING ABOUT TWF 4 🔥🔥🔥

#the walten files #twf #jack walten #jack walten bet on losing dogs. he bet on his best friend

[frau-rainyfox]

"FIND JESSE!"

#hudson and rex #hudson & rex #dog's best friend #jesse mills #rex #my gif pack #s5e9 #rexpert witness

[grison-in-space]

Form for a working dog refers to locomotion, agility, strength, bite; for a show dog, good looks. Mate two dogs who look like pointers but have never really pointed, and you probably will end up with a litter of dogs who look like pointers but do not reliably freeze when they encounter prey. But breed two scruffy-looking mutts who come to a screeching halt whenever their noses encounter another animal and stare, waiting for it to move, and you have a good chance of getting at least a couple of puppies with the same disposition. They might look like street curs, but they will point and probably do other things as well. In other words, the look does not make the dog—something that many of us have never learned.

While the breeds, or subgroups, into which these animals are narrowly divided are often arbitrarily based on the irrelevancy of coat characteristics or ear shape, the general types more appropriately reflect broader behavioral and phenotypic eccentricities. Insofar as the dogs are employed at tasks for which they ostensibly were bred, their styles of work reinforce our notions of breed specialities. On the other hand, when we watch them performing in a different arena—for example, chasing a Frisbee or detecting scents—we realize how much they have in common in terms of their innate canine drives.

Dog’s Best Friend, Mark Derr (1997)

#mark derr #I'm coming back to my reading projects #didn't note anything particularly quote worthy in the mushing section admittedly #which is largely focused on the Iditarod and hashes out a bunch of the mid-90s drama from the committee #fairly reasonably tbh #dog's best friend

[hamsterdancen]

idk i still haven't finished that piece and i planed to draw all 4 of beta kids in this style

jade absolutely clawdeen wolf enjoyer

also check my post bellow with homestuck glitter stickers and other stuff

#jade harley #jade homestuck #homestuck #homestuck beta kids #good dog best friend

[bread-that-draws]

Flowey’s so funny and has me so fucked up like he’s a talking flower. He tries to kill you upon your first interaction. He is ten years old. He is damaged beyond repair. He’s a flower named Flowey. He’s become friends with every single character. He’s killed all of them countless times. He knows everything about everyone. He doesn’t care anymore. He takes care of his mom when she can’t take care of herself. He’s killed her before. He doesn’t care if you kill her. He thinks she’s trying to replace him. He just wants to be himself again. He wants to destroy everything. He hates you. You’re the only one who understands him. He wants his best friend back. He’s terrified of them. He believes in kill or be killed because he died by giving mercy to the wrong person. He believes himself to be the wrong person. He doesn’t understand when you show him that kindness he showed others, even when you know he could kill you for it. He’s tried every route. He asks you if you have anything better to do when you try to do the same. He’s a direct reflection of the player. He’s a fucking talking flower named flowey and his only voice line is by Ronald McDonald and his officially licensed plush does a little dance for you

#‘Flowey would listen to i bet on losing dogs by Mitski and cry until he throws up and Chara calls him cringe from beyond the grave’ #-me to my friend when I ranted about this last night #he has me so fucked up like oh my god #how is the best character a fucking talking flower #I love undertale’s writing so much like it’s mastered minimal evidence giving away the biggest parts of characters #i can analyze him i can study him under a microscope #i can put him in a terrarium with a sticky note that says gay baby jail you know #he has me SO fucked up #flowey #flowey the flower #asriel #asriel dreemurr #I’m talking about flowey btw not asriel i know they’re the same person but not to me #like how i consider little baby me and fucked up 13 year old me different people #asriel sits on the playground and cries when nobody wants to play warrior cats with him #and flowey sits in the back of classrooms and answers ‘life is MEANINGLESS’ to every question #not speaking from experience ofc (im lying) #love my edgy flower *puts a magnifying glass up to him and notes how fucked up he is* #i think more characters need to be fucked up beyond repair #undertale #utdr #character analysis

[viridian-pickle]

BMW R 75/5  jubilee édition

#photography #aesthetic #beautiful #adventure #summer #mens style #lifestyle #farmer #dog #doggo #vinatge #classic #aestethic #biker #motorbike #motorcycle #classic bike #mans best friend #field #outdoors