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maisietheyellowlab · 5 years

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My Dog Breed Selection Process

Yesterday I got this message from an anon:

“I saw your getting a Koolie!! Nice!! They're such pretty dogs. And actually if you don't mind I have a question for you? Feel free to not answer. But you have a lab and are getting a koolie, two different breeds obviously, so do you have any tips for someone trying to find a breed? It'll be my first purebred dog and going to the shelter is hard enough because all the dogs are so cute so how do you narrow down the list for the perfect dog? Idk if you had a list - but how'd you decide on a koolie?”

and I quickly realized this was gonna be a long post, so here it is. This whole thing:

This is the general procedure that brought me to my breed choices:

First come up with a list of “must haves” “nice to haves” and “must not haves” for the type of dog you want (size, coat type, shedding, energy level, trainability,..) (as @katieisstilltumbling / @winedogs already pointed out in the original ask).

Be very honest with yourself and consider that while the dog has to be a good fit for you, you have to be a good fit for the dog as well!

Then go through a list of dog breeds and/or take a few “what’s the right breed for you” type quizzes OR if you really like a dog sport check out the breeds that usually do well in that sport (e.g. mushing: Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes,..)

→ see which of those you like and check their breed descriptions

→ check blogs, forums, videos, fb groups of owners and breeders of that breed, see if you still like what you see

→ if there are any events where you might be able to meet the breed irl (dog shows, trials, breed meet ups…) go there and talk to owners! (this step is not always possible but it’s very helpful if you can do it!)

→ check if the dogs of that breed fit your “must haves” and “must not haves”

→ look up breeders

→ contact a breeder, ask about the breed, their dogs, what kind of owner they like for their dogs, ask if you can meet them and their dogs

→ when you meet irl, see if you like the breeder and their dogs

→ if you’re now sure you want a dog of that breed, tell the breeder you’re interested in getting a puppy from their upcoming litter

→ be patient and respectful

→ get puppy

→ done!

So, here’s an example of my personal breed-selection journey:

Dog breed selection process 1 - Labrador Retriever:

The first step at all was trying to think of the dog breeds I'm generally drawn to/think they're cute and looking them up, checking out youtube videos where owners talk in depth about the breed and being real honest with myself if the breed would fit into my lifestyle. For example, I always liked Cocker Spaniels, Golden Retrievers, Border Collies, Labs and Dalmatians.

Second step was going thru breed lists online and checking them out, trying to see if there's more breeds I like, but maybe haven't seen or heard of before.

Third thing I did, was take some Dog Breed Selector quizzes online, to see if I'd like any of the dogs that would come up as recommended to me. Ofc this is not to be take too seriously, bc you can be a perfect home for a border collie, but the quiz results won't match you to Border Collies, just because you didn't tick the box that said »I have an enormous yard.«

So at that point I had somewhat of an idea what I would want in a dog, and I had a list of traits in my mind that I applied to my top ~10 breeds.

It was something like this:

Must haves:

Medium size

Tolerates cold&hot weather

Easy coat maintenance

Easy to train --> biddable or will to please

Medium/high energy

Suitable for hikes&canine sports

Playful

Good around older children

Good for first time owners

Not very sensitive

Okay with being left alone for a few hours regularly/not prone to separation anxiety

Good with people and dogs

Average lifespan longer than 10 years/as long as possible

Breeder in my country

Cute!

Nice to haves:

Doesn’t shed a lot

More of a quiet type of dog

Litter in the next 6 months

Likes water

Longer than average lifespan

Must not haves:

Guards people/property

Very large or very small

Prone to health issues

Very independent

Very sensitive

High maintenance coat

Prone to DA or HA

Pure working line

Ideas: Australian Shepherd, Toller, Border Collie, Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, Brittany

I started looking for breeders of those breeds in my area and looked through all the websites I could find. I looked at their dogs, their breeding practices, the offspring and of course, litter plans.

At that point I felt like a balanced Aussie might be the way to go, so I contacted and met up with a breeder. Turns out we didn't really click and the way that she described the breed and her personal requirements for her puppies' owners left me feeling very overwhelmed, so I decided agains getting a dog of hers. I looked at some other breeders websites, but the more I researched the more I also started realizing that an Aussie might not the the best choice for me any the household I was living in at that time.

So here I learned a very important lesson. Not only do you have to find a suitable dog, you also have to find a suitable breeder. A responsible breeder will stay in contact with you for the res tof the dog's life, try to point you in the right direction, will be a source of help regarding the dog's development, health and training, so you need like them and they need to like you back. So I added another bullet point to my puppy search list:

a breeder that is helpful, friendly, nice to be around

Dog breed 1, try 1: Aussie → not a good fit.

I eventually narrowed my selection down to Goldens and Labs, because they were generally easier for first time owners than the rest of the breeds, less prone to sensitivity and there were announced litters in the next few months.

In the end I went for a Lab, because they seemed a little more sturdy and had slightly less health issues, as far as my research showed. Then I contacted two breeders, I think, and I went with the one that felt more right. Oh and also, I thought the parents of the litter looked better, bc that's honestly a big factor too. You're gonna live with this dog for 10+ years, why not choose the one that fits your criteria as much as possible.

So that was it, this is how I chose Maisie's breeder. She's great, helped me a LOT during the first few months when I needed it most, and we're still in touch, I visit her every year. It feels like she's my aunt or smth, she's really nice.

Dog breed 1, try 2: Lab → WIN :D

Dog breed selection process 2 - Australian Koolie:

The second time around I approached the breed selection a little differently, since I had already met more breeds of dogs irl by then and also had an idea of what I’d like in a second dog from experience with Maisie. A part of my decision to go for a herding dog came from what I want to do with them - I want to try more canine sports that include jumping, so a dog with a lighter build and more will to please. That kind of dog will enjoy those activities more and be able to do them more safely than Maisie.

Must haves:

Medium size, lighter build

Tolerates cold&hot weather

Easy coat maintenance

Will to please

Medium/high energy

Suitable for hikes&canine sports

Suitable for jumpy sports

Playful

Okay if sensitive, would prefer less sensitive tho

Okay with being alone for a few hours if needed

Good with people and dogs

Isn’t bothered by obnoxious Lab behavior very much

Average lifespan longer than 10 years/as long as possible

Working/ working x mixed line

Cute

Breeder in Europe

A helpful, friendly breeder

Nice to haves:

Doesn’t shed a lot

Not noise sensitive

Not very sensitive in general

More of a quiet type of dog

Litter in the next 6 months (hahahahhaha I’ve been waiting for a little over 2 years at this point)

Likes water

Likes snow

Likes toys and food as rewards

Longer than average lifespan

Must not haves:

Guards people/property

Very large or very small

Prone to health issues

Very independent

High maintenance coat

Prone to DA or HA

Pure show line

Ideas: Aussie, Border Collie, Rough Collie, English Springer Spaniel, Welsh Springer Spaniel, Toller, Koolie

I’d met enough Aussies by that point to realize they weren’t exactly what I wanted in a dog, but I still really liked Border Collies. This time around I wasn’t intimidated by higher energy level anymore, but I was still a bit worried about sensitivity and the fact that most BCs I’ve met low key hated Maisie. There were a few who liked her, but many didn’t so I kept looking for a better fit (I thought it wouldn’t be fair for the new dog to be stressed by Maisie just existing and being herself..it wouldn’t be fair to either). I was considering Tollers too, but there weren’t any litters announced at all, and I knew of literally one breeders, so I kept on looking. I had a hard time with finding Rough Collies without extreme show coat and had trouble finding non extremely showy Springers around here as well.

I think I found out about Koolies when I was going through herding dogs, and it was a new breed I’ve never heard of or seen before. They were rarely included bc I was mostly looking at very generic lists I think. I read the description, watched a few videos and really really liked them. They had all the traits of aussies and BCs I liked, but weren’t as sensitive as BCs generally are or as prone to guarding as Aussies tend to be. I found two breeders in driving distance, contacted both, one was kinda weird with replies and said she doesn’t want to sell pups outside her country, but the other breeder was very nice and helpful in her replies and that’s how I started talking to the breeder of my future puppy! I met her and two of her dogs about two years ago and loooved them. They also aced the “can tolerate a playful (obnoxious) Maisie” test, the main thing BCs struggled with.

So unfortunately I couldn’t get a puppy from the two litters that were born in 2017 and 2018 bc my life circumstances weren’t suitable for a puppy at the time, but now I am READY and basically just waiting for the puppy to be born sometime this year.

Dog breed 2, try 1: Koolie → win!

#dogblr #choosing a puppy #dog breeds #dog ownership #text #I apologize for all the typos I missed #asks

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theboogeyman-blog1 · 7 years

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REALLY LONG CHARACTER SURVEY. RULES. repost , don’t reblog! tag 10! good luck! TAGGED. stolen from @bloodbaptised TAGGING. @formother and those who really want to attempt to flesh out their muses!!

BASICS.

FULL NAME : Michael Audrey Myers. NICKNAME : Michael, Shape, Mikey. AGE : Twenty-one in his main verse. BIRTHDAY : October 19, 1957. ETHNIC GROUP : Caucasian. NATIONALITY : American. LANGUAGE / S : Understands English. SEXUAL ORIENTATION : Asexual with an inclination towards females. ROMANTIC ORIENTATION : Aromantic. RELATIONSHIP STATUS : Relationship-less. CLASS : Middle class until containment in Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, technically in poverty upon escape. HOME TOWN / AREA : Haddonfield, Illinois. CURRENT HOME : Haddonfield, Illinois. PROFESSION : N/A. Serial murderer and escaped mental patient.

PHYSICAL.

HAIR : Brown and overgrown, slightly curly at the ends. It was dirty blonde when he was a boy. EYES : Like large, shining obsidian stones on his pale and empty face. Full lashes. NOSE : Average length and width, slightly turns up at the tip. Almost button-like. FACE : Surprisingly youthful, nearly angelic. Slightly round, lack of wrinkles or laugh lines from lack of expression. LIPS : Near thin. Very gentle curves on the Cupid’s Bow. Pale pink. COMPLEXION : Pale, unblemished and unmarked. BLEMISHES : Nothing visible. SCARS : Verse dependent. No scars in his main verse but covered in burns after the explosion at the hospital. TATTOOS : Verse dependent. None in main verse, but in the Cult verse he wears the symbol of thorn on the inside of his wrist. HEIGHT : 6'0″. WEIGHT : 168 lbs. BUILD : Average, but mildly lanky. Possesses much more strength than what meets the eye. FEATURES : Pale skin and smooth, unblemished features. Blank expression and deep black eyes that stare. ALLERGIES : N/A. USUAL HAIR STYLE : Very much unkempt. Tangled and unbrushed. How it falls is how he wears it. USUAL FACE LOOK : Smooth and unfettered as a blanket of fresh snow or a blank sheet of paper. His eyes don’t seem to focus. They seem to stare past you and far into the future---or far into the past. USUAL CLOTHING : Blue mechanic’s coveralls and work boots. On his head is a white mask that shields his face, expressionless and intimidating. He does not like to remove it.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR / S : None. The closest thing that arouses anything remotely like fear in Michael is the exposure of his face. He is not the evil entity he tries so hard to be when his youthful, cute face prevents him from being as scary. Plus, that mask has become an integral part of his personal identity. Without it he can function (assuming that he himself made the choice to remove it), but when it’s taken from him he experiences a sensation akin to panic. ASPIRATION / S : To recreate again and again the events that preceded his incarceration: the murder of family members reminiscent of his murder of his elder sister, Judith. POSITIVE TRAITS : Tenacious, resourceful, clever (in ways) NEGATIVE TRAITS : Remorseless, withdrawn, deceitful, bears grudges, murderous, blase, cunning, dangerous, manipulative, obsessive, unemotional, MBTI : ISTP-A: The Virtuoso ZODIAC : Libra. TEMPERAMENT : Choleric. SOUL TYPE / S : Hunter. ANIMALS : Hunts much like a cougar does. VICE HABIT / S : Murder, holding grudges. FAITH : The Myers family went to church every Sunday but Michael never believed in God. No faith. GHOSTS ? : Does not want to think about it. AFTERLIFE ? : Does not care to think about it. REINCARNATION ? : No. ALIENS ? : Does not care. POLITICAL ALIGNMENT : None. ECONOMIC PREFERENCE : Technically he is in poverty. SOCIOPOLITICAL POSITION : No. EDUCATION LEVEL : Kindergarten.

FAMILY.

FATHER : Peter Myers. MOTHER : Edith Myers. SIBLINGS : Judith Margaret Myers (elder), Cynthia Myers (renamed Laurie Strode, younger) EXTENDED FAMILY : Jamie Lloyd (niece), Steven Lloyd (son/grandnephew), John Tate (nephew) NAME MEANING / S : Michael: “Who is like God?”/”He who is closest to God.” Audrey: Drawn from “noble” and “strength.” HISTORICAL CONNECTION ? : Michael’s name is EXTREMELY biblical.

FAVOURITES.

BOOK : None. MOVIE : None. 5 SONGS : He has none. However, these songs remind me of him. ( x x ) DEITY : Verse dependent. Forced to worship the Entity in Dead by Daylight. HOLIDAY : Halloween, the only time when he is truly active. MONTH : October. SEASON : Autumn. PLACE : His home on Lampkin Lane in Haddonfield, Illinois. WEATHER : Cloud cover darkening the night sky. Cool, crisp air that just nips at the skin. SOUND : The radio from outside a window, carefree prattle of teenagers who are unaware of his presence, their anxious calling when they hear a sound when they think they’re alone, their shrieks when he plunges his knife into their young, supple flesh, the snapping of bones, the splatter of blood. SCENT / S : Gentle wafts of floral shampoo that trail his obsession. TASTE / S : The metallic hint of blood in his mouth, candy. FEEL / S : Control, the charge of following someone without their knowing, their desperate grasps at him as he seizes them. ANIMAL / S : Has no favorite animal. NUMBER : Seventeen--the age of both of his sisters when he makes attempts on both of their lives. COLOUR : Red for the blood that he spills, black for the shadows that provide him shelter.

EXTRA.

TALENTS : Hunting, he is very adept at following his prey without alerting their attention until he wishes for himself to be noticed. Inducing fear into the hearts of those surrounding him. Misleading those who associate themselves with him. Lacking any kind of humanity or decency that would sway his warpath. BAD AT : Communicating, as he cannot and/or will not say a word to a single soul. Taking care of himself, as he cannot manage to feed himself regularly or to bathe himself or tend to his own injuries. TURN ONS : Fear of him. Watching, watching, watching. TURN OFFS : Intimacy. HOBBIES : Drawing pictures in crayon, writing his elder sister’s name on them. TROPES : Face of an Angel; Mind of a Demon, Creepy Child, Humanoid Abomination, Malevolent Masked Man, Silent Antagonist, The Stoic, Super Strength, The Voiceless. AESTHETIC TAGS : Knives, gore, masks, graveyards, urban neighborhoods, Halloween, trick or treat, jack-o-lanterns. GPOY QUOTES : ".........”

FC INFO.

MAIN FC / S : I haven’t done extensive research on faceclaims for adult Michael because I see no situation where he would remove his mask for anyone so I will stick to his faceclaim in the first movie for now-- Tony Moran. ALT FC / S : Tyler Mane. OLDER FC / S : Don Shanks. YOUNGER FC / S : Noah Wiseman. VOICE CLAIM / S : None. GENDERBENT FC / S : None.

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1 : if you could write your character your way in their own movie , what would it be called , what style would it be filmed in , and what would it be about ? A1 : Well, Michael already has several movies made all about him but there are a lot of things that I’d like to see in the one coming out next year. First of all, I would love it if they would scratch the ideas of Michael being tied to a cult and being the puppet of a cult because I believe that Michael’s actions are completely of his own free will. I would also love to see some of Michael’s time in Smith’s Grove and Dr. Loomis’s struggle to bring Michael out of himself. I would love to see the little boy before the event on Halloween 1963 and how he acted around his family. I want to see Michael stalking and murdering people that have no connection to him whatsoever. I believe it would be much scarier that way. Q2 : what would their soundtrack / score sound like ? A2 : I would keep elements of the original Halloween soundtrack because they’ve come to resemble Michael’s screen presence so much. I’d like to thicken the orchestration. Q3 : why did you start writing this character ? A3 : I’ve been obsessed with Dead by Daylight since its release and I was kind of like ????? when they announced that they were going to release Michael as a playable character in the game bc honestly it just reads as jealousy that Friday the 13th is already doing so much better than it, and oh my GOD. I honestly hated Michael so much when he was first released into the game because he is ridiculous to play against. It is so fucking hard to get away from him. Like my hatred for him was unholy. But then I started to watch the movies on a whim and??? I loved him?? My murder sON. Q4 : what first attracted you to this character ? A4: I really love the aesthetic of the old slasher movies and I love horror movies in general. I told myself that I was going to see all of the movies of all the original slashers and Michael was the one that I picked up first. What I really found attractive about his character at first is how inhuman he is and how terrifying the situation is. He has complete control. And plus, I’m a sucker for a scary man in a mask. Q5 : describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse. A5 : I hate that it’s implied in the sixth movie that he raped his teenage niece. Michael is a god awful living organism and I know that he isn’t morally above doing something like that, but I really can’t see him doing something like that. I can’t see him developing any kind of substantial arousal about anyone on that level. Q6 : what do you have in common with your muse ? A6 : I suppose that we’re both reserved. Beyond this, we don’t really have anything in common. Q7 : how does your muse feel about you ? A7 : Michael would fucking stab me in a heartbeat lmaO. I would be trying to mother him and he would be like NOPE. Not having it. He doesn’t feel anything about me and he doesn’t feel anything about anyone tbh, but I don’t think he’d appreciate my attempts to take care of him. Q8 : what characters does your muse have interesting interactions with ? A8 : Laurie Strode, Jamie Lloyd, Dr. Loomis, Judith Myers, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Pennywise the Clown, Jason Voorhees, Nea Karlsson, Trapper, Hillbilly, Meg Thomas, Dwight Fairfield, the Entity. Q9 : what gives you inspiration to write your muse ? A9 : Watching the Halloween movies, listening to dark, ambient music, rock music, or looking at aesthetic pictures of suburban neighborhoods at night and Halloween. Q10 : how long did this take you to complete ? A10 : SO LONG. Like a month omf

#🔪 | ᴘᴀᴛɪᴇɴᴛ ɴᴏᴛᴇs ( about. )#🔪 | ᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴠɪʟ ɪs ɢᴏɴᴇ ( ooc. )#[ tfw u have to describe michael's face in detail ]#[ and all you can think is ]#[ pretty boy pretty boy pretty boy ]

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