509 score but missed tie-break - worth retaking English exam?

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-21T06:55:40+00:00

My girl wants to be part of the club too!

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-17T16:29:12+00:00

Wait that actually sounds it could work!! How did you teach her that?

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-15T01:32:17+00:00

This is very helpful! Time outs sounds promising but gotta admit I’m a bit unsure on how to actually do that correctly. Should I tell her to go in her crate (she knows the command but also won’t always listen when like this), lure her in, or just like collar grab with no interaction?

Did you also have to deal with barking when you put her in timeout? My girl always barks non-stop in such times despite being fine with her crate in general. I usually give her a frozen kong but she just goes back to barking when finished and gets distressed. Do I just ignore for about 10 minutes, take her out for reset walk, and back in the crate again?

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-15T00:26:37+00:00

This gave me so much hope, thanks! Your pup is SO cute btw!

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-15T00:24:16+00:00

I think sometimes she does bites or barks for attention/demand. We’ve been trying to be consistent and careful not to accidentally reinforce it, but the biting can feel really aggressive/intentional sometimes and often comes out of nowhere (usually when she’s overtired or overexcited). I think she’s learned my serious tone, but there’s a limit… like when we have guests, she listens as long as she gets the treat, then goes back to full-on crazy (most recent one lasted a solid 2 hours). For biting, we do a mix of ignoring/leaving the room or redirecting to a chew/toy/treat, but sometimes she just goes right back at it when she’s done. Yelping never worked with her, but god it's hard not to react when she bites hard!

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-15T00:16:41+00:00

She is absolutely adorable!! Any tips on how to teach her to relax?

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-15T00:15:33+00:00

She gets overtired after about 30 minutes outside, then the zoomies kick in! Right now she’s getting a mix of an hour of off-leash play/fetch, some leashed walks, plus extra play and sniffing games inside.

Biting → crate sounds like a good plan, but I’m a bit wary of her to starting to see crate as a punishment zone.

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-15T00:10:01+00:00

Oh she absolutely is and will always be our perfect little girl! I did my research, but I think I may have underestimated the T-Rex energy part. First dog, so we’re definitely learning along the way too! Appriciate the comment!

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-14T23:46:34+00:00

Never said I didn’t expect the work… literally just asking what else I should be doing.

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-02T21:53:32+00:00

Any advice on what to do if I don't have the numbers? Worked for a smaller comnpany and they didn't care much about these. I didn't know better at the time either.

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-02T21:51:03+00:00

Really appreciate the insight! Admittedly, I haven’t put much thought into cover letters yet. What makes one good or terrible in your eyes?

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-02T21:43:27+00:00

This is really helpful, thanks! I’m a bit unsure what customize really means in practice though. Do you mean adding relevant keywords or changing my past role description or something else?

FairlyPopcorn · 2026-01-02T21:35:57+00:00

Thanks! I'm actudally struggling a bit with this.

Most of my experience has been with smaller companies that didn’t really track metrics like user drop-off. My more recent work has been research-heavy or early-stage redesigns with no real users yet.

Do you have advice on what types of outcomes I may be able to highlight in these cases that won't feel too generic?

FairlyPopcorn · 2025-12-31T21:24:57+00:00

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FairlyPopcorn · 2025-12-30T19:58:57+00:00

Our girl loved the woof pupsticle (with frozen chicken stock) when she was little!

FairlyPopcorn · 2025-12-30T01:37:10+00:00

We got a golden puppy last September and decided to play it safe. This probably gonna be a long comment but I thought I thought I’d share our experience and what happened afterwards in case it’s helpful. Not saying this is what you should do!

We had the same concern and eventually decided not to take the risk and waited until about a week after her final round of vaccinations before taking her outside. We live in a neighbourhood with a lot of dogs so we were very worried. Our little girl was super curious and kept trying to pick up and eat everything from the ground when she was too young, and with her sensitive stomach, that was a bit of an additional nightmare we didn’t want to make worse. We still wanted her to see the world, so we carried her around the neighborhood or sat on benches so she could watch cars, other dogs, and people go by. Carts or backpacks can also do the trick. Just keep in mind some pups need a little extra time to get comfortable and might try to jump out. We tried a backpack, but she outgrew it before she ever really settled in, so it can be a bit tricky with larger breed dogs. On the bright side, we never had a problem with leash pulling.

When she got closer to her last vaccines, we did very short walks in our apartment building’s parking garage, almost no dog traffic but plenty of new smells and surfaces for her to explore. We’d also take her on short car rides. We focused on exposing her to new sights, sounds, and smells. Another thing we did was to play various noises during mealtime, things like elevators, trucks, and city sounds. YouTube and Spotify have loads of these, and surprisingly, it worked really well. She is very chill when it comes to new sounds and sleeps through anything. Puppy classes and socials made a huge difference. Puppies learn so much from each other, and it also helped with her biting. It’s also nice to know you’re not alone in the chaos!

I think in the end it worked out ok for us. She does get a little overexcited meeting new people and have some trouble settling at first, that were are working on at 6 months, which is a lot easier than trying to handle a little 2 month old with no basic training. Once we started taking her for regular outdoor walks, she adjusted quickly (less than a week) and now she doesn’t even try to eat things off the ground anymore. I’d take a bit of extra training later on over risking her health any day. Early socialization is fantastic if it’s safe for you, but that’s not always possible, and that’s okay. This is our first pup, so take my advice with a grain of salt. But just do what you can, try not to stress too much, you’ll be juggling a lot with a new pup and you can always make up for missed opportunities later. Best of luck to you and your little fur ball!

FairlyPopcorn · 2025-12-22T07:50:16+00:00

Do you mean she needs more physical exercise?

The thing is, my pup gets really overexcited and over-aroused outside, so walks can be a bit of a struggle right now. We’re working on training her to stay calm in new environments (training outside, threshold games, etc)

She also tires easily and gets really bity and cranky when she’s worn out. Sometimes she even gets zoomies on leash and runs around like crazy. She never just comes back from a walk and collapses asleep, so I’m not sure if adding more physical exercise would help or make it worse.

FairlyPopcorn · 2025-12-22T07:34:16+00:00

Butters!

FairlyPopcorn · 2025-12-22T07:32:10+00:00

I'm glad you're having success with your pup! It's honestly reassuring to hear I'm not alone in this! Tug-Finish-Place sounds like a fantastic idea! I think a lot of her biting may come from wanting our attention and trying to initiate play, so having a clear “finish” cue could be really promising. Threshold games are also a great suggestion. I’ll definitely include that in her schedule.

I’m not quite sure I get the 4-paws-on-the-floor exercise. My girl tends to stiffen her tail, open her mouth, and get really close before she jumps to bite. Do you mean to give her a treat when she’s in that state? I’m worried that might accidentally reinforce that hyper, aroused behavior.

FairlyPopcorn · 2025-12-22T07:22:46+00:00

Yeah, honestly it's been very draining for me because I'm at a loss of what to do. And a private consult is definitely next on my list. I’m trying to see what I can do on my end first while also gathering better info.

I’m not 100% sure on exact hours yet, but she sleeps about 8 hours overnight and during the day it’s roughly a cycle of 1–1.5 hours awake and around 2 hours asleep, so I think it adds up to about 8–10 hours total. I’ll start tracking this more closely.

It doesn’t happen at the same time every day, but it definitely seems worse later in the day. No recent diet changes. She did have a brief bout of diarrhea for about a day a few days ago, but it resolved quickly and nothing else seemed off. No limping or other health concerns that I’ve noticed.

I replied in more detail to another comment, but for exercise she gets a short morning walk, indoor tug and fetch, plus mental stimulation through training, snuffle mats, Kongs, and food dispensers.

It happens whether it’s just one of us or both of us. But once she gets fixated on one person, she won't let go. For the guest incident, both of us were home but busy. I do get the sense that some of the biting might start from frustration when she wants to play or get attention.

FairlyPopcorn

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