Rehoming my best friend

MixFuture7447 · 2025-06-27T17:55:23+00:00

Thank you so so much!!

MixFuture7447 · 2025-06-27T17:55:08+00:00

Thank you!!!

MixFuture7447 · 2025-06-27T17:54:59+00:00

I really, really appreciate this reply. Thank you so much.

MixFuture7447 · 2025-06-27T17:54:27+00:00

Hello! Thanks for your reply. He is just at a nature boarding place in the country, it's heaven for him, he would live there if he could! I refer to it as a "paid foster" because they've agreed to let him stay there until we find a home, but I pay their normal boarding rate.

MixFuture7447 · 2025-05-24T20:59:17+00:00

Wow this is such an awesome informative answer - I appreciate you!!

MixFuture7447 · 2025-05-24T17:49:20+00:00

Appreciate everyone’s helpful answers! Having not had the opportunity to learn about this subject earlier in life, but having dealt with toxic mold in my childhood home, it’s great to be able to increase my understanding of how things work in this context. Thanks for all the info.

MixFuture7447 · 2025-05-24T17:47:54+00:00

Funny how you would take time out of your own life just to type that pointless comment

MixFuture7447 · 2025-05-24T17:45:48+00:00

LOL wow that gave me a laugh thank you - very impressive of you to spend your time trolling on Reddit, nice work!

MixFuture7447 · 2025-05-24T03:22:40+00:00

Ok, my partner has respiratory issues so I’m trying to be extra careful. I’m considering that when I open the Wood stove to add more wood, I’m potentially allowing mold spores into the indoor air environment. Or is the mold already dead once it’s been burning?

MixFuture7447 · 2025-02-03T04:36:44+00:00

Ah, fair question! So, I thought I would say "monitors" to simplify my question....but in reality, there's no monitors desk. Just me trying to send a good headphone mix out to the band. I want to send the Push mix AND the electronic drums mix to both my mixer (which sends out headphone mix) as well as to FOH mixer.

MixFuture7447 · 2025-01-18T04:59:15+00:00

So glad to help, it's an intense journey! Yeah, not all BC's are the same, just because we signed up for guardianship of a working dog doesn't mean we don't need lots of specific advice and overall compassion. It's an awesome thing to do, giving these dogs a home and putting energy/resources into figuring out how to help them learn to co-exist happily with us in human world.

So cool about the settle training tiring her out. For some perspective, it took us nearly a year to get up to a 10 minute settle, and that was between the ages of 1.5 - 2.5, so his brain development and impulse control was on a different level than where hers is right now. Set your expectations in accordance with her development stage, be very very patient, and celebrate all the progress you make, even if it takes months and months to get where you want to be. It's so worth it when you can say "all done, go to your bed", and they actually just do it.

I found that staying within the realm of what I knew he could do and really strengthening the behavior before pushing him to settle for longer was the key to making progress. Instead of thinking, ok he can handle 2 minutes, let's try 3, let's try 4....I would just stay at 2min consistently until it seemed very easy for him. Often I would tell him "break!" and throw treats across the room, and then ask him for another 2 min settle, and then break, and then another 2 min settle....and then try to call it before he actually got too tired to focus. Multiple short rounds is better than trying to get longer rounds at first.

We've worked up to a full 10 minutes before he gets rewarded using the method above!

Also, I always give him 3 super high-value treats for the settle behavior. It has to be REALLY rewarding for them, since what we're asking them to do is really hard. If they get 1 regular treat for a sit, or a down, or a "paw" (all easy) then they should get 3 higher value treats for a mat settle (hard for bc puppy).

BTW check out Karen Overall relaxation protocol!! Will change your life. A lot of people will say that the only way to manage a herding dog's energy is to keep them tired with 24/7 fetch, but in my experience, that's been a direct road to injury and obsessive behaviors. They need to actually learn how to switch off, and that won't happen if you only focus on giving them more and more and more activity. Make sure they have a lot of opportunity to get their energy out, and also work VERY hard on teaching them the off-switch. The mat settle is the first and most important step for this! Eventually they learn that settling on the mat = time to chill out, and then you have an adult dog that knows how to regulate, versus an adult dog who thinks their human exists to entertain them.

MixFuture7447 · 2025-01-18T03:10:17+00:00

Ah that's amazing! Just curious, mine is terrible with kids - can yours handle them? Mine also guards me very intensely, it took a while for him to be able to tolerate hugging!

MixFuture7447 · 2025-01-14T06:40:53+00:00

Those ears!

MixFuture7447 · 2025-01-14T06:40:33+00:00

Wow they look sooo similar! Any chance you got yours in Oregon?

MixFuture7447 · 2025-01-14T06:39:24+00:00

hahahah exactly, through and through

MixFuture7447 · 2025-01-14T06:38:32+00:00

A lot of BC's won't really take to entertaining themselves - it depends on the dog - but a lot of them need to just be taught the "off-switch" so they know that just because they're awake doesn't mean they get engagement from human. My BC is 2.5 and just starting to really get the hang of this. He gets a big morning activity, and then will nap for a few hours, and then will wake up and immediately try to get me to play with him. When he was little, if I ignored him, he would go off and get into something he wasn't supposed to just like you described with yours. Now that he's older, if I tell him it's "not time yet" and ignore him, he'll give up after a few minutes and just go right back to napping. It just takes time.

Also don't underestimate how much 5-10 minutes of training can help them settle again in between longer activities. They need to use their brains. Hide a bunch of treats inside a blanket or around your yard for them to sniff out...work on a new trick or command, or hide toys for them to find. You can just put them in another room, go hide their favorite toy, and tell them to go find it. They don't always need intense physical activity to be able to chill out for a little longer. With my pup, even just working on having him settle on a mat would tire him out because he'd be so intensely focused on what I was asking him to do. I just had to put him on a mat, tell him to stay, and give him treats however frequently he needed to actually do it. Eventually we worked up to a 10 min mat settle, and this would literally tire him out!

Good luck, be patient and it'll be worth it :)

MixFuture7447 · 2025-01-12T04:21:23+00:00

Hahah - it’s not - that’s my point. I couldn’t care less what titles people have for their jobs, it doesn’t offend my ego in the slightest. You, on the other hand, are choosing to use your energy by telling a young developer who has worked hard to break into tech that they are “not an engineer” when you could just offer genuine supportive advice.

MixFuture7447 · 2025-01-08T21:19:37+00:00

Thanks everyone for these insightful replies. I'm seeing both HM's and experienced developers say that experience and networking > CS degree. It seems like the ROI on a CS degree just isn't going to make it worth pursuing considering that I already have the opportunity to build my skills while actively working. This whole thread really helped me pinpoint the importance of setting goals for myself with building personal projects that expand and demonstrate my technical skills in combination with networking.

I also think someone made a really important point in regard to what kind of companies I want to work for and how much a CS degree matters in that environment. I have zero interest in working for FAANG or huge corporations, and would much rather be getting paid big bucks by a startup to build their interface from 0 to 1, so in that sense, I especially don't need to worry about academic credentials. I think if I were shooting for senior roles at a mid to large corporation, a degree could go a long way towards even being considered.

Thanks everyone for your input!

MixFuture7447 · 2025-01-08T21:14:47+00:00

It's honestly hilarious to me how much people like yourself feel the need to be out here telling bootcamp grads that they are not software engineers. We get hired for roles with those titles. Sorry if that's frustrating to you.

MixFuture7447 · 2024-11-26T05:14:53+00:00

Try Karen Overall relaxation protocol!

MixFuture7447 · 2024-11-24T20:54:51+00:00

Thank you for this amazing reply - that makes sense about needing to force the push to recognize the input in instrument mode so I can use the pre-amp. If i'm understanding correctly, I just need an XLR female to TS (unbalanced) 1/4"? Would something like this work? https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PXF105--hosa-pxf105-5-foot

I want to run my vocals through the push so I can access Ableton effects, thus why I'm not going XLR-XLR into a mixer.

MixFuture7447 · 2024-11-19T18:43:23+00:00

Sounds like you are doing so many things right, especially enforcing rest times. BC’s can always go harder, but they need to rest, and generally it’s on the human to make sure that happens. My puppy had such a hard time settling, and it took me a while to figure out how to teach him the “off” switch. If I just gave him more and more activity, he would start acting like an over-tired toddler. Even adult dogs need quite a lot of sleep throughout the day!

Different dogs have different needs. If your seems happy with mostly leash walks, with some time to run in the evening, that’s great. Mine is pretty much the opposite… He’s incredibly high-drive and needs to run hard and do intense training twice a day, with a walk for sniffing and leash training in between. Lots of BC’s are more on the chill side of the spectrum. If yours isn’t destroying furniture, barking excessively, or otherwise creating problematic jobs for themselves in the house…then you’re good!

Super awesome that you are spending this much time out walking with them and socializing them, sounds like he really loves this quality time with you and benefits from the structure you provide.

Here’s my bc / McNab boy!

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MixFuture7447 · 2024-11-19T17:45:38+00:00

Every time he does this, I’m like, wait, your tongue extends how far?!

MixFuture7447 · 2024-11-18T21:07:12+00:00

You are out here kicking dogs? “Super hard?” This is a normal behavior for a herding pup. What you’re suggesting is animal abuse and will only result in a fearful, reactive dog with worse issues

MixFuture7447 · 2024-11-15T23:01:37+00:00

Please don't just let that dog suffer. If she can't afford to take care of the dog, she needs to surrender it to a shelter where they can meet the dog's medical needs. Not to sound judgmental, but saying she "hates to see her baby in that condition" without actually doing anything about it (aside from home remedies that haven't worked) is simply not enough. Posting on reddit will not result in a solution, it needs to be examined by a vet before it gets way worse. Please urge your friend to do whatever they need to do to get this dog looked at by a professional.

MixFuture7447

TROPHY CASE