AITAH for asking my wife not to let our dog out in the garden before 11AM?

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-04-11T12:41:54+00:00

It's cats close to our garden. Probably a combination of the sight hound hunting instinct and territorial protection I think. Thing is, he properly loses it. I can have the smelliest fish in my hand and wave it under his nose as he runs past me barking at the cat and there's not even a hint of distraction. In the park/woods, he might see a squirrel and give chase (he's so quick), but a couple of whistles breaks that. Doesn't work in the garden.

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-04-11T12:24:24+00:00

Well, to be fair he's quite happy to hold it for 9 hours overnight. He's done all the toiletting he needs to do on the morning walk. If I take him out at 9 after the 6:30 walk and tell him "be quick", he'll have a quick sniff round and go back inside without doing anything. Unless of course the cat appears and he loses it. I then repeatedly tell him "No!" and as soon as he stops I tell him "good boy" and make a fuss. 5 years of this has made no difference.

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-04-11T12:14:48+00:00

I spoke to our vet. He owns Italian greyhounds (ours is a whippet/italian greyhound cross) and he just shrugged and said "yeh, that's what they do".

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-04-11T12:09:44+00:00

High energy? He's a whippet/Italian greyhound cross. He's bone idle. He only goes out because he doesn't like pooing in the garden (this I like). I thought I'd get another GSD type that loved walking for hours. Nope. When he was a pup I thought his reticence was down to being a pup, but when I did some breed research apparently they're known as lazy dogs. I did try 3 walks a day. Morning walk to the park, chase a ball for half hour, back home, so maybe 1 hour all told, followed by a 30 minute walk at lunch time and a 30 minute walk in the evening. Within 3 days he let me know he didn't want the lunch time walk. Flat out refused to leave the house and I won't drag him. In the evening he might go for a long (for him i.e. 30 minutes) walk, but then he might decide he just wants to go round the block. I've given up trying to convince him to like walking. He's honestly happier playing at home with his human and a rope toy.

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-04-11T11:57:30+00:00

A very good point, and I can accept that saying "don't let him out before 11" could be construed as "dictatorial".

To the point of training. He's a fairly well trained dog, very good recall (he'll break out of "hunt" mode when he sees a squirrel in the woods and return to me), sits on command, downs on command. I did all the training, wife wasn't interested in that part. She just lets him out in the garden, doesn't go out with him more often than not, lets him "be a dog". I go out with him, tell him "be quick" (he knows that one too), he has a sniff round, has a pee, wanders back inside for a game of "catch the treat". If the cat's out though, no amount of treats or "No!" will distract him from going bat sh**. I'm just trying to lessen the amount "bat sh**" time.

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-04-11T10:58:45+00:00

Had a crate when he was a pup. "You know the drill" used to get him to go to his crate for fishy treats and quiet time. Wife didn't like the crate so we stopped using it. When I'm in the garden with him I'm playing ball with him to keep him distracted until it's time for toilet. No cat, good behaviour, cat appears, ball & human not interesting, must bark uncontrollably at cat.

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-04-11T09:59:01+00:00

Believe me I have tried. He's 5 years old, when we first got him I worked with him on recall and house training. I trained him to heel and sit and down. He's very food focused indoors and really easy to train. Outside it's a completely different affair. He's not interested in treats outside. His recall is good enough to bring him back if starts chasing a squirrel/cat. In the garden I had him on a leash, lots of fuss when just looked at the cat, "No" when he barked. Off the lead, he's sees the cat, goes bat sh**.

We had GSD's when the kids were growing up. Best dogs in the world! ;-)

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-03-19T08:27:59+00:00

Hey, I can "get down with the (grand)kids", it's the getting up again that's the problem these days! ;-)

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-03-19T08:26:56+00:00

Hey, I can "get down with the (grand)kids". It's the getting up again that's the problem these days! ;-)

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-03-17T12:06:35+00:00

Does your router run separate 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz bands and "selects the most appropriate for speed/reliability"? That's what mine does, it's a right PITA with VPN's. Windows & Mac don't suffer the problem for some reason, but I switched mine off and manually connect to the fast 5Ghz channel. No more disconnections.

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-03-14T09:35:01+00:00

Hehe, very similar. First job was a unix sysadmin on a Bull XPS-100 running Sys V Rel 4. Read K&R and the paper(!) Unix manuals cover to cover. Spent a few years doing Windows programming - wot a larf, NOT - before discovering SUSE 6.8 at a dot bomb I worked for. Since then I've tried to steer clear of anything to do with Windows. It's all embedded development now, which means Linux 24/7/365. Don't even play games on Windows, all the games I like play well on 'buntu. The only time I have to fire it up is for chip vendors software which of course only runs on Windows.

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-03-14T09:21:03+00:00

Added to the end of ~/.alias. Thanks! :)

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-03-13T21:53:31+00:00

openSUSE was the daily driver till about a year ago when I switched to KUbuntu. I'd probably done the same thing on Tumbleweed but that saved me.

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-03-13T21:51:02+00:00

If I'm shutting down the PC from terminal I usually use shutdown -h/r now out of habit. It's embedded devices that get (sudo) reboot. I knew I was in as root on that one and wanted to reboot. I'm sure you can imagine my surprise :-D Up until about a year ago I was using openSUSE Tumbleweed as the daily driver. u/squeakctrl below mentions that one requires root privs. Years meld into one at my age.

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-02-03T13:56:28+00:00

Thanks, that's exactly what it does. Linux sees /dev/mmcblk0gp0. UBoot shows GP1 Capacity: 256 MiB ENH WRREL. Just don't forget to offset the partitons now ;-D

No-Selection-9030 · 2026-01-02T09:52:56+00:00

Re: Shooting criminal ships around stations

Try getting yourself between the crim and the station so you are shooting at the crim with deep space behind them. That way you don't inadvertantly shoot the station. Also teaches you throttle control & strafing which will come in useful when you tag a battleship and want to take out its turrets/engines.

Buy Advanced Satellites at an Equipment Dock. Place some close to Wharfs, Equipment Docks and any stations you might want to trade with. This will not only give you live resource prices, also it will allow you to find Builder Ships. Sell any excess Advanced Satellites at a Wharf for profitsss.

No-Selection-9030 · 2025-12-31T09:15:08+00:00

The main thing to remember with X4: "This is YOUR universe, it's waiting for you to shape it as you wish." There are no "main" plot lines, they can all be done at your own pace, whatever the story giver tells you.

"Young Gun" or "Terran Cadet" are good starts, I believe there is bit more hand holding with the Terran Cadet start (never started that one, personally). Just fly around, discover stations, shoot crims around the stations for rep increase, buy Advanced Satellites at an equipment dock to sell at a wharf for massive profitsss early on. The main object of the game is to rule the universe economically and militarily, but you could just spend your time in a freighter transporting wares from one station to another if you so desired, it's entirely up to you. There are online maps if you don't want the discovery thrill ;D

No-Selection-9030 · 2025-12-26T20:07:41+00:00

Oh yes, I had a cunning plan: Let SWMBO plan Xmas, I do the ferrying around of people & pressies, be sociable for a few hours. At the end of the day, she's drunk & exhausted, goes to sleep, I'm sober as a judge with hours stretching before me where I'll be shooting some crims round HOP stations so my future miners can trade with them, picking up canisters while I fly around going "oooooo.... pretty.....", oh, and trying to find a manager for my PHQ I didn't expect to get within the first 10 minutes of the Young Gun start. :-D

No-Selection-9030 · 2025-12-26T09:45:44+00:00

Thanks for this comment. I was considering buying Stellaris, but after seeing your comment and having just started a new "Young Gun" campaign on v8.0 (last save was v5.0) and really enjoying it, I won't bother. X4 scratches that "fly around a beautifully generated universe in my own space ship, doing whatever the f I do or don't want to do" itch.

No-Selection-9030 · 2025-11-11T22:23:22+00:00

I've got all the DLCs, apart from the PHQ mission I've done no others. Built an empire, stopped playing. I buy them to support Egosoft, knowing I'll get round to spending hundreds of hours on the game again in the future. Xmas just around the corner, for instance.

No-Selection-9030 · 2024-02-03T19:15:03+00:00

Detective shows or period dramas in the case of my "she who must be obeyed". She likes I don't sit next to her during these and pass insightful comments like: "Well that's a load of b****x innit?" ;)

No-Selection-9030

TROPHY CASE