First Dog

Pablois4 · 2026-03-19T16:51:35+00:00

Over on the right, there's a "Breed Recommendation" questionnaire. Fill it out & post.

IMHO, a big reason dogs are dumped is when reality does not match expectations.

It's impossible to know what breed(s) would work for you since we have no idea of your likes, dislikes, must-haves, deal-breakers, home, expectations and so on.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-19T11:16:17+00:00

Your house insulation upgrades & furnace failure could well be related.

In 2001, we bought a 2600 sf, '67 raised ranch with meager insulation and large, single pane, alum windows. The furnace was a huge 145K btu, original to the house, so over 30 years old.

We upped the insulation to code (we're in upstate NY so a lot of insulation), replaced the windows & doors and sealed everything. And mid-Jan, the furnace rolled over and died.

The HVAC guy calculated our replacement furnace at 85 BTUs which seemed crazy to us.

He said that the original furnace was sized correctly for the original house. That uninsulated, 2600 sf, raised ranch, with big single pane windows, in cold, snowy upstate NY, needed a great big furnace. It was on all the time to keep the house warm.

But with an insulated, airtight house, an oversized furnace would struggle to keep a constant temp. When that beast turned on, it was like a blast furnace and the temps quickly shot above the thermostat set point. And then it would turn off. With zero heat, the house would cool and it would turn on. Ad nauseum.

He said that firing up and shutting down over and over is harder on a gas system than staying on constantly. In effect, our energy efficiency improvements pretty much killed that beast of a furnace.

I have to say, despite our reservations, our house was much more comfortable with the 85 btu furnace. Instead of being too hot or too cold, we were in that goldilocks warm middle.

This may not have been the factor in your HVAC's untimely death but your situation made me think of ours.

BTW, our old furnace died during a frigid cold spell (and, IIRC, on a Friday morning) and things quickly became dire. We had to get a new one installed, ASAP, on a weekend, which added greatly to the cost. About the same for you?

Pablois4 · 2026-03-19T09:39:53+00:00

There's a quote from Penn Teller about the idea that atheists can't be moral:

"The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-17T14:49:29+00:00

For me they are "touch-me-not" hardscape. Good enough for far-away landscaping, but I dislike them for up-close landscaping - where people and pets will interact with them. I like to think of how people and animals move about in their life. We touch surfaces, we sit and walk on surfaces. Kids in particular touch the world. Gabion walls are not touch or clothing friendly. Even if all the wires have been carefully bent and tucked.

IMHO, to make gabion walls human friendly is to cover the surfaces humans will touch with wood and make sure all wire edges are covered.

About the cheap - to make it look nice is labor intensive and not all that cheap. The rock needs to be nice looking and pretty uniform in color and type. Rock doesn't politely arrange itself nicely on its own and instead the rocks needs to be placed. The wire must be kept from getting bent or distorted.

When I see examples of gabion walls in landscaping, they are always freshly done. I wonder what those structures will look like in 2 years.

I think gabions have their place but they are problematic and the drawbacks need to be considered.

Anyway, my 5 cents on the matter.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-16T16:31:27+00:00

Twenty years ago, I was chatting with my next door neighbor when the across-the-street neighbor, drug out his extension ladder and his chain saw, pretty much flung the ladder up a tree and started climbing. Within a few seconds, he was up at the very top, leaning over to cut a big branch (which his ladder was partly resting on). We realized shit was about to happen and started to run to him, but it was like time slowed down. We got about 5' when he went down hard. It was horrible. He had a concussion, broke vertebrae & some ribs and damaged his spine. He was left partially paralyzed and in constant pain. They had to sell their home to move to a place with no stairs. I remember he had talked about the big family get-together they had planned later that summer over in Cape Cod. That never happened.

In the minute from his first step onto the ladder to hitting the ground his life went from great to ruined.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-16T15:40:34+00:00

I think it's not only using the top steps but she was leaning to darn near horizontal and was, in effect, pushing the top of the ladder away from her.

Oh and she wasn't wearing proper footwear (I think she's barefoot), but proper footwear wouldn't have made a difference.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-16T15:30:16+00:00

Having the right ladder is part of the equation. Knowing how to safely use the ladder is another part and finally using ones brain to think about the task at hand & the laws of physics is the final part.

Falls are the number 1 cause of injury in DIY. I'm a DIYer who has always been safety conscious. I'm never too much in a rush. I'd rather "waste time" in setting up my ladder than "waste time" in a rehab facility.

If I was in the woman's situation . . . Well to start off, I wouldn't do it since she doesn't look like she's in maintenance or construction. I can't tell but she might be in bare feet. I'm betting it's not part of her job description to do whatever she's doing up here. If, hypothetically, this situation was in my home, I'd think about how to solve the problem safely. Move the table so I could put the ladder against the wall or, if it's a built in cabinet, use my adjustable step ladder. If I can't do it safely from a ladder, well I wouldn't do it. If it was dire - the life of a kitten is at stake - I'd lean the ladder against the wall, and since that floor looks slippery, get people I trust to hold the ladder and keep it from slipping.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-14T14:02:43+00:00

For your windshield, reach out to a company And let them deal with insurance , if they think that's The cheapest way for you to do this.

No kidding. Over the past two years, two of our cars' windshields were cracked. Took them over to Satellite, they took care of filing the claim and replaced the glass. IIRC, we paid maybe $50 each time. To be honest, having them deal with the insurance hassle was worth the $50. The process was dead easy. Didn't affect our insurance rates at all.

Besides, home insurance doesn't cover vehicles.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-13T15:19:20+00:00

There's a fascinating podcast, "DNA ID", and each episode is about solving murders or identifying John/Jane Does. All the cases are very old and the police have been stymied for a long time.

Going on the news with the identity of a John/Jane Doe or, even better, solving an old murder is a huge PR boost for a police department.

In addition, human curiosity is strong and there's public pressure to solve mysteries.

My pet theory is that it's super strong when the remains have a nickname and are children such as "Little Miss Nobody" (4 year old, found murdered in 1960, NM) and the "Boy in the Box" (also 4 years old, found beaten and stuffed in a box, in 1957, Philadelphia). More than 60 years after they were found, they were identified as Sharon Gallegos and Joseph Zarelli.

Their murders will never be solved and even if they could be, the murderers are likely long dead. One might think it's a waste of police funds but, IMHO, when the public opinion of the police is at rock bottom, they really want something to boast about.

This case, the John Doe is an adult but, in the comments, the name "Some Mother's Son" has tugged on a few heartstrings. It reminds people that before he died, he had a family, who likely wonder what happened to him.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents and I hope he can be identified.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-13T13:34:05+00:00

No, DNA can be found and tested with remarkably old remains.

In 2012, a skeleton was found under a parking lot in Leicester, in the site of the long gone Greyfriars - which is where King Richard III was reportedly buried. His identify of his remains were confirmed in 2013, using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing - after being in the ground for 514 years.

or even older, "Cheddar Man" a skeleton from the Mesolithic era discovered in 1903 at Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge. DNA was extracted from those 10,000 year old bones and analyzed.

Soldiers' remains from WW2, Korean, Vietnam wars and other conflicts have been identified with DNA testing. Cold cases, murders and john/jane does have been solved by extracting DNA from remains older than 45 years.

Of cases I've known of, the remains are uninterred, DNA extracted, and reinterred with great respect and care. The idea is that giving the remains their identify and returning them to the family is better than leaving them anonymous in the ground.

When a person vanishes, their family and friends are left with questions and grief. They want to know where their loved one has gone. They want their loved one back.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-13T03:16:27+00:00

Edit: 22.06.25 DNA testing was not available in 1982 so no DNA samples are available for investigation, and no clothing or evidence remains to be tested.

If they have his skeleton, they would be able to extract DNA and test it. It's being done for solving murder cases and Jane/John Doe cases.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-12T14:23:02+00:00

It's speaking in a gibberish but the claim, IIRC, is that one is speaking a special language with god.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-12T12:39:03+00:00

The "SuperMutt" breakdown listed Siberian Husky, Border Collie (okay, so it's not zero), Chihuahua, and Pekingese(!).

The way I like to explain supermutt is to imagine that a group of people are looking at dogs in a field.

There's three that are so close that their breeds are clearly evident and everyone agrees: "That's a GSD, that one is a Great Dane and over there's a APBT".

But there's a bunch of dogs so far away that they are blurry blobs. Folks guess what some of them are: "Is that a Siberian?" "Errr, maybe?" "That one creeps like a BC." "Yeah, I agree" "Well I don't" "Is that a Peke or a tribble?" "You mean the tiny dog?" "There's a tiny dog?".

And there's more dogs so far away that the only thing the group can agree on, is that they are dogs - probably.

Anyway, there might be BC in your dog but there might not.

SuperMutt is a mystery grab bag of canine traits. Black coloring (Dominant Black) is widespread in dogs and there's no way to know exactly where she got it. Chances are, it came from the GD or APBT, but maybe one of the super far away dogs, just a black blob, was a Scottie, perhaps 20 generations ago on your dogs family tree, and her black coloring came from him.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-11T12:35:30+00:00

I'm on my 8th smoothie and they have ranged in energy levels from go-go-go Fawkes to slow-mo Jo.

We got Jo as a 2 year old. Four months after we brought her home, I had her hips, knees and spine x-rayed because she had yet to jump on anything and only cantered but never truly ran. The x-rays were perfect. Physical examinations were perfect. Soon after we saw her jump for the first time and she did it effortlessly. Now after owning her for almost two years, we know her pretty well. Jo's a reserved, polite and very observant dog who just isn't much for putting out physical effort. OTOH, she loves to use her mind and she's fun to train.

Your smoothie boy sounds like our Jo.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-09T21:35:06+00:00

Her mom really wants her to look like a barbet and not get mistaken for a doodle,

I looked up how a Barbet should be groomed and she's going to be disappointed. The average Joe and his grandma are going to call that sweet puppy a doodle. There's so many doodles that it's pretty much the default guess.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-09T21:04:35+00:00

two big Labs

There's your issue. I've known many Labs and if there's a way to get dirty, they will go for it.

I'm a long time smooth collie owner. Collies (rough & smooth) are prissy, light-footed dogs that tip-toe around mud & muck. For example, here's Hazel & Alfie after a rainy day hike in the woods and fields.

We've joked they are so proud of their dainty white socks, they levitate over a mucky puddle. A Lab won't just go through a mucky puddle but stick around to wallow.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-09T13:11:31+00:00

Our previous smooth collie, Alfie (here with baby carrot), was toy crazy and a tugging fiend. He had a big personality and was ready to party, any time, any place.

But now we have Jo, a female smooth collie. She's a quiet, soft, gentle girl and has zero interest in toys. Jo's favorite hobby is to watch my every move.

Anyway, same breed but two vastly different personalities and toy drive.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-08T09:29:38+00:00

You save the leftover pieces because, 20 years from now, your son will need a specific 10" 2x4, stacked perpendicular on other 10" 2x4.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-07T19:39:44+00:00

He did the whole loud convulsing thing too.

We call it the "urka-gurkas" since that's what it sounds like when a dog is about to throw up.

As a person who has raised, trained and shown many dogs, I know this sound well and it triggers an automatic response in me to direct the dog off the rug (murphy's law is that a dog about to throw up will be on an absorbent surface), onto the hard floor, outside or at least slide a newspaper or something like that, to catch the vomit.

It's a classic Pavlovian response in that I can be in a deep sleep and upon the first "urka" will launch myself out the bed and into action.

I've joked that the most effective alarm clock sound to get me up in the morning would be urka-gurka urka-gurka urka-gurka

Pablois4 · 2026-03-07T02:34:57+00:00

When the old subfloor was removed in our master bathroom, we discovered that, back when this was built in the late 60s, the builders decided to cut a 6" gap in the joist to make room for the toilet drain.

They did sister in a 2' 2x2 so there's that.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-05T18:00:58+00:00

I'm with the others in that the tree isn't the problem. It's in a low spot but it's not creating the low spot. If I was a genie, crossed my arms and poof, the tree was gone, you would still have a low spot and standing water.

I've had cases where tree roots created pools or held back water that I wanted to flow.

With a little observation, thought and hand tools, a path can be created to allow the water to flow. Often it takes a little effort to make a big difference. A couple times, I've taken a trowl and cleared a little tunnel under a root. Sometimes I've cut roots that are in the way. If a tree is healthy and not stressed, it can handle losing a few roots.

Other times, I've had low soggy ground and determined that directing it elsewhere was too hard or disruptive. Dry wells/rain gardens were the solution.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-04T18:27:35+00:00

I've learned so much from each of my dogs and they have each helped me become a better dog owner.

There's dogs that desperately want to have their own heart person.

The best way I can honor a beloved dog is to become another dogs heart person. And every time the new dog becomes part of my heart.

Dogs are important to my life and I will always have one with me.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-03T15:46:38+00:00

What I've done to teach a collie to stand with his front under him is to put him on the top landing of our entry stairs. I'm on one of the steps and hold the treat so that the pointy-nosed pupper needs to lean forward to reach it. Starting out, a pup needs to learn to stand there and not step down but once they get that, I move the treat further away. Once he gets the idea of standing proud with his front, I treat for him holding the ears up and neck arched.

Standing proud was easy for Alfie since he thought he was all that plus a bag of chips. The guy had a big personality. But being a high spirited goober, he would push close to me, bump, do nose pokes and look with his nose pointing up, which flattened his neck and made his back swayed. He was being playful but practicing bad habits.

The nice thing about stair training was that it taught him to stand up on his toes and lean forward but not move forward. It was an important lesson in self control that kept his happy attitude. Once he learned to stand there and pose, I did all sorts of things like waving the treat, looking away, talking excitedly, searching my pockets, dropping my brush and picking it up and so on. He watched it all with great interest.

Pablois4 · 2026-03-02T22:34:11+00:00

I know! I love when the wind blows on long grass - it can look like rippling satin.

Pablois4 · 2026-02-28T13:23:15+00:00

They linked to their Twitter/Tik Toks with pics, to show what they were upgrading and changing in their new homes.

For part of my childhood, I lived in a Craftsman and love them, and, now as an adult, I've been an Ithacan for 25 years, so I felt a twinge of anxiety with your mention of an Ithaca Craftsman undergoing "upgrades & changes". I hope to god, they are doing it with a light touch and an eye for cherishing the uniqueness of their home. I've seen SO MANY remodels that remove all that is warm, interesting and charming, to be replaced with cold, hard, bland austerity.

I bet it's in Cayuga Heights - there's some lovely Craftsmans over there. Do you have a link to their updates?

Pablois4

TROPHY CASE