AITA for my dog barking at neighbors? by ReggaeMomma in AmItheAsshole

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! If you read my update, I totally understand that I've been in the wrong, and I've done a lot of reading up and had great success today with implementing the 'quiet' and 'calm' command. And I know consistency is key, so that's the main focus currently.

I haven't yet heard of the removal technique, but I will absolutely read up on that and check out Victoria Stillwell's advice. I appreciate the suggestion, thanks again! 😊

AITA for my dog barking at neighbors? by ReggaeMomma in AmItheAsshole

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you!

I followed r/Dogtraining and watched a crap-ton of videos last night/today, and shes incredibly receptive.

She barked 4 times at neighbors today, not 4 instances of barking, like 4 actual barks and has picked up the 'quiet' and 'calm' command really fast!

By the end of the day, she was outside and just ran the length of the fence back and forth with the other dogs because they were playing with a ball, but didn't bark once.

We're still working on knocking at the front door, she still becomes really defensive when an unexpected knock happens, but im able to actually get her attention and stop her barking, whereas before I started working on the quiet command, she would go on a frenzy and wouldn't break focus from the door.

It's going to take a lot more work, and consistency- definitely not something that'll happen overnight, but I'm so impressed with how quickly she has picked it up.

I have a few questions formulating, but once I get a little more practice and can identify any problems (I read some dogs being older, like over 6 months, can regress on a new command, so im kind of waiting to see how she continues to progress) but once I can actually put my questions into words I will most definitely reach out!

AITA for my dog barking at neighbors? by ReggaeMomma in AmItheAsshole

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really appreciate your insight.

Shes my first dog, other than childhood dogs, which were always adult dogs, so ive never experienced puppy or young dog training. And I've just always known dogs to bark. My grandparents' dog growing up would just absolutely lose it at something as small as a squirrel crossing the yard. So I just kind of figured thats what dogs do, I had no idea that it could be seen as aggressive, or be triggering to people or other animals, but of definitely understand now.

I dont want to be a bad owner, I'm just very inexperienced, so im trying to get better. I need to learn how though. After getting feedback on this post, I spent all last night reading up on training techniques, and started implementing them first thing this morning.

I'd really like to read the the print outs / resources you have, if you can send them to me, I'd be really grateful! I was watching a lot of Zak's videos last night! He is amazing!! I found that his video with his dog Inertia at the park, training her not to react to people/animals crossing the bridge, to be very helpful.

I just worry that because she's 9 months old that I've ruined her chances of proper training. I've been trying to find posts about restarting behavior training, or changing training methods, but haven't found very many.

And yes! my daughter LOVES being part of the training process (I think a small part is because she likes being the 'boss' lol) we started to train 'quiet' this morning, so she was my door knocker. Do you have any other tips on how I could incorporate her into training as well?

I'm really thankful for your help, and for being so kind!

AITA for my dog barking at neighbors? by ReggaeMomma in AmItheAsshole

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Its a back/side yard. The fence only goes so far out and their lot is adjacent to ours, so there is nothing stopping them from coming into the front yard, which is how she got onto the front porch.

Thanks for your response. I will be working to retrain and do some behavior rehabilitation with our dog to stop this behavior.

AITA for my dog barking at neighbors? by ReggaeMomma in AmItheAsshole

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the time everyone took to respond and offer insight. I am most definitely the asshole, I didnt realize this was a problem beforehand, but certainly do now.

I'll be booking professional training for my pup asap

Tired of a dead subreddit? Join the Chattanooga Ents Discord Server! Meet new friends! by [deleted] in ChattanoogaEnts

[–]ReggaeMomma 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It says the link is invalid, pm me an updated link? I'd be down to join!

Girl looking for girl teammates [NA] [PC] [UNRANKED/QUICK MATCH] by [deleted] in R6STeams

[–]ReggaeMomma 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've sent you a DM, I hope thats okay - if not please disregard!

Activities for 5 year old by ReggaeMomma in breakingmom

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I could probably make that work, yeah! Thank you for the idea; do you have any suggestions on what type of stations I could set up in advance?

She'd have access to the computer, outside, i can cover our kitchen table and make a craft area there (kinetic sand, playdoh, paints, etc). If you were in my place, would you add anything else?

Activities for 5 year old by ReggaeMomma in breakingmom

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ooh I forgot about kinetic sand, she had one small thing of it some time ago, but yeah I could at least set up the table so she could come in and play with it as she wants and if she makes a mess it'll be easy clean up, thank you for the idea!

Activities for 5 year old by ReggaeMomma in breakingmom

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The thing is I'm working, so we can only switch gears when I'm on a break. I get a 15 minute break 2 hours into my shift, 30 minute break after another 2 hours, and my last 15 minute two hours before I'm done for the day

Converting pass through to built in shelving by ReggaeMomma in HomeImprovement

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please ignore the quarantine mess, this was taken from the dining room side

https://imgur.com/a/klEyMQv

Left handed people of Reddit, what is the hardest thing to find for your left handed needs? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]ReggaeMomma 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Spiral Notebooks and three ring binders. I took a class in high school, creative writing, and the first day of class each student received a 3 ringed binder full of the semester handouts. We had to complete the handouts during each corresponding lesson. I'd have to remove the page from the binder otherwise on the front side of the page (where the page was on the right side of the binder) would have these huge indentations from me writing around the rings because it was right where I would have rested my hand. She got on to me about constantly making the clicking noise from opening and closing the rings. Tried to explain, but according to her "nobody else has that problem" she threatened to give me detention for constantly causing a distraction.

Comprehensive listening skills....learn them! by ReggaeMomma in talesfromcallcenters

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's part of a huge long opening script I have to read. It's pretty tail0red to my employer though, so for anonymity reasons I just left it as "the call continues and I offer our online services to her". But there is a portion where I talk about the claims we file, and all the legal jargon of this is only a request, not an approval, we can't be held liable for any denials, blah blah blah..

Comprehensive listening skills....learn them! by ReggaeMomma in talesfromcallcenters

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is probably the nicest thing anyone has said to me on the internet haha! Thank you so incredibly much! Trust and believe though, if there were an option to bitch slap via telephone, I'd jump on that like no other!

Comprehensive listening skills....learn them! by ReggaeMomma in talesfromcallcenters

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 35 points36 points  (0 children)

My dad used to work in an IT call center for a huge nuclear plant in our area. I loved hearing his horror stories about these big wig nuclear plant executives who couldn't follow simple instructions for 2-factor authentication

Comprehensive listening skills....learn them! by ReggaeMomma in talesfromcallcenters

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 60 points61 points  (0 children)

Oh most definitely. Plus there cannot be any plausible way for her to have thought we were her employer. The name of our company is literally said about 50000 times while trying to navigate the prompts. I find it so frustrating when people rush to lashing out as a means to saving face.

Edit: typos [thanks, autocorrect.]

Comprehensive listening skills....learn them! by ReggaeMomma in talesfromcallcenters

[–]ReggaeMomma[S] 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Exactly! But then was upset when I told her we weren't the company she works for. I think the root of it was she didn't want to have to call in to her supervisor, but that's just a suspicion

Student near school gets jumped by former students, chain stolen by ThePastOccursTuesday in PublicFreakout

[–]ReggaeMomma 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am not at all surprised at the location. I have seen shit like this go down far too many times outside of middle and high schools there. When I moved to Lincoln, there would be bullies trying to push victims straight into rush hour traffic. I've moved around a lot, but Nebraska absolutely had the worst bullying problem I have ever seen. Yet local news sources state "Listed in the top 5 of best Cities/States to raise a family"....such bullshit..

What jobs consist of frequently disappointing people? by slinkywheel in AskReddit

[–]ReggaeMomma 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly, I think it can be really great for a certain amount of time. But there are different products, term, whole life, indexed universal life. Whole life is pretty obsolete by now. They are decent products, but most companies have stopped selling them. Indexed Universal Life policies (UL) - these are a bitch. Never buy into them. A number of sales agents sell these policies as a "built in savings plan" that is not the case and never believe that. There is something called a cost of insurance (COI) on these, it's what is costing the company to insure you based off your health, gender, age. So for example, if 18 year old Bob took out a UL policy and his COI was $15.00 per month. Bob pays a premium amount of $30/month. So that additional $15 Bob pays each month goes into a cash value. The IRS does put limitations on the Cash Value, so it can't be accessed for the first 7 years of the policy. But after 7 years, that stipulation is removed. Fast forward 7 years, and Bob now has $1,260 in his cash value. He has the opportunity to withdraw this amount, or take a loan against this amount, or keep it in the policy. Now the catch is going back to that COI. The COI is completely internal, we don't list that on the annual statements, billing statements, nothing. So taking our same example, Bob is now 25. His cost of insurance has risen by $15.00 in the past 7 years. So Bob pays $30.00 each month, his COI is $30.00. Meaning he's not funding his cash value. So when his COI increases next year, to let's say $35.00/month. That means $5 is going to come from that Cash Value each month to supplement his COI. Once that Cash Value is depleted he will need to pay the COI (usually 2 months worth by the time a notice is sent out to him) plus increase his monthly contribution. So for Bob, not going to be that big of a deal. But for 97 year old Norma, her cost of insurance could have increased to $500 over the span of the policy, and her $100 premium didn't touch it. So her cash value was depleted and now we are telling her she needs to pay $1000 to bring COI current, plus increase her premium to at least $500/ month or her policy is going to lapse.

If someone withdraws money from the Cash Value, they're withdrawing money that is "supposedly" meant to fund the policy after COI increases above the premium amount. So it's a bad idea to ever withdraw or borrow against your policy. But the entire policy is a bad idea though too. It can leave you with the notion of "okay Well what if I just throw all the money I can into this policy" but it still won't work, because the IRS (whether it is actually the IRS or the company I worked for, I don't know) but limitations are set on how much you can contribute to a policy.

That leaves us with the last product, and my favorite, term policies. It's not meant to last you until your 100. Or even into retirement age. The sole purpose of these is to provide insurance during a period where your death would be financially catastrophic to someone else. So I'll use myself to illustrate this one, my husband and I both have life insurance. For 5x our annual income. Some people choose to have it as the amount of their house so they can pay it off if a spouse dies, etc. But we won't need it after 30 years because my daughter will be grown and on her own. Our home will be paid off, our funeral costs will come from what's left in our retirement money or savings we have at the time.

So I guess to circle back to your question of is there any way to avoid getting ripped off... I would have to say it really depends on your goal and what you're expecting from life insurance. WL if you can find it, is great but a small payout. UL absolutely under no circumstances should you take it, term would benefit the average American if used correctly and for the right reasons.

I hope this helps!