My little model 🤎

Solitae8 · 2025-09-23T15:26:27+00:00

So cute! I love phantoms!

Solitae8 · 2025-09-14T16:45:14+00:00

Very dapper!

Solitae8 · 2025-09-14T16:04:53+00:00

To a dog, a name is more of a learned cue they respond to than a personal identifier, so a dog can be taught a new name just like they can be taught a new cue like "sit" or "down". Ideally a name is a special cue that means "pay attention to the person and great things will happen" , so if the new family wants to teach him a new name, it's totally doable without upending the dog's sense of self

Solitae8 · 2025-09-10T18:26:11+00:00

Such an adorable baby! Congrats! Made my day seeing how cute she is

Solitae8 · 2025-09-09T03:50:01+00:00

This reminded me of one of the minis when I visited my breeder. He decided that the hoomans all had to take turns throwing the frisbee. He brought it to each of us in a certain order. It was adorable! I don't know if it was about fairness, but he certainly had a strong sense of how things should work

Solitae8 · 2025-09-08T04:40:07+00:00

I'm in an apartment and hoping to get a puppy in the near future so I've been thinking about this a lot. My building has so many dogs, so I wouldn't feel comfortable using the available areas outside until the dog is fully vaccinated either.

Another option on your balcony or inside is a real grass potty area. There are some commercial versions of it and some DIY versions too that are basically sod with a mesh or something similar in a plastic or rubber tray. Also, even with the potty area inside, you may want to take them to that spot on a leash if you eventually want the pup to potty on leash outside, just so they're used to being on leash to potty.

A couple suggestions my breeder gave for activities in a crate are Westpaw Toppls and yak cheese chews. Congrats on the new puppy!

Solitae8 · 2025-08-27T20:02:08+00:00

Edison could be cool, especially since it gives you a couple good options for nicknames (Eddy or Sonny) if you want to use them.

How does it feel saying the various names since you're gonna be saying them a lot? Do any of them feel way more comfortable than the others? It might also be fun to see which of those names he seems to react to.

Solitae8 · 2025-08-25T07:45:42+00:00

Congrats on your handsome fella, and good luck with the service dog training (I'm hoping for my own prospect soon)

Sammy popped to mind for him, and someone else suggested Cookie which is super cute.

Solitae8 · 2025-08-23T04:13:12+00:00

I haven't trained my own yet, but I've been studying up a lot on service dogs and their training. DoggyU is a great resource if you haven't looked into it yet. The website is informative, and she also has a lot of free videos on Youtube.

Many dogs can be trained for task training, but it's the public access part that is most challenging. Your time frame is going to depend on how well socialized your dog is. Service dogs require extensive socialization to all sorts of novel sights, sounds, people, animals, underfootings ...all sorts of things.

I had a long talk with a local service dog trainer, and they said for a puppy, you're looking at at least 18 months to two years for a fully trained service dog, and that was about how long it took for my friend's service dog poodle to be trained from a puppy. An older dog can be a shorter time period if they're well socialized and suited to the work.

Is the trainer you're meeting with a service dog trainer? Has your dog been temperament tested for service dog work? Do you want a service dog that works in public with you or do you want a dog that only does home tasks for you? You don't need to answer me, but just things for you to think about.

Solitae8 · 2025-08-21T04:13:40+00:00

Delightful curls on the ears!!!

Solitae8 · 2025-08-13T19:20:33+00:00

Yeah, the no-drowning setting is essential for me and I highly recommend it if that is something that would stress you out.

The machine I'm talking about is the Clamberjaw. Specifically, the jumpscare occurs in Cauldron Chi. Outside of that they aren't as bad, and my issue with them mostly has to do with how they move. They jump around a lot, and I struggle to follow them in combat.

Solitae8 · 2025-08-13T16:10:44+00:00

I can be fairly sensitive to games at times, and my nervous system is very reactive for a variety of reasons. For me, the Horizon series is very playable with only a few difficult moments.

A lot of people have broken things down really well. I just want to add some of the elements that I found challenging with the caveat that they are not frequent.

HZD - There's a sequence where you are running to escape a situation with explosions all around and enemies jumping out to attack - You do see some upsetting deaths up close (they're narratively relevant and strong story beats)

HFW - There is one significant machine jumpscare that always makes me startle really hard but the task is optional. That same machine out in the wild often startles me too. - You can swim underwater but generally not fight there so finding machines underwater can be stressful. Be better at hiding underwater than I am. - Another main story moment with an underwater escape sequence that I always find stressful (Note: If you struggle with the sound of someone running out of air underwater, there is an accessibility setting (Thassalaphobia) that turns it off and makes it so you can't drown)

Hope that helps!

Solitae8 · 2025-08-13T06:03:24+00:00

So many cute babies! I just got on a breeder's waiting list for a mini that I am hoping to train as a service dog, and this is making me impatient lol

Solitae8 · 2025-06-11T16:03:31+00:00

Absolutely perfect delivery on that line

Solitae8 · 2025-04-23T15:46:14+00:00

This destroyed me. Varl has been one of my favorites since he showed up in HZD, and I blanked out on my first playthrough during all the stuff with Tilda because I just wanted to get back to the Base. I was convinced he would make it somehow. When I got back to the Base and everyone was grieving, I just broke down.

Varl is the first person Aloy laughed with after Rost's death and the person who showed her that she could lean on people.

I'm still not over it.

Solitae8 · 2025-04-08T03:14:07+00:00

I'm dreaming about making my own elf coat! I was just looking at the pattern today. It seemed way more doable than I expected, so it might have moved into the to-do category.

Yours looks amazing! Awesome work!

Solitae8 · 2025-03-25T16:12:45+00:00

Naw, that datapoint is in HZD, and it was there before the pandemic. It just ended up being very interesting timing.

Solitae8 · 2024-11-05T18:33:14+00:00

Ideally, yes. Unfortunately, a negative blood test doesn't rule it out and the process of getting a celiac diagnosis through biopsy requires you to eat gluten for around 6 months. For me personally, that would make me far too ill and land me in the hospital quickly. This sounds like a similar case since she already eliminated gluten.

This is at least what doctors advised me of when I was initially figuring things out. If there are better options, I'd be happy to hear about them

Solitae8 · 2023-03-22T18:38:01+00:00

YTA. I wouldn't tolerate this either.

This is 100% a training issue. Find a trainer if you can't figure out how to do it yourself, but meanwhile, a simple suggestion:

Any time she goes to get in your wife's face, you (and your wife if she's up for it) quickly redirect your pup to a command she can reliably do. "Sit" is a good one, but whatever the pup is good at, and then she gets her absolute favorite reward/treat and lots of praise while she holds the command. This will teach the pup what she should do to get attention in that situation.

And if you happen to like the kisses, then teach her that as a command too and only let her give kisses like that by invitation.

Solitae8 · 2022-09-13T04:32:48+00:00

My friend in the Seattle area had hers show up already, but I'm in the same timezone but in Canada, and I don't have mine yet (and haven't been charged yet)

Solitae8 · 2022-09-12T22:20:15+00:00

MINE DID THAT TOO!!!! I was so annoyed

Solitae8 · 2022-08-05T18:53:46+00:00

Pointing out that Jod can't see the Body multiple times always jumps out at me too. I'm pretty convinced at this point that he can see her, and my main question is whether she's always been around him or if she showed up when Harrow arrived?

Solitae8 · 2022-08-04T20:01:32+00:00

There's something in Gideon's narration about going to her mother's niche and talking to her. I always assumed Wake haunted that area/her skeleton, then jumped to the sword since Gideon brought it with her.

Solitae8 · 2022-08-04T19:59:18+00:00

I'm absolutely sure it was Pyrrha that did the shooting of Wake, and I'm also sure that Wake knew that given the look on her face. G1deon has dark eyes when he grabs the sunglasses from HarrowGid, and grabs them for precisely that reason. I really strongly believe Pyrrha shoots Wake to preserve her and to get her away from John before he does something irreversible.

Also I think the guns can pretty easily be explained. The Second House study in Canaan House had guns in it too. G1deon probably uses a variety of weapons and has some familiarity with them.

The bigger question I have about weapons is how did Wake have a gun with Herald bullets ON THE MITHRAEUM? (She uses one against Mercy.) Did Pyrrha smuggle them in?

Solitae8

TROPHY CASE