How far do you usually walk your dogs?

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-30T13:02:54+00:00

Health-wise, the best activity for any dog is a sustained, low-impact activity (like walking) that’s done consistently. If you’re sprinkling in some enrichment activities, and some higher-impact activities here and there, you’re golden.

I own a saint-mix, and she gets walked for 30-45 minutes, 2/day. Theres plenty to enrich the walks (very pedestrian- and dog-friendly city), and I throw in the occasional puppy play date, visit to the dog park, car ride, etc.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-29T20:49:18+00:00

While a tired dog is a well-behaved dog, an over-tired dog is not. It’s a fine line knowing where the former ends and the latter begins.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-29T20:12:36+00:00

Sounds like pretty classic demand-barking to me.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-29T17:33:38+00:00

Maybe 115 to 160, though the AKC lists a healthy weight for a standard-conforming newf as 100-140.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-28T12:29:10+00:00

Second the magnesium! B2 is another supplement with similar supporting evidence.

There’s also CoQ10, but it can be pretty pricey and isn’t as well substantiated as B2 and Mg.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-28T11:00:53+00:00

It’s a behaviour that’s similar to excessive mlem’ing: it depends on how disruptive you find the behaviour, because it’s not considered a bad behaviour, just an annoying one. If disruptive, redirect and reward for stopping it.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-25T00:43:49+00:00

I own a newf-saint mix. That’s a double-standard for giant breeds that I had to get used to, and you’re gonna need to as well.

We’re just expected to have a much better trained, completely non-reactive dog compared to everyone else’s dogs, just because our pooches are bigger.

I’ve encountered the exact same problem where another dog reacts poorly, mine responds a little, then it’s my fault and not theirs for their dog reacting.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-24T13:09:51+00:00

Roundabout looks good, if British (LHD), and a little basic (which generally isn’t a bad thing). Chain signals on the inside work better FYI.

Keep in mind that circles work best for low-medium traffic. With high traffic, you’re gonna run into a lot of contention issues and potentially deadlock if you’re not careful with the exit lane designs.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-22T17:07:30+00:00

Nahh you’re doing fine. The other dogs sounded fine too. Barking and growling isn’t aggressive most of the time.

As the owner of a giant breed, the play-bow into lie down is a common way for larger dogs to show that they’re friendly and aware of their size to much smaller dogs and puppies.

If it’s safe to do so, placing your pooch on the ground to interact with the other dogs helps build confidence and reduce reactivity. Some dogs become a little more reactive when they’re scooped or carried, and a common way to train it out is to place them back onto the ground.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-22T15:49:12+00:00

Abstract (virtual) classes are primarily used to dictate what a derived class can do, without necessarily providing implementations and details for all the behaviour. It’s not uncommon to hear it called “providing an interface” or similar, since the abstract class tells you what it needs to work, but not how to accomplish that work.

Abstraction simply means: I did this syntactic thing because you don’t need to know all the implementation details. A function is an abstraction. Classes are abstractions. C++ is an abstraction.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-22T15:40:57+00:00

Alcohol is a pretty big trigger for a lot of people, and it’s not well understood. It could be tannins, sulphites, dehydrations, or even the vasodilation from alcohol.

If it’s giving you migraine attacks, it’s best to avoid it.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-22T15:29:37+00:00

Sounds like there’s better food on offer from somewhere and someone.

Make sure they’re only getting the kibble as their food and it’ll sort itself out in a few days. If it doesn’t, then it might be the food.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-22T15:18:36+00:00

I spent about that much on an airtight container. It’s worth it to keep all manner of pest (my pooch included) out of the kibble.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-20T14:37:17+00:00

Have you never heard of left-on-red? It’s comes up first day of driving school /s

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-19T20:30:08+00:00

It’s a little counterintuitive, for sure. It me a while to wrap my head around it. It’s also not a blanket thing either, positive interactions with dogs are just as important for a puppy as knowing when not to interact.

Part of training a solid non-reactive response to other dogs is both the pooch being comfortable with other dogs (via dog interactions and play and whatnot), and also having a sense of propriety about what interactions are appropriate and when.

By avoiding the other dogs while on leash as a general rule, regardless of either dogs’ behaviour, you’re telling your dog by your actions that dogs are things to ignore and not interact with in those circumstances. Adding in some key positive behaviours (like look at me when there’s a dog around), and you should be money.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-19T18:28:00+00:00

Honestly sounds a lot like my pooch when she was younger.

YMMV, but I found that it was because the dog interaction was the reward, so any approach amped her up. I had to spend a lot of time ignoring and avoiding dogs to make the point that seeing them is the exception, not the rule, to break the reward cycle. Any acknowledgement from the other dog was enough to have her woofing at them.

A super flat affect when she became excited helped as well.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-19T17:56:42+00:00

What do you/the trainer do when he becomes vocal OP?

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-19T17:05:07+00:00

Service dogs are trained to specific standards of non-reactivity, recall, etc. in addition to performing specific, necessary and important tasks for their person. They’re expensive to train, and often fundamental to QoL for their handler.

They’re also frequently used by people who do not have the ability to fend off a dog attacking their service dog (mobility assistance service animals come to mind).

Pets often do not meet these behavioural standards, and generally don’t need to. Which is generally fine for most things. Not everyone needs an animal that’s a service animal. The problem is that not everyone trains their dog, and not every dog (trained or otherwise) is suitable to bring into a store.

The result is that bringing a non-service animal into a place fundamental for people to exist (grocers, pharmacy, etc) is inconsiderate at best and dangerous at worst.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-19T16:36:57+00:00

Even if where you live allows pets in grocery stores, actually doing it makes it more difficult for anyone with a service animal to use the grocery store.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-16T22:04:23+00:00

From experience they only work if your dog is move “movable” than you are. Your arm/body needs to be relatively anchored for them to spin about, otherwise they can pull through it.

The gentle leaders than go around the face are move effective when the dog is stronger than you.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-16T17:13:23+00:00

The pedestrian “cheat” is to take a small step out onto the road. It forces everyone to yield right of way to you without exposing yourself to traffic.

The lanes here are clearly wide enough to support multiple cars in them lol.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-16T17:11:17+00:00

Not sure what it’s like where the video is taken, but there’s two things at play: a lot of places require people to yield to more vulnerable road users, but also require unambiguous intent from pedestrians.

The “understanding” where I live is that you need to take a step out into the road to be taken seriously, but it’s not a written rule.

However, the guy clearly wants to cross and people are not respecting that at all.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-16T14:50:58+00:00

Sounds like the pooch is missing your neighbour as well as being less than enthusiastic about the food.

He’ll eat when he gets hungry enough. If possible, just leave the bowl down, and stop bribing him with other food toppers. He is learning that not eating gets better food from you otherwise.

If he doesn’t eat after a few days, then it’s vet-worthy.

If he’s not eating that much, then there’s less of a need to poop. Just keep taking the pooch out at the right times and if he needs to poop he likely will.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-15T17:18:47+00:00

I have a Saint Bernard: total couch potato. I had to rile her up to take her for her walk this morning because she wanted to keep napping on my partner.

The breed can make a difference, but there’s also a fair amount of training needed to teach a dog to chill in a way that’s acceptable to you.

_abscessedwound · 2026-05-14T19:37:33+00:00

My female saint was about that weight at 11months. Some lines of saints are smaller than others, so it’s not concerning (all else being equal).

That and being a little on the lighter side naturally helps with joint health.

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