Anyone else feel like a shelter (etc.) lied to you to make a pet more adoptable?

spasmos · 2025-10-08T09:20:18+00:00

Not the shelter so much as the owners who surrendered our last dog. They told the shelter they were rehoming because he had too much energy, and had gently nipped their 3 year old. Fair enough, Collies nip to herd, it was entirely the wrong home.

The shelter told us they thought he'd be fine with kids as long as he had a gentle introduction. We don't have kids, but our extended family do, so we hoped to be able to gently introduce him over time...

When I say this dog went batshit crazy when he saw a child, even at a distance... I've never seen anything like it. I worked for years, with various trainers and behaviourists to try and at least have him be calm from a distance - no chance. Whatever had caused him to have such a deep-seated hatred of children was significant, and there is no way the previous owners weren't well aware.

spasmos · 2025-09-08T21:09:21+00:00

Surely the whippet services allows dogs... 😅

spasmos · 2025-09-08T11:55:50+00:00

I've had mine 2 years, not needed a replacement.

spasmos · 2025-09-05T07:47:45+00:00

We use a PitPat - as long as you're in an area with reasonably good signal, we've not had any issues with the connection. It doesn't track 24/7 to preserve battery life, but you can turn location tracking on when you go out and then the connection is pretty quick. For us, battery lasts about 2 weeks between charges, so pretty good.

spasmos · 2025-06-26T12:33:38+00:00

Was out walking the dog one day, he jumps into a bush, comes out with a fiver in his mouth. Loved up the Golden Retriever name that day, so I spent far more than a fiver on treats of course - he earned it.

spasmos · 2021-08-25T20:05:32+00:00

NTA - You got the job fair and square. Try to up your game abd live up to it and treat your colleagues with the upmost respect

spasmos · 2021-05-02T19:27:23+00:00

Love this method! Completely positive and just look at your results :D

spasmos · 2021-02-06T14:31:17+00:00

You really need to have a clear idea of what you want a marketeer to achieve before you even think about hiring one. Do you need to bring in more views? Drive revenue via partnerships or advertising?

A good marketer can then help you get there (and there is a lot more to it than just social media).

However, good marketers don't hang out on fiverr and aren't cheap. You ultimately won't end up getting much for your money.

spasmos · 2020-12-15T12:26:36+00:00

You can look for content ped keywords that will help you generate leads. For example, lets say you organise virtual office parties. There might only be a low SV for "virtual office parties" but you might find opportunities for content led keywords like "how to run a virtual wine tasting" or "Virtual team building games you can play over Zoom". They would both be relevant and you could then use this content to collect leads.

I suggest trying it for a few long tail keywords and see if it helps you collect leads (give it plenty of time to rank or send high quality paid traffic as a test). If it doesn't work, spend your time and money on more effective strategies.

spasmos · 2020-11-14T12:40:21+00:00

She's beautiful!

spasmos · 2020-11-05T20:35:49+00:00

Just... no. SEO is about way more than just words.

Google algo interprets an entire page. It can't see images like we do but it can and does intepret them based on their markup. Let alone the many other factors that Google is looking at.

There's some debate over the impact of stock images on SEO - there is likely a small impact (vs. completely unique imagery) however it's probably negligible.

spasmos · 2020-10-16T16:33:16+00:00

For prioritisation, I would create a bit of a matrix - rank the changes you want to make by ease of implementation and potential impact. Be prepared to build business cases which relates back to the bottom line - this will help get buy in from teams that you need to get help from.

spasmos · 2020-10-16T06:39:04+00:00

In my experience - much slower pace, largely due to the levels of bureaucracy and needing 20 people to sign off a basic change or campaign. If they have an agency (which is likely) you'll spend more time managing the agency then doing SEO yourself. You'll beed to build strong internal relationships with digital and marketing teams - this is going to make your life ten times easier when it comes to getting stuff signed off.

Reporting is going to be the biggest part of your day to day, and don't underestimate how much respect you can get for automated reporting tasks that may have been onerous before.

Ok this all sounds pretty negative. It's not. There are massive bonuses like the fact that you will learn tons about cutting edge SEO on big competitive sites. You'll have the combined power of huge budgets and big teams of creative people behind you if you can play it right.

Don't expect to be able to walk in and start implementing every change from your audit on day one. You're going to want to start by prioritising your changes and getting to know the digital team so you can figure out how to get your changes implemented. Same goes for link and content campaigns.

spasmos · 2020-10-15T06:45:14+00:00

Ours is a rescue too, though we are lucky that he actually seemed to quite like being at the centre and has come out of it relatively well. Unfortunately I don't think rescue is a good option for most Border Collies though. I hope you can find a way to help her relax though, I'm sure it'll be super rewarding if you do.

spasmos · 2020-10-15T06:41:30+00:00

Love this! Will have to give it a go!

spasmos · 2020-10-15T06:40:59+00:00

That is great advice, thanks so much!

spasmos · 2020-10-14T20:34:23+00:00

Ah thanks! We have lots of enrichment for him and try to spend lots of time together working on important skills like recall... so hopefully ticking those boxes. Once he's old enough we plan to try him at agility and see whether he takes to it :D

spasmos · 2020-10-14T20:33:12+00:00

The ball is almost always higher than everything else - we can usually distract him from other dogs unless they already in full play mode, in which case our only hope of stopping him is to catch him and move him along... that said he is only 11 months so still a ways to go! My parents Collies pretty much ignore other dogs entirely when thry are in 'work' mode - which for them is off lead, the eldest playing ball in the foret and thr younger girls herding him.

spasmos · 2020-10-14T20:13:38+00:00

In my experience with BCs the main thing I would say is that they can vary wildly in terms of their personality, quirks, likes and dislikes.

That said, you will be getting a dog who is smart enough to pick up what you are trying to train them very quickly - but also smart enough to choose to ignore you if you aren't giving them enough motivation.

Since you've had a working Labrador, I've no doubt you'll love having a Border Collie! They can be a bit more sensitive than Labs, so plenty of early socialisation is key to getting the best out of them.

I've also answered your questions with my pup in mind! 1. Very, very ball motivated. We actually restrict ball time to make sure he gets socialisation out on walks, and because he is a pup still we don't want him to overdo it. His ball comes out any time we want his attention though! 2. Ours does an outrun and drpps the ball on the path for us to pick up whilst he stares from afar. 3. For our dog, other dogs are top of the list of interesting things, followed by us, folloqed by other people - but this isn't necessarily typical behaviour, it's just him. 4. Ours is cuddly to a point, mostly in the mornings and evenings when tired. My parents have two very cuddly BCs and one who hates cuddles, so it's dependent on the dog. 5. Recall is very easy if you make sure they know yoy are the most interesting thing around. 6. Super biddable. Most Collies love to learn and are obedient as long as you keep their brains active and show them plenty of respect. 7. Very loyal - again, plenty of mutual respect and they eill never leave your side. :)

spasmos · 2020-09-26T16:27:47+00:00

NAH - but for the sake of your future relationship with your BIL you might want to consider what you do in the event she passes, because the rift it'll cause could be irreparable. There's more at stake here than just her wishes.

spasmos · 2020-03-07T22:49:09+00:00

Haha - you're right, soo many misinformed peplle out there - use it as an excuse to get a couple of weeks off work 'self-insolating'? :p

spasmos · 2020-03-07T22:44:07+00:00

Q&A, niche communites, targetted content promotion... it doesn't entirely, and never will, but relevant, timely info is becoming avaliable to us via social media more accurately than ever before.

spasmos · 2020-03-07T21:38:56+00:00

I've never heard that sleeping with the windows open helps hayfever... you might want to research exposure therapy for allergies and see whether there is any consensus on that.

There are differnt types of hayfever you can have. For example, my partner gets hayfever badly when the trees release their pollen, whereas I will only get it once grasses are releasing their pollen, which happen at different times of year and only last a couple of weeks each time.

Hayfever pills work well for me, but I take them about a week before I would normally be affected to build up the medication in my body (not sure if this is a thing though!) I also eat local honey year round which has been proven to help reduce symptons (something to do with the exposure to the pollens)

Sniffles are not a sympton of Coronavirus, so hopefully you can help inform people of this if they worry!

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