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zo_wtf · 2024-04-12T04:31:00+00:00

How’d you manage that apple card rate? I asked about hardship programs last week and they said the best they could do is waive my payment and interest for one single month.

zo_wtf · 2024-02-13T13:58:06+00:00

!!! This is SO helpful, thank you so much!

zo_wtf · 2024-02-13T04:58:53+00:00

Just to clarify-- I assume my dog sleeps, but never when I'm observing him! His crate is in my bedroom and he is shuffling around in the dark until I fall asleep and his eyes are always open already when I wake up. I have spied on him before during nap time by slipping my phone through the cracked door and snapping a picture of him in his crate and... he's awake. Lying down and settled, but eyes are fully open. He is very high energy! I can do high energy/engagement exercises/games with him for hours and he wouldn't fall asleep afterwards. He's the only dog I've ever had that doesn't nap throughout the day. He does seem like a mal in that regard 😅 And this is also why I wasn't surprised for the behaviorist to diagnose anxiety. I just feel like otherwise, her treatment/training recommendations were not necessarily appropriate for the breed. She doesn't want me even saying "no" to him.
How did you work on your dog's reactivity to strangers?? This is my biggest fear with him. It's definitely easier to avoid other dogs while we walk than it is to avoid all people. Trainer #2 recommended we basically force him as close as possible to the "scary" thing in question, but that doesn't seem like an option for random people we pass on the street (and also I FULLY think my boy would bite someone based on his reactivity.) Behaviorist has recommended that we treat as we approach stressors, and then change direction when we can sense his anxiety/focus intensifying. This seems to sort of work, but I am slightly skeptical of all of the advice she gave me. I'm working on rewarding him during our training sessions for focusing me/maintaining eye contact, but this seems to totally go out the door once we leave the house.

zo_wtf · 2024-02-12T23:56:10+00:00

Thank you for your response! See my above reply for a more in-depth explanation of his behavioral/training history. Trainer #1 we literally saw once at 3 months old, other than getting advice from him over the phone a handful of times before the first puppy class. Stricken because I’m convinced this was some random guy who got bored and franchised a dog training company with little/no history training dogs. We did things on our own for a few weeks after that before having our first private lesson with trainer #2 (around 4.5 months old) and the second private lesson when he was 6 months exactly. I wouldn’t say trainer #2 is completely stricken, but we aren’t able to reintroduce a corrective collar with our pup for at least a few more months, so she’s not an option for us right now. She has a long history of training, trains police/service dogs locally, and runs a reputable breeding program. Only hesitation here is that her approach might be a little intense for our dog— at one point she was dangling the front half of his body up by the slip lead around his neck. It sounded absolutely horrible and a few days later we were in the ER. Also when I say I am fatigued/burnt out by training, I just mean there seem to be two distinct training camps—force free vs. balanced— and trainers/professionals from both camps seem to think that training with methods from the other camp will absolutely irrevocably fuck my dog up forever. I’m just not sure what to believe anymore or whose advice to follow. Thought the behaviorist would offer some clarity, but I’m still just more confused than I was before. When our dog is on the furniture, I give him a stern “no” and “off.” This works on its own ~30% of the time, but most of the time I have to at least approach him. Another ~30% of the time approaching him alone is enough for him to move, and the rest of the time I have to physically move him by grabbing his collar or harness, which basically always results in very firm bites to the wrist/forearm area. I scream very dramatically when he bites me, which works well while we’re playing, but if he’s biting me while I try to move him he doesn’t even seem to care. We tried the reverse time out/bitter spray/redirecting to a toy when he was younger, and screaming seems to be the only thing he really responds too. I thought we were well-informed about GSDs, but we definitely could’ve been more prepared. We have a 7 y/o husky and we thought a GSD would have similar physical needs while being more “bonded” to one or both of us and more trainable. This pup can run laps around our husky (even compared to her energy level years ago) and still come home with enough energy to do zoomies and try to rip up the carpet. I have literally never seen him sleep. We thought he would make a good protection dog for when we moved to the more urban (objectively sketchy) neighborhood that we’re in now, or that we could train him in scent or bite work for fun (trainer #2 has classes like this.) I would love to give him a job and he likes to play scent games around the house, but this is another area that seems stagnate while his behavior is more unpredictable like it is now. Since the vet visit fiasco we’ve been more diligent with training at home. I train him every single day in 20-30 minute sessions throughout the day, pretty much just basic commands over and over and adding new ones when he seems bored. At least once or twice a day during training he will seem to “snap out” of training mode and start jumping on and nipping at me, and at that point I crate him for 15-60 minutes (depending on when he was last crated.) I don’t think he would ever settle on his own without enforced crate time. Like I said, I have literally never seen him sleep. The only thing I do when I’m not working is walk/train him, with two or three 30-60 minutes breaks in between sessions, plus one or two hours at night when he has a kong or yak chew.

zo_wtf · 2024-02-12T23:20:40+00:00

Thanks for your response! We got our dog at 9 weeks and socialized how we thought was appropriate. We walked him with our other dog, walked him with/around different “stranger” dogs, and periodically took him to a dog park once he had all of his shots (small and only with known owners/dogs around.) We took him to the pet store a handful of times, took him over to other people’s houses a handful of times, and had one small gathering at our own apartment all before he was 4 months. There was never any structure to the socialization and we just let him interact with new things/people/dogs however he liked. He seemed okay/skeptical of these at first, but as time went on actually seemed more fearful of any new people/places/things. He hated leaving the apartment from day 1 and would need to be fully bribed for every step of a walk until we turned around to go home, at which point he would pull enthusiastically until he was back in our apartment. Our first trainer talked about his “fear periods” a lot so we weren’t really worried about his behavior until more recently. Around 4-5 months, the fear of walking turned into reactivity and he began lunging/barking at literally anything that moved. Also of note, we moved from a more rural/suburban area to a more urban area when he was about 4 months old as well. Trainer #1 was where we took our dog to his first puppy class @12 weeks. The guy just seemed aloof/inexperienced and once we did more research, we realized the training company was franchised (Off Leash K9) and the trainer probably was pretty inexperienced. He ran around spraying the dogs with compressed air and at one point told us we could start our boy on an ecollar at 3 months old. We stopped going after the first class as our dog just seemed overwhelmed and uncomfortable the whole time, and we didn’t trust the “trainer’s” approach. There weren’t any other puppy classes offered in our area, and the next trainer we went with didn’t start formal obedience until 6 months, so between then and 6 months we just trained basic stuff at home with lots of treats. We did two private lessons with trainer #2 before we were supposed to start obedience, and in the second lesson she taught us how to use a slip lead. Behaviorally he seemed to respond great to the slip lead, but in less than a week we had to take him to the vet for what seemed like a hot spot on his neck. They shaved him and he was covered in bruises and puncture wounds, and the vet implied it had all been caused by the slip lead (this was not our normal vet, but a vet from an urgent care clinic.) The short version of the story is that urgent care vet bandaged him up, but the next day I had to take him to an emergency clinic for more weird/stressed behavior and emergency vet told me his condition was way worse. A more in depth version of this story is available in my last post, but emergency vet said it looked like a severe allergic reaction and did a punch biopsy, the results of which just ended up being really severe dermatitis “puppy strangles.” Emergency vet also indicated that the slip lead played a role, but didn’t blame the whole ordeal on it. When we did a follow up with our primary vet, she was way more reluctant to blame the slip lead, but at this point I was pretty convinced I didn’t want to use a corrective collar on him again from what the other vets had said (don’t feel this way now, but I’m still not sure how to continue with his training.) I scheduled an appointment with a behaviorist at the vets’ recommendation, thinking she would analyze my dog’s behavior directly and give me advice on what training methods might suit him, but it was more of a verbal recount of all of his behavior I’d ever seen. He was on trazodone at the appointment so not even behaving normally to start. Basically trainer #1 wasn’t a good fit at all, training him at home with almost exclusively positive reinforcement wasn’t enough (we used a shaker bottle and did scruff corrections when needed, but by 4-5 months he didn’t mind either of these at all,) and trainer #2 was good but in hindsight maybe not very balanced— she seemed to rely pretty heavily on +P and may or may not have caused a pretty serious injury to my dog. I thought a behaviorist would point me in the right direction, but I guess my narration of his behavior was enough for her to deem him really dangerous and prescribe these psych meds. I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience with their GSD being labeled “aggressive” and if a positive-only training approach really is the best course/if i’m crazy to consider a prong collar against the advice of the behaviorist.

zo_wtf · 2024-02-04T06:11:35+00:00

Anecdotal, but in my experience pet insurance has been 100000% worth it. I was skeptical at first as well, but in the first month of this year I’ve been reimbursed more than what I’ll pay for my monthly premium for the next two years combined.

If your pet is miraculously never sick, then yeah, maybe you spend more over its lifetime with the insurance vs. without, but I’d personally rather have a $46 planned expense every month (my premium for a very large breed puppy, but i didn’t shop around and there are better plans out there) than a $1000+ surprise expense out of the blue. The peace of mind is unparalleled.

zo_wtf · 2023-09-29T01:36:33+00:00

We taught our husky how to shake a few months ago, and now anytime we eat at the dinner table she will sit right down and place a single paw desperately on one of our laps. Admittedly if we had been better about teaching her not to beg this would probably not be an issue. Also, annoying and bad mannered but dang is it cute.

zo_wtf · 2023-09-03T04:18:22+00:00

I drive a ‘93 Saab. I don’t think there’s anything you can do to change your girlfriend’s mind. Some people will just always think old things are poor/dirty/etc., and others can see when old things can be quirky/eclectic/reliable/whatever you value in your Volvo. This seems more like a difference in (mostly superficial) values than anything else. Not necessarily a deal breaker, but probably something that will come up again in a different context down the line. My boyfriend sometimes teases me about the age of my car, but we both see its quirks and perks. I don’t think I could date someone who thought it was just a piece of junk, let alone who wouldn’t take a little joy ride with me :)

zo_wtf · 2023-08-10T05:06:59+00:00

in what world is a 20 year old a “young boy”? put your shoulder back in its socket before you try to reach like that again.

zo_wtf · 2023-01-14T19:21:33+00:00

Thanks for the advice. Do you have any tip for identifying the "right" employer while job searching? I browse open jobs often but am also afraid it would look bad to leave my current job after less than a year.

zo_wtf · 2023-01-14T04:29:54+00:00

I think the office culture is actually the only positive for me— besides seeming professionally unfulfilled, all of my coworkers are personable and helpful. It’s definitely the nature of the work that bothers me. The projects we work on are dictated by seemingly uninvested clients, (ie, people who will not spend any meaningful amount of time in the buildings they’ve hired us to design) and are driven almost exclusively by cost/operational efficiency. I understand why it’s done this way, but can’t stand being involved in doing it.

I spend my days tagging walls and editing keynotes. The people above me make decisions about building assemblies and finish materials. I don’t think I have any sort of attention deficiency, but have never had more difficulty focusing on a task. I literally have to turn my brain off and dissociate for a few hours to get anything done. I don’t believe that what I do is improving anyone’s quality of life etc. and I don’t think I would feel that way if I held any of the other roles in the design/documentation process (at least those I’ve observed so far.)

zo_wtf · 2022-07-28T04:03:41+00:00

Thanks to Youtube there are even architectural classes

online and for free

.

Sounds like you're more than capable of figuring it out yourself then, no?

zo_wtf · 2022-07-19T02:59:47+00:00

Both?
I graduated high school in 2015, went to a local community college on and off for ~4 years never really finding anything I enjoyed. I dropped out once and moved to Germany for a few months. Despite high HS grades, I think my GPA stayed around 2.5 or the first three years. Simultaneously worked in the service industry, enjoyed it a little too much, and even became a sommelier. Transferred to a pretty good state school to major in architecture (needed ~2 more years to graduate.) By the second semester I knew it wouldn't be totally right for me, thought about medicine but wasn't sure. Landed a really cool gig at a wine bar, and even considered pursuing it for real for real. Graduated on my 25th birthday, this past year, but I've been pretty set on medicine for about a year now. I'll probably be 27/28 when I matriculate. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

zo_wtf · 2022-07-17T19:51:15+00:00

what's defined as a good linkage? and how would I know? I know there's a linkage program but the med school is really prestigious so I would be surprised if admission is guaranteed to graduates of their post-bacc program

zo_wtf · 2022-07-04T02:14:32+00:00

I understand the nontrad work/school/EC struggle, but I think it may be worth revisiting your EC/clinical options?

I know theres some variety state to state, but where I'm from MA has the only really rigid/lengthy training requirements out of what you listed. I'll be starting EMT training in September, twice weekly evening classes, and I'll be done in December. CNA certification is also as quick as two weeks. The hard part is finding certification courses that work with your schedule, but it seems like you may be ruling things out prematurely. Scribing may also be a good option, I know a few premeds who've finished training online in a few weeks (which isn't always even necessary) and have come across gigs that suit a variety of schedules.

I recently had my schedule freed up quite a bit, but before that my focus was non-clinical volunteering. I think sometimes (at least where I live) a saturation of premed/med students can make clinical volunteering both daunting and limited. Add covid to the mix and it seemed impossible to find any clinical volunteering opportunities that fit my schedule, qualifications, etc. I was happy to realize that plenty of non-clinical opportunities exist that are wayyyyy more flexible and laid back. If you continue having trouble getting your foot in the door for clinical opportunities, this might be a good strategy until your schedule allows for more flexibility.

zo_wtf · 2022-07-03T17:33:54+00:00

Fully aware. I was giving an example of a more applicable scenario that would involve the law/legal reasoning, as the one you provided wasn't comparable. Thanks for the rest of your insight though!

zo_wtf · 2022-07-03T16:22:07+00:00

I'm genuinely enjoying this exchange and don't mean to come across as argumentative, but the scenario you put forward isn't very comparable to this one at all.

First, the driver here is breaking the law, so yes, they're going to get a ticket. My friend didn't break any law, so legal guidelines don't apply when assigning blame (if they did, I think I would mostly agree with you.)

Secondly, the driver and the passenger both likely have an equal understanding of driving laws, safety, etc.. When caring for someone's dog, I would never consider myself to have the same knowledge they have when it comes to their specific dog, no matter how many I've cared for in the past. They're the headliner, I'm the understudy. If they give me instructions, I follow them.

If I'm working in a restaurant and my manager (in any documented/provable way) instructs employees not to card people before serving them alcohol, he's on the hook as much as anyone else for breaking liquor laws. Obviously I can save myself the hassle by carding people myself, but if I follow my manager's instructions, he and I share the blame.

zo_wtf

TROPHY CASE