"no spam liking" stfu that's how i know my mutuals are alive smh

#PLEASE DO embark upon a frenzied liking-spree be you friend or extraordinarily lost traveler of the web#i like using deductive reasoning to backwards engineer the convoluted chain of tags you're following through the annals of my blog#or watch you systematically like every single photo i've ever posted of wwi soldiers posing with animal companions

favorite activity: bothering sister

that's what baby siblings do best!

Fuck it,.

Thanks for making me feel old XD

Link for today's oh-so-lucky ten thousand:

I was thinking about the mat training post and shaping vs luring, and how funny training can be.

When we moved here, we had a pretty good texture on the hard-surface floor so Yvaine and Merlin didn't slip, but I still set up some rubber-backed rugs where they often took turns at a run. When I asked them to practice sitting, they preferred to do it on the rug instead of the bare floor.

The kitchen has the best light, so when I started taking a lot of pictures of them sitting together, I started going there. The mat used to be facing the island, but it was easier to sit on than the floor, so it quickly became The Spot The Spaniels Sat.

When Baby Tristan learned to sit still, he sat on the kitchen mat because Yvaine did. It was automatic, enter the kitchen, go to the mat. If we practiced other tricks, we started from and returned to the mat.

And Gwyn... learned from Tristan.

I never specifically told them to sit there, but they seem to find it a comfortable, comforting routine.

@kangals Boone & Stellina, Stellina & Kepler pics were making me think of this series of pics, because I apparently needed Extra Maudlin today. I share with you, so you may smile at all the beautiful happy faces, and wonder at learning methods with me.

Until two years ago, Merlin was a starvation/heartworms backyard neglect case. He likes being a housepet now, but he’s always watching Yvaine to see what he’s supposed to be doing. She’s a social cues helper dog ;)

By watching what Yvaine is doing, Merlin can work out when he’s just going outside to potty, or going out on Sniff Patrol, or going to the car, or going to feed the Big Doggies. He can tell when I want their attention to do tricks. He can tell when we’re all settling down in one spot for a while. He can’t figure this out from watching me; it seems he just doesn’t have the context. But whatever we’re doing, I see him look at Yvaine, check for cues, then participate.

He’s iffy on words–starting to learn verbal commands at age 8 or so did not help at all. He does better with hand gestures. But sometimes he gets so fatigued, or excited, or agitated that he just can’t process them. Even then, he can still check to see what Yvaine is doing, and go from there.

She helps him be more secure, just by being there.

Oh goodness.

Tonight after we all went to bed, Merlin got up and started pacing around the house. When I sat up to figure out what he was up to, I realized that Yvaine had curled herself all the way under the blanket, and wasn’t visible.

I convinced Merlin to come to bed, pulled the blanket back so he could see her, and this happened.

I was looking for something else and this popped up. I'm going to go sob for a while. Have a nice weekend 😭

~Memories, Good Memories~

I recorded this video the week before Merlin died in August. We loved seeing this. After nearly three years, Merlin had not only become comfortable with twice-daily meals, he was confident enough to demand them every time, and even complain that I was taking too long to prepare them. He’d been doing it regularly for about a month, at that point.

We called it “cannoning,” the way he bounced up of his forefeet to give the bark more emphasis.

Everything about this was wonderful.

Tristan was cannoning today and I am in tears. The good boys, the boys, the very best boys

What do we call this pose

It's very like the "reaching toward you to give advice" pose (ie "DON'T POST THAT" etc) but more emphatic, with that hand rolling up her sleeve there.

Spaniel Magnetism:

While sleeping, a spaniel squidges closer and closer to the nearest body, eventually trying to squeeze into the body itself. If the nearest body is a restless human, the spaniel will take any space available from rolling over or otherwise fidgeting, sometimes "pushing" the human to the edge of the bed before they awaken.

Two spaniels sleeping back-to-back will attempt to merge into a double-headed Super Spaniel.

Stupid Photo Award nominee of the day. Show me yours.

that's an invitation to reblog and share stupid dog photos, btw

Stupid sitting and silly faces

Some of the Very Faces of All Time

Right after we adopted Merlin in 2015, I took this picture. I looked at the two hypno-spaniel faces, and thought, “Oh, we are DOOMed.” We’ve been calling them “the DOOM Spaniels” ever since.

@hazelhound 's Hazel and Evelyn pic yesterday made me think of this day, way way back when I first realized how devastating two sets of Spaniel Eyes working in tandem can be.

Different eyes now, but same effect. Why am I in the kitchen and why am I holding an empty carrot bag?

I would like to start doing art commissions to raise funds for my service dog and I need practice on dogs, mostly!

My drawing speed, however, is extremely slow due to multiple reasons, as in a drawing a year. So I will mostly likely not be able to draw them all. (I would love to draw them all, but it wouldn't be realistic.)

If you're comfortable with me drawing your dog or cat or other pet, please reblog with either pictures or the tags where I can find them!

Thank you very much! 💜

~Science Experiments With Puppy~

Observation:

It came up that despite having no ability to recognize themselves *and* being partly colorblind, many of my dogs have often selected nesting spots that camouflage their coloring. Blond dog liked yellow blanket, black dog liked my laundry (mostly dark colors), Yvaine likes pale colors, etc.

Method:

So... we set out to test this observation in a way we thought could well disprove it, as Tristan doesn't lay on blankets. Tristan usually sleeps on the ground, or on a perch (pillow pile, high table, skull snuggles).

I got a new black and white plaid blanket (well, it WAS black and white before I laundered it and it bled). To give us a sort of control group, I got out Yvaine's old ivory blanket and laundered it, too, so we placed two unfamiliar, freshly laundered, waffle-weave cotton blankets on the bed.

Data:

Tristan, who never lays on blankets, went straight to the black plaid blanket at bedtime and snoozed on it for several hours. Yvaine chose to lay on her ivory blanket for most of the night, instead of on me. She briefly tested the black plaid, but went back to the ivory within ten minutes. (Tristan eventually moved up to skull snuggles with TFaTB for the rest of the night.)

Conclusion:

DOGS DON'T KNOW WHAT COLOR THEY ARE

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE

TRISTAN WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DISPROVING THIS

... my brain is filled with pop rocks...

Tristan continues to deeply confuse my science.

DOGS DON'T KNOW WHAT COLOR THEY ARE.

I have made peace with Tristan and camouflage. Dogs don't know what color they are, but the cookies and cream pup likes his black and white blanket. Okay. This is fine.

@ dogblr

Does anyone have any experience with dog raincoats? It’s starting to get really cold and rainy here, and Kaija doesn’t have her adult coat yet so gets soaked through really easily. I’d prefer something that would cover her front legs since she has a lot of fluff there that gets muddy very easily, but freedom of motion is more important. 

We tried on the Rukka Protect Overall, but I felt it was impacting her movement (she was taking really short steps with her front legs). I could try to go one size up but not sure if it would help since the front just seemed too unforgiving by design.

Other options I’m looking at are the Hurtta Rain Blocker:

and Hurtta Monsoon:

What I’m wondering is whether I should just forget about front leg coverage. Is it possible to get a coat that both has it and is still comfortable to wear and move freely in?

If anyone has experience (good or bad) with coats that offer front leg coverage or other advice, please share. It would help a lot!

I bought this rain suit in 2012, when Yvie was having a lot of fungal infections and we were trying to keep her completely dry. I didn't think it impacted her movement; she jumped up onto that couch 😅 without any difficulty. She disliked the optional hood, so I took that off when she was inside, but she wore the suit all day on storm days.

I still used it occasionally until a few years ago when the elastic died (not unexpected, elastic only lasts so long).

It's from Neopaws, which appears to still be around.

(the boots are separate, the suit leg goes down to about the dewclaw)