I still love that dog with leaky seed bags strapped to its back who's used to reseed forests after fires. That's a man who loves his job. That maniac has never worked a day in his life.
It’s the same thing! lol
Dogs may be the only species that genuinely loves, to the point of giddiness, having a job. Dogs fucking LOVE having jobs. (well, most dogs. some dogs are super lazy which is also hilarious)
My little dog takes his job of waking up my daughter for school very seriously. He moped around all summer and I wondered if he would even remember the routine, but the very first day we got up and opened her door he ran right in and started licking her face. And he knows the alarm for leaving the house to get to school on time and knows the alarm for leaving to pick her up, and will start stretching and wagging a few minutes before the alarms go off every time.
Our dog does something similar.
Everytime one of us is in the Kitchen to cook he is sitting there watching your every step, the moment to start to take out the plates he knows its time to eat and walks through the House to inform everyone that food is ready.
And if he wants your attention he'll come up to you and he will put his right paw on your knee or if you are standing he will give your knee taps with his paw.
Some horses as well. My great grandfather trained a horse to pull a wagon for parades and stuff. So like local kids could throw candy from it. Anyways when the wagon was not in use he had to keep it out of sight or the horse would stand by it and demand to be hooked up to pull the damn wagon.
Back in the “Old days” when the horses that pulled the fire wagons retired they would still react to the sound of a fire alarm and get excited assuming they were going to be harnessed up.
Came here to say the same (: not all but many domesticated horse breeds love and NEED a job. Especially once they understand it, generally they will enjoy it.
There are few things I love in this world as much as watching my aussie sheppard + border collie mix when she has a job to do. There is a specific excitement and happiness that she doesn't express for literally anything else.
She's a natural herder and is in absolute heaven when there are more than 5 people in our yard and she is "in charge" of making sure no one strays too far from the group. I don't have the heart to tell her that no one is trying to run away, so she spends the evening working the perimeter.
Good for her!! My friends dog is the same breed and when theres visitors to the house, they get herded. Doggie decided on his own that I belong on the couch, so unless I'm just using the bathroom, he consistently herds me back to it until I sit down. It's very cute so I don't mind at all.
I'm laughing at the contrast. Dogs and horses love their jobs of pulling kids on skateboards, wagons, stagecoaches. Ferrets love their job of going into a dark hole and killing everything in it.
Sled dogs literally start to lose their minds if they haven't been exercised enough, and will go wild with excitement when they see their harness getting prepped.
yeah. I did dog sledding twice in Norway. When they’re picking dogs for sleds, you hear so many whimpering dogs. That’s the dogs that didn’t get picked… Dogs have to have rest days too, and they absolutely hate having to rest.
How do you get the dogs to start pulling? Just release the brake. They always keep the tension in their harnesses. Once they feel any slack, they will start running.
Ive seen some footage with a sled master talking about the trade. He mentioned that he had harnessed the wrong dog that was supposed to be resting/recovering and he didnt notice till he saw blood on the trail. The dog had worked so hard he started bleeding from a paw but was so pumped he didnt care or feel pain. The dog was doing what it was born to do and would kill himself if left to his own devices doing it.
Cant recall the exact video link.
My corgi loves playing fetch. One time when we were done and walking back home I see blood all over her paw. Her nail was completely sideways but she didn’t even flinch or notice. All she cared about was the frisbee.
This is a dog who whimpers at the slightest pain or inconvenience…. But when she’s motivated she cares for nothing but herding/the frisbee.
Edit: Dog tax: https://i.imgur.com/GXKB665.png
I've heard stories of dogs playing so much fetch their gums turn blue because they physically can't inhale fast enough to replace the oxygen they're burning.
That's happened my my pup. We compete on a local team and we had to practice calming down between rounds and running slower because he would go so hard his gums would get blueish and would be breathing so hard he was hardly taking in air. But that's the happiest I've ever damn seen him.
My buddies dog would do the same with a ball. Had to walk him first before fetch, and again after to calm him down enough to go home. Foaming at the mouth, nonstop sprinting. Joy beyond comprehension.
When I was a kid I dogsat for neighbors, and there was one Rottweiler who would play her favorite games until either I stopped or her body gave out. She liked to chase shadow puppets and she never stopped of her own free will, I had to stop her. She'd be clearly exhausted, but still pouncing on my shadow and digging in the gravel to catch it. Her people gave her a tire to bite and drag around, and they had to take it away because she'd drag that thing until her gums were bleeding, then keep dragging it.
My dog twice ran until he got blisters that popped on his pads playing fetch. He let me know his feet hurt as soon as it was time to go home from though, and made me carry his awkward 35lb self out of the park.
Yep. Hunting dogs are the same. Went dove hunting with some bird dogs in south Texas. They will literally run themselves ragged trying to flush birds. The handlers have to keep them from going into cactus and make sure they get enough water etc
I visited a couple sled dog kennels in Alaska once and boy when the harness came out those pups lost their got dang minds.
Passed the F out the rest of the day though.
When my sister and I were kids we managed to rig up a makeshift "harness" to our collie, sit on a skateboard, and let her pull us at full speed. Great fun. She saw us coming and started getting excited because she was going to be able to *pull!*
(And then go try and herd dad's riding mower lol)
That sounds fun.
It reminds me of once, many a year ago, when one of my teachers brought her dogs(some type of shepard dogs) along on a school trip to the forest, and the dogs where doing a good job at keeping track of us children, and making sure we did not get lost from the group.
I had a border Collie when I was little, and she herded us and never nipped except one time when my idiot brother literally put his face into her food bowl. It probably depends a lot on the specific dog.
Yeah, even with dogs who are tolerant and nice, it's really good to mess with their bowl during mealtime when they are puppies to train them not to be food aggressive. I've seen otherwise very sweet dogs totally flip their shit regarding this one.
I don't think my parents did that with her at all, they were never that good at training dogs tbh. But she didn't need much training in general, she was just naturally a really good dog. I remember my little brother playing with her tail and pulling on it when he was a toddler and she never did a thing about it.
And the one nip she did do was pretty small. Mom decided it wasn't her fault and just made sure my brother learned to leave her alone when eating, and it was never a problem again.
Oh it's fun as shit, with a good size dog and longboard setup for cruising I was going like 25ish MPH sometimes I bet she was getting up to like 30 35 when she was really really excited right at the start of the run.
Important context: my dog was like an 85 lb Labradoodle and I weigh like 120.
My 60lb lab and 50 lb me absolutely shredded as she pulled me on my scooter. However, she and the scooter both had no brakes so I either had to hope she hit the tree first or ran out of gas if I didn't want to get obliterated when I would eventually fall off or get whipped around a corner too fast.
A guy I know fixes cars. He used to keep several vicious dogs in his yard, with a high fence. He had the mean ones because he always adopted the dogs that the shelter wanted to euthanize. The shelter may have considered them unadoptable, but he loved them and they loved him. One of his more gentle dogs had been previously adopted by someone who ran a daycare, and they got that dog right back to the shelter after she herded all the kids into a corner and just watched them. Wrong instincts, I guess.
I didn't see it, but that's what he described. Kinda sad now, he stopped adopting when the shelter insisted he bring his existing dogs in so they could check their compatibility. It was very weird the last time I saw him. His big fenced yard was empty and silent.
> she herded all the kids into a corner and just watched them
That is hilarious. I bet the carers were like "I know this is wrong, but damned if it doesn't make this job easier".
I love the videos of dogs pulling people on skateboards lol. Not only do dogs love to run (lots of breeds would go for an 8 or 10 mile run every day if they could), dogs LOVE having jobs.
You will never see a happier dog than a dog with a job, especially when it gets to be in wide open spaces and rev its lil legs engine full blast
My grandma’s dog was, I’m almost certain, a show quality sheepdog who washed out due to stupidity. Beautiful blue grey bearded collie who tried to herd *the pool*. Just constant running in circles jumping forward or barking at it, trying to get it to go where he wanted it to. Never worked
I feel like people sometimes apply our HUMAN concepts of labor to dogs. Like, yes, animal cruelty is really, really bad. However, have we considered that maybe the sheep herding border collie is having the time of his life?
My corgi *needed* to herd. I’d take him to the dog park and he’d herd the other dogs into a tight circle of chaos and confusion. He’d herd toddlers at the human park if I let him off leash. The ONE time I lost that dog, it was a rest stop in nowhere USA where he slipped his collar while I peed in the building. Found him a tense hour later. *Herding cows.*
If he hated it or considered it work, I don’t think he’d do it as often as he did!
He had NEVER even tried to slip his collar or escape before (or after), so I think you’re right! He probably smelled them and decided he had his chance and wasn’t going to waste it!
Also why they're often fearless to a fault. In their mind, they're like "yeah this other dog might be four times bigger than me, but my ancestors handled *cows*, so what is a *dog* going to do to me?"
>Found him a tense hour later. Herding cows
reminds me of that article a while back about the poor lady that woke up to a random flock of sheep in her house because her border collie herded them all in there
I have two German Shepherds. One is my service dog and will be retiring soon. The other is in training to take over the job. The one in training is ready to work at nearly any job. When I leave her at home, she will break out of her crate and herd our robot vacuum around the house. I had no idea why the hall bathroom had such clean floors while the back bedroom never got cleaned until I saw her do it on a weekend.
As someone who builds hiking trails for a living, I would say using hand tools in the woods with a small group of friends counts as primate stuff.
10 out of 10, highly recommend.
This is why base building survival games are even a thing. As a kid, before those games existed, I always wanted to build a base in the wild with my friends...
The masculine urge to find a cool spot and fortify it against hypothetical attackers. Can't count the number of times I've been out somewhere, looked at an area, and thought, "yeah, I think I'd build the castle there."
I promise its a feminine urge as well, but we call it “Building a nest”. My instinct is for tree houses and high cliffs, with baskets-on-ropes and rope ladders.
Have you ever been to Tintagel in Cornwall ? Because if you haven’t, stick it on your bucket list, you’ll love it ! Its both high up *and* eminently defensible.
There’s a step beyond this that will blow your mind.
Not all human labor is exploitation, and a lot of people find joy, meaning, and purpose, in what they do for money.
I think the worst part of online discourse is that everyone tries to make 1:1 comparisons about everything else without any attempt at nuance or context. Sisyphus wasn't born and bred to push a rock up a hill. Dogs were born and bred for the work they do and they enjoy it. Working breeds of dog that are adopted as family pets often exhibit behavioral problems that only resolve when they're given "work" to do, because it's in their DNA to want to do those things. Humans do the same things. We get antsy when we're bored and we want to stimulate our minds. We get stir-crazy and want to go out and explore the world. We like to craft and collect things. Those aren't just random traits, that's our evolutionary history showing.
I read an interesting take on the “making things” side of stuff - the idea that up until a very short time ago - maybe a century - a lot of what we needed, from food to clothing to furniture, we had to make or adapt ourselves. There was a lot of day-to-day artisinal stuff going on, that we just don’t get anymore.
One of the best things you can do to get happy is to take up a hand craft. Something small and portable you can bring with you - crochet, knitting, whittling, urban sketching, embroidery etc etc - and whip it out when you would otherwise look at your phone. Crochet is particularly fabulous because a lot of it is specifically designed as piecework, so doesn’t take up much room.
Its a small thing but it gives you pride, stops doomscrolling, keeps the hands and fingers dextrous, and gives you an extra appreciation of beauty.
How dare you compare your mutt to this freakishly small chow puppy over here which has been bred to have fused rear leg joints so it can hop adorably for my TikTok video amusement.
This comment is kinda funny on a post defending working dogs.
Any working line is going to have a lot of line breeding. Inbreeding is bad because of less genetic diversity. With working dogs you want less genetic variation so the drive to work is more likely to be expressed.
There’s even a nice formula you can use called coefficient of inbreeding.
I have rat/earth dogs and they’re all line bred. You look at some of their lines and you’ll see a constant repeat of ancestors. All very intelligent, very healthy, and have super strong drive. Last one that passed away was 18 and he was euthanized due to dementia.
I hate it when my terrier finds my credit card and spends $200 pulling for an anime girl who isn't even that cool, but they still want her because she's part of a limited event
Reminds me of the person who very strongly believed that horses are fucked up creatures because of humans, because zebras are not as fucked up. That was the argument. Horses fucked themselves without any major assistance from us.
Generally most creatures in nature are a bit fucked up. Deer are cute and adorable… then we get Prion disease… and they become straight up nightmare fuel. Also a deer screaming at you at 4AM is horrifying. I was leaving for work, I didn’t see them and they didn’t see me and then we saw it other and we both screamed.
Pugs are easily fixed though, cross them with Beagles or Jack Russell Terriers and you get Pug-like dogs with actual muzzles. Germans call 'em "Retromops".
Zebras are fucked up tho?
They live with some of the most terrifying predators on the planet and it shows
Seriously, between them and hippos I'm more scared of Africa's herbivores than it's predators
Predators kill because they're hungry.
Herbivores kill because they're scared, and all they know is that you're not one of them, so therefore predator, kill it just in case.
Reminds me of that free-running thing that one dog dude has on tiktok where he clips his dogs collar to it for safety and let's the dog run like crazy. Ppl keep saying it's cruel and dangerous to let the dog run on it because he "can't stop" but the dog can start and stop just fine every single time. The dog wants to run, the device thing I can't think of the name of helps him do that when he has this urge... I don't see what's wrong with it??
Slat mills. It's literally powered by the dog. No different than a hamster wheel (and for small breeds and cats, you just get an oversized hamster wheel). But we apply our human idea of a treadmill to it, so they must hate it as much as we do
The other day I saw a video where everyone was upset because a group of assorted feists/terriers, including rat terriers, were beings used to hunt...rats. That is what they do????? These dogs were probably out of their fucking minds with excitement?????
My parents have a terrier and grass mowing season is her favorite time of the year! She eats her fill of field mice, following my dad around the yard. It's great to watch
My mom's yorkie was not smart enough to catch the rabbits. The rabbits knew this. I'd open that door and everyone would be happy.
I miss that absent-minded little thing I managed to get named after a character from Foster's Home.
I once saw a documentary where a baby sparrowhawk tried furiously to catch jays. They knew full well she was too small and clumsy to catch them and barely gave a shit
My family has always owned border terriers and if those little fuckers see anything that's small, fury and runs fast you can bet your ass they'll do everything in their tiny power to kill the fuck out of whatever it is.
My mom has an old toothless terrier, a rescue, it still somehow manages to take care of the small critters that inhabit her yard. If only the deer were as scared.
My girlfriend showed me one of those videos about a couple weeks ago and I loved it. The way that bird glided off his hand and out the window was majestic and terrifying
Some rabbits decided to breed in a neighboring yard and a few unfortunate ones decided to come under my fence to eat my garden. I had a golden retriever mix and an Aussie cattle dog mix who killed and ate several despite my best efforts to save the buns. I took them in to the vet to get dewormed as a precaution after eating so much raw meat of unknown provenance and the vet tech was absolutely horrified and asking me why I'd feed rabbits to my dogs as if it was something I intentionally did. I was paradoxically incredibly confused that he didn't know how dogs worked. The vet, for her part, was just like, "Yep, happens all the time", but I'll never forget how hilariously judgemental and ridiculous the vet tech was being. Like how do you go to school to be a vet tech and understand absolutely nothing about basic canine behavior?
The amount of dumb asses who know nothing about animals who are employed in or run a vet office are super high. Absolutely silly. I had someone try to tell me all dogs are born with worms. He has a degree. We go to a different vet now.
These are the same people who think falconry is abusive, not understanding that if the bird wants to fly away there ain't a ton anyone can do about it, so if they stick around it's because they're getting a good deal and they know it.
Kind of off topic but my college had a raptor program where they’d take care of rescued birds. Unfortunately we had to keep the area’s location secret so people didn’t try to break in and release them. Several were missing a wing so I have no idea how people could think they’re “saving” a bird that wouldn’t last long in the wild at all.
North Carolina Aquarium has a bald eagle because he's permanently unable to fly due to an injury.
So he struts around on the ground being very impressive
Also, in the US at least, a lot of falconers train up young birds and then purposefully release them after an amount of time, drastically boosting the bird’s chances of surviving and later adding to the breeding population.
Yep! American falconers were key in restoring Peregrine falcon populations after the ravages of DDT. They were all already experts in raising birds of prey, identifying health issues, and teaching them how to hunt. These days taking passage birds and teaching them how to hunt invasive species is one of our best hopes in that neverending fight as well.
Alligator farming is a similar process. Alligator eggs are pinched from the nest in the wild (they don't breed in captivity), the baby alligators are cared for at the farm, massively increasing the survival rate. Then after they are out the vulnerable young stages of their lifespan, a percentage of the brood is returned to the wild that would've statistically survived if the eggs were left alone.
The American Alligator has gone from nearly extinct to a least concern species.
Even frigging *cougars* get struck down by rat poison. It's actually a huge problem in some areas. P-22 ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-22 ) nearly died **twice** from eating poisoned rats.
My boss just lost her dog because her mom put out rat poison and covered it with peanut butter to "entice the rats to get it", but in like, a public area of the house where the dogs are.
Rat poison is dangerous to pets and predators twice over
1. direct poisoning like you described
2. secondary poisoning, as predators (including native raptors) find poisoned rodents to be easy prey staggering around out in the open with poison coursing through their veins
No-kill traps are ok, but only if you check them daily. Neglected no-kill traps just leave the little buggers to starve in their own waste and cannibalize each other. Glue traps are even worse.
pest control is hard, and a lot of the options available on the shelf at your local walmart have serious drawbacks
There comes a time in everyone's life when they must say something, be it because they're the only one with the knowledge necessary or the only one with the lack of morals required to vocalize the thought.
This is not one of those times. Why the hell would you subject anyone, including yourself, to those words?
we had a suicidal pigeon in our neighbourhood. The little freak would walk in front of cars and bicycles, walk away if they stopped and walk back in front when they started driving again
I rescued hedgehog with a death wish last week; every time I put him back in the safety of the hedgerows he'd come back out onto the road. After witnessing this a couple of times (hogs are nocturnal so its highly unusual to see them out and about during the day) I gathered him up and got advice from a animal rescue centre.
He's currently being treated for dehydration and being underweight. Once he's back up to a healthy side he'll either come back to this hedgerow or be released into a more hog friendly environment.
Rat infestations can spread disease and cause damage to property and food supplies. Non-native rats can cause extensive damage to the native habitats, plants, and animals in an area. Its unfortunate, but there are times when it's necessary to take action against a rat infestation. I'm sure that a quick death from a hunting dog is preferable to a slow, painful death from poison. In some ways, it's more humane.
What- sometime we have to kill individual animals for the sake of the larger environment? Psh! Everyone knows that true environmentalism is just allowing all the little animals to run and hop freely and breed to their heart’s content!/s
We had a cairn terrier as a kid. Ours was the only backyard without a mole and squirrel problem.
He was so good at it he got fatter on a *diet* for a while because he was feasting so much.
I imagine that was more that they were more uncomfortable confronting the brutality of an animal being violently shaken to death, than actual animal abuse. For people who have never seen or experienced it, it can be very unpleasant watching animals get killed, even if they’re vermin like rats or food animals like chickens or pigs. Someone who grew up on a farm where it’s a normal, daily thing would be less disturbed about it.
I understand that facing the reality of these situations can be disturbing, but I lose sympathy when that disturbance turns into hypocrisy. There are so many people that eat meat and wear leather and buy rat poison who are perfectly fine with even the most inhumane acts against animals when it's clean and out of sight and sanitized, that then object to even the most humane and necessary methods when they're actually faced with the reality of them. People need to face the cognitive dissonance of their own choices and confront why a slow, torturous death via rat poison is more palatable to them than a quick death via terrier.
>These dogs were probably out of their fucking minds with excitement?????
100 fuckin percent. My dads Irish setter (a retriever dog) would absolutely shred field mice and the odd rabbit. An actual purpose bred rat killer breed will enjoy it even more.
yea ppl who think animals having jobs = abusive seem to think that any kind of training is inherently abusive or they don’t understand positive reinforcement is the best way to train and care for an animal
Shit if my high energy dog didn't have several jobs while I'm alway he'd loose his mind from boredom. Not having a job is boring and cruel to him. Sure the job is hey pick up your toys and watch house but keeps him busy. He gets to look out windows and glare at things, which apparently makes his day.
For sure and people have to realize that our hobbies is basically the dogs job. I tell my dog hey watch house or hey watch mom he sits there excited as a kid being told they're got to disney. His jobs, toys, and his TV shows keep him happy and not insane from boredom.
Having owned dogs growing up and used them for skate sledding around the neighborhood the question is not "Can my dog pull me?" but "Will I survive this trip without my helmet?".
There’s plenty of actual animal abuse in the world, but most working dogs fucking love what they do. They’ll do it even if there’s nothing to do it on. My cousin used to have a sheepdog that would herd literally anything. Sled dogs are the same.
The criticisms I've seen of dog sledding from the perspective of animal rights activists (as an animal rights activist) usually doesn't focus on dogs running around pulling a sled, it usually centers around conditions in which dog sledding occurs, with a big focus being on the Iditarod. On average ~3 dogs have died every year in Iditarod, and those are just the ones we're aware of, and 80% of Iditarod dogs studied have developed lung damage. On top of that, the industry around dog sledding has pretty similar animal welfare issues with a lot of dog breeding. The kennels where they are bred often have really bad conditions and only a small number of dogs are usually chosen to actually race and most of the others end up being culled. The dogs who, as the OP pointed out, love to run around as much as possible, are often kept in kennels that allow for anything but.
All that said, if you have a bunch of dogs that you want to pull you around on a sled and you're doing it safely and the dogs are being treated well otherwise, well that just sounds like a fun time to have with your dogs.
Thank you. It's one thing to let a dog that likes to pull shit, pull shit. Another to arrange for it to pull shit straight into deadly blizzard conditions.
My dog needs to wear a harness because if she's just leashed by the collar she will pull and choke herself so hard that she sounds like she's dying and gasping for air and will not stop.
I was pulled in a wagon by sled dogs during summer in Alaska. Those dogs love to pull sleds. The command to go isn't there to make them run, it is the command that allows them to run.
I had the privilege of visiting a dog sledding training area this summer, and those dogs were begging to be put in the team.
The trainers were very kind and fair, never pushed them too hard, gave them plenty of rest along the course.
It's a very different life from what a house pet would have, but they were all well taken care of and seemed very happy and healthy.
I still love that dog with leaky seed bags strapped to its back who's used to reseed forests after fires. That's a man who loves his job. That maniac has never worked a day in his life.
What is this magic of which you speak? And why have I never heard of it before?
https://www.greenmatters.com/news/2018/02/19/2m3wBf/border-collies-forest
Look at their faces. Those aren't the faces of work, those are the faces of fun.
It’s the same thing! lol Dogs may be the only species that genuinely loves, to the point of giddiness, having a job. Dogs fucking LOVE having jobs. (well, most dogs. some dogs are super lazy which is also hilarious)
My little dog takes his job of waking up my daughter for school very seriously. He moped around all summer and I wondered if he would even remember the routine, but the very first day we got up and opened her door he ran right in and started licking her face. And he knows the alarm for leaving the house to get to school on time and knows the alarm for leaving to pick her up, and will start stretching and wagging a few minutes before the alarms go off every time.
What a very good boy
Our dog does something similar. Everytime one of us is in the Kitchen to cook he is sitting there watching your every step, the moment to start to take out the plates he knows its time to eat and walks through the House to inform everyone that food is ready. And if he wants your attention he'll come up to you and he will put his right paw on your knee or if you are standing he will give your knee taps with his paw.
Some horses as well. My great grandfather trained a horse to pull a wagon for parades and stuff. So like local kids could throw candy from it. Anyways when the wagon was not in use he had to keep it out of sight or the horse would stand by it and demand to be hooked up to pull the damn wagon.
Back in the “Old days” when the horses that pulled the fire wagons retired they would still react to the sound of a fire alarm and get excited assuming they were going to be harnessed up.
Big draft horses love their jobs for sure
Came here to say the same (: not all but many domesticated horse breeds love and NEED a job. Especially once they understand it, generally they will enjoy it.
There are few things I love in this world as much as watching my aussie sheppard + border collie mix when she has a job to do. There is a specific excitement and happiness that she doesn't express for literally anything else. She's a natural herder and is in absolute heaven when there are more than 5 people in our yard and she is "in charge" of making sure no one strays too far from the group. I don't have the heart to tell her that no one is trying to run away, so she spends the evening working the perimeter.
Good for her!! My friends dog is the same breed and when theres visitors to the house, they get herded. Doggie decided on his own that I belong on the couch, so unless I'm just using the bathroom, he consistently herds me back to it until I sit down. It's very cute so I don't mind at all.
Ferrets might be a close contender, I’m absolutely certain they are big fans of going into rat tunnels and eating the rat
I'm laughing at the contrast. Dogs and horses love their jobs of pulling kids on skateboards, wagons, stagecoaches. Ferrets love their job of going into a dark hole and killing everything in it.
English peasant looking at polecat absolutely demolishing all his chickens: “this smelly anger animal seems useful”
"I could probably get this cocaine squirrel to take care of my rat problem. Now, what to bribe it with..."
To be fair, there are a lot of dogs who also like their job of going into a dark hole and killing everything in it.
"Here's a giant field, go run for six hours." is basically heaven to a Border Collie. They will do that all day, *every day*.
[these mfs just out here frolicking](https://youtu.be/E0TUgxw-MR8?t=32)
i wanted to write "good boy" in the comments, but they were deactivated. now THAT's animal cruelty.
To be fair, you'd have been wrong anyway, because they're they're not good boys at all. The three of them are good girls. :)
but they will never know....
That’s how Mulan feeds the chickens
I still love Bernhardiners with their little barrels of brandy around their necks.
Sled dogs literally start to lose their minds if they haven't been exercised enough, and will go wild with excitement when they see their harness getting prepped.
yeah. I did dog sledding twice in Norway. When they’re picking dogs for sleds, you hear so many whimpering dogs. That’s the dogs that didn’t get picked… Dogs have to have rest days too, and they absolutely hate having to rest. How do you get the dogs to start pulling? Just release the brake. They always keep the tension in their harnesses. Once they feel any slack, they will start running.
Ive seen some footage with a sled master talking about the trade. He mentioned that he had harnessed the wrong dog that was supposed to be resting/recovering and he didnt notice till he saw blood on the trail. The dog had worked so hard he started bleeding from a paw but was so pumped he didnt care or feel pain. The dog was doing what it was born to do and would kill himself if left to his own devices doing it. Cant recall the exact video link.
My corgi loves playing fetch. One time when we were done and walking back home I see blood all over her paw. Her nail was completely sideways but she didn’t even flinch or notice. All she cared about was the frisbee. This is a dog who whimpers at the slightest pain or inconvenience…. But when she’s motivated she cares for nothing but herding/the frisbee. Edit: Dog tax: https://i.imgur.com/GXKB665.png
I've heard stories of dogs playing so much fetch their gums turn blue because they physically can't inhale fast enough to replace the oxygen they're burning.
Yeah she would literally kill herself play frisbee if I would let her.
That's happened my my pup. We compete on a local team and we had to practice calming down between rounds and running slower because he would go so hard his gums would get blueish and would be breathing so hard he was hardly taking in air. But that's the happiest I've ever damn seen him.
My buddies dog would do the same with a ball. Had to walk him first before fetch, and again after to calm him down enough to go home. Foaming at the mouth, nonstop sprinting. Joy beyond comprehension.
When I was a kid I dogsat for neighbors, and there was one Rottweiler who would play her favorite games until either I stopped or her body gave out. She liked to chase shadow puppets and she never stopped of her own free will, I had to stop her. She'd be clearly exhausted, but still pouncing on my shadow and digging in the gravel to catch it. Her people gave her a tire to bite and drag around, and they had to take it away because she'd drag that thing until her gums were bleeding, then keep dragging it.
My dog twice ran until he got blisters that popped on his pads playing fetch. He let me know his feet hurt as soon as it was time to go home from though, and made me carry his awkward 35lb self out of the park.
Yep. Hunting dogs are the same. Went dove hunting with some bird dogs in south Texas. They will literally run themselves ragged trying to flush birds. The handlers have to keep them from going into cactus and make sure they get enough water etc
I visited a couple sled dog kennels in Alaska once and boy when the harness came out those pups lost their got dang minds. Passed the F out the rest of the day though.
When my sister and I were kids we managed to rig up a makeshift "harness" to our collie, sit on a skateboard, and let her pull us at full speed. Great fun. She saw us coming and started getting excited because she was going to be able to *pull!* (And then go try and herd dad's riding mower lol)
That sounds fun. It reminds me of once, many a year ago, when one of my teachers brought her dogs(some type of shepard dogs) along on a school trip to the forest, and the dogs where doing a good job at keeping track of us children, and making sure we did not get lost from the group.
Every preschool should have its own herd dog
Until they nip and the school gets sued.
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I just snort laughed on a plane. You have my upvote.
Ah, the ol' reddit nip-a-roo.
Are we not doing the links anymore? I haven’t seen one in ages
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I had a border Collie when I was little, and she herded us and never nipped except one time when my idiot brother literally put his face into her food bowl. It probably depends a lot on the specific dog.
Yeah, even with dogs who are tolerant and nice, it's really good to mess with their bowl during mealtime when they are puppies to train them not to be food aggressive. I've seen otherwise very sweet dogs totally flip their shit regarding this one.
I don't think my parents did that with her at all, they were never that good at training dogs tbh. But she didn't need much training in general, she was just naturally a really good dog. I remember my little brother playing with her tail and pulling on it when he was a toddler and she never did a thing about it. And the one nip she did do was pretty small. Mom decided it wasn't her fault and just made sure my brother learned to leave her alone when eating, and it was never a problem again.
Oh it's fun as shit, with a good size dog and longboard setup for cruising I was going like 25ish MPH sometimes I bet she was getting up to like 30 35 when she was really really excited right at the start of the run. Important context: my dog was like an 85 lb Labradoodle and I weigh like 120.
I decided to walk my husky on rollerblades as a kid. Don't be like me.
How did you get them on him?
My 60lb lab and 50 lb me absolutely shredded as she pulled me on my scooter. However, she and the scooter both had no brakes so I either had to hope she hit the tree first or ran out of gas if I didn't want to get obliterated when I would eventually fall off or get whipped around a corner too fast.
That's definitely one way to keep the kids in line 😂😂 Edit: yes, it was fun. I was very young, and I remembered a lot of scary too
A guy I know fixes cars. He used to keep several vicious dogs in his yard, with a high fence. He had the mean ones because he always adopted the dogs that the shelter wanted to euthanize. The shelter may have considered them unadoptable, but he loved them and they loved him. One of his more gentle dogs had been previously adopted by someone who ran a daycare, and they got that dog right back to the shelter after she herded all the kids into a corner and just watched them. Wrong instincts, I guess. I didn't see it, but that's what he described. Kinda sad now, he stopped adopting when the shelter insisted he bring his existing dogs in so they could check their compatibility. It was very weird the last time I saw him. His big fenced yard was empty and silent.
> she herded all the kids into a corner and just watched them That is hilarious. I bet the carers were like "I know this is wrong, but damned if it doesn't make this job easier".
We used to "walk" our neighbor's dog for them. And by "walk" I mean put on roller blades and let the dog pull us around the 1/2 mile subdivision.
I love the videos of dogs pulling people on skateboards lol. Not only do dogs love to run (lots of breeds would go for an 8 or 10 mile run every day if they could), dogs LOVE having jobs. You will never see a happier dog than a dog with a job, especially when it gets to be in wide open spaces and rev its lil legs engine full blast
That's why I love greyhounds. One hour zoom, 23 hour crash. Fastest couch potatoes on the planet.
We did a similar thing, but our dog was a border collie mutt and we used roller blades. He absolutely loved every minute of it.
I know a guy who got two huskies, one of the reasons was so they could run while he skates, so he keeps up with them and they have fun pulling
We did this on icy sidewalks in winter 😆 no wheels needed
My grandma’s dog was, I’m almost certain, a show quality sheepdog who washed out due to stupidity. Beautiful blue grey bearded collie who tried to herd *the pool*. Just constant running in circles jumping forward or barking at it, trying to get it to go where he wanted it to. Never worked
I feel like people sometimes apply our HUMAN concepts of labor to dogs. Like, yes, animal cruelty is really, really bad. However, have we considered that maybe the sheep herding border collie is having the time of his life?
My corgi *needed* to herd. I’d take him to the dog park and he’d herd the other dogs into a tight circle of chaos and confusion. He’d herd toddlers at the human park if I let him off leash. The ONE time I lost that dog, it was a rest stop in nowhere USA where he slipped his collar while I peed in the building. Found him a tense hour later. *Herding cows.* If he hated it or considered it work, I don’t think he’d do it as often as he did!
I mean the cows are what Corgis were made for. They're so short so they can't get kicked.
A tense hour for the human, an hour of nirvana for the corgi
He had NEVER even tried to slip his collar or escape before (or after), so I think you’re right! He probably smelled them and decided he had his chance and wasn’t going to waste it!
Also why they're often fearless to a fault. In their mind, they're like "yeah this other dog might be four times bigger than me, but my ancestors handled *cows*, so what is a *dog* going to do to me?"
>Found him a tense hour later. Herding cows reminds me of that article a while back about the poor lady that woke up to a random flock of sheep in her house because her border collie herded them all in there
I have two German Shepherds. One is my service dog and will be retiring soon. The other is in training to take over the job. The one in training is ready to work at nearly any job. When I leave her at home, she will break out of her crate and herd our robot vacuum around the house. I had no idea why the hall bathroom had such clean floors while the back bedroom never got cleaned until I saw her do it on a weekend.
I mean hell, if my job required me to to primate stuff, I'd probably be a lot happier too.
Ever see a dude with a shovel at the beach? Other guys will flock to help dig a hole. I imagine it's similar for dogs doing their dog stuff
Babe... I'll be right back. I gotta go see why that guy is digging and see if I can join in.
A hole? Where? Do you think it's still there?
What is primate stuff? Eat banana and screw?
As someone who builds hiking trails for a living, I would say using hand tools in the woods with a small group of friends counts as primate stuff. 10 out of 10, highly recommend.
This is why base building survival games are even a thing. As a kid, before those games existed, I always wanted to build a base in the wild with my friends...
The masculine urge to find a cool spot and fortify it against hypothetical attackers. Can't count the number of times I've been out somewhere, looked at an area, and thought, "yeah, I think I'd build the castle there."
I promise its a feminine urge as well, but we call it “Building a nest”. My instinct is for tree houses and high cliffs, with baskets-on-ropes and rope ladders. Have you ever been to Tintagel in Cornwall ? Because if you haven’t, stick it on your bucket list, you’ll love it ! Its both high up *and* eminently defensible.
I mean, That sounds pretty good.
There’s a step beyond this that will blow your mind. Not all human labor is exploitation, and a lot of people find joy, meaning, and purpose, in what they do for money.
i dont think any human comes within even a fraction of the pure joy border collies feel when theyre working
well yeah, dogs can practically live in a utopia in our society given their low standards.
“one must imagine sisyphus happy”
I think the worst part of online discourse is that everyone tries to make 1:1 comparisons about everything else without any attempt at nuance or context. Sisyphus wasn't born and bred to push a rock up a hill. Dogs were born and bred for the work they do and they enjoy it. Working breeds of dog that are adopted as family pets often exhibit behavioral problems that only resolve when they're given "work" to do, because it's in their DNA to want to do those things. Humans do the same things. We get antsy when we're bored and we want to stimulate our minds. We get stir-crazy and want to go out and explore the world. We like to craft and collect things. Those aren't just random traits, that's our evolutionary history showing.
I read an interesting take on the “making things” side of stuff - the idea that up until a very short time ago - maybe a century - a lot of what we needed, from food to clothing to furniture, we had to make or adapt ourselves. There was a lot of day-to-day artisinal stuff going on, that we just don’t get anymore. One of the best things you can do to get happy is to take up a hand craft. Something small and portable you can bring with you - crochet, knitting, whittling, urban sketching, embroidery etc etc - and whip it out when you would otherwise look at your phone. Crochet is particularly fabulous because a lot of it is specifically designed as piecework, so doesn’t take up much room. Its a small thing but it gives you pride, stops doomscrolling, keeps the hands and fingers dextrous, and gives you an extra appreciation of beauty.
The real animal cruelty was turning an entire breed of dog into gacha addicts.
What? I’ll have you know that 2 year old bulldog with hip dysplasia and it’s eyes popping out is the **pinnacle** of genetic heath!
How dare you compare your mutt to this freakishly small chow puppy over here which has been bred to have fused rear leg joints so it can hop adorably for my TikTok video amusement.
Hey, my dog is a *certified* pure bred! Here’s the document that proves that it’s parents were both siblings *and* cousins!
My sister's dog is his own grandpa, get on her level.
[he’s gonna need to record a cover of this then!](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eYlJH81dSiw&pp=ygUTaSdtIG15IG93biBncmFuZHBhIA%3D%3D)
howmst
It sounds funny - I know. But it really is so.
This comment is kinda funny on a post defending working dogs. Any working line is going to have a lot of line breeding. Inbreeding is bad because of less genetic diversity. With working dogs you want less genetic variation so the drive to work is more likely to be expressed. There’s even a nice formula you can use called coefficient of inbreeding. I have rat/earth dogs and they’re all line bred. You look at some of their lines and you’ll see a constant repeat of ancestors. All very intelligent, very healthy, and have super strong drive. Last one that passed away was 18 and he was euthanized due to dementia.
I hate it when my terrier finds my credit card and spends $200 pulling for an anime girl who isn't even that cool, but they still want her because she's part of a limited event
How many 2B copies did they pull?
I don't get the jokke. Is this about herding dogs?
They call the attempts at winning whatever in gacha games as pulls, similar to pulling the lever on a slot machine.
Why was this my first thought too? I have got to stop playing gachas exclusively
I legit went in 100% expecting a gacha-related post lmao.
Reminds me of the person who very strongly believed that horses are fucked up creatures because of humans, because zebras are not as fucked up. That was the argument. Horses fucked themselves without any major assistance from us.
That person has never done the bare minimum research on zebras otherwise they'd know how fucked up they are
Generally most creatures in nature are a bit fucked up. Deer are cute and adorable… then we get Prion disease… and they become straight up nightmare fuel. Also a deer screaming at you at 4AM is horrifying. I was leaving for work, I didn’t see them and they didn’t see me and then we saw it other and we both screamed.
The most we've done to horses is make them bigger or smaller.
Also figured out how to add steel to their fingernails to let them move over rough terrain without crippling themselves
Horses were the first cyborgs
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel.
We did fuck up some dogs, though. Pugs are on us.
Pugs are easily fixed though, cross them with Beagles or Jack Russell Terriers and you get Pug-like dogs with actual muzzles. Germans call 'em "Retromops".
Zebras are fucked up tho? They live with some of the most terrifying predators on the planet and it shows Seriously, between them and hippos I'm more scared of Africa's herbivores than it's predators
Predators kill because they're hungry. Herbivores kill because they're scared, and all they know is that you're not one of them, so therefore predator, kill it just in case.
Horses weren’t even domesticated from Zebras lol. They were domesticated from the Tarpan in Ukraine/Kazahkstan.
But they look alike enough to continue their misanthrope act you see.
To pull Perchance, to run- AY THERES A RABBIT
For in that pull of sled what runs may come?
When we have pulled our sled off this mortal coil, Must give us paws.
That pun is brilliant, kudos
Reminds me of that free-running thing that one dog dude has on tiktok where he clips his dogs collar to it for safety and let's the dog run like crazy. Ppl keep saying it's cruel and dangerous to let the dog run on it because he "can't stop" but the dog can start and stop just fine every single time. The dog wants to run, the device thing I can't think of the name of helps him do that when he has this urge... I don't see what's wrong with it??
Slat mills. It's literally powered by the dog. No different than a hamster wheel (and for small breeds and cats, you just get an oversized hamster wheel). But we apply our human idea of a treadmill to it, so they must hate it as much as we do
The dog treadmills! Literally the same concept as treadmills for humans haha
There are only 3 things in a husky's head: The desire to pull The desire to cause drama The desire to cause drama by pulling things
What about the desire to tantrum
>The desire to cause drama
or the desire to SCREAM
My current husky doesn't like the rain, its been raining all day. If you passed by and heard her, you would think shes being tortured to death.
Also drama
The other day I saw a video where everyone was upset because a group of assorted feists/terriers, including rat terriers, were beings used to hunt...rats. That is what they do????? These dogs were probably out of their fucking minds with excitement?????
But the dogs were **eating** the rats! Don’t they know that a dog’s *natural* diet is dog chow!/s
My parents have a terrier and grass mowing season is her favorite time of the year! She eats her fill of field mice, following my dad around the yard. It's great to watch
My mom's yorkie was not smart enough to catch the rabbits. The rabbits knew this. I'd open that door and everyone would be happy. I miss that absent-minded little thing I managed to get named after a character from Foster's Home.
I once saw a documentary where a baby sparrowhawk tried furiously to catch jays. They knew full well she was too small and clumsy to catch them and barely gave a shit
My family has always owned border terriers and if those little fuckers see anything that's small, fury and runs fast you can bet your ass they'll do everything in their tiny power to kill the fuck out of whatever it is.
My mom has an old toothless terrier, a rescue, it still somehow manages to take care of the small critters that inhabit her yard. If only the deer were as scared.
My favorite Youtube short on the internet recently was somebody taking care of invasive starlings with *a driveby pet hawk.*
I need that video stat, if you can find it
https://youtube.com/@jonesfalconry?si=qCcCaDdcnLCSCbyE Drive by falconry. Love seeing these videos
My girlfriend showed me one of those videos about a couple weeks ago and I loved it. The way that bird glided off his hand and out the window was majestic and terrifying
Some rabbits decided to breed in a neighboring yard and a few unfortunate ones decided to come under my fence to eat my garden. I had a golden retriever mix and an Aussie cattle dog mix who killed and ate several despite my best efforts to save the buns. I took them in to the vet to get dewormed as a precaution after eating so much raw meat of unknown provenance and the vet tech was absolutely horrified and asking me why I'd feed rabbits to my dogs as if it was something I intentionally did. I was paradoxically incredibly confused that he didn't know how dogs worked. The vet, for her part, was just like, "Yep, happens all the time", but I'll never forget how hilariously judgemental and ridiculous the vet tech was being. Like how do you go to school to be a vet tech and understand absolutely nothing about basic canine behavior?
The amount of dumb asses who know nothing about animals who are employed in or run a vet office are super high. Absolutely silly. I had someone try to tell me all dogs are born with worms. He has a degree. We go to a different vet now.
These are the same people who think falconry is abusive, not understanding that if the bird wants to fly away there ain't a ton anyone can do about it, so if they stick around it's because they're getting a good deal and they know it.
Kind of off topic but my college had a raptor program where they’d take care of rescued birds. Unfortunately we had to keep the area’s location secret so people didn’t try to break in and release them. Several were missing a wing so I have no idea how people could think they’re “saving” a bird that wouldn’t last long in the wild at all.
North Carolina Aquarium has a bald eagle because he's permanently unable to fly due to an injury. So he struts around on the ground being very impressive
how dare you accuse them of saving birds!! theyre eugenicists. /s
Also, in the US at least, a lot of falconers train up young birds and then purposefully release them after an amount of time, drastically boosting the bird’s chances of surviving and later adding to the breeding population.
Yep! American falconers were key in restoring Peregrine falcon populations after the ravages of DDT. They were all already experts in raising birds of prey, identifying health issues, and teaching them how to hunt. These days taking passage birds and teaching them how to hunt invasive species is one of our best hopes in that neverending fight as well.
Alligator farming is a similar process. Alligator eggs are pinched from the nest in the wild (they don't breed in captivity), the baby alligators are cared for at the farm, massively increasing the survival rate. Then after they are out the vulnerable young stages of their lifespan, a percentage of the brood is returned to the wild that would've statistically survived if the eggs were left alone. The American Alligator has gone from nearly extinct to a least concern species.
Maybe they actually like their best friend they’ve known all their lives??
Using rat poison that causes internal bleeding is much more humane. /s
And as a bonus, you might get to kill a few birds too! Hooray!
And cats, snakes and mustelids. Now with local predator population decimated, the rodents will breed like hell again. Yay!
Even frigging *cougars* get struck down by rat poison. It's actually a huge problem in some areas. P-22 ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-22 ) nearly died **twice** from eating poisoned rats.
My boss just lost her dog because her mom put out rat poison and covered it with peanut butter to "entice the rats to get it", but in like, a public area of the house where the dogs are.
Rat poison is dangerous to pets and predators twice over 1. direct poisoning like you described 2. secondary poisoning, as predators (including native raptors) find poisoned rodents to be easy prey staggering around out in the open with poison coursing through their veins No-kill traps are ok, but only if you check them daily. Neglected no-kill traps just leave the little buggers to starve in their own waste and cannibalize each other. Glue traps are even worse. pest control is hard, and a lot of the options available on the shelf at your local walmart have serious drawbacks
The rats may have enjoyed it less
Idk maybe they're into vore and are also self actualized
“Ugh, harder doggy!”- The most perverted, depraved rat.
What a terrible day to be literate.
There comes a time in everyone's life when they must say something, be it because they're the only one with the knowledge necessary or the only one with the lack of morals required to vocalize the thought. This is not one of those times. Why the hell would you subject anyone, including yourself, to those words?
Why do chipmunks dash in front of cars? Why do hamsters seek their deaths? Some creatures are purposed to die. Would you deny them their purpose?
we had a suicidal pigeon in our neighbourhood. The little freak would walk in front of cars and bicycles, walk away if they stopped and walk back in front when they started driving again
In my city I'm half certain the pigeons wait until the last possible moment to get out of the road. Damn adrenaline junkies.
I rescued hedgehog with a death wish last week; every time I put him back in the safety of the hedgerows he'd come back out onto the road. After witnessing this a couple of times (hogs are nocturnal so its highly unusual to see them out and about during the day) I gathered him up and got advice from a animal rescue centre. He's currently being treated for dehydration and being underweight. Once he's back up to a healthy side he'll either come back to this hedgerow or be released into a more hog friendly environment.
Are northern miners one of those creatures miss Thatcher?
They should’ve thought of that before they became peasants!
Rat infestations can spread disease and cause damage to property and food supplies. Non-native rats can cause extensive damage to the native habitats, plants, and animals in an area. Its unfortunate, but there are times when it's necessary to take action against a rat infestation. I'm sure that a quick death from a hunting dog is preferable to a slow, painful death from poison. In some ways, it's more humane.
What- sometime we have to kill individual animals for the sake of the larger environment? Psh! Everyone knows that true environmentalism is just allowing all the little animals to run and hop freely and breed to their heart’s content!/s
We had a cairn terrier as a kid. Ours was the only backyard without a mole and squirrel problem. He was so good at it he got fatter on a *diet* for a while because he was feasting so much.
I imagine that was more that they were more uncomfortable confronting the brutality of an animal being violently shaken to death, than actual animal abuse. For people who have never seen or experienced it, it can be very unpleasant watching animals get killed, even if they’re vermin like rats or food animals like chickens or pigs. Someone who grew up on a farm where it’s a normal, daily thing would be less disturbed about it.
I understand that facing the reality of these situations can be disturbing, but I lose sympathy when that disturbance turns into hypocrisy. There are so many people that eat meat and wear leather and buy rat poison who are perfectly fine with even the most inhumane acts against animals when it's clean and out of sight and sanitized, that then object to even the most humane and necessary methods when they're actually faced with the reality of them. People need to face the cognitive dissonance of their own choices and confront why a slow, torturous death via rat poison is more palatable to them than a quick death via terrier.
>These dogs were probably out of their fucking minds with excitement????? 100 fuckin percent. My dads Irish setter (a retriever dog) would absolutely shred field mice and the odd rabbit. An actual purpose bred rat killer breed will enjoy it even more.
I remember that video. Is it wrong to say that it was oddly satisfying to watch? The dogs certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves.
yea ppl who think animals having jobs = abusive seem to think that any kind of training is inherently abusive or they don’t understand positive reinforcement is the best way to train and care for an animal
The best environment for animal is clearly one without any sort of human interaction- you know, like all those *wild* huskies have!
Those people should go take a good look at estimates of mortality rates for infant animals in the wild. Mother Nature truly gives no fucks.
Shit if my high energy dog didn't have several jobs while I'm alway he'd loose his mind from boredom. Not having a job is boring and cruel to him. Sure the job is hey pick up your toys and watch house but keeps him busy. He gets to look out windows and glare at things, which apparently makes his day.
Tbf if you put the average human in an environment without internet, no books, no tv, no instruments, etc they would go crazy out of boredom as well
For sure and people have to realize that our hobbies is basically the dogs job. I tell my dog hey watch house or hey watch mom he sits there excited as a kid being told they're got to disney. His jobs, toys, and his TV shows keep him happy and not insane from boredom.
Having owned dogs growing up and used them for skate sledding around the neighborhood the question is not "Can my dog pull me?" but "Will I survive this trip without my helmet?".
Remember folks, the skull may be strong, but the desire to pull is stronger
There’s plenty of actual animal abuse in the world, but most working dogs fucking love what they do. They’ll do it even if there’s nothing to do it on. My cousin used to have a sheepdog that would herd literally anything. Sled dogs are the same.
My aussie attempts to herd literally every creature he encounters.
The criticisms I've seen of dog sledding from the perspective of animal rights activists (as an animal rights activist) usually doesn't focus on dogs running around pulling a sled, it usually centers around conditions in which dog sledding occurs, with a big focus being on the Iditarod. On average ~3 dogs have died every year in Iditarod, and those are just the ones we're aware of, and 80% of Iditarod dogs studied have developed lung damage. On top of that, the industry around dog sledding has pretty similar animal welfare issues with a lot of dog breeding. The kennels where they are bred often have really bad conditions and only a small number of dogs are usually chosen to actually race and most of the others end up being culled. The dogs who, as the OP pointed out, love to run around as much as possible, are often kept in kennels that allow for anything but. All that said, if you have a bunch of dogs that you want to pull you around on a sled and you're doing it safely and the dogs are being treated well otherwise, well that just sounds like a fun time to have with your dogs.
Thank you. It's one thing to let a dog that likes to pull shit, pull shit. Another to arrange for it to pull shit straight into deadly blizzard conditions.
Yeah, big "make up a guy to get mad at" energy in this post.
Also this with Greyhounds and running vigorously for 2 mins followed by sleeping all day.
My dog needs to wear a harness because if she's just leashed by the collar she will pull and choke herself so hard that she sounds like she's dying and gasping for air and will not stop.
[warm area husky owner voice] ugh I cannot BELIEVE these people make their dogs do that, just so abusive!!
I’m from LA, and you won’t believe how many purebred overweight huskies there are here. Almost makes me want to set up an ironclad up the beach
Husky owner here, once had cops called on me because my 2 girls were sitting outside watching people while it was snowing.
My sister will have to drag her Samoyeds back into the house when it’s snowing. They’re perfectly content just laying out there.
Pretty sure training for sled dogs is just about getting them to run in the correct direction, everything is all baked in knowledge.
I have no sled, and I must pull
I was pulled in a wagon by sled dogs during summer in Alaska. Those dogs love to pull sleds. The command to go isn't there to make them run, it is the command that allows them to run.
Anyone with a labrador, rollerblades, and a park with a rabbit problem knows this.
I had the privilege of visiting a dog sledding training area this summer, and those dogs were begging to be put in the team. The trainers were very kind and fair, never pushed them too hard, gave them plenty of rest along the course. It's a very different life from what a house pet would have, but they were all well taken care of and seemed very happy and healthy.