the dog above is a malinois, a super high drive dog that can do just about anything. they excel at nosework, any kind of work task you can train them, and protection work (running, biting and detaining). They're not naturally mean or aggressive, but really really high drive with an amped prey drive, so it's all about what you train them to do. nosework dogs can be trained to sniff for bombs, drugs, corpses, and now even diseases like covid or cancer for instance. You could take a bomb dog and retrain them to smell for drugs, because they understand the basic mecanism, but obviously, the dog will perform better on the task if it has a lot of experience. you can use a large variety of dogs for nosework, so you'll see TSA bomb dogs that are like cute cuddly labs and hounds, but if you want to use the dog for law enforcement or military functions, you need something like a malinois, dutch shepherd, german shepherd that have high prey drives and lowered fear reaction. I have a dutchie, and she's an amazing dog, but is nothing like my parent's standard poodles for instance--she requires a lot of training and management. We do not use her for protection (other than barking at anything that makes a noise on our porch I guess). Anyway, they're perfectly loving and friendly dogs, but they require you to build a relationship with them, they do not approach situations with strangers with an open heart like a nice golden retriever does.
Oh, that's some good DOG FACTS right there, Hotspur. Which is a totally great name tho. If I ever commandeer a three master tall-ship and leave for the sea and a life if piracy, that's totes what I'm gonna name my ship. The Hotspur!
Where was I. Oh, yeah, dope DOG FACTS. Your dog sounds like a great pal. Give her my best.
yeah SAR dogs get really depressed and get PTSD just like other first responders. If they've had a bad day, like only finding dead people in rubble after a building collapse, the handler will often stage a find with a friend so that the dog can find someone alive, because they will seriously get depressed and start to burn out. There's nothing naturally evil in dogs, it's just what we do to them that's evil. Kinda like kids, I guess... I suppose you can have a few natural psychopaths in both kids and dogs, but usually, it's abuse or mistreatment that results in the real bad stuff.
the handler will often stage a find with a friend so that the dog can find someone alive, because they will seriously get depressed and start to burn out
Hey, every job hurts. At least they seem to have peeps to give a hoot for them. I could tell you the psycho shit they used to do to train military dogs in my country. That shit's DARK. So i aint. They made it illegal tho, so it hopefully aint happening no more. But damn, that shit had me feeling NOT ALRIGHT for days.
Huh. That sounded like I'm okay with dogs having mental trauma, which was totally not my point. Fuck. That wasn't it. Bad Take. Bad Take by me right there. My most grievous bad. Mea maxima culpa.
Yeah it's a bit of a dilemma. On the one hand, it's probably not ethically all that great that humans practice intense eugenics creating non-natural dogs for work and companionship. That said, they did, and the dogs exist. I suppose I could buy an argument that we need to phase out breeding and domestic pet ownership on a moral level along the lines of the moral argument against breeding and killing livestock, etc, but until that day, there is a net ethical good in responsible pet ownership.
For my personal example, I have a Dutch Shepherd from a police line of dogs (dutch KNPV). She did not have the maximum desirable traits that the breeder looks for, so he didn't want to breed her, and would have likely sent her to central america for "executive protection" duty, ie guarding some rich asshole or cartel boss or whatever. Instead, we got her, and she gets lots of scratching, delicious food and gets to chase squirrels and guard her den (our home). It's not a horrible outcome for her, and certainly is a great outcome for us--she gives us lots of love and companionship.
re: dogs working, it's another tricky concept. If the working involves what would be abuse, I'd completely agree. For some dogs, like mine, that have been generationally selected to have high drive, they are actually much happier and more content if they have "jobs". In our case, since we're not professional dog handlers, her jobs are silly things around the house, like holding on her place mat, or fetching things, or "helping" me with the compost. But working dogs get a lot of satisfaction out of using their noses, and other abilities, in concert with a handler to do stuff.
If the pet is vegan, not in a cage, not from a breeder and basically stays just because they like their human that's pretty good I guess, but I don't think that's the bulk of pets. I sounds like your dog had a great life
Murdering some animals to feed others makes 0 sense to me. Cats aren't part of nature, you can't exactly compare feeding them kibble to a lion hunting. By breeding carnivores or allowing more carnivores to be born you're directly contributing to the murder of thousands of animals, all in the name of saving other animals. Why are pets' lives more important than other domesticated animals'? Is it just because they makes us selfish humans happy?
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Are drug dogs and bomb dogs strictly different or are they sometimes trained for both? If a dog is a cop I'm automatically sus.
the dog above is a malinois, a super high drive dog that can do just about anything. they excel at nosework, any kind of work task you can train them, and protection work (running, biting and detaining). They're not naturally mean or aggressive, but really really high drive with an amped prey drive, so it's all about what you train them to do. nosework dogs can be trained to sniff for bombs, drugs, corpses, and now even diseases like covid or cancer for instance. You could take a bomb dog and retrain them to smell for drugs, because they understand the basic mecanism, but obviously, the dog will perform better on the task if it has a lot of experience. you can use a large variety of dogs for nosework, so you'll see TSA bomb dogs that are like cute cuddly labs and hounds, but if you want to use the dog for law enforcement or military functions, you need something like a malinois, dutch shepherd, german shepherd that have high prey drives and lowered fear reaction. I have a dutchie, and she's an amazing dog, but is nothing like my parent's standard poodles for instance--she requires a lot of training and management. We do not use her for protection (other than barking at anything that makes a noise on our porch I guess). Anyway, they're perfectly loving and friendly dogs, but they require you to build a relationship with them, they do not approach situations with strangers with an open heart like a nice golden retriever does.
Interesting!
Oh, that's some good DOG FACTS right there, Hotspur. Which is a totally great name tho. If I ever commandeer a three master tall-ship and leave for the sea and a life if piracy, that's totes what I'm gonna name my ship. The Hotspur!
Where was I. Oh, yeah, dope DOG FACTS. Your dog sounds like a great pal. Give her my best.
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Dogs are definitely good if they help people. Watching videos of rescue dogs just melts my heart, they're so happy to help save people.
yeah SAR dogs get really depressed and get PTSD just like other first responders. If they've had a bad day, like only finding dead people in rubble after a building collapse, the handler will often stage a find with a friend so that the dog can find someone alive, because they will seriously get depressed and start to burn out. There's nothing naturally evil in dogs, it's just what we do to them that's evil. Kinda like kids, I guess... I suppose you can have a few natural psychopaths in both kids and dogs, but usually, it's abuse or mistreatment that results in the real bad stuff.
That is so sweet and sad. 😭
nooooooooo why would you tell me this :(
Hey, every job hurts. At least they seem to have peeps to give a hoot for them. I could tell you the psycho shit they used to do to train military dogs in my country. That shit's DARK. So i aint. They made it illegal tho, so it hopefully aint happening no more. But damn, that shit had me feeling NOT ALRIGHT for days.
Huh. That sounded like I'm okay with dogs having mental trauma, which was totally not my point. Fuck. That wasn't it. Bad Take. Bad Take by me right there. My most grievous bad. Mea maxima culpa.
It didn’t sound like that to me, don’t worry. You’re being too hard on yourself.
Animals shouldn't be made to work
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for fun? Sure. But why make it a job? I guess I'm a bit too vegan for that. Should pets even exist? Idk
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Yeah it's a bit of a dilemma. On the one hand, it's probably not ethically all that great that humans practice intense eugenics creating non-natural dogs for work and companionship. That said, they did, and the dogs exist. I suppose I could buy an argument that we need to phase out breeding and domestic pet ownership on a moral level along the lines of the moral argument against breeding and killing livestock, etc, but until that day, there is a net ethical good in responsible pet ownership.
For my personal example, I have a Dutch Shepherd from a police line of dogs (dutch KNPV). She did not have the maximum desirable traits that the breeder looks for, so he didn't want to breed her, and would have likely sent her to central america for "executive protection" duty, ie guarding some rich asshole or cartel boss or whatever. Instead, we got her, and she gets lots of scratching, delicious food and gets to chase squirrels and guard her den (our home). It's not a horrible outcome for her, and certainly is a great outcome for us--she gives us lots of love and companionship.
re: dogs working, it's another tricky concept. If the working involves what would be abuse, I'd completely agree. For some dogs, like mine, that have been generationally selected to have high drive, they are actually much happier and more content if they have "jobs". In our case, since we're not professional dog handlers, her jobs are silly things around the house, like holding on her place mat, or fetching things, or "helping" me with the compost. But working dogs get a lot of satisfaction out of using their noses, and other abilities, in concert with a handler to do stuff.
If the pet is vegan, not in a cage, not from a breeder and basically stays just because they like their human that's pretty good I guess, but I don't think that's the bulk of pets. I sounds like your dog had a great life
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Murdering some animals to feed others makes 0 sense to me. Cats aren't part of nature, you can't exactly compare feeding them kibble to a lion hunting. By breeding carnivores or allowing more carnivores to be born you're directly contributing to the murder of thousands of animals, all in the name of saving other animals. Why are pets' lives more important than other domesticated animals'? Is it just because they makes us selfish humans happy?