abiggishdog

[abiggishdog]

John Brosio, State of the Union, 2011, oil on canvas

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rats?

rats!

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“Dogs don’t know what they look like. Dogs don’t even know what size they are. No doubt it’s our fault, for breeding them into such weird shapes and sizes. My brother’s dachshund, standing tall at eight inches, would attack a Great Dane in the full conviction that she could tear it apart. When a little dog is assaulting its ankles the big dog often stands there looking confused — “Should I eat it? Will it eat me? I am bigger than it, aren’t I?” But then the Great Dane will come and try to sit in your lap and mash you flat, under the impression that it is a Peke-a-poo… Cats know exactly where they begin and end. When they walk slowly out the door that you are holding open for them, and pause, leaving their tail just an inch or two inside the door, they know it. They know you have to keep holding the door open. That is why their tail is there. It is a cat’s way of maintaining a relationship. Housecats know that they are small, and that it matters. When a cat meets a threatening dog and can’t make either a horizontal or a vertical escape, it’ll suddenly triple its size, inflating itself into a sort of weird fur blowfish, and it may work, because the dog gets confused again — “I thought that was a cat. Aren’t I bigger than cats? Will it eat me?” … A lot of us humans are like dogs: we really don’t know what size we are, how we’re shaped, what we look like. The most extreme example of this ignorance must be the people who design the seats on airplanes. At the other extreme, the people who have the most accurate, vivid sense of their own appearance may be dancers. What dancers look like is, after all, what they do.”

— Ursula Le Guin, in The Wave in the Mind (via fortooate)

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when dogs want to play & do this, like if you agree

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this bread tiny

yeast

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In January this year, I attended Dr. Amy Cook’s PLAY WAY seminar at Pasadena Humane Society.

The seminar was about “social play” as a tool for rehabilitating reactive/stressed/fearful dogs. “Social Play” has been defined as something different from playing with toys (tug, fetch, etc) It is literally “goofing around” with your dog in a way that they like that makes them happy. Body language responsiveness, movement and timing is everything.

Not only did we get to see some inspiring and entertaining video footage of Amy Cook playing with her dogs, some attendees had also brought their own dogs to play with, while Amy offered coaching.  

It was an amazing and delightful experience and I couldn’t wait to get home to play with my 15 year old Boogie who hasn’t been interested in Tug or Fetch in over a year due to his vision loss.

The Play Way class was like learning a new language, a new vocabulary. You had to be there.

As far as I know, there is no other information out there on how to play with your dog without using toys, and until this seminar, I had no idea that dogs LAUGH. (I don’t think Boogie has ever laughed)

This infographic cannot possibly do justice to all the material covered in the Play Way seminar, which also focused on play as “therapy”. For now, I hope this is enough to pique everyone’s interest in the subject. This is another way to be mindful and respectful of our dog’s body language and of our own body language. I still have a lot to learn!

- Lili

LINKS:

Download Poster here in high-res (shareable without modifications, and with attribution)

Amy Cook’s online Play Way class 

Doggie Language - my new forthcoming book will have more art on dog body language. 

[abiggishdog]

CAT by  By 九米 / Zhaobangni (1631123)

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Foiled!

Today I got to go on one of our runs to more rural shelters to help relieve overcrowding there. We ended up bringing back 21 kittens and 10 dogs. So fun day. But this morning, while I was getting stuff together in preparation for the 90 minute drive…. This happened.

Excuse you Tiniest Opossum, but you are NOT allowed to escape through the front bars of the cat carrier we were housing you in. I’m going to put you back.

“NO!”

I am going to catch you and put you back and you have no say in this matter.

“NO!”

Catching you and putting you back now.

“NOOOOOO!”

Aaaand back you go. Let go of the purple towel and go in the cardboard box.

“Noooooooooooo!”

[abiggishdog]

misc Allie photos, because I suspect a lot of these were on my deceased blogs. one powerhouse girl

[abiggishdog]

I’ve revamped my Patreon page, adding 3 new tiers that give you the option to get art from me every month. I haven’t been updating a lot on Patreon, but starting in March I really want to get back into posting and I’m hoping to get some new patrons as well! Please head over to check it out and donate if you are able; even if you’re only able to donate for a month or two, you can still get some rewards and I’m looking forward to creating new stuff and possibly adding even more tiers between $5 and $20.

My goal is to get back up to 50 patrons, and then hopefully hit 75 so I can start planning livestreams again. I updated my main page with some more information about monthly expenses as well, so hopefully that’ll give everything some context. Check it out and spread the word if you can! Thank you so much.

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JUST LET ME BE.

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“I made these” 

AWh yes you did vi-

“And I can unmake them if you dont give me that cookie rn”

o ok

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Grocery shopping

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I think the aquarium has taken on a sunken jungle look and honestly? I’m a big fan