Stuff for the hoard

that these women weren’t forced into this work

that these women are of age

that these women were treated properly on set

that these women are okay with it being released in the format it has been released(onto which website/etc)

I don’t tend to agree with any simple hashtag/blanket statements in topics regarding animal welfare.

I disagree with the premise of shaming people for where they got their dog from. Because it doesn’t actually help the dog or put backyard breeders and puppy farms out of business.

It can also make well meaning people adopt a dog they were not ready for, thinking that they’re doing the Right Thing by adopting from a shelter but being matched poorly or taken advantage of by an irresponsible rescue.

Good, responsible breeders will always have a policy of taking back a puppy or dog so that the dog they bred doesn’t end up in a shelter.

Genetics plays a massive role in dog behaviour- we have genetically selected for specific traits over thousands of years to ensure that. Yet there was this bizarre movement that came up in the early 2010’s that, in response to breed specific legislation, the message of “it’s all in how you raise them” got pushed and suddenly people decided genetics didn’t matter and it was all about training.

Nature-nurture debates always ends with the same answer: it’s both. And if you want the best chance of getting predictable behaviour in a dog to fit a specific role - whether that’s a working dog, sports or just a good pet, a good breeder who is health testing and breeding good dogs is your best bet.

A rescue will be less likely to be as predictable. That doesn’t mean the dog is immediately going to have lots of issues and be aggressive - but your expectations need to be far more tempered and reasonable.

Getting a rescue can be absolutely amazing - my rescue greyhound is a joy and I’d never change a thing. But there were certain expectations I had to lower for him. He wasn’t overly cuddly to start, very little food drive (he had to learn how to eat food on walks), he had some resource guarding issues, he’s extremely environment focused so it can be difficult to do off leash work with him and he wasn’t very interested in doing lots of training or sports. We’ve worked through a lot of that together and I’m a better dog guardian for it.

But when I got Myx, who was initially a puppy the breeder kept but then decided to find a home for, it was so different. She loves to train all the time, she loves sports, she snuggles in bed with me. All my needs were met and they both give each other confidence in different areas.

I’ve had clients take on rescues in a very well meaning way but are disappointed when the dog is far too anxious to be the cafe dog of their dreams and they have to lower their expectations. It might be a goal they can work towards over time but it’s going to be an ongoing process and needs patience.

In contrast, a friend of mine is doing puppy raising for an assistance dog program. She had this 14 week old puppy already settling on a mat in the middle of a busy cafe, relaxed and resting - with hardly any training at all.

That’s genetics - training only gets you so far.

I don’t want to discourage people from rescue either - but picking the right rescue who will match you with the right dog and provide transition support is just as important as finding a responsible breeder.

You shouldn’t bring a rescue dog into your home because you felt pressured or guilty or have some sort of moral obligation. You should bring a rescue dog into your home because you found the right match and you are able to provide for that dog’s needs. Some dogs transition just fine with no issues, others need more support. As does a puppy from a breeder, mind you.

Anyway, adopt don’t shop does very little to stop the source of the problem (puppy mills, whoops litters, backyard breeders, shitty landlords and no pets policies for rentals) - it doesn’t stop shelters and rescues filling up and can lead to well meaning people adopting a rescue they were not prepared for.

If you want to “shop” you have the responsibility to source a puppy from a responsible registered breeder who is ensuring the longevity, health and behavioural soundness of the breed.

If you want to “adopt”, ensure you are going through a rescue who is matching you to the right dog. Any rescue that lets you go in and pick a dog without any sort of matching criteria and/or home visit is a red flag. And if you do want to adopt, do it because you have the capacity to have a rescue dog and not just because it sounds nice. Make sure you have the resources to get help or have the skills required to do any sort of behaviour rehabilitation work.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t rescue dogs that immediately transition into home life with no issues, but you shouldn’t immediately be expecting that because not every dog is quite so resilient.

The two ethical choices for getting a dog are A) responsible rescue/shelter, or B) responsible breeder.

Good rescues/shelters clean up the mistakes made by unethical breeders and careless owners. If you're looking for a household pet, and especially if you want to bring one home soon, looking into rescues is a great option. A good rescue will have workers/volunteers who can tell you a lot about the dogs in their care, and can match you with an individual dog whose needs and personality are a good fit: no guesswork of the "this is what this breed is usually like" variety.

A responsible breeder is breeding dogs for a reason: sports, showing, work, improving the breed, something other than, "This breed is cute/popular and will sell well." They're matching carefully-selected dogs with the hope of producing offspring with specific traits--and for avoiding known health problems with the breed.

They're producing small numbers of litters--3 litters, total, is a reasonable number to breed from a given female dog, over her childbearing years; maybe 4 or even 5 at the outside, if she has an easy time of it and gets an early start. (A responsible breeder is not going to start her dogs having litters as soon as they physically can; first of all, it isn't good for them, and secondly, she's not going to make the decision that their genes should be passed on, until she's seen them succeed in the activity that they're being bred for.)

A responsible breeder with a large kennel (and circumstances that allow her to make this her full-time occupation) may have a litter almost every year, but usually it will be a lot less often than that. She'll often have people lined up before the mating even takes place, who are interested in a puppy--especially for whatever fraction of the litter come out as show/sport/working prospects, but likely also for the "pet quality" puppies, too. (No matter how carefully you plan a match, some puppies will get a bigger helping of the desired traits than others.)

Depending on how the litter turns out, once they're born and big enough to start assessing, she might have one or three available to "pet homes," which will be screened just as carefully as the "show homes" (or agility homes, or working homes, or whatever it is).

TL:DR, if somebody is advertising an entire litter on Facebook Marketplace or w/e, they are, by definition, not a responsible breeder. They could be a perfectly decent person who ended up with an "oops" litter, for entirely understandable and sympathetic reasons, but you probably don't want to be encouraging that behavior by giving them money for their oops. If you want an "oops" puppy, getting one from a rescue is how you know that your adoption fee isn't going to result in your puppy's mama getting bred again as soon as she's able.

(My late dog, Sophie, was breeding stock at a puppy mill, who was dumped when she had some kind of trouble with her last litter. The shelter was able to nurse her back to health, and I think I was able to give her a great life for the few years she had with me, but she had a lot of issues, physical and mental.

Washington Post is paywalling the article but it looks like Taylor Farms — a consumer bagged salad brand that also supplies produce to grocers and fast food chains like Taco Bell, Walmart, McDonald's, Chipotle, Burger King, KFC, and Meijer —may be at least one of the sources of the current cyclosporiasis outbreak.

the way you frame your conversations is important! People with dementia are often, particularly at the earlier stages, very much aware that their memory is getting worse. This can make them very anxious, which isn't fun for anyone, least of all them. One of the most common things that people say to people with dementia is "do you remember ___?" as a way to try and prompt their memory. This feels helpful, but it's not. Because hey, in all likelihood, that person does not remember ___, and being confronted with this fact is not going to make them feel great. Remember that they literally have a degenerative brain disease; they're not going to suddenly regain their memories because you tested them. Instead, try talking about your own memories. Tell them what you remember. Tell it like a story. If they remember, then they can join in. If not, then hey, it's a nice story.

don't correct them if they say something wrong. Their version of reality is not going to be the same as yours. That's just a given. My grandma is often convinced that she's just on a very long holiday in a nice hotel, and that her dad is waiting outside in the car. I'm not going to tell her "uh, actually, you're in a care home and your dad died 50 years ago," because who's that going to help? Quite literally no-one. It'll just confuse her more, and she's already confused enough. Even if the person is saying something that's making them anxious - a common one is believing that people are stealing from them, or that someone is being unkind to them - then it's easier to try and distract them by trying to talk about something that you know makes them happy, rather than to outright tell them that they're wrong. Being consistently told that they're wrong can make them react defensively; they're not children, and they (usually) know it. It's just easier not to get into a confrontation.

get used to repetition. Don't get frustrated when you have the same conversation 25 times in two minutes. It's going to happen. For them, it's the first time you've had that conversation; they won't understand why you're angry at them for asking a question. It's completely normal to feel frustrated, but the onus is on you not to make it their problem. My grandma's short term memory is, charitably, about 3 seconds long. A conversation with her at this point is like rehearsing for a play; I know her lines, and I know mine. That's just how it is. She gets just as much joy out of telling me that she likes my cardigan for the 86th time as she did the first time she said it. People with dementia are not able to retain the information or the memory of that previous conversation; reminding them that you've already answered their question is just going to confuse and upset them.

don't take things personally. They might say things that are unkind. They might say completely inappropriate things. Again: their brain is deteriorating. It is a medical condition. They're not becoming bad people, or showing their 'true selves' to be evil and rage-fuelled. It's a combination of the fact that they're living in a perpetual state of confusion, which can lead to frustration and anger, and the fact that their ability to process and respond to information is affected by the dementia itself. If they say something cruel to you, you just have to take it on the chin and recognise it as a symptom of a disease that they're not able to control. Step out of the room for a moment if it gets too much. I've been fortunate in that my grandma has never experienced this symptom, but it's very common, and it's no reflection of you, or them.

don't treat them like children. My grandmother is 92 years old and she will look at you like you're the bane of her life if you try and tell her what to do, or use baby talk. Keep your sentences short and clear to avoid confusion, but don't ask them if they need you to clean their wittle fingies.

try and avoid open-ended questions, especially ones that involve memory recall, like "what did you do on the weekend?". My grandma was an absolute queen at making shit up when people asked her that, because she couldn't remember a damn thing, and she never liked to admit that she couldn't remember, because it made her stressed and anxious. "I picked up leaves" was her personal favourite, for some reason. I used to just tell her about my weekend instead, and sometimes she would joyfully tell me (completely falsely) that she also went to the shops, and that was much less stressful for her; she wasn't actively trying to come up with an answer to cover for her own lack of memory, and instead felt like she was part of the conversation on her own, equal terms.

most importantly: don't try and pull them back to reality. The best way I've learnt to communicate with anyone with dementia is to enter theirs instead. Sometimes, this is referred to as 'validation therapy'. It's about acknowledging that the reality of someone with dementia is as real to them as your reality is to you, and you're not going to be able to 'reorient' them to your version of reality, because they don't have the short term memory or ability to retain information that would enable that. Put simply: if my grandma asks when my uncle is going to come home, I gain nothing from (correctly) informing her that he's dead. This just upsets her, because every time she hears it, she's receiving the news of his death for the first time. That sends her into a spiral of grief and anxiety that remains even after the memory of his death has vanished again. Instead, I just tell her that he'll be home after lunch. She nods, accepts it, and we're both happy. My uncle is still dead, but in her world, he's going to come home soon. It's a way of having empathy for the person with dementia, and acknowledging that your reality, or objective 'truth', is not more important than their wellbeing.

Peter Pan edited by Anne Hiebert Alton (2011)

(sorry to interrupt joke post but) this is true!

Children not clapping did happen too, (and some were even expected to have hissed, which was later written into the 1928 playscript and 1911 novel). But my all time favourite anecdote about it is from Pauline Chase (who played Peter)'s intro to Peter Pan's Post Bag 1909:

Children love to clap their hands at the play because then they feel that they are really part of it, and you can see them holding their hands poised ready to seize an opportunity. Their great chance is when I ask them to clap their hands if they believe in fairies, and so save Tink's life. But they are very wrathful if any one claps who has the reputation of being a cynic, and once there was quite an uproar in the front row of the dress circle because of a girl who clapped. Those about her pulled down her arms angrily. "How dare you clap," they cried, "when you know you don't believe in fairies!" There was one dreadfully hard-hearted little boy who came to the theatre not to clap. That was his object for coming, and he came round "behind" to tell me so in the middle of the play. His teeth were firm set. "I won't clap," he said doggedly; "I'm not going to clap." And when the time came he didn't clap; above the clapping of all the others I could hear him shouting from a box, "Peter, I'm not clapping."