Fish Blog

And they DO tend to come out right as a car is about to pass. I’m not sure if their timing is off or the car approaching just scares them from cover, but any time I’ve had a cat run into the road in front of me it literally waited until I was within ten feet. Cats will also bask in the road lying flat on their side and if their fur is a similar color to the road you can’t see them until the head pops up in most cases. They will also sometimes sprint into the road unexpectedly if startled or chasing an insect.

“How can Aqueon say it’s all about the fish?” Acrylic painting of the @aqueonproduct Betta Falls Kit (0.5 gal per fish).

Aqueon should do away with its harmful and unnecessary line of Betta-specific tanks which are mostly under 1 gallon, some as low as 0.25 gallon.

Aqueon sells many excellent aquariums (5 gallons and above) that will actually provide Bettas with a quality of life.

The Aqueon Betta fish tanks are a way for them to maximize profit opportunities by producing cheap and “easy” tanks that mislead consumers. People buy them thinking Bettas must prefer tiny spaces and that these tanks are low-maintenance, but in order to keep water conditions tolerable they would actually need to do water changes every 1-2 days. The cramped size does not allow Bettas to perform their natural behavior of exploring, patrolling, and hiding.

“And then my dog started to deliberately disobey me on walks.”

And this is, unfortunately, a sign of potentially damaging anthropomorphism. Dogs are not capable of being vindictive or malicious, and assuming that the dog’s lack of response to commands was due to him bearing a grudge about the harshness of previous treatment is entirely the wrong interpretation to take away. It is true that the dog’s inability to properly carry out commands is due to the aversive training techniques, HOWEVER, it did not turn the dog into a petulant three year old human.

Most likely the dog is not able to understand that you want him to perform a task because until recently your behaviour towards him consisted of random jabs, hisses, and other uncomfortable stimuli, probably in tandem with commands. Cesar Millan’s techniques are not only unnecessarily harsh, they can serve to condition a dog to expect punishment no matter what it does. This is because Cesar Millan’s techniques operate on the INCREDIBLY misguided principle that we know every facet of canine behaviour and communication, and that the crux of a dog’s existence is dedicated to achieving a dominant role in its “pack”. When you enter into a relationship with a dog with the expectation that the animal’s main goal in life is to supplant you, then you have already gone a good way towards ensuring that your relationship is not going to be a trusting one.

When you start jabbing and alpha rolling a dog, (presumably for things that only you, a human, are capable of considering “bad/dominant behaviour”) the dog ceases to understand what you want from him. This is why rubbing your dog’s face in its urine when you come home from work and find that it dirtied the floor NEVER WORKS. The dog lacks the level of cognition required to connect the act of urination to the uncomfortable punishment. The dog just thinks you’re overly aggressive and the punishment will likely contribute to a reduction in trust. You are teaching the dog to be wary of you by default, because, from the dog’s perspective, you’re the massive aggressive animal that occasionally attacks it for no reason.

My dad had to put his dog in a doggy hotel/kennel for about a week because we went on a trip and couldn’t bring the dog with and had no one else to watch him. So, we get back from the trip, pick up Buddy (the dog), and go home. As soon as we open the door, Buddy bolts down the hall towards the bedrooms.

My dad walks follows him into his bedroom to find the dog shitting on his bed.

It wasn’t like Buddy wandered the house first and just couldn’t hold it long enough for someone to open the back door. No. He headed right for the bed with no hesitation. Any biologist or animal behavior specialist would tell you he knew exactly what he was doing. The fact that my dad claims Buddy made direct eye contact with him doesn’t help dissuade the idea, either.

It is a symptom of separation anxiety that was no doubt instilled in your dog due to the period in which he was kennelled. People choose to interpret it as “revenge” because people find feces and urine disgusting. Dogs do not share this opinion. For dogs, waste fluids and solids are merely their way of marking territory. When they are stressed enough to feel the need to reassure themselves that they are in fact in their territory, they sometimes forget their toilet training and mark their home in the only way they know how.

Interpreting this behaviour as “vindictive” is potentially extremely damaging to your dog, who is already in a vulnerable and stressed out state. By assuming that your dog did this out of spite you are making several remarkably ridiculous reaches in terms of how intelligent you think your dog is. Dogs do not plan ahead. They do not understand that humans take personal offense to the production of feces.  Making eye contact with a human is not inherently a challenge, and could just as easily have been response to your father’s body language (I’m assuming he wasn’t exactly happy to see the dog defecating on the bed). 

Fish can jump really high, higher than you think. A few inches isn't enough to prevent something like, say, a betta or similarly talented jumper from getting out. And some people I've seen DO keep their water level low enough to prevent jumping but sacrifice like 5 whole gallons of water or more from the tank. When that happens you can no longer stock the tank normally, because it's not actually 20 or 30 gallons you know?

I guess as long as the tank isn't overstocked and the level is ACTUALLY low enough it's harmless, just wanted to talk about it's potential drawbacks.

And also I relate to not remembering when your last water change was. I very seriously can't remember if my water change was one, two, or three weeks ago so what I do is when I'm like shit when did I do a water change I test my nitrates.

I don't care what country you're from. No country is completely magically free of any danger to or from your cat. Indoor outdoor cats may be the norm there, but that doesn't mean it's safe. If your indoor outdoor cat made it to old age, congrats it's an outlier. As a vet tech both in general practice and in a shelter I see what happens to most indoor outdoor cats regularly. I have photos I can share, and stories.

You will not change my mind.

I will die on this hill.

🌺 Cheyenne