now with Johntent™️

“How did the accounts presentation go?”

“Okay, but it felt like Accounts Total Landscaping up there for a little while”

Or

“This game is so bad, are we watching The Mets or The Mets Total Landscaping?”

Or

The demand for good pet dogs has only increased over time, and I think this year has really highlighted this issue, as many places around the world are seeing record increases in dog sales from retailers (rescues/shelters, pet stores, breeders, etc.) The interesting thing is, the demand seems to have changed in type. With the rise of dog shelters and the public perception of purebred dog health, consumers seem to be more aware of the issues dogs face and are therefore seeking out dogs that are behaviourally suitable and physically sound.

This is all very interesting to me and I have a big basket of different sources of people who are talking about this and many who are attempting to tackle this issue, and achieve goals like giving more support and education to dog breeders to breed healthy and behaviourally sound dogs, and giving more support to consumers to find those dogs.

Functional Dog Collaborative – a new organisation (and Facebook group) focused on supporting people to breed functional dogs. There is a podcast with lots of really great information, and the website includes a library of resources. Just before this project was launched, Dr Hekman and Trish McMillan were on DogLab discussing the issues they see in acquiring pet dogs, and touched on how they wanted to solve it – this project is that solution.

Good Dog – an organisation focused on connecting dog buyers with dog breeders and shelters to match people and dogs better. There was a great episode on Cog-Dog Radio about this.

Kim Brophey’s book Meet Your Dog: the Game-Changing Guide to Understanding Your Dog’s Behavior tackles this issue by creating a resource for consumers, ideally, before they get their dog. I’ve discussed the book before, it breaks down dogs into types rather than focusing on individual breeds to help people better understand the differences between dogs. This means that people with mixes can better understand their dogs, too, as they can look at many types.

And I think that many people are coming around to the idea that universal spay/neuter is not the answer for rescue/shelter/mixed breed dogs, as it is detrimental not only to the individual dog in many cases, but to the wider population of dogs by rapidly shrinking the gene pool. As outraged as some dog people were (including some on dogblr) about the idea of dog shelters potentially breeding dogs (which turned out to be inaccurately reported), there has been discussion amongst highly experienced and informed shelter workers in the dog world about this exact topic. Disclaimer here, I do not necessarily think that shelters should begin breeding practices, as many shelters in the United States range from extremely questionable to outright unethical, but I think this conversation is important to have because the goal of shelters should be to go out of business. And then what? The focus is back on breeding dogs.

Who is having these conversations? Trish McMillan, for one, who makes some really good observations about shelters and pet dogs on the Functional Dog Breeding podcast. And Sue Sternberg on Michael Shikashio’s podcast The Bitey End of the Dog, who has been in the shelter world since the 80s and has made similar observations and come to similar conclusions.

All of these conversations and resources have made me think strongly about where I see the dog world headed. I do not think that we are headed to an animal rights fantasy future of no pet dogs. The demand for dogs is too high for that to be realistic. So, I think dogs will always be in high demand and therefore we should focus on making sure the dogs that we bring into this world are physically healthy, behaviourally sound and bred for function (whether that function is working on a farm or being a pet in a city). I also realistically believe that what we refer to as “backyard breeders” will always exist, as they have always existed. And organisations like Good Dog and Functional Dog Collaborative are needed to bring education and support to those people. Maybe if they have this education and support, there won’t be a need for shelters (as these are the types of dogs that anecdotally end up in shelters).

Personally I would like to see this movement reach Australia. I would like to see and end to inflammatory social media posts aimed at deepening the perceived divide between people who “rescue” and people who “buy”. I would like to see connections made between government bodies, local councils, veterinarians, dog trainers, dog breeders, kennel clubs and shelters. My utopia is a community hub where people can get access to good dogs (either via a shelter or a breeder), find a good trainer, find a good vet, learn about activities they can do with their dog, and get support if they are interested in breeding. Instead of demonising someone who loves their pet dog and wants to breed them to make more, we would talk to them about their goals and expectations and offer education and access to what they need (vet care, health testing, etc.)

Chadwick Boseman  (November 29, 1976, - August 28, 2020) REST IN POWER, KING

Martin Luther King III:

"Chadwick Boseman brought history to life on the silver screen, from Jackie Robinson, James Brown and Thurgood Marshall. As Black Panther, he was also a superhero to many. And despite his 4 year long battle with cancer, he kept fighting and he kept inspiring. He will be missed."

Oprah Winfrey:

"What a gentle gifted SOUL. Showing us all that Greatness in between surgeries and chemo. The courage, the strength, the Power it takes to do that. This is what Dignity looks like."

Mark Ruffulo:

“What a man, and what an immense talent. Brother, you were one of the all time greats and your greatness was only beginning.”

Forest Whitaker:

wastes crazy amounts of space and water

soul-crushingly boring

extremely frustrating to all but the highest level of players (most golfers will never even shoot par)

prohibitively expensive (golf clubs are very costly and one round of golf can cost $100+)

mini golf:

18 holes will fit into an area the size of a small park; most courses use astroturf, which doesn't even require water

a fun game of skill to challenge your friends to

easy to get into, but difficult to master

cheap (you and your friends can probably play for like, $20)

And it isn’t. No matter what the reason is, what they say to you, any circumstances at all- it isn’t your fault. It isn’t ever your fault.

If they love you, than they should accept you- Even when it’s confusing or hard for them, they should always support you. That’s on them, not you. 

This illustration here show Apalachee people using slash and burn methods for agriculture. Fires were set regularly to intention burn down forests and plains. Why would we do this? Well because an unregulated forest isn’t that great for people, actually. We set fires to destroy new forest growth and undergrowth, and to remove trees, allowing for easier game hunting, nutrient enriched soil, and better growth rates for crops and herbs we used in food and medicine.

Pre-Colonial New England, where my tribe the Abenaki are from, looked more like an extensive meadow or savannah with trees growing in pockets and groves. Enough woodland to support birds, deer, and moose, but not too much to make hunting difficult. We carefully shaped the land around us to suit our needs as a thriving and successful people. Slash and burn agriculture was practiced virtually everywhere in the new world, from the pacific coast to chesapeake bay, from panama to quebec. It was a highly successful way of revitalizing the land and promoting crop growth, as well as preventing massive forest fires that thrive in unregulated forests. Berries were the major source of fruit for my tribe, and we needed to burn the undergrowth so they could grow.

That changed when white people invaded, and brought with them disease. In my tribe, up to 9 in 10 people died. 90% of our people perished not from violence starvation, but from disease. Entire villages would be decimated, struck down by small pox. Suddenly, we couldn’t care for the land anymore. There weren’t enough of us to maintain a vast, carefully structured ecological system like we had for thousands of years. We didn’t have the numbers, or strength. So the trees grew back and unregulated. We couldn’t set fires anymore, and we couldn’t cultivate the land. And white people would make certain we never could again. Timber, after all, was the most important export from New England. 

Endless trees and untamed wilderness is a nice fantasy. But it’s a very white fantasy, one that erases the history of my people and of my land. One that paints native peoples are merely parasites leeching off the land, not masters of the earth who new the right balance of hunting and agriculture. It robs us of our agency as people, and takes our accomplishments from us. Moreover, it implies that only white people ever discovered the power to shape the world around them, and that mere brown people can’t possibly have had anything to do with changing our environment.

Don’t bring back untamed wilderness. Bring back my fire setters, my tree sappers, my farmers and my fishers. Bring back my people who were here first. 

Sources:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_use_of_fire#Role_of_fire_by_natives

https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsbdev3_000385.pdf

http://www.sidalc.net/repdoc/A11604i/A11604i.pdf