the purpose of having a name for the flavor of your product is to tell me what flavor your product is
apparently, nobody ever told you this, and so you think the purpose of naming flavors is to sound like Death Knight talents
I don’t know what Icy Charge tastes like but I’m pretty sure it’s going to move me into melee with my target and slow their movement speed by 75% for 3 seconds
Okie dokie, you guys know how much I love muzzle training and how important it is to me.
Recently my mother was talking with someone, and the wire basket muzzle I own came up in the conversation. The person was apparently disgusted, repulsed, I would put such a thing on my dog. Making statements of “why would you use that,” and “why not use one of those thin ones” (thin one being a Gentle Leader).
To the general public, muzzles and dogs in muzzles have such a bad stigma. They are seen as things only aggressive dogs wear; and if your dog is aggressive, you must be a bad pet owner in some way.
This is so not true. And more often than not, the exact opposite.
Muzzle training is SO beneficial, every dog should be trained to wear one. “But my dog isn’t aggressive, she doesn’t need one,” that may be true! But think of it this way: how many folks were put in swim lessons as kids by their parents? A heck of a lot, me included. Some kids that lived by a lake, some that had their own pool at home, some that lived nowhere near a body of water. Why? For if a dangerous situation arose where they found themselves in water, they’d know what to do and how to calmly swim to safety.
Now, for dogs, like recall and crate training, muzzle training is their swim lesson. Dogs who don’t have a drop of aggression in them will benefit just as much as a dog who wants to bite everything in sight.
But muzzling is not limited to aggression, there are numerous reasons a dog may need to be muzzled:
Pain – dog’s are more inclined to bite when in pain
Fear – when flight and freeze are no longer options, fight is
Trash eaters – some dogs eat things on walks, and during their training the owner can have the added security of the muzzle
New introductions – to people or animals, should things go sideways
Post-op protection – many folks turn to basket muzzles over the traditional cone of shame
Travel – in some communities a dog must be muzzled on public transport or even if riding freely in your own vehicle
Sports – several canine sports require a muzzle for part or all of the sport
I’m sure there are many more, so feel free to add on.
And let me put this out there, not all muzzles are created equal. It’s took four open-basket-type muzzles to find one that fits Canon properly. They come in various styles and materials. Leather, metal, cotton, nylon, plastic, and biothane to name a few. It may take one try or four, but there’s a good chance with all the options that there’s a muzzle style and material that will work with every dog.
Now, the muzzle the individual was upset over? Take a look:
(Flower crown to make it less “scary”)
This is the wire basket I finally found that works for Canon’s nose length, allows him to pant, drink, and take treats, and is comfortable. This is for vet visits. Canon is not aggressive towards our vet or the staff, he adores them and thoroughly enjoys going. BUT, her waiting room is small. Very small. The exam room door is smack against the waiting room chairs, and it’s nice to have Canon muzzled should we walk out and BAM! A dog. In this case, his muzzle is worn for, oh, five minutes tops.
And the “thin one”? Look below:
This is not a muzzle and it will not protect your dog or others. Gentle Leaders and head collars are training tools that the leash clips to, to guide the dog by their head. I (personally) do not know of any muzzles that function in such a manner. And if a head collar is closed so tight the dog cannot open it’s mouth, it’s being used incorrectly.
So, I hope that opened up someone’s mind to muzzles! They are wonderful tools and come in so many styles, materials, and colors. I hope more people open up to them and make them a regular part of their dog’s gear.
Happy training from my dogs and I, to you and yours!
This is a great post to share as a follow up on the grooming post a few days ago. Muzzles are really beneficial tools to have available to you if you’re a dog owner, no matter your dog’s temperament or proclivities. They may look scary, but they keep pets safe!
i’ve gotten a few responses here asking for some clarification on this paper and why making essentially squishy plants was important enough to make it into the plant science section of nature, one of the most influential journals in the world, and i’d be happy to oblige and break this down a little!!
so to start off, plants have two kinds of membranes around their cells, while animals only have one. one of these is called the ‘plasma membrane’, which is a soft, squishy kind of membrane that we have as animals that just kind of holds everything in. the other kind that only plants have is called a ‘cell wall’, which in plant cells surrounds the plasma membrane to basically hold everything in even more, and is really rigid and hard instead of squishy. the cell wall is made of a strong substance called ‘cellulose’, which you prob have heard of before, which acts as a really strong support structure to hold up the plant and protect the cells. the cell wall has a lot of different functions, but one of the main ones is structural; the pressure between the cell wall and the water inside the plant’s plasma membrane forming ‘turgor pressure’, which keeps the plant upright (when a plant needs water, it’s turgor pressure goes down, and there isn’t enough water in the cells to push against the cell wall to hold it upright. this is what causes wilting!)
now here’s the problem with cellulose: it’s a BITCH to break down. in settings where people are trying to make biofuels and renewable oils from algae and plant materials (and being successful in limited amounts!!), cellulose is the biggest thing keeping the process from higher efficiency, making it harder for those techniques to keep up with fossil fuels. but removing the cell wall altogether wacks out the plant’s turgor pressure, upon which a TON of natural processes and biological functions in plants are based (turns out that maintaining water pressure is really important when you dont have like, blood to keep stuff going!! or a heart to move shit around!!). so we need some kind of hard thing for the plant cells to push against to keep up hydraulic pressure, but it cellulose is too hard for efficient use in sustainable fuels.
which brings us to this study. im sure u can tell where this is going now. basically, these researchers were like, ‘what if we just added a second plasma membrane?? so its like, thicker, but there’s no cellulose???’.
this worked well. like, really well. i have made an annotated version of some of their results:
so in conclusion: this is a really cool paper, and not only did it show that it could be done, but they actually identified a ton of genes and transcription factors that could be modified to make replacement of a plant cell wall possible by other people.
this is a huge generalization, of course- they have way more data in the paper here if y’all wanna see it for yourselves– but overall??? this technology could be really big in increasing the viability and efficiency in biofuels and sustainable biochemicals to be used in stuff like cosmetics, fabrics, plastics, etc.
Trying to communicate with my future morning self is like setting an elaborate trap for an unsuspecting zombie like
if I put my phone alarm on full volume and vibrate and move the charger so I can put it on this out-of-reach metal surface, I can startle her awake. Probably. Then if I securely duct tape this caffeinated chocolate bar to it, it will provide a challenging situation and make her mushy little brain work extra hard to figure out how to turn the alarm off. Then she might go for the chocolate while she’s turning off the loud noises. With luck, she’ll consume the whole thing. 20 minutes of bliss then boom, physiology kicks in and the caffeine reaches her brain. Gentlemen, this just might work.
The next person who tries to correct me when I say “Happy Holidays” is going to be told Happy Hanukkah instead. Very tired of hearing, “No, it’s MERRY CHRISTMAS.” I’m pretty sure Judaism was around a lot longer than your Buckstar’s boycotting butt, Karen.
My boss once shared a great story about that. This happened when he was in a layover in North Carolina back when the “War on Christmas” bullshit was first becoming prominent. He had gone to get a pack of cigarettes, and after he paid for it:
“Merry Christmas.” “Happy holidays.” “No. I said Merry Christmas.” “Do you know what Hanukkah is about?” “No, what?” “Some people tried to make us worship their ways, so we rose up andkilled them. Happy Hanukkah.”
it should be illegal for people in positions of governmental power to “oppose” scientific research in favor of damaging the planet we all have to share. they’re actively damaging other people’s properties and quality of life on earth, it should be illegal for them to have an “opinion” that rejects observational fact & causes observable harm in doing so!!!!!!!! i wanna fucking sue them for every degree centigrade those imps let my planet simmer up to, for every second of inaction on this fucking derailing train they’re IN CHARGE OF
we make fun of thorin getting lost in the shire but you know the nazgul also had to keep asking for directions to find bag end so maybe hobbits’ city planning is just wack
The-Lounge 