| February 21st, 2011 |
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Gemcraft, Chapter Zero.
It's a bit harder than GemCraft, it has more battle modes, instead of water trenches you have gem-powered traps, and I have lost entire days to this.
Sometimes, when I lie in bed, before going to sleep, I can hear the pop-pop-pop of gem attacks hitting monsters, while rainbow-coloured lights flash before my eyes.
Pop-pop-pop.
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I'm watching The Dog Whisperer. They're showing Cesar Milan's pack at his Dog Psychology Centre.
37 dogs, most of them pit bulls, dogs which have been abused and neglected. Many of them had apparently been "marked for death", but now they're all well-adjusted members of the pack.
It's rather fascinating.
The last episode I watched featured a boxer who'd become problematically aggressive - including having bitten a neighbour - and was scheduled to be put down until the mother (of the small boy whose dog it was) saw an ad about "does your dog have mental problems" that was for the Dog Whisperer.
That one was positively tear-jerking, but it rapidly turned out happily. The parents had been terrified of the dog hurting their children - they'd already taken to keeping him away from any possible encounter with people outside the family.
Fortunately, the dog wasn't vicious at all, just very protective of his family and needing to be trained to calm down.
Cesar Milan seemed more than a little upset that this dog had been slated for death.
It's adjusted my view on the potentially dangerous breeds rather.
See, I like dogs. I like cats around the house, because cats are company without always needing attention the way dogs can, but I like dogs. And my favourite breeds are breeds that can be dangerous - German Shepherds, huskies, Belgian Shepherds... the closer to wolf the breed remains, the more I probably love it.
But I always thought that it was a bad idea to get a dog of any of these breeds that wasn't still a puppy if you had children or weren't physically vigorous (for want of a better phrase), because they could be unpredictable. I'm starting to be convinced otherwise. (Although I think it's still pretty clear that you shouldn't get one if you're not going to be dedicated to looking after it, including taking care of its psychological issues.)
If you don't know the dog's history, you don't know what might be a negative trigger that will make it react violently. But I'm starting to think that that doesn't matter - if the dog is properly placed in its new family, if it feels comfortable and secure but also properly submissive, it'll be okay.
Submissive, in a dog, not being a sign of emotional abuse, obviously. Submissive in the sense that the dog is secure as a pack follower, not a pack leader. They are pack animals and you should always keep that in mind with dogs. (I've always thought that, I'm just finding a lot of things I wouldn't have thought of regarding enforcing it.)
What has yet to stop amazing me is the way dogs react to Cesar Milan. It's like they look at him and instantly recognise them as their king...
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