Being pigeonholed

[krdahmer]

Originally Posted by aslan

Don't forget buy them toys with millions of little tiny parts..

....I'm the evil aunt...got my nephew a transformer for xmas...supposed to be for ages 4 and up....it took three of us ages 30+ to get the bleepin thing to transform!!!! perfect gift of frustration!!!!

[Bina]

Originally Posted by exkalibur

And be EXTREMELY noisy....

Yup, nothing says "I love you best" like a drum set or screaming robot toy for the "perfect" grandchild/niece/nephew.

[aslan]

Originally Posted by Goldfields

You two would be a mother's worst nightmare. ROFL.

oh you have no idea,,i bought my nephew a collection of hotwheels and the race track,,you know the one with about 500 peices of track to put together. oh and we must not forget Lego's,,lots and lots of lego's.

[Goldfields]

WIcked! Poetic justice though. LOL.

[Luvmypitgirls]

Awe 14+, I feel for ya girlfriend.
Having Rotts and Pits, I've been labelled everything from a ''gangsta wannabe'', a criminal, a drug dealer, you name it...(sigh).
Even had one person accuse me of child abuse, having such breeds around my sons.
Shrug it off my friend, don't waste the brain power justifying yourself to anyone.
Big hugs to ya!

[dogcatharmony]

I am guilty of thinking the opposite. I have a hard time with people who don't have pets. I tend to think of them as selfish, unloved and not quite right in the head..... Okay, maybe not that harsh of feelings.
I just find pet owners my kind of people, maybe I am crazy. And one day I hope to be a crazy cat lady like +14.

[14+kitties]

Aww thanks LMPG and DCH!!

[Love4himies]

Originally Posted by dogcatharmony

I am guilty of thinking the opposite. I have a hard time with people who don't have pets. I tend to think of them as selfish, unloved and not quite right in the head..... Okay, maybe not that harsh of feelings.
I just find pet owners my kind of people, maybe I am crazy. And one day I hope to be a crazy cat lady like +14.

Me too. I kinda feel sorry for them.

[chico2]

I agree,I just feel people are missing out,our cats make us laugh(sometimes cry)but I could not imagine our lives without them.
They make sure I am up at 6am to feed them,or i would sleep until at least 8am,wasting my day away
Even the outdoor critters are very important to us,yes,birdseeds,suet and stuff is expensive,but then we very seldom go out to eat or stuff like that.
A home without hair-balls is not a home

[BenMax]

I agree Chico2. You know I go back 'home' every 2 weeks. My condo is perfect as in the sense it is hollow..no life..no smells..nothing. I cannot imagine my life without my cats and dogs. No way..not for this gal.

Mind you in one month I have not had to dust the place. No hair or dander or dust anywhere. Now how boring is that???

[Gail P]

I'm another "crazy dog lady"...most non-pet and even pet people can't seem to figure out how or why I live with 9 large dogs. And I'm an oddity even to my mushing friends, many of whom have way more dogs than me, not because of the number I have but because while other mushers dogs generally live outside mine all live in my house, sleep on the furniture and at least a few sleep on the bed. And then there's the whole cram-7-dogs-plus-myself-and-daughter-into-a-Tahoe-and-camp-in-the-truck-at-races-&-training-weekends-in-the-middle-of-winter thing...I mean what sane person does that?

Should have seen the look on one mushers face last year when he heard that's what we were doing at a race....looks at me "you're sleeping in your truck in the parking lot?" me..."yeah" he looks at my daughter "and you, you're sleeping in the truck too?" her..."yeah" he looks back and forth between us a couple of times and says "no...c'mon Mom..." like it's abuse or something. I told him we had a heater for in the truck. Then he finds out a skijoring friend is camping behind the building in a tent. Her and her hubby and their dogs. They were leaving the race venue to go somewhere else for dinner out and then returning to camp. He looked at them like they were insane too and said "you're going to go spend about $100 for dinner but you're going coming back here to sleep in a tent?! I'd give up 2 meals to sleep in a warm hotel!" (while his dogs would be outside in their dogtruck of course ) The way I see it...for one thing, racing is expensive enough with the fuel costs to get there and the entry fees. So camping is more cost-effective for me than hotels. And...my dogs are house dogs, they're used to sleeping in the same temperature as me. If I can't do it myself I shouldn't expect them to do it. The first time I ever camped in the truck was before I had the heater and it was -22 that night. Just me and 6 dogs that time and brrrrr! it was chilly but we survived it, the next morning was bright and sunny and we got warmed up moving around doing the morning drop and feed (and after that I bought a heater!)

One other thing about me camping with the dogs...they're just happier to have me with them too. Happy dogs=less stressed dogs. And that's one thing every musher strives for...you're on the road, different schedule than at home...you want to make sure your dogs are eating well, drinking well to stay hydrated and not stressed or they can't perform well. Funny that no one seems to consider that aspect of it when I camp with my dogs. I guess because theirs sleep outside normally anyhow they don't really make the connection that mine are always with me and inside at night and so a race weekend is very different for them

[Luvmypitgirls]

Gail P, I gotta say that sounds like a whole lotta fun to me!
As a kid I loved camping, now I didn't have 9 dogs to go with me but usually one, and it was me and the dog stuffed into my sleeping bag. Until the dog would get to hot and squirm it's way out lol. But it was fun, so I'm guessing camping out with 9 in the back of a Tahoe would be cramped but a lot of fun...assuming none have a gas attack lol

[Gail P]

Originally Posted by Luvmypitgirls

Gail P, I gotta say that sounds like a whole lotta fun to me!
As a kid I loved camping, now I didn't have 9 dogs to go with me but usually one, and it was me and the dog stuffed into my sleeping bag. Until the dog would get to hot and squirm it's way out lol. But it was fun, so I'm guessing camping out with 9 in the back of a Tahoe would be cramped but a lot of fun...assuming none have a gas attack lol

It is fun, but I only camp with 7 not 9 The other two aren't race dogs and stay home. And I don't sleep in the back with the dogs anymore, tried that once and it didn't work so well, was waaayyyy too cramped and I was really sore after. I have a divider run down the middle of the back section so it's split in half like 2 giant crates. That way I can open one door at a time and get out just a few of the dogs when I want to, instead of having them all trying to jump out. But, for sleeping that doesn't leave a lot of space...when I tried I was curled up on my side with the wheel well at my back, one dog behind my legs, one dog above my head and another one crammed in front of me pinning my sleeping bag down so I couldn't budge at all. When I tried getting him to move he'd sit up a bit, be up against the divider and flop back down pinning me even tighter. I probably should have put more dogs on the other side of the divider and kept space for me Oh well...now I just sleep in the drivers seat and try to recline it as much as is possible with a crate behind it and the dogs have their space in the back.

Something that was really fun this winter was one of the weekends I spent up at Algonquin Park at their dogsled trails. A bunch of mushers got together to get some training miles on their dogs and it was like a parking lot tailgate party. One guy pulled in with a pickup truck and dog trailer and him and his handler proceeded to unbox and picket about...oh, I dunno, 30 dogs maybe? Then they hauled a huge BBQ out of the trailer and cooked hamburgers for everyone else there. (They slept in the cab of the truck I think). Another guy had just a basic pickup truck with dogbox on it and he slept out on the ground on a foam pad...but...he brought along a generator and microwave for food! It was hilarious! They were all distance mushers conditioning their dogs for 120-400 mile races where they run a few hours, break for a few and run some more so they did some daytime runs and then went out again at night (after the BBQ ) I got to ride along in one of their sleds...first time on a long night run...pretty neat but very cold just sitting in a sled and not moving for about 3 1/2 - 4 hours.

[Luvmypitgirls]

Gail P, I enjoy reading about your adventures

I camp out (in my bed) every night with 4 dogs. Of course it doesn't start out that way, they are clever enough to wait until we are asleep and then they ever so gently sneak up and take a spot. Last night I was awoken with a butt full of Goober snout I wouldn't have known he was there had he not sneezed lmao.
I usually wake up to a Pit butt in my face, occassionally a Rotti butt, both of which I will take over my hubbys butt !!
I would love to go camping (I love tent camping), my inlaws have a Winnebego but to me that is not camping. Anyway it's hard to find a campground that will let us come with all 4 dogs, especially when they hear Pitbulls and Rotti

[Gail P]

Originally Posted by Luvmypitgirls

Gail P, I enjoy reading about your adventures

I camp out (in my bed) every night with 4 dogs. Of course it doesn't start out that way, they are clever enough to wait until we are asleep and then they ever so gently sneak up and take a spot. Last night I was awoken with a butt full of Goober snout I wouldn't have known he was there had he not sneezed lmao.
I usually wake up to a Pit butt in my face, occassionally a Rotti butt, both of which I will take over my hubbys butt !!
I would love to go camping (I love tent camping), my inlaws have a Winnebego but to me that is not camping. Anyway it's hard to find a campground that will let us come with all 4 dogs, especially when they hear Pitbulls and Rotti

Your bedroom sounds like mine I usually have 1-3 (or sometimes 4) sleeping on the bed, 1 or 2 under the bed and the rest all around the bed. I love it but unfortunately not everybody does...after a first (maybe only?) visit to my house, somebody in my life recently said to me "I'm just not that doggy" ...despite having 27 dogs himself. Outside dogs of course, none in the house underfoot, on the bed etc. One thing to know someone has that many inside, another thing to experience it I guess. Whole other thing from just meeting up and running dogs together on the trails. But you know...love me, love my dogs...they've been here for me when nobody else was.

As for the camping with dogs...sometimes a don't ask, don't tell policy works best depending on where you're going. If it's a park campground where they monitor everyone coming and going it's harder to slip the dogs in but sometimes it's possible in other places. Even when I was talking about camping in Algonquin Park, they only have one campground open in the winter and only certain ones at any time where dogs are allowed but us mushers who camp do it right in the parking lot where the dogsled trails are. Nobody has come checking on us yet and kicked us out. I've also camped overnight in one of the gate parking lots...went up on a Friday night, met up with friends and slept in that lot and early the next morning before the office opened we used their self-serve system to get our passes and went to the trailhead for the next night. One night with running water and flush toilets, next night just an outhouse. I had asked about a year or two earlier about camping up there at the trailhead and was told by the gate staff that it was not allowed, that we could use the campground or do backcountry camping out on the trail, but another person who works up there was talking to me in the lot one day and said that if we were pulled up into the end of the lot nobody would bother us about it. If you were backcountry camping your vehicle would be parked in that same lot overnight anyways so I don't see what difference it makes. And if dogs and me are all in the truck sleeping nobody would even know if we're in there or out on the trail anyhow. There is also a tour operator who takes people on trips of varying lengths, sometimes overnight, sometimes multiple nights. The operator's truck and trailer is sometimes parked in the lot, or sometimes they're dropped off but the tour clients vehicles are stay parked there for the duration of the tour. Even if they did come checking I think it would be pretty hard for park staff to determine exactly who's there to camp in the lot and who's heading out on the trail for the night.

[Luvmypitgirls]

I tried to get us into a couple different campgrounds a couple years ago, and was turned down when asked to disclose what type of dogs I had.
I like roughing it, and if it were just me back country camping would definately be an option, but I have my son who is in a wheelchair.
So we now just take a lot of day trips, some the dogs accompany us on and some they can't.

[mummummum]

Hmmmm LMP... Sounds like a fantastic bizness opportunity just waiting to happen for a entrepreneurial Pets member!

[Luvmypitgirls]

Originally Posted by mummummum

Hmmmm LMP... Sounds like a fantastic bizness opportunity just waiting to happen for a entrepreneurial Pets member!

Lmao..uh huh, I'll open my campground, it will be call "Pitbull Acres", all dogs welcome when accompanied by a responsible guardian!
Now if I could just win the lottery to purchase a chunk of land and have it serviced...ohhhh to dream to dream.