Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[SoulReflection]

I’m all about returning fire, but not with your own feces. Throwing their feces back is perfectly civilized and within the norms of society.

Yep, you gotta fight fire with their fire .

 

[Ken Morgan]

Never dawned on me to light one, ten throw it back...nice

 

[BadExample]

Yep, you gotta fight fire with their fire .

And dooky with dooky!

 

[BadExample]

Never dawned on me to light one, ten throw it back...nice

If it lights up without drying it out, you might need to cut back on fat intake and drink more water.

 

[ric426]

I’m all about returning fire, but not with your own feces. Throwing their feces back is perfectly civilized and within the norms of society.

That's kinda how I felt too, plus the elephants were too far away for me to mount an immediate return volley.

 

[ric426]

On that same visit to the zoo, we were standing at the outdoor gorilla enclosure, looking down into the area that was about 10' below us and for some reason they gave the gorillas old phone books to tear up. There was one old male (gorilla) who was sitting right in front of us with a phone book on his lap and he was casually flipping the pages like he was looking for something. When the little kid standing next to me said "I wonder what he's doing..." I pointed down in front of us and said that you can't see it from here, but there's a pay phone on the wall down there and he's looking up locksmiths to try and get out. My wife gave me an angry nudge at that, so I said that I was just kidding and that he was actually looking for a pizza place that'll deliver to the zoo...
Just doing my part to teach kids to not listen to strangers. Especially bass players.

 

[Stumbo]

On that same visit to the zoo, we were standing at the outdoor gorilla enclosure, looking down into the area that was about 10' below us and for some reason they gave the gorillas old phone books to tear up. There was one old male (gorilla) who was sitting right in front of us with a phone book on his lap and he was casually flipping the pages like he was looking for something. When the little kid standing next to me said "I wonder what he's doing..." I pointed down in front of us and said that you can't see it from here, but there's a pay phone on the wall down there and he's looking up locksmiths to try and get out. My wife gave me an angry nudge at that, so I said that I was just kidding and that he was actually looking for a pizza place that'll deliver to the zoo...
Just doing my part to teach kids to not listen to strangers. Especially bass players.

We share 98% of our DNA with apes/gorillas.

 

[BadExample]

We share 98% of our DNA.

I'm very selective about who I share my DNA with!

 

[ric426]

We supposedly have 75% of the same DNA as bananas! At least according to a magnet on our refrigerator. That's as good an authority as the interwebs.

 

[Al Kraft]

We supposedly have 75% of the same DNA as bananas! At least according to a magnet on our refrigerator. That's as good an authority as the interwebs.

I'm 100% convinced that some people have even more than that in common with a banana.

 

[agedhorse]

My wife the Mrs. Horse just finished her 35 year career in the Zoo world, as acting curator of Mammals. Behavior knowledge is everything in the animal world.

 

[SoulReflection]

My wife the Mrs. Horse just finished her 35 year career in the Zoo world, as acting curator of Mammals. Behavior knowledge is everything in the animal world.

I think the same could be said for the "human" world .

Edit: Congrats to Mrs. Horse!

 

[BassmanPaul]

My wife the Mrs. Horse just finished her 35 year career in the Zoo world, as acting curator of Mammals. Behavior knowledge is everything in the animal world.

I guess that’s how she keeps you in check!

 

[beans-on-toast]

I got on an elevator today. There was a big husky on one side, a slightly smaller but stockey brown dog on the other. I should have known better and waited for the next elevator.

The door closed and the husky, which was quiet and well mannered, started staring down the the other dog which inturn began loudly growling. Neither of the owners could seemingly control their dogs. I stepped between the two so they couldn’t see each other. Things quieted down for about fifteen seconds. The husky gave me a hard bump trying to get around me. Boy, those dogs are strong. I looked in the eyes of the growling dog and told him firmly that it was alright. That distracted him. Luckily, we arrived at the main floor and the door opened without further incident.

I’m sure that dealing with zoo animals takes things to whole other level.

 

[BadExample]

Bananas do have some of the same chemicals that power our brains. We used to test brain probes (in development) on bananas.

2nd congrats to Andy's boss. I mean nice lady/wife.

 

[agedhorse]

Horses are yet another level too, 99% of the folks who get hurt in the horse world didn't have to if had they understood horse behavior and learned how to handle horses safely. I watch some of these horse people and wonder where they got their bad judgement, they get hurt all the time yet are the first ones to get on my case for what they naively think is bad or dangerous horsemanship. Yes, what I do can be very dangerous but I have trained much of my life under some of the top training/riding coaches and the funniest thing (that's completely lost on them) is that in spite of the things that I do and the disciplines I ride in, I haven't been injured in over 10 years and I have been hurt (minor stuff) only 3 or 4 times in 40 years of riding, yet these critics get hurt 3 or 4 times A YEAR, working the horses 6 days a week.

For our "touring equine theatre" show this year, it's a tribute to P.T. Barnum and the circus. One of my horses will be kissing the bearded lady in one of the acts... I have trained all of my horses over the years to take treats from my mouth (starting with larger pieces of carrot and ending with individual candy corns), it's all part of the control and focus of training. The horses are naturally gentle, it looks way more dangerous than it really is (that's what the stunt industry is built upon) but I had numerous "regular horse folks" (read as horsie women who just don't get it) tell me that what I was doing was going to get my face bit off... never mind that I've done this probably 10k times without any issue. I'm also training the horses to carry a large stuffed tiger on their back (a tribute to the trained big cat acts), and one horse has to carry a pack with 75mm recoil-less rifle shells as a tribute to Sargent Reckless in this year's Military Tribute act. Horsie women freak out over anything different than their limited experience, and are so quick to criticize anything that they are unfamiliar with. This is my 26th year of participating in this event, 18 days of being part of the headline show, yet they don't recognize that I just might have a little experience with this stuff.

It's easy to mis-judge something that a professional does because you don't have all the information or facts.

 

[BadExample]

What a horse!

 

[Al Kraft]

I find the same thing working with German Shepherds. It's essential to work within the psychological constructs of how the animals think. The animal world is full of intelligence and consistency once you you get the rules of their world and how their behavioral responses are cued.

I know at least with dogs that they expect a sense of fairness and have respect for leadership. Much of what they can do reliably for their handler is based on consistency in training and clear signals from someone they respect as a pack leader.

 

[BadExample]

My dogs won't do anything my wife tells them to do. They do exactly what I say if it's understood by them. And she feeds them. Honks her off

They clearly understand a firm NO! I didn't realize I had taught them about pills with the no command over the years... I drop a lot of pills and call them off before they even get close as I look for where it rolled off to. Then one day, Tator Salad, the Jack, walked up to me and dropped a lost pill at my feet. Crazy!

I think they also have a strong desire to please the Alpha.

 

[Al Kraft]

I think they also have a strong desire to please the Alpha.

There is a lot of power in understanding pack order and knowing when you're being tested...everyone likes to move up. German Shepherds will occasionally deliberately disobey or ignore a command to see if they can get away with it. It is a testing limits and boundaries deal and if you want to remain the alpha, you need to address it as soon as it happens. If you're doing your job well as a handler, simply stopping and giving a look of disappointment is usually enough to immediately bring behavior back in line.

Sadly, I think many people focus on punishment as a training technique and more often than not too late for the dog to even associate the punishment with the event. I use almost entirely positive reinforcement with verbal reprimands/body language indications only when absolutely necessary, and only if the animal really does/should know better. Harsh physical treatment/physical punishment has no place in animal training in my mind. First off it only creates fears/confidence issues leading to behaviors you'll regret later, and secondly I've never seen it be effective or read a book by an accomplished trainer/handler that even hints that it's a successful teaching or correction technique.