don’t tell social media if you went to protests or not(especially if you didn’t), don’t give cops an easy way to track down protesters. punk life advice

Look i know it sounds like "ohhh, liberal paranoia" but this week someone left a really weird message on my office email about the protests. Obviously hoping to get me not voicemail but still there is absolutely no reason to contact me at the office and ask how I feel about the protests.

Viera April 2025 #9 Wanderlust

Prompt Lists ∙ ∙ ∙

So is he to just let the dog bite him?

If you loom in an extremely threatening way over anyone, not just a dog, when they are in a vulnerable position, yes you should just let them bite you because you made a very stupid decisions.

The question presupposes that the dog is the antagonizer in this situation. The dog is in a position of defense, not attack. 

“Should he just let the dog bite him?” is the wrong question. If someone showed a clip of a child playing with his bike, and a stray dog running up and assaulting him viciously, and he began to strike the dog to defend himself, then the question would be valid. What else should the child do, but to begin defending himself? 

This is not the situation. Millan presents himself as a power-figure, one to be feared. He immediately presents a threat by positioning himself in a threatening position with his body language. The dog is on the defense, because he wants his food, and he fears it will be taken from him. 

Then, Millan strikes. The dog’s fears are affirmed, and he snaps back in defense, and as a warning. But note that as he snaps, HE IS BACKING AWAY. The dog does NOT want this fight. He does NOT want to attack him. He JUST wants to eat in peace and he is backing away, but attempting to defend himself. 

In short, if Millan doesn’t want to get bit, he should probably not antagonize a reactive dog. 

BOOM

In this gif he genuinely seems to be provoking the fuck out of the dog, violently. He seems to be hitting the dog, and even if he’s just feinting… that’s awful.

I’ve watched Victoria Sitwell (also dogs) and Jackson Galaxy (cats). They both present themselves in the animal’s space to see what reaction they get. But I’ve never seen either of them come anywhere near hitting an animal. Honestly, what the hell is this asshole’s problem.

I’ve only seen Jackson but if the cat is aggressive he backs the fuck off. He does NOT strike a cat. For any reason. Even being attacked or scratched he thinks about how HE made the mistake and how to fix it.

<p>^^^ also this. He’s very good at not antagonizing aggressive cats at all, but when they ARE aggressive he would let a cat bite or scratch him before he so much as touched it, let alone hit it. </p><p> I spent a few minutes on google, to refamiliarize myself with Victoria, because it’s been a while since I watched “It’s Me or the Dog” – but immediately I found an article asking readers to compare these two specifically, and whoa Ceasar is terrible and should stop. </p><p> FYI, Victoria has never been bitten by a dog. Google’s pretty firm on that. And when dogs bite people in the family, she recognizes where the bad behavior is – their adult owners. Ceasar on the other hand appears to be operating on the pseudoscience (and outright myth) of “alpha males”. Victoria uses positive reinforcement, in the casual rather than the literal sense, like treats and figuring out what the dog needs emotionally from its owners; Ceasar intimidates dogs into compliance, which will just deepen the fear and insecurity being displayed by the dog in this gif. </p><p> Here’s <a href=“http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/its-me-or-dog/training-tips/child-dog-safety/”>a very brief post from an interview with her</a>, it looks like, on child-dog safety that illustrates her point of view.</p> <p>Meanwhile Ceasar is apparently a jackass who uses choke collars and shock collars. There’s no excuse for that, ever.</p>

FUCK Cesar Millan.

Wow this is so gross

Okay, so I’m not a dog expert, but I actually watched this episode and I remember it very vividly.  You CANNOT JUDGE this situation by the gifs alone, so here’s some background:

The dog is the problem in the situation.  She is “the antagonizer.”

The dog, Holly, was hyper protective of food and territory and would not let ANYONE near her food without lunging and snarling at them, and the family had a baby.  You don’t have to approach this dog in an aggressive position, she will threaten you anyway.  Caesar had spent a good amount of time trying to give and take food from the dog, but it led to this confrontation:

(BLOOD WARNING)

The dog snarls at Caesar so he jabs at the dog’s throat, mimicking warning nips that dogs use.  He didn’t hit the dog like the gif suggests and the dog getting aggressive around food has been a continual problem that he’s trying to break her of.  When Caesar stands for too long between her and the food bowl, and he’s NOT IN AN AGGRESSIVE POSITION, she lunges and BITES HIM AND DOESN’T LET GO.  He fights her off, then stands over her, trying to get her to realize who is in control of the situation.  He has a deep puncture wound bleeding and still doesn’t back down.

What this video doesn’t show is that he tells the family he cannot comfortably let them keep Holly while they have a baby, so they allow him to take her to his facility to rehabilitate her.  She spends a month or so there, spending a lot of time around calm dogs and getting healthy amounts of exercise to burn off energy.  Eventually she becomes friendly with the dogs but ultimately the family did give her up out of concern for their baby.

I have no problem with anyone disagreeing with Caesar’s methods, I go back and forth on them myself, but don’t ignore the entire truth of the situation.  Slander only weakens your argument.  If you want to argue against Caesar’s methods, then offer suggestions on how to deal with a dog that won’t let you near her food without threatening to attack.

New information, please read ^^

Hello, friend. Unfortunately, as you said, you’re not a dog expert and everything you wrote is completely and utterly wrong. For context, I’ve been training dogs for a decade, and I literally wrote the paper on why this dude’s practices and theory are not only abusive but completely unsupported by all modern canine behavior and cognition research. I don’t normally get into these things about him because it’s stressful, but this one I just can’t let go. 

We’re going to cover some stuff here. 

Most importantly:

Resource guarding occurs when an animal feels unsafe with another animal or a person near it’s food/bone. This is often because they have learned that they get hurt or that they will be deprived of it if it is taken away, and have generalized to every situation. This is not the dog being an asshole or being aggressive. 

Resource guarding is fixed by teaching the dog to trust you to interact with it’s possession. The dog learns that it is safe to give up the item, because it will either be returned or it will get something better in exchange. This requires trust and a slow approach, not violence and threats. 

Animals who are scared or in pain will shut down. An animal that has been hit to teach it to stop a behavior does not change the behavior willingly - it is trying to avoid further punishment and will not respond until it is pushed to the point where it feels so unsafe it must bite - a dog’s last resort. 

Okay, let’s start with what you wrote and just go over the stuff that isn’t right, before we get into an accurate breakdown. 

1. Dogs do not consider humans to be dogs. There is no point in trying to mimic how dogs interact with dogs because they know we are not dogs. 

2. A neck jab with a hand is very, very different than light pressure from a mouth with teeth so it’s a stupid analogy and pretty much just bullshit. 

3. By reaching towards the dog, he’s entering her space and by guarding her food she is telling him directly that she does not feel safe with him entering her space. This is not appropriate nor is it how you get a resource guarding dog to trust you.

4. I don’t know what video you’re watching, but apparently it’s not the one you linked. That is forceful contact with his hand on the dog’s neck, AKA a hit. 

5. His posture is aggressive. He continues to move into her space - which she has already demonstrated is stressful for her - and uses his posture and size to loom over her from a crouch. His posture is stereotypically aggressive - balanced forward, leaning over, arms and hands wide in a threatening posture, and he’s staring at her. 

6. It is completely reasonable for the dog to bite him at this point. She already tried to warn him (very politely, in dog language) that she was uncomfortable, with many avoidance behaviors before she started eaten. He encroached on her space and she responded with a snap - not a bite, because she didn’t make contact, which is very purposeful. Dogs have very good mouth control and do not make contact unless they intend to. In response, he hit her (more threats) and then encroached on her space. This is a stressed, unhappy animal who is being threatened by a guy who has escalated to physical contact and refuses to leave her space. Any dog would bite at this point and you cannot fault an animal that is pushed to the end of it’s rope to defend itself for feeling unsafe and physically threatened. 

7. There are only two reasons a good animal trainer gets bit. A) they didn’t have the skill to do what they tried to do B) they weren’t paying enough attention. Trainers who get bit frequently are not good trainers, no matter how much they brag. You do not need to push an animal to the point of defending itself to modify it’s behavior, and if you consistently do so, you should not be working with animals. 

8. If a dog bites, it’s because it literally believes it has no other options to remove the threat or stressor. If a dog is so stressed that it bites, you leave it the fuck alone so it can calm down. That’s the fight or flight response. An animal that is in a state of arousal from defending itself literally can’t think straight - try reasoning with a toddler having a meltdown, it’s about the same thing. Instead he keeps pushing her and making it worse. 

9. Go read The Damage of Dog Whispering for the entire truth. It does not contain slander, but instead, reasoned arguments for why he is awful. 

10. A dog that is resource guarding by growling/snarling is not threatening to attack. It is saying ‘I am uncomfortable and feel unsafe and do not want this to escalate to a bite, but I will do so in order to protect myself if you push this’. 

Jeez, okay. Painful breakdown done. Next: what are we actually looking at? I’m sacrificing my own sanity to re-watch this enough times to break it down, ugh. Here’s a link to someone who does a decent slow-motion breakdown, and although I can’t find the person’s credentials it’s pretty accurate even though it misses some stuff. .I’m going to use that video for the breakdown because it’s slowed down, so the timecode will not match a full-speed video of the incident. 

Breakdown:

The video then notes in an interlude that he’s confronted her before, which is why an escalation like this occurs. Holly has already learned that he’s not safe around food, that he’s going to purposefully set up uncomfortable situations and then push her boundaries and not listen to her body language. That’s why things escalated so fast - because she’s had to deal with this before, and knows it ends with him not being safe for her when food is around. He’s doing exactly what makes resource guarding worse by setting up situations in which food creates unsafe situations and she has to gobble it before he tries to fuck with her. 

It’s hard to say why she didn’t let go, but my guess is that she was just pushed too far at this point - or that she figured the hand was what was dangerous since he kept touching/hitting her with it, and that biting it was the only way to remove that threat. 

“I didn’t see that coming.”

This is the point where every professional animal person who made it through the video yells, throws something at the computer, and probably gets a beer because you idiot. I’m not exaggerating when I say that watching this video makes every dog professional I know - trainers, researchers, hobbyists - viscerally and physically ill. Everything CM did in this video is egregious and unprofessional and incredibly dangerous and stupid. 

See, here’s the thing. A professional who really wanted to treat resource guarding (rather than bully the dog) wouldn’t even set a scenario up where the dog had to guard food. That literally sets the dog up for failure. And as soon as any signs of guarding started, the person would back the fuck off and reassess the situation. When you’re working on resource guarding protocols, if the dog starts guarding, you’re pushing too hard and too fast and need to take smaller baby steps with your protocol. It’s not a one-time fix, either. Resource guarding protocols take months and months of slow work to implement. There’s no magic eraser for the fear in a dog’s mind of people threatening it while it eats or taking it’s food - you have to earn that trust, tiny step by tiny step. And even then it only applies to one person at first, and you have to teach the dog to generalize that trust to lots of people, which may never be successful. Using CM’s method on a dog might traumatize it into never being able to unlearn guarding because it’s not just getting pushed out of it’s comfort zone, it’s getting randomly attacked no matter what it does to try to end the situation. 

Here’s an interesting fact about Holly: We only know what CM has said about her. Nobody really knows what happened to her after she left the Dog Psychology center except for some rumors about how she was ‘given up for the safety of the kid’. That’s because everyone on his show is forced to sign strict non-disclosure agreements that prevent them from ever speaking publicly about their experience working with him or the behavior of their dogs after filming ends. 

I’m not going to get into how you should develop protocols for working with a resource-guarding dog here because I don’t want to risk someone trying to use it without knowing what they’re doing. Resource guarding, while not aggression, is still serious and can be dangerous if someone who doesn’t know enough to stay safe tries to handle in on their own. If you have a dog that is a resource-guarder, you must contact a trainer for help working with your dog. Do not attempt to do behavior modification yourself. (I suggest you look for a trainer who is a member of the IAABC, but whomever you pick must use only positive reinforcement and must have experience with reactive dogs and dogs that guard. If you feel anything is off or they ask you to use punishment or do antyhing you find uncomfortable, walk away). However, if you want to know the theory behind it, look up counter-conditioning protocols for fearful and reactive dogs - it’s built from the same principles. 

My last feelings on this? 

There is an entire website - beyondcesarmillan.com - dedicated to compiling testimonials from animal professionals in varied fields against CM’s methods and theories. Everyone from veterinary behaviorists to animal trainers to wolf and dog researchers around the world told Nat Geo they should never have aired his show in the first place because it was so wrong and so dangerous.

No TV Show on air about dog training should need a disclaimer that says ‘don’t try this at home, it’s too dangerous’. 

ACT UP, 1990

healthcare should not have a weight limit.

like it doesn’t matter if a person is so fat they’re immobile & have infections in their skin folds & need assistance with everything from hygiene to cooking to cleaning etc. they should still get good medical care.

the fattest person you possibly imagine still deserves medical care. it also doesn’t matter why they’re fat, even if that person got fat because all they did was eat and eat without ever exercising, they still deserve medical care.

Everyone in the notes saying hehe I’m from the south of a different country but it didn’t say America so I voted yes. You’re literally not a yankee which means welcome aboard

Please call this recession the Trump Slump.

We need to put Trump's name on this.

if ever anything I wrote were to ever go viral, let it be this. Let everyone talk about the Trump Slump. I want to hear this term in the news.

nothing sadder than a piece of media making a girl who clearly more than anything else should be a dyke and then going out of their way to make sure the audience knows how interested in men she is. many such cases

yall dont know what bisexuals are 😭

Youre right. Every fictional woman who has a bunch of intense and deeply meaningful interpersonal relationships with other women, but is only ever shown in romantic or sexual relationships with men is intentionally being portrayed as bisexual. That's really the only reasonable way to interpret that particular media trend. I feel so silly for not thinking of it before but I've never heard of bisexuality until this exact second

I’d like to live through a week that’s not a whole new verse of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”

#dated three years ago is really what makes this one#sorry op if you still have notifications on for this one#but hoo-wee did you hit on the sentiment of the decade

I do have notifications still on for this post because I love the sense of community it gives me. We're all just staring at each other blankly and occasionally screaming.

Also for the people who have post dates turned on and just go JESUS CHRIST FOUR YEARS AGO?!

James Somerton is working as a wedding photographer with a plagiarized portfolio, btw

YoutubeDrama thread where this came out.

He truly seems incapable of not passing off others work as his own.

saw someone describe Luke Skywalker as the 'bastard son of a sith lord' and i have to say i think Darth Vader would be VERY offended by that. like how DARE you imply Padme wasn't his wife??

I don't think it's fair to call him a deadbeat either. like the man started trying to have a relationship with his son as soon as he found out he existed. he was trying so so hard to have a father son relationship. yes he tortured his son's friends and yes he did also maim him but that's not important right now.

#what about his daughter #did he try to have a father daughter relationship as well?

i think in the approx. 1 hour he knew his daughter existed he did attempt to have a relationship with her to the best of his ability. yes this did mostly amount to plotting to make her evil and yes prior to that he did unknowingly torture her but that's not important right now either.

the asexual double edged sword is that a lot of people, particularly queer discoursers(tm) online, are really really rancid about ace people who have sex, I mean like stunningly awful, so naturally sex favorable/indifferent asexuals will be very keen on making sure that they aren't erased within their own community and that people at large know they exist. at the same time, people are also Very Bad about ace people who don't have sex, and sex averse/repulsed asexuals face a lot of pressure both on societal and interpersonal scales to submit to sex that they don't want, and so naturally it'll really rub them the wrong way to constantly have "but don't worry, ace people can still conform to the societal expectation!" appended to their PSAs about their experiences of asexuality. and so everyone's just kinda upset and annoyed all the time when instead it should be peace and love on planet ace.

SWTOR + text posts - part 2

part 1, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6

why would you do this to me