sheepdog

Well, who knows how those silly scientist came up with the idea. I have my doubts as to weather or not they really knew what they were doing. I've seen some of the dumb ideas they come up with to test the intelligence of dogs, and I have to say, my dogs are probably a lot smarter than a lot of those scienctists! I don't think my dogs would like clasical music. I don't like it, it is depressing to me, so if I get depressed the dogs would sense my mood and they would become depressed too, so I'll just listen to my oldies rock and roll, I'll be happy and they will too. But I was nice to my puppy on my Texas trip, just listened to music on the head phones, and the only time I heard him start to howl was when I would sing along a few lines........Everyone's a critic!

I can't imagine anyone not eating fish! That's nearly a weekly thing on our menu! Frog legs are good too, if you like fishy tasting stuff. Nothing at all weird about chicken livers, their pretty tasty, but I prefer the gizzards and hearts. I suppose the weirdest thing I eat would be a peanut butter and onion sandwich on rye bread. It's really tasty! The onions give the dry sticky peanut butter some moisture and a nice kick. Rye bread just sets the whole thing off perfectly.

, I could not agree with you more. The debate between heredity and enviornment has been going on forever. But I for one do believe that although genetics may play a small part in the predisposition of temperment, the nuturing has far more to do with it. Some research into horse behaviour indicates that it is the mare that contributes 70% of the disposition to the foal. It is the mare after all that raises the foal and teaches it the way the horse herd functions. A foal from a dominate mare will in all likelyhood grow into a dominent herd leader, whereas a foal from a mare down on the pecking order in the herd will also remain in a low position in the herd. I see no reason to give any less creedence to applying these same principals to human behaviour. Children learn what ever is in the enviornment that they grow up in. It would take a person of extra intelligence and inner strength to realize that there might just be a better way to do things than what they learned in childhood. Not that many people have the strength to rise above their upbringing. Not to say it's impossible, just not real likely. Of course, a certain amount of adversity in one's upbringing can add charector and strength to that person. If the family is basicly strong and there is some solid ground for the child. For example, a father that is a heavy drinker and possibly abusive to the wife and children. If the mother is of solid charector, so that the child actually sees both sides of how life should or should not be, that child stands a good chance of becoming a good and decent human being. But a child born into a situation like you described has no base or anthing to recognise the difference between right and wrong. Those poor kids don't have a snow balls chance in hell. It is an extremely sad situation and should be avoided at all costs.

Howdy! Glad your here. We can always use more knowledge around here!

Here I go with another dumb computer question.Is there a way to make my computer stay on the "view thumbnails" when I am viewing cd's that I've burned pictures and stuff on, instead of just showing the album names? It drives me nuts having to stop and click back on view thumbnails every time I have to open an album when I am looking for a particular picture. I even loose it when I hit the back button and go back to the main list on the cd. It's really annoying, and I hate looking for lost pictures as it is. I have so many years worth on so many cds. I was also wondering if there was a way to make a print out of all the file names that are on the cd (after it's allready been burned) It won't let me copy/paste the files when they are open.

Ahhhh...dreams can be so much fun to try to analize! Are you unemployed and looking for a job? Or think maybe you will loose your job in the near future? Either of these could trigger your strange dreams. Even if you aren't conciously thinking you might be loosing a job, there might be some problem at work that is bothering you. Sometimes dreams are a way to blow off the tensions and frustrations of our waking time. Sort of like a safty valve on a preasure cooker. And, maybe you'll think I'm crazy. (ok, I probably am anyway) but I believe that we can also have physic dreams. Some people can pick up on emotions of other people, and those can affect your dreams too.

So, what did you do for Valentines day?Mine was really labor intensive, and with the exception of a box full of really good chocolates, was not really very sweet, except for the satisfaction of finally getting a job done. For the past few months I have been working on getting an electric perimeter fence around the piece of property we have next door. It has been a daunting task. There are weeds, brush, grape vines, trees, washed out ditches, all the things that make wonderful goat pasture, but a terrible fence building experience. We are down to about 6 more weeks or less until kidding season begins. It is important for the goats to have a good variety of feedstuffs, and top quality nutrition in the last part of their gestation, as that is when most of the fetal growth occurs. Getting them on fresh pasture is one very good way to do this. So, early that morning I made a run of the new fence to make sure it would still be working. For those of you that know about electric fence, you know that nothing can touch it or it shorts it out. Falling tree branches, etc, can keep it from working properly. Everything was still in order, so before all the hired help went home we got the boys to help drive the goats across the yard and threw the gate behind the house into the new place. That went pretty well, a few tried to sprint off from the main herd, but for the most part they followed me with my rattling bucket of corn all the way across. Unfortunately, none of the dogs followed. They were all just laying around the barnyard taking it easy and acting like nothing was going on. I wasn?t too worried about that, I figured they?d find their way over there eventually. But things did not continue to go well. It seems that though it was working that morning, the electric fence around the kennel had quit working while we were moving the goats. We were able to isolate the section of the kennel that was messed up, but for the life of us we could not find a short in the fence anywhere. I walked and walked the entire fence out. We replaced all the cross over connections, and did everything we could figure out to do and never did find the main problem. We finally put up a different fence charger, and got it to half way work. As we were finishing up on trying to fix the fence, I started hearing dogs barking. Our neighbor has a bunch of dogs, and they actually sound just like my Komondor when they bark. I started getting really paranoid. I figured it would be just my crummy luck to have my goats unattended and without the protection of the kom?s for 2 hours and have some dang dogs get into them and kill a bunch of them. I could tell by where the sound was coming from if it was the neighbors dogs they weren?t at their house, they were by my goats. So I jumped on the 4 wheeler and zipped back there to check them. I was sure proud of what I found back there. One of the Koms had already found her way to the goats. She was barking her head off, I suppose either letting the world know she was on duty and nobody better mess with my goats, or she was calling for the rest of the koms to come and provide backup. I have to say, Koms have got to be the best dog in the world for goat guards. By dark, 2 more had found their way to the goats. One was still on the wrong side of the fence but by morning she had found her way in. I sure am proud of my dogs.

What do you mean by "was?" I don't believe you've changed not even one little bit! Bribbing a kid to do something has it's place. Coaxing and trickery does too. And I even like the idea of making a kid eat just a bite or 2 of something, especially things that they have not eaten in the past. But sometimes you have to lay down the law with children. And you have to start young. Remember, you are the parent, the authority in the household. Lines have to be drawn that are not to be crossed. When your kids grow up and you tell them not to do certain things, like for example, don't drink and drive, or don't do drugs, do you want them to have the idea that just because you said no that it's ok to drink a little bit when you drive, or try a few drugs? I'm not saying you have to write everything in stone. But sometimes you have to put your foot down and say I'm the boss of you. Eventually the kids will grow up and understand better about standing by your convicitions and princepals.

Hey, that looks pretty dog gone good if you ask me. Just one problem. I can't read a word of it!

Oh yes, me too!I like that old time Rock And Roll, that kind of music just sooths my soul.... I used to listen to music just almost constantly. However, my significant other likes country, which I just can't stand. (well, most country music anyway, the crying in your beer get drunk and kiss your horse kind) I do like Willie and some Statler Brothers stuff. I'll be singing "on the Road Again" in a few days when I head for Texas. Anyway, now I mostly just listen while I'm working in the kennel. Some scientist decided that dogs only like classical music. So if they are right, am I abusing my dogs? Personally, I don't think those scientists had any idea what kind of music dogs like, they probably just got a grant from the government to do a study. The only song I've noticed that the dogs don't like is Lou Christy, "Baby, I'm going to make you mine." It's kind of high pitched and squeeky, and makes them howl.

I've been thinking some one these electric cars for awhile now. I suddenly realized, that they really aren't going to help a lot anyway. Think about this for a minute. You are trading off burning fossil fuel, but where does our electrisity come from? While there are some electric plants that are fueled by rivers and dams, a great deal of our power still comes from coal fired electric plants. If we increase our use of electricity, we will increase the need for it, and to power all the cars that run up and down the highways in the USA we are talking about one heck of a lot more electric, won't we just have to burn more coal? Sure there is some use of neuclear power, but I think that's a lot more dangerous than it's worth. Aren't we just trading sourses of a problem?Anyway, with the current models available, and electric car would never work for us. We live near a small town, and while we make a fair amount of our purchases locally, the vast majority of what we buy comes from places farther away than the current range of electric cars.

Welcome Jonnii to Xisto. Congradulations on the little one you have on the way. Are you hoping for a boy or Girl?Or wait, maybe you've bought a puppy and are just waiting for it to be weaned and come live with you????? At any rate, this is a good place if your in the need of free web hosting or advice with doing web sites.

Greetings to you!Hey, these people really aren't joking when they say they are willing to help you out if you have questions. You wouldn't believe all the dumb computer stuff I can't figure out that I can get answers for here from all the computer savy people here. I don't know beans from apple butter about computers for the most part. But of course, if you ever have a dog question, now that I can help with!

Welcome Chop!Glad to have ya! Tell us a little more about yourself, your likes, intersts, all that stuff.

Wow really!!!???? You mean he's really a person? I mean a real honest to gosh human being? I really thought he was the figment of someone's imagination just made up for us to believe that there is a higher power here at Knowldedge sutra! LOL, just kidding guys.I'm glad you got to meet the boss. Bet that was fun. But teasing us with hints of upcoming things is not very cool with out spilling at least a few beans for our anxious reading minds.

Parubilla, I think your mom was on to something. I really don't think it was at all too harsh. Look at the end outcome. You obviously didn't starve to death or you wouldn't be here posting, and you did eat your food, so it seemed to work out really good in the end, since you ended up not being a picky eater! So when you do have kids, you will have one trick already up your sleeve when your kids try this on one you! Isn't it nice to be ahead of the game occasionally?

Ok, just for me being onery, if you have a little girl, who I'm sure is the apple of your eye and a real little darling and you have friends to go camping and boating with why do you need a boy friend? Sounds like your having a pretty good time as it is, why drag a guy into the mix when chances are all he will do is become a royal pain in your backside???I think the internet is a great way to find a puppy. Not so great for a lifemate/partner. So many people are so bloody dishonest. If you go this route, don't get too serious about anybody until you meet them, and when you do meet, be dang careful. You wouldn't want to be lured out on a date by some serial rapist. I really don't think drinking establishments are a very good choise for finding a boyfriend. You already have a daughter. So I assume that you are mentally matured and grown up.(having children does this to women in most cases) Finding a man that is still in the bar hopping stage may not be a good choise. While he may be out looking for a woman, he probably isn't thinking about a permenent partner. I hear laundry mats are good for picking up guys. Lets face it, if you find a guy doing his own laundry, it means he probably doesn't have a girlfriend or a mother, and both are good signs. Of course, he could be a bum that can't hold down a job long enough to buy his own washing machine, so of course, you would just need to use a little common sense in whatever circumstance you met a man.

Hey, are you actually a veterinarian? Or did you mean vegatarian???? I've been hoping for some dog breeders to join up here at KnowledgeSurta, but hey, a vet would be great!!!

That is just disgusting. It is difficult to fathom the mental condition of someone who would do a terrible thing like this. We commonly accept that we should spay and neuter our dogs to prevent unwanted pups from being born, it's just a shame we don't consider the same option for humans, even if you don't believe in the death penalty. But as to making them suffer by not giving them the death penalty, I really don't think anyone who would do something this awful would have a concious and would ever care about what they had done, I don't see them suffering for it by staying alive.

Thanks Deadman for pitching in and giving us all a pep talk. We sure needed it. 10 posts per day might be a bit tought right now, especially until everybody else gets in gear and starts making new topics and gets things rolling, but even if we can make half that for starters, things would get a little easier. Popping in every day would be great, but for some time now I've found that daily visits are really time wasted, since it takes awhile to go threw all the different topics and if there are no new posts to reply to you spend a lot of time doing nothing. I've cut down to posting for a few days to get threw all the topics, and then taking off a week until enough new topics are started that it's worth coming back. Also, I have the time right now to post daily. I'm in the calm before the storm. Once spring hits and I have grooming and garden planting and all that jazz, I just don't have time to make it in here all that often. Anwiii is right on. It's not the moderators that make the forums, it's the members. If we want an active and productive forum, we all have to participate. But as for chat, I've not been into that since we lost the old shoutbox we used to have at the top of the forum. And anyway, like so many others I just have so much available time, so I try to stick to the mycents paying part of Xisto. I did used to pop into chat occasionally when it was running on top of the forum and was easy to jump into. Thanks also to anwiii for keeping in touch with Opaque and letting us know he is still around. But even without him, the members are still the driving force behind this forum.

That is certainly intersting about cats in Austrailia! I do remember reading somewhere that there are more sheep in Austrailia than there are people, but never thought about them aussies being cat lovers! I am glad that you realize getting a pet is something that needs a fair amount of consideration. Depending on the type of pet there can be a fair amount of time required for their care and upkeep. While you don't have to take a hamster for a walk, they do require having their cage cleaned occasionally, and daily fresh feed and water, but that should not require a great deal of time. Of course I feel dogs make the very best pets, but some kind of animal is better than no pets. I really agree with you that people have to get fed up with all the mechanical and quite frankly, unnatural state of life we find ourselves in today. Relating to an animal is a good way to keep in touch with simplier times and ways.

I agree with the general concensis of the gang here. Come clean with the new boyfriend. Tell him what happened, apoligise, and hope for the best. This will actually save you a lot of grief in the future. For one thing, now you should know for a fact that it was the right thing to do to break up with the old boyfriend since obviously he is a real *bottom* for trying to black mail you like he is doing now. Not the kind of person you would want to be involved with. And if the new one dumps you, you will find out that he is the unforgiving type and it probably wasn't a good relationship to be in anyway. And you might want to lay off the booze too.

Your not giving it away. You are learing valuable life lessons in how do deal with adversity, challenges and all the other things that will come along in your life. It's called growing up. You have to learn to work with the cards life deals to you. Not everybody gets to be born with a silver spoon in their mouths and have all of their wants handed to them. (and quite frankly, those people that do get it all often grow up to be real asses.) The lessons you are (or should be) learning right now should be that family is important. That you should not be selfish and self centered and should unerstand that other people have needs and to pitch in and be a team player. That there are more important things than partying with friends and not having any responsibilities. Learning to put things into proper perspective, as to what is important and what is not. That being responsible for meeting your obligations and paying your debts and bills comes before goofing off. If you learn these lessons while you are still young, you will end up being a better person for it in the long run. Someone who is sensible and responsible, and is looked up to by their peers. Isn't it worth missing a party or 2 to be admired as a real stand up person?

What....nobody picking Xisto?????This is a pretty good site, and aside from the ability to host my own web site for free, it's handy to know of a place where I can get technical computer advise from people who know a lot more about this dang things than I do.But I suppose my favorite site would be USABreeders. It's a site for all dog breeders. It is a great place for exchanging information reguarding dogs and everything involved in raising, taking care of, and selling dogs. We have a lot of long time breeders, and when you have a problem it's really nice to get input on how to handle the many situation that arise when raising dogs. Unlike many sites online, it is breeder friendly. Years ago, if you even mentioned raising dogs on some doggie sites, they would eat you alive for even considering raising dogs and not adopting shelther mutts. So it was something that was sorely needed for us dog breeders. It has been around for a long time now, surving many other sites that critisised us and tried many times to destroy our board. Actually, a friend of mine and I started a board, Safe Haven, and we were constantly getting kicked off hosting sites by animal rights freaks. It wasn't until we got hosting from a computer savy fellow with his own hosting servers that we were able to make a site that was permenent and able to withstand the animal right attacks. Believe me, it was a long struggle. But without a doubt, well worth it. It is one of the best and fastest ways we can keep in touch with each other and get the word out about upcoming problems and happening in the dog world.

Dogs lick for a variety of reasons. One is that it is a nurturing, motherly instinct. Dams will lick their pups to keep them clean and healthy. Did you know that a newborn puppy cannot poop until it's mother licks it's backside to stimulate defication? Sounds weird, but you have to remember that dogs were not always domestic animals. Mothers used to have to go out and catch food for themselves and their pups. If the pups crapped all over themselves while the mother was gone off hunting, the smell would alert preditors to the pups location, and they would become lunch for some other creature. If the pups had to hold it till mom got back she would clean them all up and prevent the oder problem.Dogs also lick each other when there are injuries involved and one dog cannot reach his own injuries. It is common to see dogs licking each other ears, a common place for not only injuries, but dirt accumilations. Obviously, one cannot reach his own ears to lick them, the same holds true with the eyes, which often accumilate matter around them. Licking is a major sourse of doggie hygene, since they can't use a washrag and turn on the hot water. As for dogs licking humans, I think it for the most part is a show of affection and the dog thinks we need cleaning. Or attention to an injury. In some cases there is the food thing, if we have just eaten a cheeseburger, our dogs do enjoy getting that little bit of wonderful flavored grease off our fingers. But for the most part it's how they interact with us humans on their own doggie level. In a previous post, I mentioned George, the cancer sniffing Standard Schnauzer. Dogs can detect cancer cells, and they also recognise other ailments that effect human health. If you notice your dog continuing to sniff or lick one certain part of your body, it may be time for a check up from a human doctor. Dogs can sense even the smallest change in our body chemistry.