Comments on: Stubborn as a Muledog

Stubborn as a Muledog

Secret Life of Gravy — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:26:23 -0800

Gus, the bulldog, decides he wants his pool inside the house.

By: phunniemee

phunniemee — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:32:18 -0800

AAAAHHH LOOKIT THE PUPPEHS! SO glad this didn't involve urination.

By: Orange Pamplemousse

Orange Pamplemousse — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:35:39 -0800

He brought it in, but lost all the water! I want to make a pun involving "Pyrrhic Victory", but I'm drawing a blank...

By: Ad hominem

Ad hominem — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:36:03 -0800

What is wrong with those people, don't just stand there, help him!

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:38:52 -0800

Ahaha. Our instincts are the same -- to film rather than help or hinder. By now our guy knows, not that he'll be punished if he does/takes something he shouldn't, but that he'll have to endure more photography/videography if he does.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:42:10 -0800

Those two dogs really aren't that different from other over-their-head DIYers on a weekend: one guy working, one guy looking at him like, "That might work. I'll be over here if you need me." Dog's well-trained.

By: TheWhiteSkull

TheWhiteSkull — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:43:09 -0800

I like how the other dog is all "OK, cool, I'll help you...wait...what are we doing?"

By: Iridic

Iridic — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:49:27 -0800

I was inspired by how Gus managed to overcome his inability to understand the concept of a Rigid Body Too Wide To Pass Through An Aperture.

By: JohnnyGunn

JohnnyGunn — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:52:31 -0800

That is why they are called Bulldogs! Like Gus! I would like to see Gus turn on the faucet and start filling the bath tub up instead.

By: Benny Andajetz

Benny Andajetz — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:09:10 -0800

My pool. My house. My poolhouse. Deal with it.

By: Secret Life of Gravy

Secret Life of Gravy — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:10:45 -0800

Bulldogs. If I could afford the vet bills I would have a whole pack of them. But dang, they can be stubborn. Sweet tempered, non-barky, can skip the daily walk and just veg out on the couch, but if they get an idea in their head....forget about it. My girl thinks that the microwave ding means "Pounce on the nearest cat." No amount of cajoling, yelling, bribing, or cat distress will persuade her differently-- and the cats are her buddies. There is cat-dog lovin going on right this very second!

By: sardonyx

sardonyx — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:11:31 -0800

Get off my lawn: pet owner edition. This video really just demonstrates why a great percentage of dog owners just tick me right off. Yes, I realize the video is cute and the dog is determined, but if you don't want your dog to bring the wet pool into the house stop him. Tell him no and mean no. Take an action that will cause the dog to know you're serious. Otherwise everything you do becomes white noise which the dog learns to tune out. Of course by the time you hit that stage, you can't understand why the dog won't stop barking when you tell it to or why it won't stop chewing on the furniture. A neighbour does this repeatedly with her three, small, incredibly yappy dogs. They're horrible dogs, and a large part of that reason is that she's a horrible neighbour. She thinks it's funny when her barking dogs disturb the neighbourhood at all hour of the day and night. While most of her actions annoy me, every once in a while she's great entertainment. This happens when she gets frustrated that her stupid dogs aren't listening to her and obeying whatever command she is trying to give them. Then you get to hear her whine at her dogs. "Why aren't you listening to mommy? Why do you want to hurt mommy like this? You know you upset mommy when you don't behave. You know I told you to get in the house. " No they don't know that. They can't carry on a conversation with you. They can't perform formal logical and deductive reasoning in the same way humans do. And if they're not listening to you, it's your own bloody fault. You let them run wild. You can't control them on a leash or off. You don't ever seem to issue them commands they understand or that are backed with any authority. You whine and whine to them or talk to them in silly baby voices. If you want dogs, learn to deal with dogs responsibly. They aren't miniature human beings. They need you, the master, to be in charge.

By: clvrmnky

clvrmnky — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:16:23 -0800

This made the rounds during the big heatwave this summer, didn't it?

By: Horselover Phattie

Horselover Phattie — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:19:06 -0800

There should be a national campaign to instruct people to rotate their stupid smartphones to landscape mode when taking video so we don't have to see little slivers of the action.

By: IAmBroom

IAmBroom — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:19:38 -0800

Iridic: there's no reason to understand that concept, so long as "The use of force is always an option" keeps working for him. Also: the owner kept saying "No, Gus, no" in English, but her tone kept saying "Hee hee, Gus; go!". I'll bet she wonders why her dog won't listen to her... and complains that he's too dumb to be trained. Just a hunch. Cute vid, though.

By: IAmBroom

IAmBroom — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:20:47 -0800

sardonyx: you and me. Beers. After work. Some city in-between, where my horrid yap-yap-owning neighbor doesn't live. Bring your dog(s).

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:22:53 -0800

Sardonyx, feel better now? Go Gus! Once you're done with that pool, Sardonyx would love for you to go rearrange the house!

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:22:57 -0800

if you don't want your dog to bring the wet pool into the house stop him. Tell him no and mean no. Take an action that will cause the dog to know you're serious. Otherwise everything you do becomes white noise which the dog learns to tune out. I'm not sure what video you watched. The one I saw wasn't sending mixed messages to the dogs whatsoever. The worst you can say about it is that telling the dogs not to do this particular thing in the future will be problematic both for the particular activity and for the dogs' sense of your authority. Had the owners said "NO, don't do that" and then laughed and filmed it then yeah, trouble. This bears no resemblance to your neighbour with the yappy dogs. Honestly, I hate to disagree with anyone concluding with a "learn to deal with dogs responsibly" line, but the rest of your post reads to me like a non-dog-owner, or someone with a lot of projection going on.

By: sardonyx

sardonyx — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:25:25 -0800

IAmBroom, I'd gladly meet you for beers any time. While I love dogs, I don't have any myself, but I'm sure I'd be happy to meet yours (if you have any).

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:27:39 -0800

"This pool, man. This would really tie the room together."

By: sardonyx

sardonyx — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:28:06 -0800

Durn Bronezfist, Yes you're right I don't have dogs. But I've been around enough to know that it's a bad idea to give them mixed signals, and saying "no" or "Gus don't do that" (or whatever else she was saying in the video) is exactly that. "No" should be reserved for a behaviour you want to discourage. Not something to be used when laughing at your pet.

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:36:13 -0800

Gah. Alright, third time's a charm (first no sound, second with, but only caught the single half-hearted "No, Gus" (at 00:18) third time around). Fair enough, that is a mixed message, though I'm not sure I'd judge her overall disciplinary routine with that one throwaway bit (the "we can't have anything nice can we?" falls in with your "dogs don't understand us" message and really doesn't count). I've seen owners like your neighbour plead with their dogs and I know how they got there, but I still don't draw much of a line from that to this. My dog isn't yappy because I consistently instruct him not to bark. OTOH, he does the occasional thing someone else would think is "wrong" (he collects socks) which I find amusing enough to not dissuade him from doing, and it would peeve me mightily if someone thought this meant he gets no consistent guidance on behaviours I actually want to dissuade, or was the equivalent of any undisciplined dog in the neighbourhood. Those people must be flabbergasted when they later see him approach the street with me, stop, look both ways and await instruction before proceeding.

By: gnidan

gnidan — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:55:19 -0800

Yeah! Good job, Gus!

By: ericb

ericb — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:56:05 -0800

Not a double, but I knew I had seen this video from a couple of previous comments.

By: roger ackroyd

roger ackroyd — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:11:02 -0800

And here is Gus going apeshit in the pool.

By: usonian

usonian — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:34:08 -0800

As a dog owner who has witnessed hilarious but ultimately not desirable behaviors like this: it's entirely possible that the owners saw this happening and were so bemused by it that they let it continue on camera, then put the kibosh on it.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:34:21 -0800

If you want dogs, learn to deal with dogs responsibly. They aren't miniature human beings. They need you, the master, to be in charge. Nothing in this video indicates these are not responsible owners. It's tone of voice as much as the word itself that tells a dog when they need to listen. Christ, if you can't have fun like this with your dog what's the point of having one? Dogs are not little robotic slaves. Except, I guess, for those creepy trained German guard dogs.

By: 2bucksplus

2bucksplus — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:37:14 -0800

Eh, sometimes you got to let your dog live his life. I like when my guy shows some personality and initiative.

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:43:55 -0800

It's a lot like having kids, I think, in not sweating the small stuff (and what that constitutes varies greatly from person to person, as shown by this video). Thinking that you have to project authority at all times is a completely outmoded way of thinking (we took training classes from when ours was a pup, and the instructor put the kibosh on the whole "You're the ALPHA -- you eat first", etc, etc.) but rather that when you choose to project authority, you do so consistently. You can still have tons of amusing "bad dog" play if you drop the pretense and enjoy it with him.

By: Naberius

Naberius — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:49:59 -0800

This is perhaps the best metaphor for my job that I have yet discovered. Right down to the other dog hopping around the edges of the project, getting in the way, and offering useless input.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:50:51 -0800

Another stubborn (French) bulldog.

By: morganw

morganw — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:01:37 -0800

> Another stubborn (French) bulldog OK, now I want to play a video game that's a mashup of Katamari Damacy and Kinectimals where you control a 3rd person bulldog on a slippery floor and have to collect domestic flotsam.

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:03:27 -0800

MetaFilter: Gus. No.

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:07:57 -0800

Metatalk: Jeez, Gus, we can't have anything nice, can we?

By: oneswellfoop

oneswellfoop — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:14:59 -0800

You know, I was surprised this didn't get posted here when it first did the rounds of EVERY OTHER WEBSITE a couple months ago, but this was good timing as Southern California just got hit with an "Indian Summer" with a vengeance. This is as refreshing as a wet bulldog can be.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:42:51 -0800

And here is Gus going apeshit in the pool . I think Gus will stop just as soon as you fill that pool to a proper level, pal.

By: Feisty

Feisty — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:25:46 -0800

Renters. I'm sure of it.

By: librarianamy

librarianamy — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:40:37 -0800

I don't have a lot of experience with bulldogs - in the one where he's moving the pool, is Gus a particularly LARGE dog, or is that a small pool? It looks like a different pool than the one he's freaking out in.

By: kmz

kmz — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:46:50 -0800

The video reminds me of an incident with our recently (this year) adopted stray black lab, Faye. Only heard it second hand, but we had left her (and our corgi Ein) with my in-laws for a few days, who have a relatively large tub they use to put water in for the dogs. At home we just have two normal sized dog water bowls, and even there Faye always makes a bit of a mess by slobbering all over the place. But my mother-in-law was finding huge puddles of water around the water tub. So one time instead of just letting Faye run into the kitchen to drink, she followed her surreptitiously. There, Faye looked around cautiously for a few seconds, and once she was satisfied nobody was watching: SPLASH! Practically dove in and started flinging water back and forth. Mother-in-law stopped her right then and it didn't happen again, but the image of her glancing around to see if the coast was clear and then diving in always cracks me up.

By: lazaruslong

lazaruslong — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:24:48 -0800

It does take on a different tone when one realizes that dogs with owners that do not assert authority properly can be neurotic to the point of reducing their quality of life. Also, cute video.

By: colfax

colfax — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:20:51 -0800

Here is a video of a bulldog on a trampoline. It is a good video for two reasons. 1. A Bulldog! Bouncing! On a trampoline! 2. The first comment underneath it is: "Next thing you know, he's going to try and take THAT in the house too.

By: Fizz

Fizz — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:20:54 -0800

I can't stop smiling.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:02:10 -0800

Maggie the English Mastiff vs. Dude the Chihuahua

By: finite

finite — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:27:10 -0800

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=skateboarding+bulldog [About 2,450 results]

By: azpenguin

azpenguin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:55:19 -0800

I have a pack of them sleeping at my feet right now. (The "no, the bulldog can't sleep on the bed" rule lasted two days. Now we have snoring bullies nearby to lull us to sleep.) For those keeping score, they're all rescues, and two of them are special needs, as was the one that passed on a few months ago. Our bullies, fortunately, don't try any stunts like this. But if they want something, especially our oldest and biggest (she's 11) you'll discover just how much of a load they can be to handle. And that's just how it is with bulldogs. Our youngest (he's 5) can usually be stopped with a command, but if he's close to his devious objective he will drastically speed up his efforts if we try to call him off. Had this been my bulldog trying to pull a wading pool through a door, I'd have been laughing too hard to do anything about it. (Funny bulldog story: he'll go to the door and bark if he needs out. One day, however, he got smartass on us. He walked to the door, sat down parallel to it, cut a loud ripper of a fart, then slowly cranes his head to look at me, basically saying, "You get THAT hint, don't you?" I love my pooches.)

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 12:57:58 -0800

Doggie-cam (Pug POV)

By: stormpooper

stormpooper — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:25:55 -0800

Life's hard, Gus. Life's hard.