IDIOCY

 From: Leah ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Subject: Re: Went and had a chat with the training club
Date: 2002-11-09 20:36:27 PST


>[EMAIL PROTECTED]  (Melanie L Chang) wrote:
>If that was not intended to be a slam, you're even more tone
>deaf than I thought.

No, usually referring to somebody as diplomatic and tactful
and knowing when to keep her mouth shut isn't a slam.

>What I try not to do is ask for advice when I don't need it
>or have no intention of taking it.  I'm assuming you're
>referring to the short-term guest I had before I got Fly.
>Frankly, I didn't expect to get any advice here that I
>couldn't get locally (from my trainers, the rescue, and
>Solo's behaviorist -- i.e., people who have actually met me
>and the dogs in question) and so it wasn't worth getting
>ridden by the people here I knew would ride me for it.

Well, I don't (or didn't) HAVE any dog people to talk to about
things.  I do now that I work in PetsMart.

However, as I've mentioned, the dog people I've talked to in
RL about Kenzie all think I went too far by giving the
neglectful owners an opportunity to reclaim her.

>To me, this newsgroup is about getting information and
>sharing things I feel like sharing when I have time to share
>them.  It is not about a blow-by-blow account of my life with
>my dogs and it is generally not a place to agonize over
>crucial decisions about their stewardship.

Sometimes, to me, it is.

>The kinds of things I agonize about require face-to-face advice.
>For example, I have been wondering for the past couple of
>weeks if Solo is going to need to go back on his medications
>again.
>
> I have not announced this fact in big neon letters because
> (a) I know what people are going to say -- the odds are low
> that I'm going to get new information, or information from
> people experienced in these matters
>
> and (b) there's no advice anyone here can give me that's
> better than the advice I'm getting from other sources

Again, you *have* these people in RL to talk to.  In RL,
believe it or not, *I'm* considered the expert.  In my world,
*this* is where I go to learn more about dogs.

>and (c) regardless of what anyone here says, I'm going to do
>what I'm going to do because he's my dog and I know him
>better than any of you do

Yea, I don't blame you.  Interesting how one of the complaints
about *me* is that I'm "going to do what I want to do."  Of
course I am.  But when I'm not sure of a situation, I want to
weigh all the info I can get.

> and I trust Solo's behaviorist and trainers more than
> I trust any of you.

My dogs don't have behaviorists and trainers.
They only have me.

> It's not something that I feel like I need to solicit
> commentary on.  If my situation were different,
> then I would solicit commentary on it.

My situation is different.

>You may look at that as hiding and revealing information
>strategically.

No, I didn't say that.  Well, I didn't say hiding.

>You're welcome to your opinion, but I think you feel that way
>because we have very different motivations for posting here.

Yes, we do.  And maybe I did misjudge your reasons for not
posting certain things here.  If so, I apologize.

> I'm not trying to maintain an image and I don't particularly
> care what people think of me or whether they like me or not;
> what I want is to have constructive discussions about topics
> that I find interesting and to learn things I wouldn't learn
> otherwise.

Same here.

> I think you want people to like you and that
> you want different things from the group here than I do.

Well, I do post different things for a different reason, but
my main reason for being here is to learn.  If it was to be
"liked," I wouldn't ask peoples' opinions about things that I
know may open up a can of worms.

> That's your prerogative, but please understand that not
> everyone is coming from the same perspective as you are.
> There's no requirement on Usenet that you wear everything
> on your sleeve.

I wear everything on my sleeve in RL.  That's just me.

>If you're going to open yourself up to commentary about your
>actions, you should understand that it isn't all going to be
>to your liking.  To tell the truth, I'm the last person you
>should be whining to about catching hell on this newsgroup.

I wasn't whining to you.  Apparently you've misjudged me,
also.

I'll admit, I started posting about this again because now I'm
more amused than anything.  Shelly's post about how I "treat
the members of this ng" changed my perspective on a lot of
things.  I couldn't help but laugh.  And a lot of the
follow-up posts are just as ridiculous.

At this point, the only people who are making me feel bad
about anything are Chad, Lone, and Matt.  They're not people
who indulge in feeding frenzies, so I know their opinions are
purely objective and from the heart.  I'm very sorry, not that
we don't see eye-to-eye, but that they feel so adamant about
their positions.  I respect them not only for their knowledge
of dogs, but as people.

PetsMart Pet Trainer
See My Furry Family At:
http://www.angelfire.com/fl5/dogs0