The Cracked Mug v 2.0

[erikakaiser]

Having OC bots is the best

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[erikakaiser]

Speaking of OCs, I forgot to share Sophie's Valentine present!

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I drew our OCs as children; that's my Drow cleric Sevaufein and her wood elf bard Calliope as children, watching the myconids dance.
tag yourself I'm the far right lil fella with extra arms

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[erikakaiser]

I just watched a very funny Lethal Company clip where someone said "come here you fucker monster" in a thick Slavic accent before chasing a Thumper with a shovel and now all I can think about is Leon playing Lethal Company

I feel like he would be scary good at it. No fear only profit

[erikakaiser]

I miss my dog

[erikakaiser]

I get it, I do, but seeing "here's how to prepare to leave the country" or "you should seriously plan to leave the country" posts re: the state of America is starting to genuinely piss me off

This is my home, fuck you

Even if I wanted to, I can't just leave my loved ones, my career, and everything I've ever known behind

(this is me being spicy because of emotion, not because people trying to be helpful are doing anything wrong, even if I often find the tone irritating and naive)

[erikakaiser]

well there goes the rest of my day

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[erikakaiser]

I have ascended

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[erikakaiser]

The cishet white dudes sure do love Avowed

[erikakaiser]

The cishet white dudes sure do love Avowed

meanwhile my gay ass out here like

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[erikakaiser]

Hey look someone rephrased my pains with the whole "dogs talking with buttons" thing but better than I can describe it

So to summarise my experience of reading How Stella Learned to Talk by Christina Hunger: if it’s not clear, I hated this book. It’s trash. It belongs on the dog edition of If Books Could Kill. There is nothing of substance in it, nothing of value. My major issues with dog buttons remain the same and are now in fact more pronounced. Those issues are:

• Dog buttons replace existing communication dogs use with human-centric communication, which only devalues humans learning real dog behaviour

• All dog use of buttons is assumed deliberate and meaningful

• All dog use of buttons is explained away with creative storytelling

• Supporters of dog buttons rely heavily on harmful anthropomorphism

• The novelty of dog buttons is considered more important than existing research of dog behaviour and practice of dog training

• People like Hunger are either lying to themselves or lying to everybody else and it doesn’t really matter which because functionally the result is the same

I went on the Hunger for Words Instagram page to see what they are up to today. I recognise that Stella seems to use her buttons in a way that suggests familiarity with them, but that doesn’t equate to language use. She also still displays calming signals like yawning, stretching, flat ears, pacing and looking away while using her buttons.

The videos are all short and without much context within the footage. The captions are complete storytelling. There is no way to know that what is happening in the video is valuable because it’s surrounded by unverifiable storytelling and commentary from Hunger.

The Instagram also features videos from other laypeople who think their dogs can talk. One recent video shows a golden retriever repeatedly pressing a button that says “car”. The owner attributes this behaviour to the dog “throwing a tantrum about the car”. In another featured video, a Pekingese mix presses “chew” then “come” and then puts his lifted paw down on “get it” which is also taken as deliberate communication.

One of Hunger’s tips in the book is to wait for your dog to respond after you have talked to them. Think about how this looks from the dog’s perspective. You have stopped talking, you are making eye contact, you are waiting expectantly. What do dogs normally do when confronted with this kind of body language? They throw out appeasement signals and they offer behaviours that might lead to reinforcement. This is what is recommended as language breakthrough, and that any button pressing that may result from it is deliberate linguistic communication and not instead meaningful communication about the dog’s emotional state and response to your own body language.

My emotional state after finishing this book? Exasperated and sad. The most important thing you can take away from this story is that your dog is always communicating with you, and you don’t need a plastic button to learn what they are saying.

from https://blueboyluca.tumblr.com/post/709785054906351616/so-to-summarise-my-experience-of-reading-how