u/Corndog_Eater

Our puppy is a 26 week old hound mix, mostly bluetick coonhound. We brought him home at 11 weeks. We socialized him like CRAZY the first 5 weeks to get him through his fear period, and he’s always been very outgoing and happy-go-lucky. Wiggly body language, never tail tucking, approaching people on his own with enthusiasm, he’s been great.

Last night, we took him to a brewery that we go to all the time with him (but probably haven’t been in 2-3 weeks, or so) and he was bugging out. We got there and he was totally fine and settled with a high-value bone, and when my husband’s volleyball team came over (who he’s met before) he totally freaked and snapped at a couple of people. I tend to think it’s resource guarding, but I had already taken the bone from him when I saw they were walking over. I walked away with him to reset, and towards the end of the night he was back to his normalish self and approaching the people he snapped at for pets (I had completely taken the bone away at this point). However, it was highly unusual for him. I’m guessing it’s a combination of not having been there in a while and resource guarding? But I’m not sure.

So today, to make sure this wasn’t a people-reactive issue, I took him with me to two pet stores for some socialization. At the first store that he’d been to before, he was totally relaxed but none of the employees said “hi” to him, which I was sort of hoping for. So I took him to the second store and outside of the store he was very wary of a guy standing at the ATM nearby, he was tall and said puppy was cute, but puppy was tail-tucked and all wary of him until we got into the store. In the second pet store, it took him less than 2 mins to adjust and he was happy to be there, taking treats from the employee and said “hi” to a puppy friend. But then, when we got home we went for a walk and his hackles were up about two kids nearby just walking their bike/scooter through the park? We walk through parks all the time with both our dogs around people biking, walking, walking with other dogs, etc, and I’ve never seen him do that.

Here’s the thing. He goes to doggy day care every Monday, training every Thursday, and the dog park and other social places on the weekends. At the very least, day care/training/dog park is common each week so there are at least 3 social outings. We had a couple deaths in the family in the last month, so we haven’t been able to prioritize elsewhere other than those 3 big hits every week. We already have a dog that’s wary of people and we often socialize them separately because our older dog doesn’t handle those shared spaces as well as the puppy does.

I’m really hoping that this was a one-time, resource guarding fluke and we can just work on that and this isn’t turning into full-blown social anxiety or reactivity. Is there something I’m not doing right? Are we hitting another crucial “fear period?”

I’m so burnt out at my job. For context, I’m Lead HRBP in a team of 3 who support a few thousand people in our client group within a large org. We just absorbed another program from a closure, increasing our client group by 20%, and are supposed to be splitting the work 3 ways, and that’s just not happening (spoiler: I’m doing it all). We’re also underpaid by about 40% compared to market (used to work in comp, so that’s informed by actual data). I’m making the majority of, if not all, the strategic decisions for our HRBP team and unit. I’ve already asked for a title review and raise and been told it’s simply not in the budget all while more and more work is piled on. Our leadership team is a joke and actively withholds information from its own direct reports and we find out about process changes and major updates as they’re announced to the rest of the stakeholders and employee population.

Beyond the whining, I am SO desperately in need of a change.

I’ve been looking for a new job since last Fall. I’ve gotten to final round interviews a couple of times, only to get dispositioned. I’m a B.A. with 6 years experience in the HRBP track, with no MHRLR or SHRM-CP/SPHR. I’m almost certain I’m getting beat out by people with a few extra letters behind their names. (To be clear, absolutely no shade to anyone who does have their Masters or Cert, I’m working on getting SPHR soon - it just feels like that’s the hinge point in a lot of the searches I’ve been part of).

Is it just me or is the market flooded with either jobs that are entry-level requiring 2 years of experience, or the opposite end specializing in 1 discipline with 8-10 years required?? If a middle management position exists, it’s something restrictive like “union experience required” (ugh, no, don’t have that either) or entirely onsite with an insane commute from my metro area. And then the unicorns where I do advance, it feels like I’m getting very slightly edged out. I’m just sick of it!!!!! Get me out of here!!!!!