u/No_Spray_8963

Since I've never had a mastiff before I've got a few questions as we pass the 13 week mark.

First, do they all have paws that more resemble a catcher's mitt with spikes than what I'm accustomed to on a large LGD? Wondering how to deal with the spikes. We got both dog toenail grinder and clipper and we're not afraid to use it but have only used the grinder on adults. Thoughts on how to introduce the young man to the wonderful world of puppy toenail maintenance?

Second, brushing the coat. He was less than thrilled with having a slicker lightly used on his back so I'm thinking the toenails should be a real treat. But is there anything we should be keeping an eye out for when performing routine grooming?

Last but not least, this boy is a farm dog. He lives in the land of sticks, twigs, gravel, sheep poop, weeds, and pretty much everything else you would expect to find on a small farm. If it's on the ground it's going to end up in his mouth. Are mastiffs normally this oral?

Is this pretty much the norm for mastiffs? I've raised a fair number of puppies over the past sixty plus years and have only had one as oral as this boy and it did not end well for him due to his proclivity to put everything into his mouth. Don't want a similar fate for this boy, he and I already have a pretty amazing bond and I'm pretty sure I would not deal well with losing him.

He just turned 9 weeks old today. Has all his shots and is ready to go. We've had a lot of working dogs in our family over our 43 years together, Newfoundlands, Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherds so this isn't our first time at the rodeo. Currently our family consists of three girls, a ten year old Anatolian/GP cross, a six year old Rat Terrier, and a five year old Kangal.

We met a Spanish Mastiff years ago and fell in love but when we found out they don't tend to run hill over dale like the LGDs that were bred to range, we decided we really wanted to include on in our family. Our Kangal is very comfortable when male dogs are brought to visit, not so thrilled with girls which is the reason we chose to have a male pup. Over the years we've had very good luck getting our puppies while the older dogs were still able to participate in training so we're hoping that will continue.

All our LGDs have been of normal size So Torin is going to be a step up for us in terms of size. Would appreciate hearing from anyone who would care to provide us with tips, thoughts, things to avoid doing, things to make sure we do. This big boy will be our last and we'd really love to finish strong. Pictures will follow if anyone is interested.

Got an email from Mr. Moffitt about mid May explaining that Ayrstone was ceasing operation as of June 30th. We were all reassured that as long as we made sure all of our equipment had been updated to the latest firmware it would function on "manual" mode even after ayrmesh.com ceased to function. I updated my equipment, made sure I read the information Mr. Moffitt provided and prepared to function on manual.

I had a very simple system, the hub, a receiver and an indoor access hub. On the 30th all was well, on the 1st the hub still sends out its signal and the receiver tries to connect but the hub doesn't allow it to connect. I've rebooted everything and nothing I do results in the receiver and the hub connecting so it looks like I'm just out of luck for whatever reason.

Now I'm looking for is a replacement system. When I bought the Ayrstone system we had about 100 acres where we were farming and grazing animals. Covid took down our business model and we decided to pull the plug and shut things down. Now we just need a system that can provide a reliable signal to a 500' radius. plus something that will capture that signal outside our straw bale home that has an ICF addition . The combination operates much like a Faraday cage thus the need to bring signal in via ethernet cable to an indoor hub.

My professional networking days ended with Novell and I have made little to no effort to keep up with the ever changing world but I can follow instructions, so even though I'm lazy if there is a superior product that requires a little user input I can probably handle it.

This is about the worst time for this to happen, I'm with the local fire district and our wildfire season has begun. I'll be running off the Starlink mini I use since I fly a drone when we have fire starts in pretty remote areas but that's only a temporary fix. Any suggestions as to a replacement that can be implemented rapidly would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I'm one of the drone operators for my local fire district. As such I have to have my drone equipment with me anytime I am out and about this summer since we respond to smoke reports, immediate response on wildfire starts and search & rescue. That means hot parking lots and such. Question for anyone who has to transport their drones in vehicles that can get very hot in the summer. How have you dealt with the problem of batteries getting too hot and does it matter if the actual drone gets a bit warm or is it just the battery.

Best idea I've been able to come up with is a small ice chest with one of those re-freezable ice packs on the bottom, towel on top of that and batteries in a zip lock type plastic bag. Idea is to keep the batteries in the mid to low 50 degree Fahrenheit range. Workable idea or am I going to cause myself trouble?

Has anyone done this and if so did it work well and if it worked well which brand(s) would you recommend?