u/SnakeLuvr1

I left corporate and got hired at a small salon a few weeks ago. The bathers bathe and dry all the groomers dogs, as well as do nails and de-sheds on the designated bath dogs.

We have 4 bathers: 2 bathing and 2 drying, and when the ones bathing are done with the bath dogs they move to drying. I've been made a designated bather, and this salon usually has 30-45 dogs in a day. Yesterday I bathed 17 big dogs and dried 5 of them, and today I had 20 dogs and dried 5, half of which were huge and hairy. This is done in a 5-6 hour period. Is this normal??? It feels absolutely insane to bathe this many dogs. Im used to doing 6-8 of my own bath dogs in a shift.

Hi everyone! I know that training your own service dog can be an extremely daunting and difficult task, and sometimes it doesn't work out. Here is where I am at, I just have some questions.

First off, I would not be getting a service dog for another 1-3 years. I have POTS, debilitating panic attacks and migraines, hypoglycemia, and hypothyroidism. This all makes it extremely hard to function out and about and even at home. Medications have been really hit or miss, and typically I don't respond well to them medically.

I have experience with dogs, I also work in a grooming salon and one of my old friends trained her service dogs herself. I am looking to get a standard poodle from an ethical breeder that health tests and does temperament checks so I am already set up for better success.

I do not have social anxiety and I know one of the big things about service dogs is people coming up to you to try and pet your dog, talk to you, etc etc. Considering my old friend had service dogs and we regularly went out, I know how it is and am not too worried about that aspect.

So for the questions- what are some good resources to start looking into for self training? Books? Programs? Websites? YouTube channels? Anything helps. One of my close friends is also a dog trainer that has worked training service dogs, so I would also be working with a trainer as well.

Keep in mind, this is several years down the road and not something I would EVER want to rush into. I am currently just in the research stage :) thank you guys!

I keep seeing all these posts from these vegan "purists." They are RUINING the movement, saying vegans can't eat animals or eggs or dairy or any animal products. Veganism is a SPECTRUM. Everyone's level of veganism varies!!!

For example, for breakfast I eat bacon slathered with honey, raw eggs, and have a glass of cow milk. For lunch, I eat every variety of fish from the ocean (SHARKS INCLUDED,) with a side of chicken nuggets. And for dinner, I have steak, ham, chicken, but I HAVE ASPARAGUS FOR DINNER AS WELL!!! I am 0.000000001% vegan. Who are all these people to say I'm not vegan??? I eat vegan a FRACTION of the time!!! What I eat shouldn't be other's concerns! Frankly, I think these purist vegans are scaring others away from the movement and making us look bad!!! 😒🤬

Veganism isn't a diet that you can assign your own rules to. I've seen so many people advocating that it's totally fine to kill and eat mussles, clams, etc. Because they "don't feel pain/aren't sentient." Not long ago, it was thought that fish and bugs don't feel pain. Look at them now!

How do we know *for certain* that they don't feel pain? There is a lot about them that we don't know. And for people that want to compare them to plants, *NO.* Mussels have a nervous system (albeit no brain), plants do not. Also, humans can't live without plants. We can absolutely live without mussels and clams.

People just try to find any way to justify killing and eating animals.

Edit for the people confused:

No I'm not trying to be rude, I just don't feel like the topic of eating animals (ANY animal) should be sugarcoated.

Look at the description of the subreddit, and how it says that eating/exploiting animals is not in line with veganism. Mussels are animals.

No I'm not trying to be a purist or self righteous. I care about bivalves as much as I care about cows, so I get sad to see people claiming to be vegan and against animal exploitation turn around and eat them.

TLDR: I miss my ex best friend, she was so kind to me and we did nearly everything together. We shared a lot of the same struggles and interests, but she became incredibly abusive towards her animals and refused to change or rehome them so I cut her out.

Before anyone gets concerned about the welfare of these animals, please be aware I would like to make a report and I am working on how I should do so. She knows where I live and I'm worried she could be violent off meds.

I really don't know what else to say besides I miss her so much and I wish I could stop missing her. I'm 22 and I am neurodivergent and have really bad anxiety so I do struggle to make close friends and connect with people. I get along with others just fine but I have a special interest in animals (specifically exotics like reptiles, rodents, etc) and so a lot find that strange. I also struggle asking people to hang out with me and most people dont ask if I want to hang out.

This girl, let's call her L, was the coolest person I'd ever met. She loved all animals, we held a lot of the same morals and beliefs, and we could really connect when it came to mental health struggles. We also both loved the same shows, movies, and we loved to draw and go shopping at all the same places. It was literally a perfect best friend situation: we lived 5 minutes away from each other and would hang out nearly every day.

But she was so SO SO abusive to her animals. And it kept getting worse. If I named off all the things she did in a short period of time, this post would be way longer than I'd like and I would get sick. She would beat the crap out of her 2 service dogs (who were legitimate service dogs for her epilepsy and mobility issues btw), and she also mistreated her rodents and reptiles and let them get sick, die, kept them in tiny dirty enclosures, etc. It kept getting worse and worse and she kept getting more animals even though I told her to stop. I TRIED to help her, I told her so many times how awful it was and it didn't stop. I tried to get it on video because I wanted to report it but it was always at random and unfortunately reptile/small animal abuse is NOT taken seriously in my state :( a lot of "rescues" here treat their animals similarly and it's unfortunately legal.

Finally, I cut her out. I told her how disgusting she was. I laid it all on the table. I told her that we would no longer be friends because of the way she treated all of her poor babies, and what a despicable human she was.

She tried to reach out to me several times. I just ignored her.

It's been a few months, and my heart hurts. It feels like there is a gaping hole in my chest. I don't hang out with anyone. All my friends are always too busy or don't reach out. One of my other close friends just moved to another state. The only person I managed to get close to was a sadistic asshole. And I hate how much I miss her, if she had just treated her animals well everything would've been fine. I loved her so much. She was like a sister to me. I have dreams about her every single night, some are nightmares but some are about things being okay between us and her animals. I wish I could get over her, but I can't get it out of my head. I feel so much hatred and anger and sadness, it's completely unbearable. She's despicable and disgusting and a psychopath and yet deep down I still love her. And I don't know *why.*

I know I need therapy, but it's expensive and I've never found one that sticks. I just figured I would type it all out so some internet stranger could maybe see it.