How "open" about your dog nerdiness are you?

[JacksonsMom]

Lol.

I feel like, at first, I never talked to my regular friends about much of anything with dogs. I used to worry what people would think about me and whatnot, or might think I'm really weird, lol, but honestly as the years have gone on, I kind of just don't care anymore. Not that I'm going around talking dogs with people who don't want to all the time but I'm not as shy about giving my opinions when people bring things up or ask. Like previously if someone mentioned Cesar Millan and watching him, I'd kind of just smile and agree or nod or whatever. Now I tend to nicely say how I'm not a big fan etc.

Yep 85% of my FB is probably pictures of my dog lol. I don't typically post a lot of dog statuses though, but I do my fair share of 'liking' dog-related FB posts and such. I did honestly used to hold back a lot but yeah I really don't care anymore at this point what people think of me.

What about you? In your 'real life' (whatever you want to call it), do you tend to stay away from any and all dog related topics, or they just never get brought up, or do you tend to talk a lot about your dogs or dog-related things?

 

[stardogs]

The VAST majority of my friends have been made through dogs, so I am very open about how much of a nerd I am and most of my friends are just as nerdy.

 

[TheDarkestMinds]

I am completely open about it. I was recently told by a guy that I am "Like the crazy cat lady, only you have dogs so you're different"....Um okay...I just laughed it off because admittedly 90% of my facebook activity is dog/animal related.

Friends know walking my dogs is a daily thing and yes I plan around it. I often openly say I would take dogs for the rest of my life over kids no problem.

I never get embarrassed of self conscious about it. I have always been open about my level of dog nerdiness. I embrace it .

 

[meepitsmeagan]

The VAST majority of my friends have been made through dogs, so I am very open about how much of a nerd I am and most of my friends are just as nerdy.

Pretty much this. As far as family members go, I'm super open with them. They talk about their hobbies, so why can't I?

I did decide to make a dog page on FB though. I was getting a tad self conscious about how many dog-related pictures I shared. This allows me to post as many training vids and trial updates as I want. People who want to see those things can follow while those who don't (unless it is super big news!) don't have to.

To general public, I am gaining quite a collection of dog-related shirts and am proud to wear them. I normally don't go out of my way to mention the extensiveness of my nerding, though.

 

[crazedACD]

I'm pretty open about it...everyone knows I'm a total dog person. I don't think they understand it though...I think people sometimes think I'm a H$U$/PETA animalcrazyluvr :/. I had dinner with some family this weekend and my uncle said to me about moving "Go catch those puppy millers! Shut down them mills!". I was so confused and have no idea if he was making fun of me or trying to identify with me.

BUT I do have two Facebooks. Initially it was more of a safety reason because sometimes dog people are crazy (calling breeders/trainers/workplaces etc) but I've let more and more of myself onto the dog one, meh. It's better to me to keep family separate from ALL the dog crazy though.

 

[pinkspore]

As a full-blown nerd, I am incapable of having non-nerd-level interests. Fortunately, all of my good friends are also nerds and do the obsessive hobby thing, so while they're not into dogs they are also as aware and accepting of my dog-nerdage as I am of their birding/gaming/sewing/woodworking. They are my tribe. Since I started working at a dog daycare, I am shocked at how many of my coworkers aren't dog nerds. Some also work at various shelters and rescues, and they still aren't dog nerds. They probably aren't nerdy about anything else either though.

Most people figure out that I'm a dog nerd pretty quickly. My Facebook is basically all pets. I try really hard not to geek out about Cesar Milan or pit bulls or coat color genetics, but the awkward tends to seep through. My life basically consists of trying really hard to shut up almost all of the time, lest I start babbling about dogs, or Star Trek, or dinosaurs, or bubonic plague, or cheese...

 

[pinkspore]

Sometimes one type of nerdiness spills over into another...

 

[Fran101]

I'd say I'm about 50% open.

Everyone I know basically knows I love dogs and that I have one and that I stop to pet them on the street lol they also of course come to me with questions about anything dog related... but with RARE exception very few know about the forum, training and how much effort I put into it all.

Dogs aren't my main interest, I feel like I keep a pretty even balance between other stuff, so it's easy to kind of spread the other interests or lean on them and separate my dog friends from everybody else and keep that compartmentalized a bit when it's not the right audience.

I'm not ashamed of it or anything, but it's a question of...I know what my facebook is about lol it's 70% family members and the rest is college or work friends and I know it's not the audience for my dog stuff. They get the highlights of Merlin's life and such but that's all. Especially when it comes to family, don't get me wrong they are supportive and love individual dogs they own, but clueless. Call it an Caribbean or immigrant thing but the dog fancy thing goes right over their heads for the most part LOL

I have two facebooks. Which honestly began as a way to keep my dog walking clients separate from my real life facebook, and became the one that chaz people and dog people are also on and honestly I prefer being able to post as many pictures and put as much dog crap all over it without feeling like I'm clogging up newsfeeds for people who don't care or that I'm going to have to worry about answering dumb questions or educating or whatever. I don't think before I hit post and I love that lol
It's just nice to have a facebook that can be unbiasedly about a singular interest and I have more friends on it than I do my other one at this point lol

 

[maxfox426]

I think I'm fairly open about my dog nerdiness. Granted, it probably doesn't seem that way because I'm actually much nerdier about my snakes and sugar gliders than I am my dog... Most of my friends just know me as an animal nut in general.

Come to think of it, I usually group Morgan in with my kids more than with my other pets when it comes to conversation. That's probably not the kind of nerdiness you were referring to, though.

 

[Southpaw]

Most people I interact with on a daily basis are dog people to some extent. So while they may not be as nerdy as I am, I have no problem being a nerd around them.

A lot of you see my FB, it is pretty much all dogs all the time with the occasional "oh hey sometimes other things happen in my life too" moments lol. Do I care, NOPE. That's just me, get used to it. I figure I can chat about dogs just like some people talk about.... sports. Or something.

 

[Dekka]

Very Open.

Nearly all of the people in my life are animal people of some sort. Cat, dog, horse etc.

I work at Canada's biggest tack store chain. So pretty much everyone there is very into their horses and dogs.

 

[Ozfozz]

Somewhat open.
I will talk about the dogs and share funny stories, but I don't often go into detail.

Depending on who I am around, I try to keep my mouth shut about health issues, food brands, and training, unless someone specifically asks.

Such as one time at work a guy was asking me about his boxer's goopy eyes, and how he's on a tight budget with his girlfriend not working.
And I mentioned that *if* it was pink eye he could try the Polysporin drops, which is what I have used for years.
He passed that off as "oh my girlfriend would force me to throw that out immediately and make me take the dog to the vet." He also feeds Beneful which he asked me about before and I told him it's not great. But he continued to feed it.
So it was sort of like wtf do you want from me then? And since then I've basically kept more quiet about the things I've dedicated my time to researching unless I know the audience is at least a little susceptible.

 

[sassafras]

Pretty open. It's easy for me to be dog nerdy at work, and I'm too old to waste energy trying to hide stuff like that from friends/family anymore.

 

[Julee]

Everyone knows just how nutty I am, lol.

 

[MilliesMom]

My life pretty much revolves around my dogs and family. If I could get a dog-related job my life would be complete. Over-the-moon happy if I could take my dogs with me. Heart-attack-happy if that job involved retired racing greyhounds. As it is I get a paycheque to support my dogs.

I have a really difficult time relating to non-dog people so my social life pretty much revolves around greyhounds as well.

Yup, I be nerdy.

 

[stardogs]

Sometimes one type of nerdiness spills over into another...

Is that...a...FIREFLY HARNESS?!?! If it is, you need to send me the info on where you got it....

 

[Elrohwen]

I'm pretty open about it. I don't spring it on new people right away, but most of my friends know that I go to dog shows and stuff. Most of my friends are really into sports (volleyball and tennis mostly) so they understand having a hobby that takes up evenings and weekends. Most also have dogs of their own, so they understand loving dogs and consider them part of the family. I'm also only friends with nerds (we are engineers after all) so I think the idea of having offbeat hobbies is pretty well accepted.

 

[JessLough]

Um, most regulars at work know me as that animal person. When I see them, it's always talking about their dog and my ferrets (and Rosey, when she was alive) before anything else.

Nowadays, when I'm out, it's usually helping with dog rescue. Or hanging out with/sitting for Allie.

Friend and I often go out for drinks after work. Last winter, as we were walking, I saw an older dog tied to a bench outside of a church. It was pretty cold, but friend stayed with me whilst I figured out what to do with said dog.

Most of my family calls me when it fomes to their dog, or questions about animals in general.

So yah, I wouldn't say I hide it.

 

[Beanie]

I'm pretty open about it but, really, I have a lot of different interests, so I don't feel like it dominates my conversations or anything like that. My friends think the agility stuff is cool so often they tell other people about it when I am first meeting someone; several of them ask me how the dogs are doing, and if they know I've been at a competition (because why is Beanie not at the bar? She's three hours away competing.) they'll ask how it goes. I try not to get too far into it when they ask how it's going LOL. I just say something about Payton being young and having a lot of work to do. It actually always takes me by surprise how much my friends are interested and how they think it's cool because I don't really bring it up myself. =P


I suppose the truth is that all of my friends are nerds about something or other, (usually we share one of those "somethings" and that's why we are friends) and we all can generally appreciate the things that someone else is passionate about, even if it's not our own interest, because we understand the feeling of passion behind it.

I'm thinking of that scene in Mean Girls where she's like "I spent about 80% of my time talking about Regina, and the other 20% of the time, I was praying for someone else to bring her up so I could talk about her more." That sort of thing crosses the line into obsession, LOL, but I don't know anybody I would call a friend who falls into that category, haha.

 

[Finkie_Mom]

Yeah I'm pretty much insane. Now that it's become my full-time profession, too, my family is getting better with it. I do have the second FB to post trial results/more dog thigns, but I still have that bleed on to my own FB if something really cool happened. Like Pen's birthday Monday - I posted most of the pics on my dog FB, but shared one to my personal FB because I know some people know Pen aren't on my business one. Things like that.