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Thread: Shop Dogs/Cats

  1. #1

    Shop Dogs/Cats

    There is a good article in this month's Woodsmith about having pets in our shops. Dust is as bad for them as it is for you & they have much better hearing than we do, and machinery can damage their ears.
    Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the ground each morning, the devil says, "oh crap she's up!"


    Tolerance is giving every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

    "What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts are gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts will happen to man. All things are connected. " Chief Seattle Duwamish Tribe

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Palm Springs, CA
    Posts
    1,085
    I have always had the same concern. Fortunately my shop cat exits at the mere sound of power tools or the dust collector. However, if I leave a pile of turnings from the lathe on the floor, he dives into them, rolls around and then proudly walks back into the house with all those shavings as if sporting a new coat
    Dick Mahany.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    So Cal
    Posts
    3,730
    My dog doesn’t mind the noise at all and she has big ears like a donkey.
    But she hates the corn broom and the hissing sound it makes.
    I also have a turtle and a cat that pass thru when they want to.
    Aj

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    West Lafayette, IN
    Posts
    6,528
    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew Hughes View Post
    My dog doesn’t mind the noise at all and she has big ears like a donkey.
    I didn't mind blasting heavy metal music when I was a kid, but my hearing has likely suffered from it.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Kansas City
    Posts
    854
    I’m not a huge fan of pets being in my shop. But to each their own

  6. #6
    Dog sleeps outside the door, when I'm in the shop. During cold weather she sleeps in shop, which is heated to 57 degrees. It's already warm in there so why not let her sleep in the warmth. FYI, she is a 14 year old Brindle pit. Some kind of mean. Knock you down and lick every feature off your face.

  7. #7
    My Vizsla comes to work with me four to six days a week. I'm sure the environment isn't the best for her, but she's far happier being with me at work than she would be being locked in a cage all day. Pointer pups are a little more clingy than your average though.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Modesto, CA, USA
    Posts
    9,811
    I think Dalmation dogs are often totally deaf or hard of hearing. For some reason this is considered a defect at dog shows and they get lower points for bad hearing. The bad hearing is actually an advantage for them and the reason they are often used as firehouse dogs. They are not bothered by the sirens or loud truck engines.
    Bil lD.
    PS: I understand many clueless owners get mad and hit their Dalmations when they are unable to train them to respond to voice commands. They will respond to voice commands but only if trained carefully and so they can see the owners lips moving and hands waving.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    LA & SC neither one is Cali
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    9,447
    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Dufour View Post
    I think Dalmation dogs are often totally deaf or hard of hearing. For some reason this is considered a defect at dog shows and they get lower points for bad hearing. The bad hearing is actually an advantage for them and the reason they are often used as firehouse dogs. They are not bothered by the sirens or loud truck engines.
    I wouldn't call deafness an advantage to the dogs, merely an advantage in some working uses, but even then it is training more than anything, people don't seek out deaf dogs for use as gun dogs, they just don't use the ones that aren't comfortable with the noise. The problem is not limited to Dalmations, the genetic defect is found in many albino dogs. Normally breeders do not breed Dalmatians unless they have good bilateral hearing. This is more important than many other breed standard faults as especially Dalmatians with bilateral deafness are prone to aggression, a ridgeless Rhodesian Ridgeback has a "fatal" breed standard flaw but makes a fine pet, deaf Dalmatians require a special home willing to cater to the issue. The 101 Dalmation movies spiked the demand for Dalmations and saw a commensurate increase in deaf shelter Dalmatians when people realized their children's favorite pet was a danger around young kids.



    My dogs generally go where I go, they also leave the shop (on their own) when it gets even close to noisy enough for me to use muffs. As for the dust, I don't really worry about it because the vast majority of the time my shop air is demonstratively cleaner than the outside air. If I am using or spraying anything that causes me to feel the need to wear a vapor filter then I send the dogs out of the shop.
    Of all the laws Brandolini's may be the most universally true.

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    Your bandsaw weighs more when you leave the spring compressed instead of relieving the tension.

  10. #10
    My dog has an "office" under my loading dock with a sign "complaint dept"

    Takes off when I drag out an air hose - hates the sound of an air nozzle or sprayer- but she doesn't seem bothered by machine noise.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Toronto Ontario
    Posts
    11,236
    Sir Ellington Snodgrass, Shop Snoopervisor, still going strong.Ellington at Work.jpg

    He likes being in the shop, and dust isn't an issue in my shop............Rod.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Doylestown, PA
    Posts
    7,541
    We have a Maine Coon who has adopted me. If I spend any amount of time in the basement shop she has to come down and see what I'm doing. She's not bothered by machine noise but if I don't really screw up she gets bored and goes back upstairs.

  13. #13
    If I go to the cellar for anything I have a couple of cats that follow me down. They give me that look of ya I have something to do down here too.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    9,599
    My first cat used to follow me into the shop and would watch me / sleep for hours w/o moving then get up and follow me back upstairs. Machine noises didn't seem to bother him at all and he never got in my way or caused me any concern for my safety or his. But that was long ago and all the subsequent cats have been banned from the shop due to total ignorance. Their ignorance, just to be clear.

    John

  15. My dog used to lay just outside the shop before it was air conditioned and the roll up door was always up. Now she visits but usually doesn't stay too long unless I am sitting at the computer.

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