On A Lighter Note! Sheepadoodle!

Ok guys, I know I've been a bit dreary and deep the last few days so here is something on Sheepadoodles that I promised. First of all who just ran to google to get a jump start or sheepadoodles? Ya, when I first heard the word I did too. Well as you found out then, the sheepadoodle is a fairly recent breed that is the cross between an Old English Sheepdog and a Standard (or mini) Poodle. It's part of the attempt to create a truly hypo allergenic dog, that and have you seen one? They are the most adorable thing, you can't help but want to hug it.

Picture is courtesy of Sheepadoodle.com

I fell in love with the dogs. However as many people are aware getting a dog isn't as easy as going to the pet store. This was a hard reality for me when I first moved out of my parents home and found out my apartment wouldn't let me take my miniature dachshund with me. I didn't understand the problem. He was small, house broken, quiet, loved to chew but not on anything that the apartment owners should care about. Why couldn't I keep him with me? Well the answer to that was simple. If I wanted to take him I had to add $100 to my rent every month and when I moved out I might as well forfeight my deposit because of all the extra cleaning involved when someone brings a pet into the facility. So being the young woman that I was, I moped but I left him at home with my mother and his mini schnauzer friend where I knew he would get the love he deserved. It was here that the distinction between a hypoallergenic dog and everyone elses dog first came into play for me.

It was also about this time that I had begun dating my Significant other and he had a severe allergy to dogs. It was from him that I heard the term because his parents had adopted a dog from the pound that was theoretcially hypo allergenic. Now if you have even a smidge of medical training BS bells are ringing. People are typically allergic to the dogs dander. Any dog with skin will have dander. Where does the hypo come in?

Hypoallergenic dogs do not mean without dander, they simply mean less of it and controled. Hypoallergenic dogs typically mean they have hair, not fur so they do not shed and spread less of it around at the cost of monthly grooming. Certain breeds of dogs are also proven to have less dander than others so weekly bathing could eleminate the excess problem almost completely.

You can imagine how being a dog lover this concept began to greatly appeal to me, especially after I found myself to be in love with a man who couldn't own a dog for health concerns. It was a tough conversation to start but we did eventually begin to discuss options about owning a dog once we owned a house and I did some research to see what my hypoallergenic options were. The list was alphabetical and I was having some trouble finding out that just called out to me until I found the sheepadoodle. It was the most darling thing I'd ever seen and I knew that if I had to pick a hypodog I wanted it to be that one. At this point my mini dachshund has also been living with my mother for three years and it seemed cruel to take him away from her and his mini schnauzer buddy as he had really become her dog and he was highly allergenic.

As far as I can tell there are two main breeders in the USA. One being Sheepadoodle.com based of California and the other being Sheepadoodle.net based out of Washington state. Both want north of $1000 per puppy and as far as I am concerned it's money well spent. To get a sheepadoodle for hypoallergenic reasons means you need to know where the puppy came from and know for certain what is in it's back ground. If you don't you could end up in a situation where you have a dog that makes you sick and you can't give it the love it deserves.

So I don't know about you but corset is hoping that one day she will find a puppy with a bow on its butt for Christmas once we get settled in our house. ;) Between hypo allergenic puppies and the amazing leaps immunotherapy has made, I have hope.

Having a soft spot for puppies,
Corset is signing off.

Literature Review: The Gendering of Computer gaming

The Gendering of Computer Gaming Literature Review

This article argues that the lack of female gamers in the public is the because of two main factors: men and leisure constraints. The latter plays a much more minor role as it states the most common leisure constraints are gender, race, income, class, and health status. However if you are a female then they are expanded to include time, marital status, and parental status. They use this point to transition into the belief that men are primarily to blame. Within the gaming community, men and women are proven to enjoy different genre of games. However, the majority of games are designed by men for men making this author argue that they are deliberate in making an uninteresting themes for women. They claim that men gender games in a way to make them uninterested or outright offensive to women in several ways. They tend to be looked down upon by women because in many actions games, you are rewarded for gratuitous violence and this reward is either in points or in the case of many games, by looking at stereotypical woman. This brings us to the second point. In many games there is an outright lack of females characters for them to relate to or the females present are stereotypical and hyper sexualized. This is the reason he argues that there are more women who participate in MMORPG's because there tends to be less gender discrimination since who is on the other side of the character is never known. He explains that this is the reason that female gamers tend to be more private and casual about how they game instead of competitive and outspoken