Friendly reminder for everyone suffering with a dog in the house to check anything that draws air or has a coil and clean it. The fur will ruin your AC, your fridge , deep freezers, could cause fans to cease and catch fire. It’s an often overlooked aspect of dog hell. My wife’s dog is a super shedder 3000 and big. So the hair gets everywhere. I just cleaned my ac closet and it was 3/4 inch thick of fur. Same with the coil on my fridge. Untold 1000s of dollars of potential damages . Just another one of the many reasons I don’t want an animal in my house.

This will probably fall outside of most people’s expertise as my son was born at 41 +4 (uneventful VBAC delivery), but I am at my absolute lowest point in my life and I am desperate for help/guidance/answers.
Since birth (8 lb 5 oz), my son has had tachypnea ranging from 60s-100s. It is pretty much constant. The only instances where his breathing falls within normal range are when he is in deep sleep and upright or on his belly. His SpO2 has remained in the mid to high 90s throughout. He has had 1 desat episode that I am not convinced was accurate. He does not appear to be working hard through these respirations. He has no nasal flaring. Physicians have noted very mild retractions but have never seemed concerned by them. He eats very often and has thus far gained weight very well. He is not great on breast, but drinks breast milk from the bottle very well. He has no trouble taking drinks in between breaths. He is very sleepy very often. At times, I have worried that he sleeps too much. We have been told ad nauseum that he “looks good!”
Here is a rundown of his work up to date:
HOSPITAL STAY #1, 1st week of life
My son was sent to the ER after his SpO2 was noted to be in the mid 80s at his initial pediatrician visit. I did not see a good waveform on this read and he was satting 98-100% on room air when he got to the ER. This is why I am not sure it was accurate.
The ER monitored him for a time and diagnosed him with a BRUE. We were about to leave when my wife noticed that he seemed to be passing out after runs of particularly fast breathing. This earned us a transport to a children’s hospital.
During this inpatient stay, he was cleared by neuro, cardiac, and infectious disease as causes of tachypnea. Our son underwent a 24 hour EEG, head ultrasound, EKG, echocardiogram, chest X-ray, and full sepsis work up. All came back negative. His brief “passing out” episodes resolved after a day. He received 48 hours of antibiotics to cover possible infection.
The only thing that was out of the ordinary during this stay was a mildly elevated lactate of 3.1. This led some physicians to suspect an inborn error of metabolism causing metabolic acidosis. This was horrifying as these diseases are often very severe. Oddly enough, however, they moved on from that theory the next day. We were told that lactate is a very nonspecific finding in infants. Our son’s ammonia level was normal which seemed to be the most reassuring data point to our care team. His venous blood gas was satisfactory. We were discharged and told that he would grow out of it.
Worth noting that he was on oxygen when he went inpatient and it did nothing to his respirations.
HOSPITAL STAY #2, 2nd week of life
I called our pediatrician when I noted a sustained tachypnea at 100 breaths per min. She told us to go back to ER. He was put on the monitor and was satting high 90s again. A lactate was drawn again in the ED which came back at 3.9. Terrifying! Or nothing? Inborn Errors of Metabolism were back on the table. An on call geneticist had the team draw a slew of metabolic labs that would take weeks to come back. We were admitted again, this time to the PICU.
EKG negative again. Lumbar puncture negative for infection along with blood and urine. LP revealed a negative lactate which we are told is a more reliable indicator for metabolic disease than the blood lactate. Brain MRI negative. Many viruses tested for and found negative. Another 48 hours of antibiotics just in case. Repeat CXR negative.
We started to notice some potential GERD, so we started Pepcid in the hopes it was causing the fast breathing. No luck. He did seem to perk up and look around more on his IV fluids which had dextrose in them.
We were discharged on the notion that there was no more testing they would do until the metabolic lab work returned, which would take weeks. Again we were told, he will probably grow out of it.
ER VISIT, 2nd week of life
Not a day after our last discharge, baby’s whole leg turned blue. We rushed back to the ER. His leg returned to normal color within minutes of us noticing. In the ER, his spo2 was high 90s with a normal heart rate (HR has always been normal). A repeat echocardiogram in the ER was negative. Acrocyanosis was diagnosed. This was probably caused by a temperature change. We have not seen it since. We were not admitted that night.
OUTPATIENT PROCEDURES/RESULTS, weeks 3 and 4 of life:
Metabolic lab work showed a slightly low carnitine, normal acylcarnitine, and a weird mixture of amino acids in the urine. The amino acids in the urine scared the hell out of us. I thought it was diagnostic of a metabolic disease. Our geneticist, however, said that she reviewed the findings with her team and it was deemed to represent an immature liver. She was not concerned. She believed that his liver would mature and the levels would normalize. She effectively told us that we could rule out metabolic causes at that point, but she offered genetic sequencing if we wanted to be completely sure. His newborn screening was completely normal.
ENT scope negative.
A chest CT to check for interstitial lung disease revealed these findings:
CHEST: LUNGS/AIRWAYS/PLEURA: The central airways are grossly patent. Mild hazy groundglass opacities could be atelectasis or mild pneumonitis, surfactant deficiency could appear similar. This appearance is generalized, and not specific to the right middle lobe or lingula (as can be seen in NEHI). Small lucency at the posterior medial right lung base could be small amount of air trapping or small cystic lesion measuring on order of 0.7 x 0.2 cm. This is the only well-defined lucent all focus which could reflect air trapping (no overall pattern of mosaic system to suggest air-trapping as can be seen in NEHI). No effusion or pneumothorax. HEART/VESSELS: The heart is normal in size without pericardial effusion. MEDIASTINUM/HILA: Limited evaluation of the hila without IV contrast. No obvious enlarged mediastinal lymphadenopathy. CHEST WALL AND LOWER NECK: The imaged thyroid gland appears intact. No axillary or subpectoral lymphadenopathy is identified.
Our pulmonologist called and said he reviewed the scan himself and that it was essentially negative. He started an empiric course of steroids which have not reduced the breathing rate. The steroids have, however, made our son much more alert and awake and attentive. He has been finding our faces and smiling. They may also been making his colic (yes he is a very colicky baby on top of all of this) a bit worse. We have seen him briefly lift his head off the boppy. We have seen him focusing on high contrast images.
His stools are normal. He makes plenty of wet diapers. He has good muscle tone. His overall condition hasn’t really changed throughout
My current concerns: Are we certain we can rule out metabolic disease? CT scan showed possible surfactant deficiency?? Shouldn’t we follow up on that? What else could this be? Neuromuscular disease? If it were to resolve on its own, when would that happen? My son is back to being very sleepy! Is that a brain process? Did we test too early? Is he going to start showing developmental delay?
I cannot eat or find a moments peace. If anyone has any light to shed, I would appreciate it so very much. Thank you.

hi friends,
i have an inner child part who is finally becoming ready to share herself with the world. as she navigates the world and comes out of her shell without the constant berating from the inner critic, she’s having a very hard time interpreting other people as safe. she feels very sensitive and raw to the regular experiences of daily life, and my whole system feels unpracticed at tending to the emotions that other people can illicit. it’s like she’s so accustomed to dealing with her own inner critic before/afteduring experiencing the actual world; she never learned how to handle negotiating or boundaries with real, well-meaning humans. she would be so tied up battling the inner critic screaming that she was ugly and embarrassing that the affect of others was completely lost, and it was more like engaging with a mirror than interacting with other humans.
now, i experience a lot of rejection dysphoria and can have crushing feelings of unworthiness at the slightest suggestion that someone doesn’t like me. as an artist this becomes intensified if someone seems to reject my art. i no longer narrate massive shame spirals about how im the worst person alive in my mind, but i frequently feel like i “just don’t have what it takes” to negotiate adult life because i find myself so sensitive and child-like in affect relative to others. inner parent and self are always accessible to tend the sounds and combat the old stories; i think my inner child has taken on a lot of self-concepts that inner critic offered over the years and it will take a long time to unwind it all. thank you for reading 💓

I’ve been frustrated by so many hot dog packs being the wrong number of dogs to any pack of buns that I can buy! I’ve stuck with Nathan’s for a while now because they do 8 dogs a pack, which is most bun pack quantities.
Anyone got a suggestion? Alternatively, could Hebrew National get their head out their ass and make an 8 pack?

Finnish store currently only ships to EU countries but I’m in the UK (thanks brexit). I have a friend in Ireland who is willing to receive my order and ship it on to me. What should my friend do in terms of customs? I’ll already be paying tax on the original order, so I’m reluctant to be paying customs duties too. It’s a single item worth about €400 inc tax. I’m not trying to scam the system, just looking for advice on the best way to go about this without have to pay a massive customs duty. Thanks!

Hi I live in Arkansas and work in a vet clinic as a VA with 3+ years of experience plus 4 years of pet sitting experience. With everything getting more expensive I have to increase my prices and would like your opinions on what I should charge for a booking of 10 days w/overnight stays, 4 dogs who have meds and a doggy door so I only need to at least be there morning and evening (plus nights). Thoughts? As a base price I charge $50/day if it’s one dog.

Separation Anxiety
I love my dog with all my heart. I got her for my 18th birthday when she was 6 weeks old. She is now 11. Shes been there through it all. She’s a red heeleaustralian shepherd. She has always been high strung and HATES her kennel. She has to be kenneled otherwise she would (and has) break through a window screen or chew on doors. In October, I started a new job where she can be at work with me. Nothing has changed for her except she goes home with me after work instead of going to her grandma’s house. She has gotten very attached to me. As soon as I start getting ready (she’s really into routines and picks up on things very easily) she will get up and come sit by me and whine. She licks her feet a lot and pants throughout the day. I have a huge yard and it takes me about 5 hours to mow, if I leave her outside, she will open the door and let herself inside. If I leave her inside, when I come check on her she acts like she’s been left alone for days.
In order to help her feel more at ease, I asked the vet for some anxiety medication. They prescribed the lowest dose of Trazadone. I asked the vet what to look for complications wise and she said any vommiting would be a sign but also said she’s never heard of a dog having a bad reaction. I gave it to her for the first time yesterday, and she was so sleepy. She did not act like her normal self and just acted so sleepy and moved around slowly. I’m wondering if that’s just her normal senior self but she seems more energetic because of the anxiety or if I shouldn’t be giving it to her daily. I have to mow today so I’m going to try to give her half a pill, and will definitely give it to her when we have to kennel her, but just wondering if she was drowsy just because it was the first day and it takes some adjusting or if it’s not working right for her.

Hey guys. Throwaway account because I need advice on a big decision.
I just finished my first year at Juilliard (classical music undergrad) and I’m debating transferring. After this year I’m so burnt out and feel like I’ve lost my passion for music. I took over a month off from practicing, barely made progress during the school year, and was diagnosed with depression in May (now being treated and improving). I can’t say I really missed playing my instrument during that month, and it’s been a slow start getting back into a practice routine.
I don’t have many interests outside of music. I used to want to be a vet, and started to think about that again, but this week found out I’m mildly allergic to cats and dogs (yay!). I also used to love writing stories, high school sort of ruined that for me but I think the spark might still be there. I’m decent at writing/singing songs, artwork, and I love analyzing movies/video editing. Getting involved in the film industry is interesting to me but I have no idea where I’d start. Unfortunately most of those have just as bad career prospects as classical music and I have much less experience in all of them, so pursuing anything like that is very risky.
I’m good at academics (graduated top of my class) but never liked them very much. The past few years have been spent mainly focusing on music. So I’m pretty much at a loss right now.
I have a few options so I guess I’ll just list them below.

1. Stay at Juilliard. I might suddenly regain my passion and this is the best place for me to be if I do music. I’ve quit before and restarted three years ago so it wouldn’t be the first time. This would also give me the option to apply to unrelated grad programs or med/law school if I don’t want to continue with music, as many schools accept Juilliard students as long as they have required prereqs and experience.
   
2. Go to Juilliard next year but also apply to other schools as a transfer. This would be a lot of pressure as next semester I’ll have multiple jobs and a packed schedule. I’m not sure if I can handle it, but it would give me the option to decide what to do without losing a year if I ultimately stay.
   
3. Take a gap year. This would give me the year to regroup, work to make some money, and figure out what I want to do. I could apply to other schools and explore some passions/opportunities near home that don’t relate to music. If at the end I want to stay at Juilliard, I still can without consequences.
   
4. Just fucking drop out and quit (sorry I’m just so tired right now)
   

If I did transfer, I could try pursuing another passion like non-classical music or film, or get a normal stem or liberal arts degree to have better career prospects.
Money also plays a factor. I’m on a half scholarship right now but it’s still a burden especially considering how much the tuition is rising in the next three years. My parents are of retirement age but still working to help pay for my education. Last year I was accepted to every other school I applied to on full or nearly full scholarship, but there is no guarantee that I’d receive the same money if I applied again. My parents are fine with continuing to help out with Juilliard tuition, but only if it’s where I really want to be and work hard there. The depression adds another complication, because I’m not sure if my feelings are caused by this or unfulfillment with music. It started this school year and still is an issue, though it’s been better since school ended and I went on meds.
If you got this far, thanks for reading! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Tl;dr - I’m burnt out studying classical music at Juilliard and want advice on whether to stay or transfer and do something else.

I’m 20’ Male 5’9 started at 170lb now im 158lb as of now.. I started doing a calorie deficit cuz I want to practice eating less and i want to be slim and muscular.
I don’t really have prep meals for the week but i just check the calories of my intakes on the label or i use chatgpt. Pretty much im consuming less than 2000 calories per day, but past these weeks I’ve been eating consistently 1400-1200 calories. On every weekend i try to eat more proteins so i can boost my mental and physical energy for work.
what i typically eat can vary but on my deficit, I start eating at Midday i eat a salad bowl with baby tomatoes and tiny chunks of chicken, at around 2pm-3pm i eat a tuna sandwich with water, at around 5pm-6pm i sip up a nutrition drink vanilla flavor, around 7pm-8pm tuna sandwich again and lastly at 9pm-10pm i eat a another salad.
My max was 893 calories didn’t felt that hungry and doing okay mentally and is so much cheaper eating this way and I feel more productive, im starting to see the world a little different now putting my ego to the side, I can see there’s progress coming from 170lb+ to 158lb in a span of few weeks and it’s weird that I never reached to the 180 mark because I’d eat around 3000 to 3500 everyday and maybe it’s because I have a fast metabolism, but anyways for the more experienced people out there what are your thoughts on this and what do you recommend?

I’m 20’ Male 5’9 started at 170lb now im 158lb as of now.. I started doing a calorie deficit cuz I want to practice eating less and i want to be slim and muscular.
I don’t really have prep meals for the week but i just check the calories of my intakes on the label or i use chatgpt. Pretty much im consuming less than 2000 calories per day, but past these weeks I’ve been eating consistently 1400-1200 calories. On every weekend i try to eat more proteins so i can boost my mental and physical energy for work.
what i typically eat can vary but on my deficit, I start eating at Midday i eat a salad bowl with baby tomatoes and tiny chunks of chicken, at around 2pm-3pm i eat a tuna sandwich with water, at around 5pm-6pm i sip up a nutrition drink vanilla flavor, around 7pm-8pm tuna sandwich again and lastly at 9pm-10pm i eat a another salad.
My max was 893 calories didn’t felt that hungry and doing okay mentally and is so much cheaper eating this way and I feel more productive, im starting to see the world a little different now putting my ego to the side, I can see there’s progress coming from 170lb+ to 158lb in a span of few weeks and it’s weird that I never reached to the 180 mark because I’d eat around 3000 to 3500 everyday and maybe it’s because I have a fast metabolism, but anyways for the more experienced people out there what are your thoughts on this and what do you recommend?

It’s quite obvious that the genesis of every problem a koala faces; from its extreme levels of stupidity to its sedentary lifestyle, comes from feeding exclusively on eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is quite poisonous and has almost zero nutritional value.
Would it be possible to get a baby koala, long before it starts developing a preference, and then feeding it something equally as light as eucalyptus (because i think their digestive systems might be too weak and adapted to such) but more nutritious.
Would it make them more active and intelligent?

This is Pretty Long
Let me Know If I Missed Anything
Every Players Faults
Slogo: Known For His Farms And "Killer" Of The King Glowey
Forced Sale of Jelly's land
"Killed" King Glowey (Natural Causes)
Killed the Mayor Jelly
Killed beenny (By accident)
Attempted to have a troll well
Blew up Jellys 2nd pyramid
Covered Jellys 3rd Pyramid in lava
Helped Crainer Destroy Jelly's Og Pyramid
Stole everyone's stuff post Jelly Assassination
Destroyed the original Relics (Except Book Of Water)
Destroyed "THE BEAST" (Jelly's Netherite Pick)
Stolen Crainers "Crainer Tower" at Old New Squid Island
Accidental Attempted Murder of Parry (Jelly's Parrot)
Killed Anton and Banton Dog (Crainer's Dogs)
Helped to Blow Up Crainer's Enchantment Tower
Fish Torture
Set a Neighboring forest on fire with his security system
Blew Up Crainer's Sand Castle
Forced Crainer To Kill His Dogs
Crainer: Known As The Calm One and The One Usually Picked On
Destroyed Jelly's Og Pyramid
Trapped Beenny (Unprovoked Troll)
Broke his Contract (Already Punished)
Burned Down Jelly's Memorial
Burned down Jelly's K. Glowey Statue
Killed K. Glowey the 2nd
Burned down Jelly's Forest
Stolen Items from Slogo's farms
Destroyed Jelly's shop
Used a Weapon When it was Banned
Didn't Pledge To The Squid Island Flag
Stolen From Slogo's Hq
Jelly: Known As A Dictator And Is The "Poorest"
Bad Vives
Became a dictator (Became Mayor forever)
Made Crainer eat his own fish
Never Paid his 1st or 2nd tax
Blamed Crainer for the missing taxes
Destroyed Most of Og Squid Island
Partially destroyed Slogo's bork co. Hq
Destroyed Old New Squid Island
Stole Items from Slogos Farms
Destroyed most of Crainer's land (Post Jelly-Crainer 2nd War)
Killed Bobby (Slogo's Dog that died from Jelly's Lava Troll)
Burned Down Slogo's Bork Statue
Kidnapped Bobby and Anton (Slogo / Craine'r Dogs)
Blew Up Crainer's Enchantment Tower
Neglect to his Pets Beenny and Melvin
Killed Floppy (Crainer's Fish)
Helped To Kill Crainer's Dogs (Anton And Banton)
Killed Crainer In A Lava Trap
Stolen From Slogo's Hq

This morning I went for a walk on a beach called west wittering (Chichester UK) and without my knowledge literally everyone that goes there brings dogs, but it wasn’t a massive problem whilst I was walking as people kept their dogs separated
I decided that when I was done with my walk I would go to the cafe which is near the parking area, I was chilled out and trying to relax, and then all of a sudden this weird dog (probably a cockapoo I don’t have a clue what it was) started barking very loudly and aggressively, I don’t know what the dog was barking at, it was looking at its owner so probably wanted attention or something because of how annoying they are, I thought it would only last for two minutes (which is already long enough) but it lasted for 15. 15 minutes of barking in a cafe which is meant to be quiet, but the biggest problem I have with this is actually the owner
The owner was a morbidly obese lady who was just sat there on her phone for the whole 15 minutes, her eyes were glued to her phone and she didn’t look up once ( I was staring at her the whole time because I was damn annoyed) she never told the dog to shut up once, she literally just sat on her phone the whole time without looking up, but not only did the dog bark for 15 minutes, it kept setting off other dogs and they started barking too, there was an elderly couple sat in front of me and they left with full drinks because of how annoying it was.
I can’t stand owners like that, why are you bringing your dog to a cafe when you know it’s gonna bark and annoy people, and why on earth would you let it do that without saying anything or doing anything

My dog named Bean is a Chihuahua/Dachshund mix, he used to have multiple flare ups every year and some of the last ones I wasn’t sure he was going to make it. He is 11 now and hasn’t had a flare up in 3 years. I want to share what worked and I hope it helps you all.

• If your dog is overweight I would immediately cut back their food based on what’s recommended by your vet. They lose weight easily, the extra weight is hurting their back.
  
• hip and joint supplements with glucosamine daily.
  
• Everyday I give him a spoonful of coconut oil and vitamin e oil, vitamin e is very beneficial to IVDD dogs.
  
• Light exercise when far healed from the flare up, I never over do it with him. 10-15 minutes max. He has a stroller for longer walks, I never pick him up, I transfer him with a crate into the stroller.
  
• The biggest most important change is that I quit feeding him kibble. Kibble is usually atrocious and causes cancer and inflammation in dogs.
  

It’s hard but if you can even just incorporate human food, they will benefit. Bean gets white rice, beef, carrots, peas, red bell peppers, etc, flax seeds for omega 3s. Blueberries and healthy treats.
I hope this helps, the changes with him have been a miracle 🩷

I have a 32 gallon garbage can in my backyard that is mostly yard debris, with about a 4th of it being dog poop. It rained pretty hard recently and now the things full to the brim with poo water. I can't just dump it onto the lawn/down the rain gutter. It's also way heavier than I could lift into my truck.
I've really gotten myself into a s***** situation here, and I know that the solution is going to be anything but easy.
I've got a few ideas, but none of them are great.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Hopefully the link isn’t paywalled:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5537860/2024/06/06/usa-hockey-goalies-development/
Good for USA hockey to collectively take steps to create a better development model for goaltending. Being from Canada I’m patiently waiting for Hockey Canada’s approach on creating a model that helps a goaltender develop without having to spend hundreds/thousands of dollars a year on top of gear and registration fees.
Edit: it is paywalled.
Here’s the text:
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Many of the best minds in goaltending converged in the state of hockey last week with one purpose in mind: Building better American goalies.
The first ever USA Hockey Goaltending Symposium was held next to Xcel Energy Center from May 30 to June 2. Former American greats Mike Richter and Ryan Miller took the stage, along with NHL and Division I college goalie coaches, and experts in several fields of youth development.
They presented for four days to a room full of coaches of all levels from around the country, with the hope that they will return to their rinks better equipped to develop young goalies and continue the incredible momentum the U.S. is currently riding in net.
U.S. goaltending is in the best place it has ever been. The NHL is filled with elite American netminders, including Connor Hellebuyck, Thatcher Demko, Jeremy Swayman, Jake Oettinger and John Gibson. There’s an equally impressive crop of younger goalies waiting for a turn, such as Dustin Wolf, Trey Augustine and Drew Commesso.
Still, USA Hockey director of goalie development Steve Thompson and his team aren’t resting on that. Thompson put together the goalie symposium in an attempt to improve the country’s goaltending model by creating more touch points with coaches, and encouraging coaches to alter practices to better simulate game situations. It’s all part of an attempt to attract more, and better, athletes to the goalie talent pool, from youth hockey up.
“I’m hoping that everybody here is inspired and moving toward what the future of the position will look like, and I’m hoping it’s somewhat dramatically different than the way it’s always been done,” Thompson told The Athletic.
Goalies have always developed slower than their forward and defensive counterparts. Skaters regularly make the leap to NHL action at 20 or 21 years old. Some exceptional prospects – such as Connor Bedard – start as early as 18, but the average age of rookie goalies in the NHL is 24.3 years old.
The slower development path has long been attributed to the nature of the position. Goaltending relies more on the mental side of the game, reading and anticipating plays, so it makes sense that experience is more valuable, but Thompson believes it could be a product of the way the position is being coached from a young age.
Think about what a practice looks like for a child playing forward or defense, compared to goalie. The skaters take their turn in a drill, then skate to the back of the line and have significant time before their next rep to reflect on the last one. What did they do right? What could they do better next time? The coach also has the opportunity to share information for improvement.
Meanwhile, the goalie faces shot after shot with very little instruction between. At times, it feels like they’re just trying to survive a practice rather than improve aspects of their game.
“Those are millions of touch points over a youth career that our goalies just generally don’t have access to,” Thompson explained. “You might have someone barking at you from the corner but you can’t hear them, and you certainly can’t focus on stopping a puck, and trying to listen and modify your game. It’s a really bad learning environment.”
Games are no different. Skaters take their shifts, regularly coming to the bench to receive advice from the coaches and more importantly – engage in self reflection of their play. Goalies often feel like they’re on an island, playing every minute of every game and facing more stress – physically, mentally and emotionally – than the skaters.
“I think it’s really a byproduct of a lack of coaching, that in my opinion leads to goaltenders developing later,” Thompson said. “I really think we can get a lot more touch points in a youth athlete’s career by changing the way we’ve always done things.”
How do you generate more touch points for young netminders? The people at USA Hockey believe a three-goalie system on most teams would significantly improve the development path.
“Even though there are two nets, we can manage three goalies because the most important thing is the development,” said John Vanbiesbrouck, who played 20 seasons in the NHL, won the Vezina Trophy in 1986 and is currently the assistant executive director of hockey operations for USA Hockey. “It’s not about the games played, it’s how you develop as a young athlete, learning the position. We need to protect our goalies. They need to know they have time to breathe, regroup and reset.”
The program has already taken actionable steps with the U.S. National Team Development Program (USNTDP), which recently started using three goalies.
“We approached those conversations based on science – the demands on the body and the brain,” said national goaltending coach David Lassonde. “We started putting sensors on our players, and we soon realized that what we were asking our goalies to do on a daily basis was not necessarily healthy for them.”
Goalie coaches and experts met in Minnesota to discuss the future of the position. (Justin Felisko / USA Hockey) More goalies on the ice equals more time between reps for reflection and rest. Not only can it have a positive effect on their skill development, but it could also help them remain healthier in the future. Another major topic at this week’s symposium was the increase in hip and groin injuries for goalies at all levels, due to the physical demands of the modern goaltending style.
A recent study in Sweden by Tobias Wörner showed that of the 101 goalies studied, 69 percent experienced hip or groin issues during the season and 36 percent missed time on the ice as a result. Of the issues, 80 percent were due to overuse. Hockey could eventually follow the path of youth baseball, which started restricting pitches thrown by young pitchers to prevent long-term arm injuries.
Over four days in St. Paul, several presenters showed interesting ways to potentially improve the way goalies practice in the U.S.
Steve Brochu, coach for the XTX Storm girls hockey program in Sugar Land, Texas, showed, through manually-tracked shot data at youth hockey practices, that the types of shots goalies are facing in practice aren’t remotely similar to the ones faced in games. Using data, he demonstrated that by varying the shot location and types – rather than allowing players to skate in unopposed and blast slap shots at the goalie – there could be major improvements not just to the goaltending, but the shooters as well.
Rick Murray, a goalie development coordinator for the Southeast District of USA Hockey and professor at Hendrix College, showed the potential benefits of using smaller nets at younger age groups. Murray helped institute a rule for the Southern Amateur Hockey Association – which covers youth hockey leagues in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee – to use nets that are 36 inches tall and 54 inches wide for 10U hockey.
Asking young goalies to guard smaller nets — as opposed to the standard 48-by-72-inch nets — resulted in movements closer to those of a bigger, older goalie, rather than sprawling across the ice in desperation on every save. It could have physical and technical benefits to goalie development, and challenges young shooters to read plays and score in more realistic ways rather than keeping their head down and firing pucks at the top half of a net that towers over young goalies.
All of these are potential improvements won’t be possible, though, without more goalie participation across the country. Using three goalies in practice may be a good concept, but most youth teams are struggling to find even two at this point. No topic dominated the conversation across all four days more than getting more goalies in net.
Only four percent of the players currently registered to USA Hockey are goalies. For context, 10 percent would equal two goalies for every 20-player roster, so the overall numbers suggest there are fewer than two goalies per team at the moment. Several presentations proposed solutions such as “try goalie for free” events and financial discounts for parents if their child plays goalie, but Thompson believes the biggest hurdle is removing a harmful stigma from the position.
“It’s the ‘Goldberg effect,’” he said, referring to the initial “The Mighty Ducks” movie. “The narrative has always been that the goalie is the weird kid, the kid that’s not as athletic. It’s not that superstar athlete. The position has such an importance on the game, no different from the quarterback or the pitcher, and yet those positions are celebrated as the person that’s going to help this team win. In hockey, we know it’s true, the statistics always show us that the goalie is probably the most pivotal person on the ice to determine wins and losses.
“That’s where I think the Scandinavian countries have had an edge on us. When I spent time over there, it was an honor to be the goalie. You had to earn the opportunity to be the goalie. They’ve created this pedestal that the goalie is on, and you really want to become that person. I think here we run from it, unless you somehow convince your parents otherwise.”
Coaches from all levels told stories at the symposium of parents not wanting – or allowing – their children to play goalie. The cost of equipment used to be the biggest factor, but with the increase in the price of sticks – and how quickly they break – has nearly eliminated that aspect.
“I think we’re set in our old ways a little bit, when sticks were three bucks and it was a wooden stick you just grabbed out of a trash can,” Thompson said. “When sticks are going for $300 or $400 a pop, and you buy three or four a year, that’s the price of a set of leg pads.”
Now, coaches believe the stigma has far more to do with the position itself. Goalies face more pressure, and more blame when the team loses. Thompson believes that if coaches can change the conversation around goaltending, it will lead to not only more goalies, but better athletes playing the position from a young age.
“We need to inspire people that love to embrace pressure, those that want to be leaders, those that want to be different from the rest of the group, come and play this awesome position,” he said. “It will set you up for life away from the rink, if you embrace that challenge and don’t see stress as pressure, but as an opportunity.”
Overall it was an exciting weekend for the future of the position, filled with stimulating ideas to not only continue America’s success in net, but dominate even further moving forward.

I mean, they already made The Tale of the Princess Kaguya AND a reference to Momotaro was featured in My Neighbors the Yamadas, so I think it makes sense that they should make a Momotaro film too. In fact, I have some cast and crew ideas:
-Momotaro = Ryan Potter
-Momotaro's childhood friend/love interest = Karen Fukuhara
-Dog = Jamie Foxx
-Monkey = Ryan Reynolds
-Pheasant = Amy Poehler
-Oni chief(?) = Tom Hardy
-Score composer = Dario Marianelli
Basically, human characters would be voiced by actors and actresses from Japan or anyone who has/have Japanese descendants and non-human characters would have no such limit. Also, the animation style would be closer to what Ghibli is known for.
What are your thoughts on this?
P.S. I almost suggested Disney Animation to make one, but I kind of want Ghibli to try it out first given their history.
P.P.S. Please note that my knowledge of Momotaro is far below surface level.

Hello! I adopted a little beagle boy about 7 months ago. He is just over a year old now. I have 3 cats (~6, 5 + 4) who are not dog savvy. I also have a foster husky/greyhound (4) that has been with us for almost 6 months now. Prior to the foster being here I felt like we were making progress with the cats. They had been introduced on leash and the cats were able to come up to him as they were comfortable. He did his little beagle screams and pulled towards them but once at them he mostly just sniffed and seemed interested- maybe even a little scared (he is a pretty anxious boy). He had lived outside chained up so the rescue figured he’d likely never seen a cat before. Also for context, he is a small beagle- he is 18 pounds and my cats are 11-14 pounds.
I just want to make sure I’m reading him right as I’ve never had a “hunting dog” or dog with prey drive before. The stairs are blocked off and the cats are upstairs during the day. If he hears them on the stairs he usually darts over and starts screaming and jumping at the gate. If they’ve been around he runs around sniffing very vocally and hen runs to the gate and screams. This isn’t consistent- if he’s in a more relaxed state (in between naps) he will listen to my cat singing with his toy upstairs and won’t move or make a sound at all.
He has met one dog savvy cat in front of me now and he was very wide eyed and screamed a bit, but all he did was sniff. He didn’t seem to know what to do. My one cat hisses at him a lot and he screams back but this cat just rubbed up on him and he seemed a bit concerned lol.
I think the biggest issue is my foster dog. She IS cat savvy and even rabbit savvy. But for some reason (forbidden fruit?) she goes absolutely nuts when she hears my cats too. The two of them egg each other on so much and it’s so difficult to make progress on training him to be calm around them when she’s being a psycho too. She also has MAJOR anxiety and cannot be crated which poses difficulty in introducing my dog and cats without her carrying on.
I’m not sure if any of this at all is helpful. I guess I’m just wondering how to tell the difference between prey drive and other behaviours?
Is there a difference in the sounds they make or anything that signifies prey drive vs. curiosity or excitement or nervousness? I can’t tell from body language alone. He doesn’t seem to go through any of the predatory stages- he doesn’t eye or stalk he just immediately runs over and screams.
Thank you!! I appreciate any input from those of you who know beagles better than I do 🙏🏼 I know that they are bred to chase and find but I really don’t think he wants to hurt them. He is the biggest baby.