Farm Dogs

[baymule]

thanks!

 

[sumi]

That's great info, Bee, thanks!

 

[CrealCritter]

Last night we had a large pack of coyotes pass through. I heard them sitting in the living room. By the time I got my shot gun, boots and coat on, they we're gone.

I've been leaving the chicken yard gate open, electric fence off and this morning I found a pile of feathers but no chicken. Plus the man door to the coop was open and the nursery yard gate was also open.

I searched around the yard for more feathers but thankfully it looks like the coyotes only got one hen. I have my chickens on lock down now and the electric fence on also.

Its cold and rainy this evening, i went out out to the wood shop to feed my hunting dog. When I turned on the light, there's my hunting dog cuddled up with a hen on the blanket I have layed out for him under my work bench. It was the oddest sight seeing a dog cuddled up with a chicken hen. I grabbed the hen an took her back to the chicken yard then fed my hunting dog. I suspect she had been in the shop all day still afraid of the coyotes. She still had all her feathers so she wasn't the one that the coyotes got a hold of.

 

[Beekissed]

Awwww, how sweet!!! Unusual for a hunting dog to not chew on a hen, so that's one special dog you've got there.

I hope he can deter the 'yotes from your place....and especially keep them from sitting in your living room.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

They know how to share body heat, lol!

 

[CrealCritter]

Awwww, how sweet!!! Unusual for a hunting dog to not chew on a hen, so that's one special dog you've got there.

I hope he can deter the 'yotes from your place....and especially keep them from sitting in your living room.

Amazing how the absence of one word changes the whole meaning of a sentence

 

[wyoDreamer]

Sorry you lost a bird - but did you have a 2 footed predator also with all the doors/gates left open?
Some days I am more worried about the 2 footed varmint than the ones on 4 feet. I have set up a trail cam in the barnyard to see what is coming and going in the area around the buildings. Sometimes it seems that I had visitors during the day while I was at work...

I was interested in how the 'yotes got into the living room also.
We have a couple of packs around us. We can hear the ones in the woods to the east yapping and the pack to the south-west will answer back.

My brother's lab would retrieve just about anything that B-I-L hunted - grouse, duck, goose and even used him for tracking blood trails a time or two to find shot deer that got into the swamp and laid down to die. That dog only touched one bird when they visited his sisters hobby farm. The first time they went to vist after she got chickens and ducks, the dog "retrieved" a duck from the pond. BIL took the bird from the dog and looked it over really good, told the dog "Leave It" and let the duck run off to join his flock in the pond. No damage and hardly any feathers ruffled on the bird when the dog handed it over. That dog never touched a single bird on the property after that. A good hunting dog (I am talking bird and gun dogs) have a soft mouth so they don't damage what they are retrieving.

 

[CrealCritter]

Sorry you lost a bird - but did you have a 2 footed predator also with all the doors/gates left open?
Some days I am more worried about the 2 footed varmint than the ones on 4 feet. I have set up a trail cam in the barnyard to see what is coming and going in the area around the buildings. Sometimes it seems that I had visitors during the day while I was at work...

I was interested in how the 'yotes got into the living room also.
We have a couple of packs around us. We can hear the ones in the woods to the east yapping and the pack to the south-west will answer back.

My brother's lab would retrieve just about anything that B-I-L hunted - grouse, duck, goose and even used him for tracking blood trails a time or two to find shot deer that got into the swamp and laid down to die. That dog only touched one bird when they visited his sisters hobby farm. The first time they went to vist after she got chickens and ducks, the dog "retrieved" a duck from the pond. BIL took the bird from the dog and looked it over really good, told the dog "Leave It" and let the duck run off to join his flock in the pond. No damage and hardly any feathers ruffled on the bird when the dog handed it over. That dog never touched a single bird on the property after that. A good hunting dog (I am talking bird and gun dogs) have a soft mouth so they don't damage what they are retrieving.

In my pre-teen years I had the best rabbit dog ever, a cocker spaniel named ginger. We lived in northern IL back then and my neighborhood friend and I would do a lot of hunting during the winter after school with .22 rifles.

One hunt my dog pointed out a rabbit in the brush. Before I could get an aim on it, it took off up a steep hill. The snow was deep and I said to my friend, I'm not climbing up that hill for that rabbit. He said well I'll go up there. He started up the hill and my dog looked at me and whined like she wanting to go up the hill also. I said to her go and she took off up the hill. After a few mins I heard a gun shot and next thing I noticed my dog jumping down the hill with a rabbit in her mouth. When she got to the bottom of the hill where I was, she dropped the rabbit at my feet and sat there waiting for the hunt to continue. My friend came sliding down the hill and said where's my rabbit? I said, right here in my sack. Then I said you shot it but my dog claimed it was mine and there was no arguments about the fact. Ginger was such a awesome rabbit dog, I've never had one even close to her since then.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

In my first marriage I had an English Setter. My exH fancied himself a bird hunter. He missed more than he got lol. But, this dog was awesome. She's go through a field, snap a point and never move - unless the bird moved and she'd creep along for a few seconds and snap into a point again. DH would ease up to her, flush the bird and take the shot. IF he missed... I swear the dog would give you a dirty "go to he** look" before she'd start hunting again. Awesome retriever too...if you shot it - even in heavy brush she'd find it. She was a great dog!

 

[CrealCritter]

In my first marriage I had an English Setter. My exH fancied himself a bird hunter. He missed more than he got lol. But, this dog was awesome. She's go through a field, snap a point and never move - unless the bird moved and she'd creep along for a few seconds and snap into a point again. DH would ease up to her, flush the bird and take the shot. IF he missed... I swear the dog would give you a dirty "go to he** look" before she'd start hunting again. Awesome retriever too...if you shot it - even in heavy brush she'd find it. She was a great dog!

She sounds awesome! I never really got into bird hunting much unless it was ringneck pheasant those I liked to hunt but we mainly trapped them instead. Unless my dad and friends dad went with us. Shot guns were too expensive and so were the shells for a kid to buy back then, that's why we hunted with 12ga rifles. I grew up, if I wanted something special like a rifle, I had to work to get the money to buy it myself.