This is Mountain in May of 2004. I think this was the first video I ever shot with a little point-and-shoot camera. Back then (before Youtube) I had no idea what to do with video!
My notes say:
Went out today despite the 35-40 mph winds. Mountain pulled a 10-pound groundhog on her own and bolted another one out of a bank and into a field.
As you can tell from the end of the clip, I'm a bit new to this camera. Oh well.
This sette was in a thorn hedge, and when Mountain got it out of the ground she just kept pulling it back into the hedge -- the groundhog was being ass-pulled at a pretty rapid speed! I finally got through the hedge and dispatched the groundhog before the two of them got into a real brawl topside. This was a very shallow den and the groundhog moved to a pipe exit just as Mountain got there trying to find a new way in. She gripped on and pulled and it popped out about 5 seconds after the video ended. I think she was able to pull this one because the earth was so shallow that the groundhog could not brace itself in very well. The bolt occured in a hedgerow a couple of hundred yards up the way -- I could hear the bolt, but barely see it in the thicket on the bank. I think it popped down another hole, but I was too busted from the wind to pursue it. I'm going to take Mountain out alone for awhile to get her used to hunting without help from Sailor. She needs to learn to trust her nose a little more.
Two chucks worked, no dogs injured, and a serious wind burn for me -- not a bad day.
What I remember most from this day was the wind. It howled!
The same month, six years later, Mountain is still trying to pull one for the camera. I think Pearl was inside, providing the motivation for the bolt.
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8 comments:
How come you never talk about Pearl? I can't even remember a picture of her.
Debi in Texas
Pearl's all over the blog, if you look -- and in the pipe doing the pushing in this clip.
For a nice action shot of Pearl doing the incredible, however see this video clip >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urpFo0mebow That's my little lunatic!
P
Good lord, she climbed 15 feet into the tree! She must have talons to hang on up there, and then she jumped out of the tree unharmed? Do you ever worry, or is that futile? Watched all your vids (that Sycamore tree was incredible), and read all the comments; sheesh...some people.
We bolted our first groundhog today. O.K., so it was above ground and we nearly tripped over it as we raced on-lead around the back of our barn, but I'm putting a check mark in the "firsts" column anyway. (G) We were all surprised, but only the 'hog was scared, lol.
Seahorse :)
Alwaya a good thing for a pup to see wildlife and smell it it too. For a dog, it can be an entire world in a lung full of air.
Pearl is my soft little dog -- I was pretty surprised when she bolted this one and climbed this little tree after it. The bolt is expected, but the climbing was not. Glad to have it on film, as otherwise no one would believe it!
P
Alwaya a good thing for a pup to see wildlife and smell it it too. For a dog, it can be an entire world in a lung full of air.
Pearl is my soft little dog -- I was pretty surprised when she bolted this one and climbed this little tree after it. The bolt is expected, but the climbing was not. Glad to have it on film, as otherwise no one would believe it!
P
lovely stuff. love the climbing, what a character.
This article brought back a lot of memories I can still see & touch & smell. I acquired our first Jack 'Buster' when he was 8 weeks old - in a pet store - I know, I know - mostly because he would NOT let go of my shoelaces. He nailed his first mouse at 10 weeks & he killed his first groundhog when he was 6 months old - I saw him do it, I was bush hogging the hill field - he grabbed it by the neck, adjusted his grip once and was bitten - ouch, took hold again and did not let go. He never made that adjustment error again !
Not to diss Viginia groundhogs, but at some point we had a French exchange student who hauled one of Buster's kills all the way back to the house and made me bring the bathroom scale out and weigh the groundhog. That particular groundhog scaled out at 35 pounds. Mind you, bathroom scales are notoriously inaccurate. LOL
Buster and our Aussie Dingo hunted out all the groundhogs for about 10 acres around the house. They made the perfect team. They would lie in the grass like lions for hours, about forty feet downwind of a groundhog warren - utterly still - until a hog came out for a stroll. Once the hog was far enough from a bolt hole, Dingo would cut the hog off and circle and hold it - the sheepdog stuff - until Buster went in for the kill. Once he had killed something, Buster had no further interest in it and would trot off, but Dingo - disgusting girl - would roll in it and then carry it home and leave the corpse at the front door.
We had a big crabapple tree on the front lawn and one day Buster was going nuts leaping and climbing up in the tree until he would get high enough that the branches would not hold his weight, and he would tumble down. He kept this up so long we went out to investigate. There was a mink treed in the very upper branches, hidden by the leaves. We had to put the B man in the house and my husband knocked the mink out of the tree with a pole.
Buster killed hundreds of groundhogs, some rats, two mink, one raccoon and one very expensive porcupine. He was terrified of snakes though and would avoid having anything to do with them.
When Buster was 7, I got divorced and we had to move to the city. Buster's last kill was at the age of 7, when he dispatched a squirrel in a very fancy city park. Fortunately no one was looking. He lived until he was 13, and he was the best dog ever. But of course, he was Canadian !
Thanks for sharing those videos, I've never seen a working terrier in action before.
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