Monday, May 21, 2012

Digging on the Dogs

Gideon staked out.

Mountain slides in.

Mountain staked at possible bolt hole.

Bolted this groundhog up a tree.  Left for another day.  Yes, the dogs do teach them to climb.


This one did not get away.  Dead on a branch and Mountain leaping.

7 comments:

The Midland Agrarian said...

Do your JRT's bark on tree? I never saw a JRT to that was a particularity strong tree dog (Not a criticism of the breed just an observation from limited experience)

Best Regards,

Richard

PBurns said...

Both dogs bay squirrels in the back yard where there are no groundhogs or dens, but once we get into field or forest they are focused on the ground. The small treeing feist used by squirrel hunters across the south is basically a devolved rat terrier or Jack Russell. A few notes on feists and Faulker here >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2011/07/picture-of-william-faulkner-and-his.html

John Watts said...

Hi Patrick,
Not on this subject, but you might be interested in the following article my son (a veterinarian) wrote for his local newspaper about dog food. He writes a weekly column for the Culpeper Star Exponent.

http://www2.starexponent.com/lifestyles/2012/may/21/common-misconceptions-about-pet-food-ar-1930011/

John

Seahorse said...

Wienie question here, but do you wash the dogs after every outing, or only when they get visibly dirty? Just wondering about contacting oils from poison ivy, oak, etc. My dogs run over our farm, but generally are in areas more free of vines. I've never washed what looks like a clean dog, but do think about the "poisons" that can make me itch like a bugger. Told you it was a wienie question!

Seahorse

PBurns said...

I wash the dogs every week with flea and tick shampoo in summer and the cheapest human shampoo sold at Safeway (Suave) in winter. I will post later more on skin issues and dogs, but the first rule is always wash your dog -- it's simply a lie that you should not wash your dog very often. Not wasshing dogs enough is one reason so many dogs have skin issues.

I have never had a dog have any problems with poison ivy. So far as I can tell, they are immune from simple contact, same as fox, deer, raccoon. All my dogs more or less live in poison ivy, in the yard and in the field. No skin issues at all.

P

Seahorse said...

Thanks for the dog-washing info. What I really meant was whether you wash the dogs as a defense against poison ivy problems for you, not them. When mine get into vines and fuzzy poison oak stuff I wonder about me later, not them. As you said, they go merrily along!

Seahorse

PBurns said...

No. I am mostly immune to poison ivy, but my kids and wife are not but it does not seem to impact them if any oils do not get on their skin. With the dogs underground, I suspect anything that does touch the dogs is too little or is kicked off in the dirt. Secondary contact from poison ivy is pretty rare I think -- nothing from my pants, for example.

P.