Can a mutt drag a 200lb roll?

[strantor]

I went behind my shop today and found that someone had tried to make off with a 12ft roll of road fabric I had back there. At least that was my immediate theory. They got it about 15ft and gave up. Looks they had intended to bring it out through that opening where the fence meets the lean-to, at least That’s the way it was pointed. This roll has been out in the rain for months and it's saturated, weighs at least 200lbs, probably more. I can barely move it myself and I weigh 210lbs.

The more I look at this and think about it, I'm not sure a human did it. All of the tools I had strewn about under the lean-to are still present and accounted for. If a person went back there, they literally had to step over a port-a-band saw I left laying on the ground between my truck and the buggy. Cordless hand tools, complete tool sets, at least $2k worth of tools I failed to secured because I worked late, all untouched. What thief would pass that stuff up to steal a roll of road fabric?

Hard to see any boot prints as that's gravel under the weeds. The ends of the roll are newly chewed up and the roll is unwound a bit. My mutt was intensely interested in the whole area. I don’t know if he was sniffing out a person or a varmint but he was real interested in the ends of the roll like something was inside there but I didn't see anything. He is a big boy (110lbs) but I don't think he's big enough to have done this and I don't know why he would have. It's bizarre.

What do you make of it? Does my dog have a hulk mode or is there a tweaker with peculiar interests lurking about? Or... chupacabra?

 

[dirttoys]

Nice detective work

I'd guess the dog did it, but the rat caused it.

Best,

ed

 

[Dftodd]

My wife had an Irish wolf hound when she was younger. Dog was living at her grandmas house.

Her grandmother went out to feed that big old dog one day and passed away.

That dog was chained to a Toyota 4x4 truck. Dog was so upset of grandma passing that it did everything in it's power to get to her.

Wifes sister found grandma in the yard, with the dog laying next to her howling and crying.

The dog dragged that truck 10ft to get to her side.

 

[rademamj1]

I have had my neighbors dogs take my work boots left out on the front porch and then run off with them. Suspected it was Neighbor A's dog based on prior activity. Only a few days later, i found my work boots tied together and dangling on Neighbor B's mailbox.

Also, found my neighbors motorcycle helmet in a field while Bush hogging, he said it went missing almost 2 years ago. Dogs are incredible.

 

[Midniteoyl]

MiL had a boxer that could move a 300lb couch, on carpet.

 

[bunyip]

got a 15lb dog that can clear a crowded room...

 

[Alan W.]

When I raised Huskies I was always amazed at the force they could apply when they wanted to do or move something

Bunyip
When I was young we had a chihuahua that always slept under his blanket with his butt exposed. If what came out of that dog couldve been weaponized you could rule the world.

 

[strantor]

I'm reminded of this scene below from the Amazon show Patriot, some kind of government training about how to handle a dog attack. The instructor says (paraphrased) to think of a dog as an 80lb man whose only asset is powerful jaws.

clip from the show, NSFW (cursing):

I did some research in the past about the strength of animals vs humans. I went into it thinking that humans are relatively weak for our size, as I've often heard about this animal or that animal being "10 times stronger than humans pound for pound." What I found was that no vertebrate is 10x stronger than we are, and that we're actually near the top of the list for strength vs size as far as vertebrates go. Most vertebrates are opposite of us, having more fast-twitch muscle fibers than slow-twitch, meaning they could deliver a harder/faster blow and/or react faster than us, but we can deliver more prolonged power output than just about anything but horses. The average chimp isn't 10 times stronger than the average man. Maybe 1.5-2 times. Chimps and horses are two of only a handful of animals that are stronger than us pound for pound, and dogs aren't in that handful (according to what I read) - we're about on the same level. So if I'm to believe that, then the "training" in the above video isn't as ridiculous as it sounds and the idea that my dog moved this thing is even more incredible.

 

[jmc]

strantor, sorry but what's that machine your forks are mounted on? In all three pictures, it's as elusive at Tim the Toolman's neighbor's face.

 

[strantor]

strantor, sorry but what's that machine your forks are mounted on? In all three pictures, it's as elusive at Tim the Toolman's neighbor's face.

It's a Spyder forklift (story here) - awaiting eventual cannibalization or restoration.