My dog the hunter

[orezok]

Yesterday I am working in the back yard and I hear this strange squeak. I look up and my 12 year old rescue dog has a jack rabbit (Black tail hare) in her mouth. It was still alive And dieing and I did not know that rabbits made a sound. Kali is a hunter and captures anything from lizards to birds and rabbits. She brings them to me as a present and drops them as soon as I tell her and then walks away like - OK, I did my job!

The bunny was fatally injured and soon died. I tossed it over the chain link fence as everything in the desert gets recycled in short order.

I little while later I hear Kali making her coyote bark. It is distinctive and she does not like coyotes. I see her charging at the fence where the coyote is charging toward the rabbit. They are both about the same distance from the rabbit and going full speed. I can just imagine what is going through the coyotes mind - That is my rabbit and you arent going to get it. The coyote tries to grab the rabbit on the run and misses. They can weigh up to 6 lbs. Oops. Makes a quick 180 and gets the rabbit the second time.

Of course the fence stops Kali, but I know she was sure that she ran that coyote off. :cool2:

 

[oosik]

My little Chocolate Cocker Spaniel is a "hunter", of sorts, also. Butterflies, grasshoppers, crawling bugs, even piss ants. He is a year and a half old. It's taken a while but he knows not to tangle with the larger wildlife. Coyotes, badgers, skunks & porcupines. He's not too sure about the deer, yet. Those spring fawns are just as curious as he is. One snort from Mom and the fawn is in retreat.

It's IMPERATIVE that he has learned. Out here there are no fences - just my voice. Almost a year and a half ago - on the way home from the breeder. And, today.

View attachment 668625View attachment 668626

 

[Jim Nelson]

Our last dog was a mini Dachshund named Cujo,he was a real sweet little guy but also a great hunter catching rabbits,gophers, squirrels, etc. His problem was he HATED coyotes and we have lots of them. He got chewed up twice when we were out walking and he would smell one and take after it. I was always close enough to scare the coyotes off but not before they got their licks in. The vet really liked us. Before him we had a little Yorkie that was also a sweetheart except when it came to coyotes. He got nailed twice also but no serious injuries. He was really funny, on our morning walks he would smell where a coyote had marked a bush or rock and he would growl in the deepest voice he could muster and stand as tall as he could looking around for the trespassing coyote.

Funny thing was both dogs got along great with all other dogs, big small, whatever. They just instinctively hated coyotes.

 

[Dftodd]

Our last dog was a mini Dachshund named Cujo,he was a real sweet little guy but also a great hunter catching rabbits,gophers, squirrels, etc. His problem was he HATED coyotes and we have lots of them. He got chewed up twice when we were out walking and he would smell one and take after it. I was always close enough to scare the coyotes off but not before they got their licks in. The vet really liked us. Before him we had a little Yorkie that was also a sweetheart except when it came to coyotes. He got nailed twice also but no serious injuries. He was really funny, on our morning walks he would smell where a coyote had marked a bush or rock and he would growl in the deepest voice he could muster and stand as tall as he could looking around for the trespassing coyote.

Funny thing was both dogs got along great with all other dogs, big small, whatever. They just instinctively hated coyotes.

Our mini dachshund was a good hunter as well. We have 1.5 acres fenced in and he ran a tight ship out there. No critters were allowed.

Our craziest experience was when he thumped on the back door to come back inside. He had his toy in his mouth, which was a common occurrence, so I didn't think anything of it.

I let him in and he runs over and jumps into my wifes lap.

Wife starts screaming, and something goes running up her chest across the back of the chair, hits the floor and goes under the couch

It was a live squirrell

This sets Zeus off, as well as our Jack Russell. Thankfully they kept it pinned under the couch till I could come up with a game plan for getting it back outside

From that point on, I verified that it was in fact a toy in his mouth before letting him in the house.

Scary part was, that was the second live squirrell in a place where I lived.

The first was years earlier. I rented a room from friends. At night they would leave the French door open and had black out curtains to keep the cool in. This allowed their dogs to go in and out at their leisure.

Their cat brought a live squirrell into the house, jumped onto the ottoman. Then dropped the squirrel onto the floor between the two dogs before we could intervene.

What resulted was mass hysteria and chaos, ending in a trashed house before we got the dogs and squirrell contained