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Post by ozark on Jan 22, 2009 19:00:16 GMT -5
I am wondering if others sometimes have dog problems. Here we have many people living in rural communtiies or on private owned land. Nearly all have from one to four or five dogs for pets or to give alarms in case of animals or people coming near. We usually have a few dogs that have went wild. Sometimes the dogs forms packs and roam through the countryside as predators taking wildlife as well as domesticated farm animals. My land is three miles from town and is surrounded by famlies living scattered about. Few pet owners know that their pets sometimes becomes part of these gangs. I have seen groups of six or more dogs prowling about our place. I am not talking about groups following a female in heat. There have been cases where these packs have acted threatening to people but so far I have not heard of anyone being attacked.
I recognized one such dog as belonging to a friend of mine who lived almost four miles from where I sighted his dog with three others. I notified him and he told me that I had to be mistaken but if I ever seen it again shoot it and call him. Almost two months later I killed his dog along with another smaller male. I called and he came to take a look. He was flabergasted and told me that he would have bet big dollars his dog never joined with packs. He had never seen the other dog I shot. Neither dog wore a collar.
As long as I was able I kept hunting hounds but when not hunting they were kept in enclosures. It is a law of the land here not to kill dogs belonging to others and I sure would not want mine shot. But unless owners are close observers and have free roaming dogs there is a chance they will join others and become members of a pack that is up to no good. Packs appear to have a variety of breeds, mixed breeds and all sizes. Does any of this occur in your neck of the woods? Ozark
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Post by billc on Jan 22, 2009 20:18:22 GMT -5
When I was a boy in western NC, it was a common theme that a dog chasing a deer was shot before the deer. Back then if you found a deer track it was a successful season.
Bill
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Post by ozark on Jan 22, 2009 20:24:18 GMT -5
I have heard of laying a leaf over a deer track to prevent others from seeing it. Ben
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Post by mkjstep on Jan 22, 2009 20:35:16 GMT -5
Like their other cousins, the egg sucking or chicken killing dog, problems dogs can successfully be dealt with in only one way......... lead pill supplement!
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Post by youp50 on Jan 22, 2009 20:48:26 GMT -5
As a youngster, I lived in dairy farming country. Most of the farm dogs were of the border collie type. Not at all registered or even close to being purebred. They were extremely intelligent. On occasion some dogs would pack up and take down heifers. Heifers were often woods raised in the summer. They would be fed and counted daily, but lived away from the farmhouse.
My best friend had a dog that went bad. When the pack he ran with killed they were many miles from home. Word was passed back that the dog was a suspect in the stock killings. My buddies Dad kept an eye on him and one night the dog was gone and he slept into the morning. There was word of another stock killing and that was the death sentence for the dog.
In Michigan and Wisconsin a dog threatening livestock can be killed without due process. I have a friend in Georgia that told me they had a law that allowed dogs running deer to be shot by law enforcement in certain areas, other areas racing deer with dogs is allowed. It was overturned in the courts as violating the portion of the Constitution that forbids depriving a man of his property with out the due process of the law. (Fairly certain that I should know the Law of the Land well enough to identify the portion of the Constitution, sorry)
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Post by ozark on Jan 22, 2009 20:53:35 GMT -5
Like their other cousins, the egg sucking or chicken killing dog, problems dogs can successfully be dealt with in only one way......... lead pill supplement! If you take that route in this area it requires being secret about it. Dog killers are sometimes dealt with with barn or house burnings. Although I agree in principal, I feel it is best to give the owner an opportunity to do what is responsible first. It is generally felt here that if a dog is owned by someone who cares about it there will be a collar around it's neck. |
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Post by jims on Jan 22, 2009 22:08:59 GMT -5
I like dogs. When I was about 18 I guess, the neighors had a number of sheep killed. No one seemed to know whose dog it was. We lived in a big two story home. I happened to see a border collie take down a sheep in the woods behind our house. I was on the second floor, I opened the window and the dog startled but did not leave. It must have heard the window raise but I was about 125 yards or more away. It stayed however until it was it was shot from that upstairs window. The neigbors were happy but I still never felt good exactly about shooting that dog.
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Post by ozark on Jan 22, 2009 22:17:58 GMT -5
It is odd that sometimes when we do what needs to be done it leaves a bad taste in our mouths. Soldiers experience this often. But IMO it simply means we are human and not of the lower class animal group. I have never enjoyed killing a dog but can do it when it is the right thing in my opinion to do. Ben
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Post by youp50 on Jan 23, 2009 5:15:39 GMT -5
I used to keep bear hounds. I had a pair of females in season in an old barn. The pen I had constricted was very sturdy. The barn was constructed of vertical cedar logs and the roof had gone bad in one corner allowing water to rot the logs. A couple of neighborhood dogs, a beagle and some black and tan frizzy faced mongrel dug through the rotten logs. The hope of procreation can do strange things to a creature. When I would enter the barn to feed and water the females the pair of them would hit that hole running. My daughter was in first grade and liked to go out an mess with the dogs after school. She came in one evening very upset and said the black dog had chased her from the barn. I followed her out to verify her story. The black dog came for her hackles up and stiff legged. When I showed myself, he hit the hole running. I came home from work early the next day and he hit the barn floor to stay.
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Post by whyohe on Jan 23, 2009 5:38:07 GMT -5
i love dogs too and would hate to shoot one, maybe the reason i dont hunt yotes yet. now if a dog posed a imediate threat to human or other animals i would take neccissary measures like the example i gave in the other post of a dog that killed my nephews dog and would growl at people and chase deer. i feel bad for the animals because they for the most part IMO they where not trained properly and or just dropped off cause they where not wanted any more. so we kind of creat our own problem.
ozark, in your example did the owner not know the was alive or missing? did it return home every morning? our state has a leash law and the owner can be fined severly for letting dogs run free, probably to help prevent this type of problem. im not saying all owners are bad that have this happen, just curios as to how a good dog can go bad. now i know we still use dogs to heard live stock, but i would think the owner would keep a good track on such a valuable tool!
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Post by ozark on Jan 23, 2009 11:19:22 GMT -5
There is no leash law here and it is common for dogs to wander away from the house to roam around the owners place. Many times both man and wife works and children are in school and dog or dogs are left alone. This is usual. If a dog is missing from the place for a few hours or even overnight they don't suspect it of doing wrong. Maybe a neighbors female is in heat or it is just out exploring. Most owners don't consider a dog being away a worry. They are not valuable property. It has been like this in this area since the pioneers settled here.
youp50, your case is one where I would have not feel one bit of remorse for killing.
There is a farm that I pass in route to my place where from two to five dogs run out to chase my vehicle each time I pass. It appears these dogs stay near the house because I have not seen them along the road or across the river near our place. But I am keeping my eyes open.
It is just a tradition we live with and handle on an individual basis. ozark
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Post by chuck41 on Jan 25, 2009 21:31:21 GMT -5
About 20 years ago I raised cows and goats. I had a heck of a problem with packs of dogs chasing my goats and my neighbor's turkeys. Most could be chased off, but a number of them would simply circle around me and then head for the goats in the pen.
I yelled at them, threw rocks at them, even beat some of them with sticks, but the only solution I ever found that worked was a liberal application of lead pills followed by silence. I never intentionally shot one with a collar, but one I shot did have a collar concealed under long fur. There was an address tag that indicated he lived over 12 miles away!
We had a neighbor here that had a dog from across the road that came over and killed his chickens. He complained repeatedly to the lady next door only to be told that her dog wouldn't do that. Finally he shot it with a chicken in its mouth.
The neighbor called the Sheriff and a deputy came out. The neighbor came over and protested about how he had shot her poor pooch. My neighbor told the deputy the dog was killing his chickens and he shot it, while the lady protested the dog's innocence. Finally the deputy asked the woman if she was sure her dog wouldn't kill chickens and she said "yes". The deputy then stated, "Well lady, then obviously that ain't your dog." Then he got back in his car and left.
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Post by ozark on Jan 25, 2009 22:16:48 GMT -5
Owning a dog is nice but with it comes responsibilities. Good to see you back posting here Chuck.
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Post by youp50 on Jan 26, 2009 8:55:40 GMT -5
Just about decided to put my dog down Saturday.
I live in town and have a neutered male chocolate lab. He really is my youngest son's dog. With out tooting my horn too much he is rather well trained, not behaved, trained. In November my son left for Lackland AFB. The dog went into a natural kind of funk. My home backs up to some caving grounds. Mine caves where the surface drops down when the ore was moved, they caved 50 years ago and are stable now. My son and dog spent many hours out there. Mark was 14 when we moved to town and since being very small he would go off by himself for solitude.
Shortly after Mark left the dog took off towards the caves. I thought he was going to defecate. He didn't return for a couple of hours I marked it off to 'looking for my buddy'. Then he pulled it on me when I had some doctoring to do. I got back from whatever unnecessary procedure and the dog was home. Then he left on me again, he has proven that he can no longer be trusted loose. He left on my wife, you cannot take your eye off him. Several of the times he left, I spent considerable time driving the streets and alleys. This is big snow country and the banks are high and it is difficult to see the dog. I saw signs of him, mostly other dogs tuned up and returning to their house. I tried tracking him one time but am far too slow to catch a trotting dog.
Saturday my next door neighbor was out with his lab puppy. I turned Mike out with him. They went down the alley and returned with out Mike. Neighbor said he wouldn't listen and took off. I drove the alleys and such and came upon an irate young lady trying to call in her young dog. It appeared to be Mike he was playing with. When I stopped my dog took off like he was scalded. I began to wonder if it was Mike. He cut through a place where a neighbor has a driveway plowed from street to alley. I came around and the lady of the house was outside and my dog was barking at her. When he saw me he took off for the house and me after him. to say that I was angry would be an understatement. He was waiting for me and received considerably more than a spank with a newspaper. He was then confined to his crate.
I am fairly 'dog smart' and have little use for a dog that deliberately disobeys me. I am glad I was not 'packing' for I may have gotten into trouble for discharging a firearm in the city limits.
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