Category Archives: Dogs

Hens and dog again

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I just moved the Leghorn pen, the slow way, inch by inch, pull this side, pull that side, straighten that part, pull again … etc.

I checked for eggs there this morning, much earlier, and noticed dirt next to the pen, and a hole right there. There were no eggs in the pen. Victoria had said yesterday that there were 3 eggs in there. I hadn’t gotten them, they should have been there today. But they weren’t, and I can venture to say what it was. Not really a guess, just a “didn’t see it” but evidence is high enough to understand it.

Doggie ate baby bird today. Doggy must have dug next to and under the hennie pen to get those eggs. They don’t have a nest box in there right now, so they’d be available if they were near to the side of the pen. Doggy has never done this before. Dug, yes. Dug into the pen? No.

There are several white feathers all over the pen. It’s my guess that he did the deed earlier this morning, he was out loose all night. He had been in his crate all afternoon because of the thunderstorms, so I let him out last night to run free, didn’t put him in his own pen out there. I should have. He just must have scared the whities, and some lost a few feathers in fright, they all were there, and looked aright. [yes, that's it, "aright" not a mispelling!]

I just didn’t realize that the baby birds would be out of their nest so soon, or that the dog would dig to get eggs ever. Dumb me. I knew previous to yesterday that I wanted the dog put away from about then on “because of the possible mocks out of nest soon”. Kick myself a bit there.

So I finally decided it’s best to move the hens further from that hole the dog made. I moved them a bit, then more, then figured since I was doing it inch by inch and I’d done that much, it’s not much harder to just keep going and move them out to totally fresh grass. I’m bad about it when Frank’s not here and I don’t feel well. So now that I’m thinking on it I do need to give them a box again. I’ll try and get them one a bit later, the sun is brutal at this hour still.

I did get one egg from that pen this afternoon. The A-frame biddies haven’t laid a thing in a few days, and just one egg before that, and very little before that. They look fine. Nice and red combs and all that. Figuring it’s time to turn on a light for them. Already. I don’t know, and don’t feel like looking it up, how much daylight we have this week each day, or how soon it gets down to much lower. All in all, the hens have laid when they’ve wanted to, in their second year, and don’t go by conventions sake at all. God knows why, but we don’t. :)

So when it comes down to it, those three eggs the dog got *most likely* really add up to be missed at this time of the year, especially seeing as the A-Framers haven’t contributed to the pot at all recently.

The Dog and the Storm

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It’s raining very hard right now. It wasn’t raining awhile ago, but I thought I heard the rumble of thunder in the distant WSW. I looked at my accuweather email for the morning and it didn’t mention any thunderstorms. So I went online and looked at the radar and sure enough, there was a nast line moving towards our area from the west south west.

I had also looked out the window, went onto the deck and looked, and it was definitely darker, more gray than black, in those directions. So it was obvious a thicker storm was moving in, but not obvious that it was heavy or thunderously filled.

The radar confirmed my hearing and other senses though. I can feel these things coming. I love them too.

So I then went to the front door to stand on the porch, the dog, Lothar, was behind me and I figured he’d run away into the house somewhere since I was going to the front door. Of course that was not HIS plan. I’ve been training him more the past few days, and had wanted to start training him to come with me to the door, in the event of me wanting him by the front door for any reason in the future.

So in split second timings this was all happening as I opened the door, and I reached down to grab Lothar’s collar and zzzippp he was out the door and whipping across the front yard to the street and beyond. Whoaaa Boy! Nothing brought him back. So with imminent falling rain and lightning bolts not too far away, I had to go running after him.

It may not be known to all readers that Lothar is a super speedy pup. He’s over a year old, but still puppy-like. In anycase, he speeds around the yard like he has a fire on the end of his tail. So knowning that about him, I was sure I couldn’t catch him.

My best hope was for Frank to come out and help, and the children had ran in to find him. I ended up having to run all over the place in our little part of the street, four houses involved, ours the two on either side of us, and the one across the street. Our lots aren’t tiny so it was a lot of ground to cover and very hilly one part goes uuup and the other way is dooowwwwn. Takes a great lot of energy reserves to do such running. I am not one with much reserves. I can output the needed energy, but then I’m tuckered out and shaking for the rest of day.

I called that dog, whistled for him, sweetly called his name, slapped my thigh called “here boy!” and clapped my hands … nothing did he attend to. Nothing did he even stop for and look at me.

He was nuts. He’s never done this before and all I can figure is that something weird happened in his brain when he saw the front door and could feel a storm coming.

Well he marked this and that place, and that other place and on and on. I just couldn’t get him, a centimeter from his collar, or tail –I got that close and just couldn’t make a grab on him anywhere. Huffing and puffing I was running and trying to shuttle him towards the house and he was way ahead of me and turned at the same place he’d been time and again on his crazy tour and just went in the house. Dumb dog.

I can use exercise, sure. But that sort isn’t helpful. If he got like that daily I’d have to seriously ditch him or pay to have it trained out of him. See animals in our area get hit all the time. Our neighbors dog got out of their yard recently and was wandering around. It was a digger, and with our chickens and our dog we coudn’t keep it in our yard, it went away anyhow. So we found out later that it had gotten hit by a car and was dead.

A free running dog is not legal either, leash-laws. I have no desire to have my dog running around the neighborhood as others have been doing since this subdivision went up.

So our Lothar was in the house, and he knew I was not happy. He was non-hyper and totally the opposite of his previous adventurous self. Into his crate he went.

I’ve had some good times with that dog the past few days, thinking I was making progress with him in paying attention to me, coming when called no matter what, listening to my commands to come, sit, stay, with help, but he was doing great compared to anytime in the past I’d tried to work with him.

I guess he had pent up rebelliousness from training and the pending storm not far away released his emotions. I am guessing.

So anyhow it’s been raining since then, pelting rain, then lulls and then more rain, then pelting, pelting rain. Crash, rumble, flash, flash, flash, rumble, crash, crash, flash, crash … ahhhh.

Dog training in session

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These two photos are from the other day. Dog is now being trained to stay inside.

Previously he has only been crate trained and stayed outside mostly, in his 10×10 corral and running free in fenced in backyard.

So he’s new to the inside during daytime nice weather, not in crate. In these photos he on the dirty kitchen floor, with his leash wrapped around the table leg just so he’ll stay put. He’s not depressed. He just looks like this when laying down with leash on or off. :)

So yesterday I had him in the house off-leash.

Today he’s been in off-leash.

It’s working out alright. The cats are wary of him, well not exactly.

Scarlet and Strider both like the dog. They go right up to Lothar and rub on him. Strider even licks Lothars head some. The Think Blue Count Two duo sit several feet away and watch the dog. They don’t want to be put near him, they pop and hiss if you try to make them. They have no problem running right next to the dog though to get onto my lap. :)

So this is first phase of “Get this dog ‘better’ trained”.

He’s over a year old. It’s just now that the first anniversary of his sisters death is at hand. :(

Turkey Aftermath

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Dinner is over, left-overs put away, some of the dishes washed, some not. :)

It was a hard afternoon. I didn’t get the turkey in the oven until later than I wanted. It took until after 5pm for it to be done. Then it had to sit, of course, while the stuffing was taken out and put in a covered bowl, and the turkey had to sit to retain juices … and that’s also when the other stuff had to go into the oven since I had very little space for anything earlier.

So I really don’t know when we started to have dinner. It must have been after 6pm. I’m bushed though. And we still need to have Birthday Girls birthday tonight. :)

We have pumpkin pies in the fridge, but won’t have it tonight, tonight it’s cheesecake for B-day. I’m not ready for it, I want to enjoy the cake! I’m too full from Thanksgiving Dinner still. At any rate, we’ll have the pumpkin pie for breakfast tomorrow.

I’ve got the bones of the birdy in a stock pot with water, and by tomorrow some time we’ll have some extra turkey broth.

The cats got the neck and such earlier. I simmered them for the broth to go with the gravy, then picked the meat off for the cats. Earier I gave them the raw liver, but Scarlet took that away for herself. Piggy that she was.

Dog got plate left-overs and boy did he enjoy them. Piggy himself.

We have lots of turkey left. It was a 19 pound young turk. Bell and Evans, the best we could do with this year. We had some of one breast and part of one leg. That leaves most of the bird for:

Turkey Scramble
and what-not-else.

Turkey Scramble will be tomorrow. That’s another post. :laugh: