Hurricane Deck

It feels like I haven't taken the dogs out hunting in forever. All of my free time (and most of my money too) has been taken up by the project that is the basement. I am attempting to turn the basement into a decent dog space - on one side there is an epoxied floor and will be this shower wall type plastic wall covering on the bottom 4' of the walls. On the other side of the basement will be my ginormous freezer (and I am hoping to add a second), a fridge for dog stuff, shelving for storage, a washer and dryer for dog blankets, a utility sink for washing dogs in and a couch and a television - and carpeted floors. The whole place will be a retreat for me and the dogs. My husband has his shop - so I need a place of my own! Last weekend was a dog show, and I am proud that Heidi Hoser the Three Toed Wonder earned her Grand Champion title. Rodear earned 2 legs toward her Grand Champion title, and she needs 3 more. Sniper took 3 out of 4 best of breed wins, which will put him b...

I, in my infinate inability to keep my mouth shut, offered someone training advice on a public forum for their resource guarding Rat Terrier. I told them that when he does the growling bit, calmly walk over, pick him up by the scruff of the neck, and put him in his kennel for a few hours. In my own experience with Ratties, this works pretty well because the dog learns that if you attempt to guard something, you will be corrected and then removed from your treasure and the rest of the pack. I didn't think that this was in any way controversial. Oh, how wrong I was! I found out that I might as well have told her to punt the dog like a football across the room, because that is what "scruffing" is to the "All Positive" fanatics. Of course, their suggestions would lead to reinforcement of the behavior or out and out terror. There were two camps - the first camp said to "redirect the dog's behavior by offering it a treat to give up it's treasure...

I am a great peruser (is that a word?) of Rat Terrier websites, more specifically other breeders' websites. On many websites I see the words "hunt[ing] ability" and "prey drive" used over and over, and I wonder what exactly those words mean to those breeders. I found a good definition here, that "prey drive [is the] the canine’s inherited need to engage in the type behaviors that would lead to the capture of food if they were in the wild." In my experience, a prey driven dog means "if it is small and fuzzy and moves fairly quickly the dog will try to kill whatever it is." A highly prey driven dog will attempt to kill without regard to life or limb or it's owner screaming at it to get the hell out of the road. Those kinds of dogs rarely make good family pets mostly due to their owner's inability to maintain good control over the dog. Supposedly, one can redirect a highly driven prey dog into a highly driven performance dog in one venu...

Yesterday's visit with Tim Brown made me start thinking about terrier puppies, or more specifically, what may be wrong with terrier people. I am a little ahead of myself, so let me explain. Tim was impressed with Jada because of her bad, sassy little self. During our visit, she was all over the place - attacking and getting beat up by our 20lb orange cat (she would always go back for more), trying to steal chewies away from much bigger dogs, attacking our pant legs, running through the house with toys, and when he would pick her up, she would relax into his hands and look him straight in the eye - before she decided that she had enough and would wiggle and bite his hands and fuss until he let her down. Tim said that her attitude was what he looked for in pups. I was reminded of something that I read a long time ago about terrier puppies - that if you wanted something that would run right straight down a dark hole in the ground in hopes of finding something that would fight it to...

It is rare that I get to talk dogs with people who are interested, especially people who are interested in Rat Terriers. It is even more rare that I get to talk with folks about hunting with their dogs. And even more rare, and a precious experience, when I get to talk with people about hunting with their Rat Terriers. I received that rare gift today when Tim Brown stopped by on his way to his brother's house in Cody, Wyoming. It was too short of a visit! I do hope that I get forgiven for my being a little rattled when he first came, I wasn't expecting him until tomorrow; we all know how some folks can be when their house isn't in good shape - that was me. Tim soon put me at ease when we sat to talk for a few hours about my current dogs and dogs that he has had. Tim was instrumental in preserving the line of hunting terrier dogs from Milton Decker. If you click on his name above, you will read more about them and their Rat Terrier heritage. Most all "Decker Ter...

After some exploring in Box Elder Canyon, I came across a hunter management area just west of it. Upon further investigation, I discovered that Duncan Ranch was owned by the State of Wyoming and that it was open for rabbit hunting. Today I went online and got my permission slip. The land looks promising for rabbits - lots of sagebrush surrounding alfalfa and hay pastures; the last time I drove by there there were no hunters in sight. My interest in hunting rabbits with the Rat Dogs is mostly recreational. I can't consider myself a serious rabbit hunter as I really know nothing about how a dog should hunt for rabbits. All I know is that my dogs flush them and give me voice that they are hot on something. I wait until I see the rabbit and shoot, and they bring it back. Tracker can sometimes hog the rabbit, but usually he brings it back to me knowing that I will gut it for him and the rest of the pack immediately. Evidently there is no better eating than a pile of hot rabbit...

Otherwise known as the Great Horned Howl, a Bubo virginianus and its juvenile is in the area where I live. It has been a few months since I have heard its adult call. Last night I heard a shrieking and then the hoo-hoo-hoooo of the adult. I knew it was an owl, but I did not know what kind until today when I was able to research it a bit. If you go to the link, make sure to listen to the nocturnal shriek of the owlet - and imagine that sounding like it is coming from your front porch! It was very odd to hear an owl, and then to find out that it was a Great Horned Owl was even more odd. They usually hide in trees during the day - something that we do not have much of in Jackalope country. It is either in the cottonwoods to the south or it is roosting in an easterly neighbor's mature oaks. The latter would surprise me since those neighbors have chickens; I just can't imagine them suffering an owl to live. I found out that GHOs have no problems killing porcupines, skunks, o...