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Post by rideanotherday on Oct 14, 2016 12:03:47 GMT
How do people feel about adding dog training items into the mix? The concepts are very similar.
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Post by horseguy on Oct 14, 2016 16:15:06 GMT
How do people feel about adding dog training items into the mix? The concepts are very similar. While equines and canines are miles apart in their natures, statistically 86% of horse owners have dogs. There must be some connection. Go for it. I like intense hounds. Training them is a process of bringing them out of their nose and into a wider frame of life without ruining their nose. |
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Post by rideanotherday on Oct 20, 2016 12:33:22 GMT
So this past weekend I picked up a "project" dog. I have learned a lot about the dog world that I didn't know. For one thing, registration stuff is FAR different than horses. Monday of last week, I saw an ad for an 11 month old chesapeake bay retriever. I've had chessies before and really enjoy them. They are fairly independent minded and intelligent. Sometimes they get called stubborn, but I maintain anytime a dog or horse is called "stubborn" it's because who ever is training doesn't know how to present the information to the animal in a way that is clear to the dog or horse.
I made arrangements to come meet the dog on Saturday. Friday morning I got an email that the dog's foot had "blown up" and she was taking him to the vet and would I rather look at another dog. Turns out the dog had blown an abscess in his left front paw. That didn't really bother me, so I drove up anyway. She had 40+ dogs in kennels. Surprisingly, the property didn't smell horrible. She appears to managed it all pretty well.
I loaded the poor, wet dog into the crate in the car. She gave him a bath, right before I showed up. Thanks. Wet dog in my car. I was really glad for the crate. He was quiet the whole way home. He got another bath as soon as I got home. I'm not sure how she managed to give him a bath without getting him clean, but she did.
I soaked his foot, got it wrapped. It had to hurt! I could fit my pinky finger up to the second knuckle up into his paw. Poor damn dog.
He's learned a few "words". Sit, here and out. Not too bad for just a few days. He's incredibly unfit. Living life in a 5x8 kennel doesn't do much for fitness. He can barely make a mile on a walk.
I am thinking about checking his aptitude for barn hunt competitions - it's rat hunting.
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Post by horseguy on Oct 20, 2016 22:36:22 GMT
I have never owned a retriever. I like them. They seem mellow, especially for a working dog breed. I tend to like hounds and herding dogs. It's great you are helping her.
I think the distance or range between dog breeds versus horse breeds is a lot wider. In horses the widest difference in "type" for me would be between a Clydesdale to an Arabian. That's a big distance between dispositions, but not anything like from a terrier to a basset hound.
Terriers are lost on me, but there are fox hunts that still use them. It is considered inhumane or at least bad taste in the hunt world today to have terriers but it is interesting to see them work. A hunt might chase a fox until it's tired and to the point is will "go to ground", meaning find a hole to crawl into. Typically that is the end of a chase. But extremely traditional hunts will have 2 to 4 terriers, usually Jack Russells, that they will release into a hole to push the fox back on the run once he goes to ground. Then you are hunting a tired scared fox. Back in the day when foxes killed valuable chickens and domestic rabbits, this was the norm, to hunt the fox until he can be killed. But in the 1970's the fox population was very diminished by the use of DDT that has a side effect of thinning the shells ground laying bird eggs, a stable of the fox diet. The mother birds would sit on the tin eggs and crush them. This was a serious threat to fox hunting. It was then that the Hunt Clubs ended the practice of using terriers because the last thing a hunt wanted to do was kill a fox back then.
Now the fox population is healthy, except in poor areas like central PA where unemployed folks get a trapping license and trap an area to extinction of the fox trying to feed their family. Not too long ago in the worst part of the "Great Recession" a trapper in a rural county near here trapped over 400 foxes in an area of about 1,000 acres. That was a great place to hunt until the trapper ended it for the Hunt Club. There were so many foxes there we did use terriers from time to time to thin out the population because if you do not, the coyotes come in and do it anyway and take over. Hunting coyotes is kind of boring compared to fox. Coyotes just run a straight line with a few turns until they tire, and then they cannot get in a hole, so it gets messy. So, thinning the fox population in a way keeps out the coyotes.
Anyway, I like fast hounds that scent well, in the wind, in the wet, and when they lose a scent they have strategies to re-find it. Watching them work is pretty primordial.
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Post by rideanotherday on Oct 21, 2016 13:05:33 GMT
I have never owned a retriever. I like them. They seem mellow, especially for a working dog breed. I tend to like hounds and herding dogs. It's great you are helping her. I think the distance or range between dog breeds versus horse breeds is a lot wider. In horses the widest difference in "type" for me would be between a Clydesdale to an Arabian. That's a big distance between dispositions, but not anything like from a terrier to a basset hound. Terriers are lost on me, but there are fox hunts that still use them. It is considered inhumane or at least bad taste in the hunt world today to have terriers but it is interesting to see them work. A hunt might chase a fox until it's tired and to the point is will "go to ground", meaning find a hole to crawl into. Typically that is the end of a chase. But extremely traditional hunts will have 2 to 4 terriers, usually Jack Russells, that they will release into a hole to push the fox back on the run once he goes to ground. Then you are hunting a tired scared fox. Back in the day when foxes killed valuable chickens and domestic rabbits, this was the norm, to hunt the fox until he can be killed. But in the 1970's the fox population was very diminished by the use of DDT that has a side effect of thinning the shells ground laying bird eggs, a stable of the fox diet. The mother birds would sit on the tin eggs and crush them. This was a serious threat to fox hunting. It was then that the Hunt Clubs ended the practice of using terriers because the last thing a hunt wanted to do was kill a fox back then. Now the fox population is healthy, except in poor areas like central PA where unemployed folks get a trapping license and trap an area to extinction of the fox trying to feed their family. Not too long ago in the worst part of the "Great Recession" a trapper in a rural county near here trapped over 400 foxes in an area of about 1,000 acres. That was a great place to hunt until the trapper ended it for the Hunt Club. There were so many foxes there we did use terriers from time to time to thin out the population because if you do not, the coyotes come in and do it anyway and take over. Hunting coyotes is kind of boring compared to fox. Coyotes just run a straight line with a few turns until they tire, and then they cannot get in a hole, so it gets messy. So, thinning the fox population in a way keeps out the coyotes. Anyway, I like fast hounds that scent well, in the wind, in the wet, and when they lose a scent they have strategies to re-find it. Watching them work is pretty primordial. I've owned chessies before. They are a bit more reserved than a Labrador, which is all to the good as far as I'm concerned. Terriers...or "terrors". I like to have dogs that can behave in the house. Most terriers are not exercised enough mentally or physically to be decent to be around. I have a herding dog type (she's a border collie/australian shepherd mix). She has schooled the chessie about who is in charge in the house. He has learned a LOT about his role in the house from her. I have never really liked hounds, but the hounds I have known were bear hunting dogs and not really "people" dogs. |
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Post by horseguy on Oct 22, 2016 13:30:07 GMT
Hounds, particularly scent hounds, are very work focused and, as you say, are not so much people dogs. They "think with their nose". We have a Walker hound as a house dog. He's 3 now and is getting better but in ways he will never change. I like the intensity of their disposition and I like constantly training him, hopefully in a way that isn't too contrary to his nature.
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