Barn Hunts

[AdrianneIsabel]

Arnold and Hannah, my rat terrier, used to chase off coyotes but I always recalled to avoid any interaction. My Malinois, I fear, may be confused and think they are relatives and not to be hurt. lol

We were watching the ED tunnels and its really neat to see, that dog is alone in that tunnel with no back up possible in real life until you grab a shovel, they better be toughies!

I seriously haven't the heart to hunt for real, I worry about my dogs and the prey, but this is a fun alternative for sure.

[k9krazee]

Originally Posted by Renee750il

A good Terrier can definitely hold its own most of the time! Trouble is, they think they can ALL the time, lol. They don't stop and think, "okay, how can I do this without getting my ass chewed in the process?" They head right in. I love that about them, but I feel better when my Terrier has backup.

My littlest JRT, Kyra thought she could take on more than she really could. The dogs have killed possums, squirrells, small racoons, mice and snakes but this past year we had a problem with Woodchucks who were 5x the size of Kyra. After a scary incident where she cornered a very angry woodchuck we had to set traps to evict them (3 of them!) from the yard before the dogs got hurt.

[Renee750il]

Originally Posted by AdrianneIsabel

Arnold and Hannah, my rat terrier, used to chase off coyotes but I always recalled to avoid any interaction. My Malinois, I fear, may be confused and think they are relatives and not to be hurt. lol

We were watching the ED tunnels and its really neat to see, that dog is alone in that tunnel with no back up possible in real life until you grab a shovel, they better be toughies!

I seriously haven't the heart to hunt for real, I worry about my dogs and the prey, but this is a fun alternative for sure.

Tunneling hunters do have to be tough! I always think about the old-time Dachshunds going after badgers. And Terriers are just all around tough little monsters

The coyotes here will get dogs to chase them, retreat like they're running away, and the rest of the pack is waiting just over the hill They tried that with Bimmer a few times. He wasn't buying it, thankfully, and would stop and call for Fila backup. It was hysterical to see the whole pack break from the brush, squealing and flee with tails tucked. My dogs didn't pursue, which relieved me greatly -- I didn't have overwhelming faith in their recall when they were hot after something, especially considering how thoroughly Bimmer hates 'yotes.

The fox population increased

[AdrianneIsabel]

Coyotes will bait dogs, for sure, but I only had them try that a few times out at Lake Mead. They would run into the brush and if you crowned a hill you could see a few more in there.

It also depends where you are, coyotes in the desert seem more "natural" and less interested in hunting prey that fights back, those will leave a (big) dog alone easily. Then again I've been walking in more populated areas in many cities and seen coyotes walk right past us (at a distance) and pause watching before deciding to carry on.

I never trusted any coyotes to pass on my chihuahua or yorkie fosters but none (aside from an attempt to bait at the lake) bothered Arnold.

[Renee750il]

The coyotes here live close to people and have lost much of their fear. They've also gotten large -- I've seen some as large as a big GSD, not as heavy, rangy, but big. They also run in big packs. I've seen 14 or so, in broad daylight, trotting up the drive of the trailer park that was beside the farm. Most of them don't even bother to hide from tractors in the field, although they will disappear if they hear a truck or 4-wheeler. I've had trappers tell me they've gotten almost impossible to trap, too. They have adapted all to well to life in close contact with humans.

When they started eating expensive pets and openly foraging through garbage cans in one of the high end subdivisions in West Knoxville it started to be a big deal.

[adojrts]

Groundhogs are surprisely aggressive and can rip up a terrier fast and seriously bad in the ground. Topside no big deal, dogs grab and shake....finished. Even my little girls can handle a hog topside We have to be careful when hunting gh's if we have more than one dog in the ground. One dog has the business end engaging and the problem is when a second dog is harassing the other end of the gh pushing it into the first dog. Typically gets the first dog trashed because a good dog wont back up away from the quarry. Coons have given my dogs a good swat upside the head or they wrap themselves around the dog's head after the terrier has grabbed it, but no serious injuries.
Coyotes are another story, dogs would go after them in a heartbeat and I make sure that doesn't happen. Countless jrts have been killed by them. There was a story many years ago in True Grit about a coyote that jumped a high fence, killed a jrt and then was trying to jump out again with the dead jrt but couldn't with the added weight

[Renee750il]

There are plenty of stories around here of dogs -- even larger ones -- losing eyes to raccoons.

[MericoX]

Originally Posted by AdrianneIsabel

The schnauzers kicked butt and there were even poodles who did well!

The last time we had a mouse in the house it was Lincoln who was all about trying to get it. Stryder hid in the bathroom because people were shrieking lol.

[adojrts]

We live in the country in a old farm house, falls comes around and the mice come in. Dogs are good at taking care of that problem and we set traps so we don't have them for very long.
Now bats are another story, in the last 15 yrs 3 bats have come in and my house does not survive very well. Nor do the bats. My dogs go apesh*t trying to get the flying rat that is flying around up at the ceiling. My dogs have launched themselves up bookcases to then leap and snag it out of mid air to using the upright piano as the launch pad.
lol I was visiting a friend with Petie, she owns a lovely century horse farm and has a bunch of dogs including some jrt/terrier mixes. Petie and I enter the house and he immediately started checking out along her cupboards and a sideboard. I knew she had critters that had moved in. I called Petie to me, he had been very interested in the sideboard and he came over and sat on my lap while we had a coffee. Next thing a big ol rat goes racing along the wall trying to get to the otherside of the room to the cupboards. Petie launched off my legs and got it before it got more than 8ft. My friend was upset, and not impressed that her dogs had never showed any interest. She didn't want to touch it, told her no problem We went to get our boots/coats and Petie came with me. Told him to go get it, he raced back to the kitchen, picked it up and out we went. Went to the barn, I got a fork and dug a hole in the muck pile and told Petie to drop it in, which he did. Friend turns to me and says, 'I want your dog'. ........yeah not on your life

[Catsi]

That looks like so much fun! Not sure how mine would go to be honest lol. I do remember my grandmother's old kelpie x GSD - she was a wonderfully mouser. Very quick and very easily dispatched them. She'd bite once and the mouse was dead - very clean. I gotta say that it made me feel better that any mice that fell victim to her were killed swiftly. (I do realise that this game is a simulation - but it just bought back memories of Taylor). Obviously she was a bit big to be going down holes or into small areas to find them, but she used to just wait them out.