...why sometimes it is necessary to shoot dogs.
One of my neighbor's dogs has killed something like 7 of my chickens over the past year. That dog no longer comes on my property because my black lab hates him and tears into him every time he comes over. Win or lose, he now respects her boundaries.
The other dog is a different story.
It's a sweet, big, chocolate lab that loves to come over and harass my birds. My lab has decided she likes him (one reason we picked up a Great Pyr pup... she's apt to be, indeed, trained to be, less tolerant) and lets him visit all he wants. So far, it hasn't killed any of my birds that I know of, but I have found it necessary to run him off about three mornings a week before I go to work.
So, I'm running some electric fencing to keep out predators in general, these dogs in particular. It isn't done yet, though, and so the dog is still able to get over my side farther west on the property.
Well, I hear my wife yelling her head off before she heads out to work and I find her trying to haul this big dog out of the turkey pasture. She heads off to work and as I'm trying to get the thing out of that yard, it runs at the electric fence and gets zapped.
That of course makes it panic, thinking I'm the one who delivered the pain and it runs back into the fence again. And again. Then runs down the fence a ways and back into it again, only this time gets stuck between the permanent fence and the electric fence.
My, but it put up a fuss about that. The neighbor lady comes running outside like I was beating her dog (which actually tells me she could hear the whole thing the entire time, from the time my wife yelled for my help on). I'm trying to pull the thing out away from the fence. "Would you please come get your dog??? He keeps running back into the fence!" As I haul his big rear out of the turkey pasture and into my long drive.
When she gets over there, she takes his collar and starts leading him home. No thank you, no sorry for him being on your property, not even a good morning. Acted like she was mad at me for abusing her dog.
Tonight, I pay a long overdue visit with her and her husband. I will first apologize for hurting their dog, then politely explain why I'm running the fence where I am running it first (because of their dogs) and to ask them to please keep their dog locked up for the next week or so while I finish running the electric.
In my back pocket will be a copy of the Oklahoma statute that allows me to shoot a dog if it is killing or harassing my livestock, just in case they get cheeky.
All that to say, I now understand how one can be driven to shoot dogs. I will never shoot this one, because I kinda like it (although I did derive some pleasure from seeing it stuck behind that electric fencing, considering all the mornings I have had to hassle with getting it out of my yard before going to work). If it was the other one, the Rottweiler, and I caught it chasing my birds, I'm not sure I would be quite so lenient.
So, apologies to all for being so harsh in my usually unstated criticisms. I now understand how one can be pushed to the brink. I still think some are a bit trigger happy, and will never agree with or understand SSS, but I at least understand the first S.
One of my neighbor's dogs has killed something like 7 of my chickens over the past year. That dog no longer comes on my property because my black lab hates him and tears into him every time he comes over. Win or lose, he now respects her boundaries.
The other dog is a different story.
It's a sweet, big, chocolate lab that loves to come over and harass my birds. My lab has decided she likes him (one reason we picked up a Great Pyr pup... she's apt to be, indeed, trained to be, less tolerant) and lets him visit all he wants. So far, it hasn't killed any of my birds that I know of, but I have found it necessary to run him off about three mornings a week before I go to work.
So, I'm running some electric fencing to keep out predators in general, these dogs in particular. It isn't done yet, though, and so the dog is still able to get over my side farther west on the property.
Well, I hear my wife yelling her head off before she heads out to work and I find her trying to haul this big dog out of the turkey pasture. She heads off to work and as I'm trying to get the thing out of that yard, it runs at the electric fence and gets zapped.
That of course makes it panic, thinking I'm the one who delivered the pain and it runs back into the fence again. And again. Then runs down the fence a ways and back into it again, only this time gets stuck between the permanent fence and the electric fence.
My, but it put up a fuss about that. The neighbor lady comes running outside like I was beating her dog (which actually tells me she could hear the whole thing the entire time, from the time my wife yelled for my help on). I'm trying to pull the thing out away from the fence. "Would you please come get your dog??? He keeps running back into the fence!" As I haul his big rear out of the turkey pasture and into my long drive.
When she gets over there, she takes his collar and starts leading him home. No thank you, no sorry for him being on your property, not even a good morning. Acted like she was mad at me for abusing her dog.
Tonight, I pay a long overdue visit with her and her husband. I will first apologize for hurting their dog, then politely explain why I'm running the fence where I am running it first (because of their dogs) and to ask them to please keep their dog locked up for the next week or so while I finish running the electric.
In my back pocket will be a copy of the Oklahoma statute that allows me to shoot a dog if it is killing or harassing my livestock, just in case they get cheeky.
All that to say, I now understand how one can be driven to shoot dogs. I will never shoot this one, because I kinda like it (although I did derive some pleasure from seeing it stuck behind that electric fencing, considering all the mornings I have had to hassle with getting it out of my yard before going to work). If it was the other one, the Rottweiler, and I caught it chasing my birds, I'm not sure I would be quite so lenient.
So, apologies to all for being so harsh in my usually unstated criticisms. I now understand how one can be pushed to the brink. I still think some are a bit trigger happy, and will never agree with or understand SSS, but I at least understand the first S.
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