Washingtonians

[Kaneke]

Quote:
Yeah, but if she's not outside some she'll never get a winter coat.
,
Dogs are trainable; husbands not so much.

very true ....

previous owner included some "dog coats" in the stuff she passed along to me -- I say PSHAW ! this is a HUNTING dog breed .. meant for the outdoors ... unfortunately I can't grow a winter coat, so will have to dig out my longjohns and down coat, and stay outside with her, as she doesn't bark-bark-bark-bark when accompanied ... only when left alone

I'm also not yet trusting her to leave the chicken run alone ... she is obedient when we are THERE ... but as I said, she was bred to be a hunting dog (amused at her POINTING at the chickens) ...

****

I despaired too soon, just checked the nest box and found presents from Ginger and Deirdre ... one pink egg, one turquoise ...

could be the freshly sprouted weeds I've been throwing into the run for them, in lieu of letting them out to forage; they seem to need their veggies

I'm still shaky and not sure I could sit outside to supervise them free ranging, and DH is too busy with other things (he has to drive to Oly today anyway so will be gone for as much as four hours)

 

[Frithest]

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Thanks for this. I wasn't sure about freebies on the for sale list so I'll put them up there.

 

[hallerlake]

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GSPs are OK with lower temps than their coat might indicate as long as they have somewhere out of the rain and up a little off the ground; certainly October in Western Washington is fine, as long as she is fed enough. Not that she should be suddenly an outside-sleeping dog, but three or four hours on a dry afternoon will make her less troublesome in the house, too.

I should introduce Abby, who lives next door and prefers to sleep in a dog house on the porch there unless it drops below 20F.

ABOUT BARKING: in my experience, the best way to train a dog out of barking for attention is to praise them when they stop and ignore them when they're doing that horrible high pitched "you WILL pay attention to me" pointless bark. It also works for puppies crying, but I'd recommend getting a lot of sleep the week before you get the pup. All sorts of animal training works best with positive feedback, in my experience.

exactly -- I learned, several dogs back -- LOL -- to ignore attention-getting barking (but DH yells at her, which is counterproductive, I tell him she thinks he is barking back at her)

however, nonstop barking might well annoy the neighbors ... and Roxy can and will keep it up for hours at a time, punctuated by very loud whining

(she has learned, though, that barking after we have closed the bedroom door on her for the night, doesn't buy her anything, and that's diminished to about 5 minutes of complaint)

Roxy has been used to being indoors almost all the time, she doesn't like getting her feet wet or cold (potty trips outside have been very very short if she has any say in it); so she hasn't yet grown a winter coat ... you can see pink skin right through her white coat .... the weather changed dramatically in a very short period, and I notice the cats haven't gotten their winter undercoats yet either, though they are out almost all day and half the night

We used a citronella collar on Miguel when he was young. We had a neighbor who worked from home and was on the phone if the dog barked more than six times. The citronella collar worked without hurting him. It just startled him with a spritz of citronella.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Yeah, but if she's not outside some she'll never get a winter coat.
,
Dogs are trainable; husbands not so much.

very true ....

previous owner included some "dog coats" in the stuff she passed along to me -- I say PSHAW ! this is a HUNTING dog breed .. meant for the outdoors ... unfortunately I can't grow a winter coat, so will have to dig out my longjohns and down coat, and stay outside with her, as she doesn't bark-bark-bark-bark when accompanied ... only when left alone

I'm also not yet trusting her to leave the chicken run alone ... she is obedient when we are THERE ... but as I said, she was bred to be a hunting dog (amused at her POINTING at the chickens) ...

****

I despaired too soon, just checked the nest box and found presents from Ginger and Deirdre ... one pink egg, one turquoise ...

could be the freshly sprouted weeds I've been throwing into the run for them, in lieu of letting them out to forage; they seem to need their veggies

I'm still shaky and not sure I could sit outside to supervise them free ranging, and DH is too busy with other things (he has to drive to Oly today anyway so will be gone for as much as four hours)

The Hamburgs got four badly split tomatillos this morning for their treats; there's already an egg in there, but I haven't had time to retreive it. I'm trying to get my personal batteries flash-charged after taking two trips to the construction zone to get an eye-latch for the hall door, because I forgot when I was feeding the Hamburgs and had to make a side trip when I fed Ian and Sylvia. It's necessary to tether Bacchus out today, I'm obviously not going to be able to move his pen/cut brush for him.

Oh, yeah, got all energized around 10:30 last night and couldn't get to sleep until just before 2am so I am wasted, for extra degree of difficulty points. I put myself into Puyallup Fair livestock exhibitor mode and remember to nap at some point this afternoon.

 

[MadameDork]

My Aussie has so much fur the citronella collar didn't phase her. My brilliant son decided to see if he could feel it and put it on his neck and barked. It was both sad and funny at the same time.

I'm nervous about when the girls move outside too. My Aussie will most likely leave them alone. She hasn't shown any interest in them. But our Britney is obsessed and will spend hours staring at them if I let her. When my dad has quail, she would sit under the hutch watching them. Can you imagine what she looked like? The key word is under. The only thing I can take comfort in is that she has a gentle bite. When she was trained with the quail, she never hurt them, just carried them back. I did have the Britney at work with me and when she spotted the chickens that used to free range here, she took off and chased one into the next parking lot. As soon as it stopped running, she just stood there pointing at it. I'm hoping, since the chicks are used to her head in their brooder, they won't run and Hook won't have to chase them.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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Oh, Britney as in just name, or Brittany as in the obsessive single-minded gun dog, russet and white, all business, no time for amusement, used to be considered a Spaniel only not anymore? Because I'm really glad I only have to deal with cats and very old dogs today when eggs are hatching. Most of the bird-hunting members of my bird-hunting family have had Brits at one time or another, but went back to GSPs or Chesepeakes or English Springers.

Speaking of which, I realized I have a nice little hard-sided cooler I usually use for meds/insulin when travelling that I can safely brood and move the babies in, so less worrisone than hand-carrying them.

 

[MadameDork]

Yep, the breed Britney and very bird minded. She's a good girl, just not trained that well. Her name is Hook and she's my dad's dog. He babied her so he knows it is his fault she's not that trained. And she's the third one he's had. The first one he had right before I was born (over 30 years ago) and that was the best dog he every had. Trained like nothing I've seen before. Was apparently the best babysitter too as no one could enter the back yard to get their kids. They had to come through the house and my mom had to give George the word it was OK to let the stranger in. Then he would get the ball.

My Aussie is Bowie and she leaves most animals alone. She just wants the stick or ball.

I would say my Aussie is more all business than the Britney. Hook is kind of a slow (nice way of putting it) and is either sleeping or staring at the birds, with an occasional running freak out around the house with Bowie. Bowie doesn't have an off button. Bowie's keyword is intense.

Hook's keyword is sweet.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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Anything can happen, dog-wise: I have a Aussie/Border collie male who has more interest in herding humans than cattle, and who has the personality of someone running for congress the first time: he wants to shake your hand, ask about your family, tell you his plan for the future...

 

[moodlymoo]

Hi friends to the north. I am posting here because I am having very little luck in the oregon thread. I hope someone can help my daughter out.

I have a 11yr old daughter who has decided none of our chickens in our flock of 17 are good enough for her to use in 4-H. She is looking for either black or white silkie pullets/hens, polish pullet/hens, or olive eggers so she can show the OE's eggs. She likes the bearded gold laced polish chickens, the buff laced polish chickens, the bearded silver laced polish chickens, and the bearded polish frizzle. If anyone here can direct me to the right QUALITY breeder I would be so grateful. I have been looking all over the internet and cant find any, have contacted a few people here and had no response and I feel like Ive hit a brick wall. We are not set up to hatch eggs as we do not have a broody hen or a bator so she is wanting birds who are pullet age or older but under 2yrs old and used to being handled if they are older. I am in the Portland OR area so someone close would be great but I will be at the stevenson show if you can help her out and plan on being there.

Thank you so much.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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Have you checked Portland Craigslist farm and Garden? I swear there were some Polish pullets on there yesterday, and some started Silkies.