Message #131618

[Nakia]

Sondra I am just reading this about your ordeal with your dogs & the woodchuck. In a way I'm sure it was a funny situation to watch the "Dog Rodeo" as a spectator.  I know it was not a laughing matter & sorry the chuck did die. 

Hunter dogs are always determined to find & get their prey animal no matter what we do to avoid it.  I have two dogs out of my 9 that are hunters. My oldest standard, my black female poodle Nakia is a hunter deluxe! She finds every cottontail she can in the yard. The silly rabbits have a whole lake of fields, unfenced yards & pasture lands all around us, but they still insist on trying to raise their babies in our fenced in dog saturated front & back yard!!!!  She has brought baby bunnies in through the dog door too thinking she could eat it in the comfort of the house. 

Now Ozzie my sheepadoodle lives in the back yard for the most part. He loves being outside more than inside as he runs all over his big back yard all day long & barks at everything all night long.  So I feed him daily in Jerry's workshop that also serves as his "doghouse". And this past month he had not been eating his dog food but about once a week. He wasn't getting skinny & was definitely not sick, so I suspected he was catching his food. Yep that is exactly what he does when he can.  I was going out the other day to feed him, opened the back door & he had what was left of a cottontail rabbit right in front of the door.  He grabbed it & ran off with it, so I know now that when he doesn't eat he is getting his food on the hoof!