Dogs and wildlife

amandasgramma wrote:
We just sold our home in central Oregon. We didn't/don't have a dog, but our neighbors directly behind us have 2 dogs that bark at ANYTHING (grr) and a neighbor at an angle behind us have 2 dogs (who also bark at ALMOST anything). We had tooooo many deer in our yard!!!!! .....

If only I had big wildlife that my dogs barked at!
Been in Florida over a year now and all 4 of them start barking like a giant intruder is outside when a tiny lizard walks across the driveway, sigh.

Jean S wrote:

This pm, we got halfway down the hill when he stopped, dead still, and stayed in Alert Dog position, staring towards the river for nearly a full minute. Then, he suddenly seemed to remember something he needed to do back at the motorhome and took off fast back up the hill.

Dog Owner Rule #1: Never question why your dog has decided to "get the heck out of Dodge" - just follow! LOL!!

A bunch of us were camping at a friend's cabin in the UP of Michigan, and one of the girls wanted to take John's (the cabin owner) Brittany Spaniel for a walk. John said that if the spaniel suddenly turned around - to follow her because she didn't like bears and one was probably in the vicinity!

Took dog (an 18# long legged bichon mix) out hiking today- or at least, I tried to. We are at Verde Valley RV Resort in AZ. There is a gravel road behind the campground. Thru the gate behind section H and to the right leads to another gate and a rough trail down to the river. DH had dog there before, so dog was on familiar ground.

This pm, we got halfway down the hill when he stopped, dead still, and stayed in Alert Dog position, staring towards the river for nearly a full minute. Then, he suddenly seemed to remember something he needed to do back at the motorhome and took off fast back up the hill.

When I caught up to him, he was jumping at the gate to the gravel road. Then, he ran to the gate back into the campground and barked for me to get it open. I put him back on the leash and he pulled like a sled dog all the way back to our site. No idea what he saw or heard or smelled. I saw and heard nothing. We have heard coyotes at night and I think there may be bobcats around. But I don't know if he would recognize either of them. I was making plenty of noise. Surely either one of those animals would have taken off.

We had an 8-point buck in our back yard last week and it was a HUGE deer. I used to check deer in at a hunting station and this was one of the larger ones I've seen. I have dogs in our front and side yard and the deer was pretty oblivious to them barking. He was eating some leftovers from our June apple tree and didn't even budge when the DDs and I walked around the house. He did wander off when we got within about 20' of him, but smallest DD was giggling.

Many of our neighbors have taken care of any coyotes that we have had in the last decade. It's one of those "don't ask, don't tell" issues.

We just sold our home in central Oregon. We didn't/don't have a dog, but our neighbors directly behind us have 2 dogs that bark at ANYTHING (grr) and a neighbor at an angle behind us have 2 dogs (who also bark at ALMOST anything). We had tooooo many deer in our yard!!!!! Our deer were oblivious to the dogs. They came because we put in a waterfall/creek/pond. Yeah, they LOVE water. And I say too many deer, because they would eat my flowers and poop in the yard. :) :) But we did enjoy watching them. Especially when the little guys would play with the sprinklers.

Certainly feel your pain....

Where we live is wooded and we used to enjoy the deer and squirrel wildlife here.

It was very common to see groups of deer wandering into our yard and eating on our two crab apple trees. At dusk was always the best time time to see them...

Now more folks have moved in close to us and lots of dogs now that was never here before...

I have only seen maybe two deers this season in this area... The locals say the acorns and other natural food is on the decline around here...

I most often ended my day by sitting in a couple of lawn chairs under a tree facing the wood line and drinking my good fresh ground bean coffee... Miss seeing the little fellows...

Roy Ken