Memories of Where The Red Fern Grows

Daisy decided to emulate Coco while I was writing so I decided since I don’t have pictures of him, she’ll illustrate today’s story.

I thought I’d share about a dog today that unfortunately I don’t think we ever took pictures of.

In Tahlequah right now, they have the Red Fern Festival going. I don’t know if I’m going to make it into town this year to be able to go.

That said, it was the film Where the Red Fern Grows that had kick-started my love of hounds. I was about 6 years old the first time I saw that movie.
By the time I was 7 years old, I was determined that I was going to own a redbone. My parents knew a redbone was really not a good match for me. I had just lost a dog when I was 7, and my parents told me that if I wanted a hound, they would get me a beagle. At that point in time, I didn’t realize what wonderful dogs beagles are and held fast in my desire for a coonhound.

My Dad decided that he was going to pick up a dog for me at the Fayetteville Animal Shelter on his way back to Mexico. At the shelter, he spotted a little red hound pup that the worker assured him was a beagle cross and would not get bigger than 40 lbs.

So, puppy came home with dad, and my siblings and I named him Coco. Not because of the hot chocolate, but because where we grew up, that word meant a lump on the head. If you don’t know, Coonhounds tend to have a bump on the back of their head. Yup, he was not a beagle mix.

He was also not going to remain at 40 pounds full-grown.  Coco grew to be around 80-85 lbs. Hindsight being 20/20 I have to agree with my parents that we were not a good fit for a coonhound.  That said,  Coco was the coolest,  and  the  orneriest dog I think we’ve had. 
That dog fished! Not only did he fish, but he retrieved the fish back to you that he dived to catch. That was  the  cool part.

The ornery side of him dug Volkswagen sized caves under my mother’s laundry line whereupon Mom would suddenly disappear in a cloud of dust when the ceiling of the cave collapsed while she was hanging laundry. Mom and Coco didn’t like each other…..for some strange reason.

At one point,  I  concluded he was too much dog for a 7 year old  little girl and  gave him to my older brother.  They adored each other. Don’t get me wrong.  I  fiercely loved Coco, but I felt like I was too little to manage all his energy.

Sadly, like I said at the beginning of this little write up, I  don’t think we ever took pictures of Coco. I don’t think my parents had  been raised taking pictures of their pets. Only family members. So it’s a miracle that we had pictures of any of my childhood pets.
That would account for why you see so many pictures of animals appearing on my Facebook page. I learned that sometimes pictures and memories are all that remain over the  years of your pets, and unfortunately, they don’t live as long as we do.

Unfortunately,  much like Old Dan and Little Ann, Coco had a sad ending.  There was  a Pepsi truck driver who really wanted that dog, and  he  kept trying to buy him from my brother. My brother absolutely wouldn’t sell him. So, one day when my brother had the dog walking in town on a leash  on the sidewalk,  the Pepsi truck driver drove up. He saw the dog and spoke to my brother about buying him again.  He got another refusal and ran Coco over with his truck. He then proceeded to chase my brother home, threatening to run him over as well. 
Coco died about the time my brother and father got there from our house.

Dad took my brother to the Pepsi company to tell them what happened,  but unfortunately because we were living in Mexico at the time,  the company wouldn’t do anything about their worker, and we didn’t have the legal rights to sue them over the  death of our dog and the terrorizing of a young boy.

I have to admit that it certainly left me with a grudge against the Pepsi company and to this day, I  won’t touch their products.

That said,  I have a life long love of hounds, and  after Coco my family got our first beagle who caused me to fall in love with beagles in particular.  I did learn through owning Coco that Coonhounds really should have homes that can give them lots of  exercise and mental stimulation. The lack of those two things were the root of what we chalked up as him being ornery.

If you read Where the  Red Fern Grows,  and think you want a coonhound,  please really do your research.  Like myself,  unless you lead an incredibly active lifestyle,  and  have a lot of patience,  chances are,  you would be better suited with  a beagle like Daisy.

Until next time,

Emily

Life after surgery with a puppy

One of the major worries I have had when I  found out I needed major abdominal surgery was, “What about Daisy?” She’s only 8 months old,  and is in the  rootin’, tootin’ cavortin’, snortin’ puppy stage. The chaos canine stage.

Not an ideal time for 8 weeks off training.  So, what do I do? Well,  thankfully,  I have wonderful family,  and friends plus some amazing contacts. There are several people willing to take turns walking her. Chewy.com has been a lifesaver with bones. A friend lent me a plethora of dog puzzles.

The key is that a busy puppy is a happy puppy. I  absolutely cannot strain my abdomen.  But I  don’t have to between trick training,  and  dog puzzles.  She has learned to use a wobble board in the  last few days, and  she figured out three different types of dogs puzzles.  Currently she’s conquered level four puzzles.  She’s brilliant! Daisy on the level four puzzle

But that wasn’t new. By the time she was 15 weeks old, little girl tracked down a deer that was shot, and  then lost in the woods. No one else could find it.  Daisy did in 15 minutes.

After I heal, we will be doing some scent work classes, and hopefully competing in agility and scent work. 

Random share, but this is something else she’s missing while I heal. Daisy having fun with milking before my surgery

Hopefully we will be back to adventures by the beginning of June.

Until next time,

Emily

The rescue lamb

One of the Anatolian crosses doing what livestock guardian dogs love to do! He watches everything.

We’ve known for a few years that this dog, whose name is Commando, loves sheep. Today, he came home with a surprise. It has been raining heavily in our area for about two days, and Commando disappeared yesterday. When he came home early this morning, my mother spotted him curled up around something white out in the rain. She thought he’d found a puppy treasure and had chosen to come home to eat it in the yard. Rain doesn’t seem to bother him and he does have several warm spots to go to when he wants. But, there he was in the yard with this white thing.

Then, his white thing raised it’s head. Mom started shrieking for dad! Our goats are due in February and she thought that they had miscalculated on one of them and we now had a goat kid brought to us in the yard.

After they brought the baby inside, we noticed two things. First, none of our does were producing colostrum, and secondly, this baby had a very long tail. Yup! Officially a lamb! Not a goat kid! We don’t have sheep right now, so it must have come from a neighbouring farm. We suspect that it was abandoned by it’s mother at birth, and our dog chose to bring it home when he realized that the baby was in trouble. He has lived through several lambing and kidding seasons and has never interfered with the babies.

This poor little lamb was hypothermic and hypoglycemic when he arrived in our yard. Commando and Guerrero were taking turns trying to keep him warm when we found him.

We’ve given him kid and lamb paste, colostrum, and started warming him by the wood stove. We would have been in so much trouble if we didn’t keep extra supplies on hand year round. You never know when you’ll have a baby show up that needs your help. After a few hours and a few feedings, the baby has started bleating and standing on his own.

I was very impressed by the intelligence level of the dogs that caused them to bring the lamb to us, and not take no for an answer. We’ve already started contacting neighbouring farms, and may yet find this lamb’s owner. In the meantime, I get to raise a lamb again.

Chicken killer, or untrained?

One of my favourite hobbies is dog training and the study thereof. I love studying dog psychology in particular. This comes in handy on the homestead because we keep livestock guardian dogs as well as a couple of pet dogs and a guard dog.

Something that drives me a little crazy though, is that I frequently run a cross people who claim that once a dog has tasted blood, it will be a killer for life and therefore, if a livestock guardian dog kills an animal, it will never be any good.

Earlier this year, we chose to get a cat for our farm. When we were still in the process of introducing it to the livestock guardian dogs, the cat escaped one early morning and got out with the dogs. Two out of three left Tux the cat strictly alone. Unfortunately, the oldest of our dogs who is 5 years old, had it ingrained in him that any cats that showed up on the farm were to be done away with. Tux was no exception despite the fact that we had begun the process of introducing him to the dogs. It was heart breaking. Guerrero caught up with the cat, and killed him in a single bite. We never had a chance to catch Tux before Ger did.

We didn’t get rid of Ger though. Instead, we chose to bring home a little younger kitten the next time and made a specific point of calling Ger over when we had the kitten with us. We made a point of telling him and showing him that the kitten was our cat and we liked that cat for 4 or 5 days. By the end of that time, the dog understood. Our new barn cat, Patch, sometimes sleeps on Ger now, and often Ger allows Patch to eat from his dish. He is the dog pictured at the top of this blog post.

Commando and Patch

Right now, we have a couple of new dogs on the farm who will be with us until probably sometime next week. These two young girls are a 3 year old and an 8 month old. They have killed some birds on their last farm. We were told about them as the last place had given up hope on them and was going to have them destroyed. We are working with them, and their problem isn’t aggression. It’s playfulness. They aren’t trying to kill the birds.

We are seeing rapid improvements with the both of them and expect to have them re-homed by next week.

All that to say that any dog is likely to require training in the task that you want it to do. There is a fallacy among some of the livestock guardian dog people that they ought to guard without being trained. That is ridiculous! In all the years of working with dogs that I have, I have only ever heard of maybe two livestock guardian dogs who didn’t require training. However, I have raised and seen many dogs be trained into fine livestock guardian dogs with patience. As with many things, they do take work, but it is so worth it in the end.

If you are interested in doing some reading on dog psychology, I would recommend the book Decoding your dog

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/decoding-your-dog-american-college-of-veterinary-behaviorists/1118930964?ean=9780544334601&st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Core+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP62465

When homesteadingedu.com launches, we will have a more in depth course on how we train our livestock guardian dogs.

Sassy the 8th month old who has a strong urge to please, once she understands what you want.

Chyenne, the 3 year old who just can’t get enough of being told that she’s really a good dog who makes some mistakes sometimes. She like Sassy is eager to please and is learning fast!