My pack of airedales is having a great time; they've got 70 acres of space to roam, and they're taking their job of patrolling the whole property very seriously.
Every day there is a concerted rush to the edge of the big field, and then they run all the way to the other end, about a mile, as quickly as they can. There MUST be something interesting happening out there!
Having reached the eastern edge, they move to the northern edge and patrol the river shore. There's still quantities of pink salmon carcasses there; they prefer them very, very rotten. Yuck. I'm starting to see silver salmon carcasses now; we're in the middle of the coho run now, until sometime in December .
They spend hours running from one side of the field to the other; I'm going to figure that they run 6 to 8 miles a day on average. I like having them have the run of the place; one of the benefits of a good perimeter fence.
Posts
6 comments:
Your new place is gorgeous!
Thank you, Matron. I think it's really beautiful, too.
Hi Bruce - Hope it is OK to post here. We've one of your Airedales from spring 2010. When I take Zango on a walk around the neighborhood sometimes he gets very fearful, tucking his tail between his legs and not wanting to go certain places and then pulling to go home. I'm thinking he may be smelling raccoons or even coyotes as someone saw one recently. Was it possible that when he was a puppy on your farm that his mom taught him to be afraid (wanting to protect her pups?). He never got the experience of getting bigger and patrolling with the pack to lose that fear. This is just a guess. I'm wondering if you have any insight into this behavior. He definitely is ferocious with his toys and goes bonkers if he sees a cat and whines and barks to get at the rats which hideout under our shed. Thanks, Susan.
Hi Bruce - Hope it is OK to post here. We've one of your Airedales from spring 2010. When I take Zango on a walk around the neighborhood sometimes he gets very fearful, tucking his tail between his legs and not wanting to go certain places and then pulling to go home. I'm thinking he may be smelling raccoons or even coyotes as someone saw one recently. Was it possible that when he was a puppy on your farm that his mom taught him to be afraid (wanting to protect her pups?). He never got the experience of getting bigger and patrolling with the pack to lose that fear. This is just a guess. I'm wondering if you have any insight into this behavior. He definitely is ferocious with his toys and goes bonkers if he sees a cat and whines and barks to get at the rats which hideout under our shed. Thanks, Susan.
It's fine to post. The pups don't patrol with the pack, so it's unlikely that your pup ever encountered anything other than his mother. Generally speaking dogs are uncertain about new experiences, and will take their cue from you about how to act. Dogs do get encouragement from each other in a pack environment when facing something new, so I would expect two or more dogs to be "braver" than a single dog.
With respect to small furries; airedales are designed to hunt them. Rats and cats and squirrels are all on his list of prey items.
I'm a little surprised that he wants to retreat, though. Even my dogs, confronted with a grizzly bear during a trip to bella coola, bc wanted nothing more than to go get it. I had to pull them back and stuff them into the truck or they would have been on that bear.
(I was fishing on a river and the bear was working its way upwind when I spotted it; I retreated, but the dogs were having none of that. They wanted to get the bear. )
Dogs gain confidence from routine and reinforcement. So I'd suggest just working through the rough spots and trying to figure out what it is that is scaring him.
Thanks Bruce. Who knows. I wish he could talk. He actually tries to talk as he is very vocal. He is a trickster, too, stealing keys from my pocket and running off. I'm sure Airedales love to laugh, too.
Post a Comment