On the Hunt for Everything

If your a regular reader of this blog your aware that Luna, our 9 month old GSP is quite the hunter both in and out of the field. She manages to find, dig up and kill about 5 moles a week. She now undergoes mouth checks at the door as she has learned to stuff them whole in her mouth and like a drug mule sneak them into the house where she deposits them in fun places like the sofa.

What's that Jim? Oh just a dead mole carcass smushed in the rug. Sweet.  

Between Cleo and Luna very little shocks us anymore. I'm used to seeing them foam at the mouth from trying to eat frogs, I've seen them rip groundhogs out of holes and throw them through the air and its commonplace to find them perched on the back of the sofa like mountain goats so they can get a better view of the bird feeder.  But Lu shocked both of us this past week when she killed and then brought Jim a snake. Which is rather fitting since he absolutely hates snakes more than any other creature in the world. One time I saw Jim jump five feet in the air and scream like a school girl when we encountered a 6 foot black snake in a training field. I'm laughing like hell just thinking about it now. But thank god the snake she killed was a harmless garter snake. 

The falls hottest fashion. Screw scarves....we've got serpents. 

And since were on the topic of Luna(tic) raising the bar she managed to lock me out of the house this weekend. In her excitement of watching me chase the neighbors German Shepard out of the yard she pulled the lever on the back sliding door down and into locked position. Then they just calmly sat there and stared at me while I tried to figure how to get back in. Flippin Jerks.

They look so peaceful. Sheep's in wolves clothing people. Sheep's in wolves clothing. 

We did however manage to get them out on the things that they are supposed to be hunting....birds! Bob G invited us to NJ to hunt at his gun club yesterday. We ran Cleo and Luna with their father Maximus and Bob's other GSP Bonnie. It was a blast watching the dogs hunt and back each other.

 Cleo and Luna's dad Maximus on point

Bonnie backing Max on point

Maximus backing his daughter Cleo

Little Lu did great! 

Bonnie on point!

We have a few hunts planned over the Thanksgiving weekend so be sure to check back and see how we fair and follow our shenanigans on facebook: Adventures of a German Shorthaired Pointer. 

Cleo vs. Mr. Toad

It's time for some simple math. 80 degrees + light rain = prime time frog and toad weather. Cleo + frogs = pure entertainment.

I let Cleo outside last night and within seconds she spotted a toady hovering near the bottom of the deck. Before I could stop her she was on the ground poised for attack. Luckily Mr. Toad hopped under the deck and out of her reach.

Not to be deterred she ran around to the far side of the deck and army crawled over to where the toad was hiding.

Mr. Toad hopped back out to safety. But for whatever reason Cleo stayed under the deck but continued to try to get the toad with little success. Watch the video's below to see how spastic she is.

Just keep in mind at anytime she could just crawl out from under the deck on the otherside, walk around to the frog and get it. But that would be way too easy.

German Shorthaired Pointer + Chipmunk in Woodpile = Obsession

This morning while Cleo was patrolling our yard she saw a chipmunk scurry off into one of our woodpiles. So basically the entire day has revolved around her trying to get into the pile and me trying to get her away from it. Once she gets her mind set to something its futile to try and change it.

I am in no way exaggerating when I say she has spent at least three hours of her time today trying to get to that Chipmunk. The cycle goes something like this: Cleo barks like crazy, enough that I have to walk back and get her to stop so she doesn't annoy the neighbors, I walk back and she's on point, I drag her away and within minutes she's right back at the woodpile.

The only thing that keeps her away from that woodpile for any amount of time is her squirrel chasing. I've blogged about that in past posts. You can read about that here: Spring Fever!

Thank god she can't climb trees or I'd be in real trouble. She has such immense prey drive. When I picked her up from daycare on Friday Ryan told me she found a snapping turtle from about 15 feet away through a fence. He said she barked like hell till he came and got it. It made me laugh. He said not one other dog there even noticed it. If it has feathers, fur or shells she'll find it!   

The Baby Bird Debacle

A few weeks ago a robin built a birds nest on a window sill on our front porch. I can peel back the curtain in our dining room and peek into the nest. It's pretty neat. Everyone else can have that eagles nest live video feed....we got baby robins in real time!! I've been taking pictures every couple of days.

When the nest was first built a couple of weeks ago

When the eggs finally showed up!!

Momma bird keeping her eggs warm!

Last week when I came home I peered into the nest and their were baby birds!! I was so excited. I have to admit though at this point their pretty ugly.

So here is when things become a debacle. Cleo found the nest today. It's been raining for the last few days and Cleo being the pre-maddona she is doesn't like the rain. So when we force her to go outside to do her business she runs out front and sits on the porch. What a smartypants. But now she knows the nest is there. Were going to spend the next few weeks having to protect the babies and the mom.

So after her finding the nest and barking like crazy I thought I would take her on a walk. Help get her mind off the birdies. Below is a video of Cleo's idea of a walk. So much for what Caesar Milan thinks.....

So after a nice long walk/run we got back and I took her lead off in the driveway and I headed around to the back door. About 20 seconds later I realized a little spotted someone didn't follow me. She ran out front to check out the birds again. Grrrrrr! So much for getting her mind off of them!

I have a feeling this is gonna be difficult to get her to leave them alone.  How can I be mad when its what this bird dog does? But I still need to make sure she leaves them be. I can't wait till they are bigger and start getting feathers!! Updates to come!

Spring Fever and Bastard Squirrels

The birds are chirping, trees are budding, spring flowers are popping up all over my yard and the squirrels are driving Cleo crazy. I barely saw a single squirrel all winter and now the trees in our neighborhood are full of nut collecting playful squirrels. Where the heck have all these squirrels come from??

Cleo is a tortured soul....all she wants is a squirrel all to herself. They taunt her chasing each other playfully in suicide missions across the yard unaware that she is playing possum.....then stalking them....and then bam!! Hot pursuit across the yard and then this all you see:

Thank god she hasn't figured out how to climb trees

Looks like patience but she's cursing with dog barks

She will point up the tree, she'll bark, stamp her feet and sit in desperation and try to wait them out...which is exactly what she is doing in the picture above.

The wind up bark and jump. I give her form a solid 10.

Running start!?! Hell yes. 

If Cleo knew how to barter she's be giving up all kinds of yummy things for some squirrel tail. I'm pretty sure its all she has thought about the last four days or so. I'm hoping she realizes that she should just stick to birds........

Bird Crazy

Outside our living room window I had Jim hang a bird feeder. It's positioned about 6 feet off...perfect viewing distance for my two cats. They can sit in the window and chatter at the birds. The only problem is the cats don't get allot of viewing time. The resident bird crazy GSP is sucking up the back of the couch and all the viewing space!!

The Truth about Cat's and Dogs

Yesterday I was on facebook and saw in my news feed a post from the German Shorthair Rescue listing a link to story done by the Examiner called, "Great dogs in rescue, thanks to ignorant prioir owners". Here is a link to the actual story: http://www.examiner.com/dogs-in-national/great-dogs-rescue-thanks-to-ignorant-prior-owners. The article is mainly about a GSP named Lody who was turned over to the Great Plains GSP rescue a month ago. To make a long story short Lody attacked her family's cat and they ended up giving her away because of it.

I have two cats that I love dearly. The first one is Bailey a milk chocolate point Siamese who is about 8 years old and the second one is Little Man a chestnut oriental who is 4 years old.

 

When Jim and I decided to get a GSP my biggest concern was how it would be with my cats. I would never put them in danger and was very concerned because GSP's have such a high prey drive. The first thing I did was discuss my concerns with the breeder. Bob Corsaro who is the owner of Nobelle's was very informative and honest with me. He told me that it was possible to have them coincide in peace but it would take training and ground rules. Jim and I then contacted a couple who live about 40 minutes from our house who have two GSP's that hunt and also have 2 cats. Jim and I went and visited them to see the interaction first hand between the two and also to get some advice on how to train our dog to not want to eat my cats.

We have never had an issue with our cats and Cleo. She was trained from the first day to "Leave it" when it came to the cats. If she ever overly sniffed the cats and pushed them around with her nose she was immediately corrected. She will let the cats lay on her and walk across her. The most amazing thing I ever witnessed with her is when her sister Molly came to stay with us this past summer while her owners where at a wedding out of town and she protected the cats from Molly. See Molly wasn't raised with cats and through no fault of her own thought they were fair game. Molly cornered Little Man on the counter and it was Cleo who pushed Molly out of the way and barked at her frantically as if she was saying, "Leave it". I was astounded. Cleo clearly protected the cats from danger.

I do want to say that Cleo is smart...almost too smart. She understands that when cats are in the house they can not be touched. She displays no aggression to our cats or to the cats that roam her daycare/vets office. But make no mistake...if a cat is outside its fair game and she knows it. She wouldn't hesitate twice to run it down and do bad things. Which brings me to my point....Lody the rescued GSP did nothing wrong. She is a product of years of prey driven breeding and was just doing what she does best which is hunt prey. That whole situation was caused by her owners ignorance. They clearly didn't research the breed or take the steps to train Lody correctly and sadly Lody paid the price.

So in case anyone is wondering cats and dogs can live together in peace....and that's the truth.  Cleo is the living proof.