North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Richard Wagner" <rewagner@centurytel.net>]

We went through two Jack Russells and another terrier(?) x cocker cross. Disastrous as they seem hyper and impulsive. They seemed to kill everything for the sake of killing. By contrast our Pyrenees ignores goats, cows, ducks. Our Cocker will actually walk up to goats, kids, cows and lick their faces. Also had to get rid of two Labradors(?) that I suspect had a bit of pit bull in them. They were killing the Muscovies. The pack of strays that killed my calf was Blue Heelers. Any Blue Heeler that strays on my property is dead meat before it hits the ground.

 

What we have now is a Pyrenees, calm and friendly) and a male Cocker Spaniel. I have owned two Cocker Spaniels in my life and a Springer Spaniel. All have been calm even tempered animals. My current Cocker has about eradicated the rabbits and squirrels (yum, yum) around the yard and orchard. The Pyrenees keeps the deer chased away from lawns and orchard but I still see them in pastures especially at night. Fringe benefit is that she has eliminated the **** armadillos. She killed seven in our yard the first two weeks we had her and I see her regularly patrolling the pastures. A good team, the Pyrenees isn’t quick enough to catch the rabbits and squirrels and the Cocker isn’t big enough to kill the armadillos though he is quick enough to bring them to bay until ‘Snowball’ catches up.

 

From: Evan

Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 2:18 PM

To: North American Fruit Explorers

Subject: [NAFEX] dog breeds for orchards

 

Since dogs came up, I wonder what folks' experience is with dogs and orchards. In continuing consideration of how to keep wildlife from damaging a planting, I know a solid roaming dog would keep the deer at bay, but I wonder what breeds might be best suited to the task. Does anyone have experience with particular breeds that seem to be good orchard protectors (and perhaps can learn to play nice with poultry)?

 

cheers,

Evan

 

On Jan 26, 2011, at 10:40 PM, Richard Wagner wrote:

We lost a Khaki duck to a pair of bobcats. A couple of days after it disappeared my neighbor showed me a photo from his trail camera of the two cats and my wife’s ‘egg’ duck.  Aside from that the only adults we lost were to our own dogs. I went through three dogs before I found a pair that leave the ducks alone. I destroyed two more dogs for killing my baby goats. I also shot one stray dog, part of a three dog pack, that killed a valuable registered heifer calf.  Now we have coyotes around here. We frequently hear them at night and occasionally see them in the daytime but so far I have not been able to pin, with certainty, any stock loss on them. I don’t doubt that they take animals occasionally but from my experience one should start looking closer to the back door for the culprits. House cats are equally destructive. Domesticated animals have the advantage of being well fed, and receiving health care and shelter while lots of wild animals will be sickly and die prematurely of disease or malnutrition while Fido and Kitty are being subsidized.

_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Reproduction of list messages or archives is not allowed.
This includes distribution on other email lists or reproduction on web sites.
Permission to reproduce is NEVER granted, so don't claim you have permission!

**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
Posts from email addresses that are not subscribed are discarded.
No exceptions.
----
To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used to change other email options):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex

File attachments are NOT stripped by this list.
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
Please do not send binary files.
Use plain text ONLY in emails!

NAFEX web site:   http://www.nafex.org/

 

---

_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Reproduction of list messages or archives is not allowed.
This includes distribution on other email lists or reproduction on web sites.
Permission to reproduce is NEVER granted, so don't claim you have permission!

**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
Posts from email addresses that are not subscribed are discarded.
No exceptions.
----
To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used to change other email options):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex

File attachments are NOT stripped by this list.
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
Please do not send binary files.
Use plain text ONLY in emails!

NAFEX web site:   http://www.nafex.org/