These are words I just spoke to a dog.
A gang of cattle has taken to overnighting in my yard. Tobie takes exception to this seems to find this exciting all the night long.
Hell, I dunno. Maybe he likes it. He growls and barks. Off and on. From sleeptime till light. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, and have basically been a zombie all this day. I hate cattle. I’m beginning to have negative thoughts about Tobie. I mean, he can catch up on his sleep during the day, it’s not like he cares about mine. So now it’s going dark, and he’s wuffing at the windows like tonight’s going to be a repeat of last night.
When I was young I could go a night or two without sleep and kind of like it, assuming the reason was interesting. I’m no longer young. And cattle in the yard in the middle of the night aren’t interesting at all.
Do you have any firecrackers…perhaps some little black cats you can set off a string of? I don’t mind cows but then they don’t typically bed down in my yard. When they do rarely overnight near the house the urine smell in the morning sucks.
Tobie is just doing his job. There are interlopers in his territory! And, yes, dogs can be a PITA, ours took exception to an “interloping” police officer the other day. No shots were fired. The dog got a stern talking to, which she promptly forgot.
Laddie knew how to deal with cows. In spite of your initial doubts.
I like the thought of some M80 firecrackers to be tossed out when the cows approach. It will both scare the critters and Tobie, maybe to the point where both stay quiet?
After all this time, I still try to wrap my old noggin around the whole “cattle in my yard” thing. The whole “can’t shoot ’em, can’t live with ’em” thing is a real conundrum.
I still think that a few judicially placed trip alarms in 12 Gauge would scare them off and have the added benefit of warning you about prowlers.
https://fithops.com/products/12-gauge-perimeter-alarm
I also suspect the airgun would discourage them sufficiently without causing significant injury.
. . . particularly if accompanied by several loud noises. ;-)_
Can you string up some barbed wire around the cabin?
Id be happy to send you some 12 ga. blanks or rubber buckshot if you have a shotgun laying about.
Let the dog out. He will chase those cows away from his turf. You obviously are living on free range property and it is cattle country. So either let that pet poodle out to do what comes naturally or move back to the city. Or build a damn fence hmm..
Oh, Spud… I suspect you have little idea about Joel’s situation or location.
The “just let the dog out” isn’t a great idea. He lives way off the beaten path in an area of Arizona where the environment is dangerous because of predatory wildlife and armed neighbors. So, there is a good chance that his dog would never come back alive.
Just build a fence? Sure, and how would that be paid for, where would the materials come from, and how would they be delivered, and who would do all that work? Building a fence to withstand cattle would be a very expensive, labor-intensive, and time-consuming job.
And, the very idea of a recluse moving to the city is laughable.
Spud: Tobie is my last chance to have a dog that dies of old age. Maybe I’m overprotective – but you’re right about this being free range country and you do know that in free range country cattlemen are free to shoot cattle-chasing dogs on sight, right? And they do. So I don’t let the dog out.
Yes I do know about free range rules. We lived out in the sticks of Idaho for eighteen years. Never once had a dog shot . They were always free to roam too. Just well trained.
Now days , we live in Floriduh and for sure keep our dog either on a leash or in the fenced yard.
Perhaps your brother could gift you an electronic perimeter fence. Great training aid to keep the pup close .
I understand being on the last dog stage of life, which I and my wife are in. Don’t want another one after the current one passes. Would hate the idea of us passing before doggo does . Leaving a pet homeless , being just not cool.