My pack …

My dogs are going off, this morning. Hunters stalking around, is my guess. Last day of hunting season, and we haven’t been shot, yet.

My dogs have learned their jobs well. Gideon v. Wainwright, Gideon or Gid Kid, for short, is the leader and the papa. He is a border collie/australian shepard mix. With that combo, he is a herder. He will herd cars, bicycles, motorcycles, and people on foot. I got him from the pound, so he had to be neutered, only things went wrong. He went into cardiac and respiratory arrest. The vet saved him, and he saved his balls. It cost me a bundle, but he was worth it.

Look at those eyes. Can’t you just see how intelligent he is?

He needed a partner, so I found an ad for a Queensland Heeler mix puppy, and we set off to meet Dakota. She was a feisty one, and neither was too sure about the other. Dakota is all heeler, too, even though she is the only one in her litter that took on the characteristics of her unknown papa.
She has beautiful lines, long legs, and boy can she run!!

Isn’t she beautiful?

Then, as critters are prone to do, they mated. The first litter was a whopping TEN. Dakota only has nine teats, so it was a challenge raising all ten, but we did. I found homes for eight, and kept two, a male and a female. Now, I truly had a pack.

Sweet, sweet Bear, the male puppy.

Miranda v. Arizona (Miranda for short), the female puppy.

These dogs are all working dogs, and they take their jobs seriously. They can hear someone at the gate, 1/2 a mile away. They herd or heel any one who comes on the property. And do it well. To “heel” a vehicle, the heeler dogs (3) will bite at tires and grab onto mud flaps. My friend, Prospector, loves his new SUV, and hates when the dogs bite his mud flaps. He developed a technique that works quite well. He carries a bottle of hot sauce, and splashes it on his mud flaps. My ex has a yellow lab that is much bigger than my pack, and he runs around the truck, keeping my dogs away. JP hasn’t figured it out, yet, although I demonstrated that a squirt gun works well to keep them off his truck.

Up here, in the middle of the wilds of Big Sur, dogs are mandatory. Maybe not four, but with four, I have a good pack. They keep the deer away, the hunters away, and I have not seen a rattlesnake since I’ve had all four. They are a great team.