This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In a message dated 2/19/99 12:57:17 Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Anyways, I like animals, including dogs and coyotes, but I'm afraid that "shoot, shovel, and shut up" is the end that these particular animals will meet. >> I'm reading my mail backwards. My son's had pneumonia for the last week, so I'm waaaayyy behind. Don't know if anyone's brought this up, but in Oregon there is a law. If your dog chases livestock it is destined to be destroyed. I have mixed feelings about this. I don't want to be on a horse that is having a dog run after it, and I don't want a dog chasing my horses in a pasture, but feel the onus should be on the owner. My puppy (just over a year) chased my weanling/yearling foals for fun a few weeks ago. No malice intended.... just a joyful romp for him. I saw impending disaster. In the next pasture was the QH mare, ears pinned, teeth bared, ready to kill him if he entered her pasture, and in this pasture, babies running (but not scared). The dog didn't come back to me till I called him a dozen times. He was disciplined a bit more harshly than he would have been under any other circumstances. I gave him the "opportunity" to chase the babies again.... with him on a long line, and he was mortified. We'll be working a lot more on recalls before I trust him off leash around the horses again. I don't want any accidents, and I don't want to lose him to Animal Control. He's a smart, sensitive young dog, and he learns quick. I don't think we'll have any problems once he really gets the recall down and is on a leash with me as I do the barn chores. Think he'll settle down to being a good companion during long rides. Pamela
