This message is from: "Brian Blevins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Fjords are very curious and sometimes that gets them in trouble. Both my fjords (my boys) decided to check out a new funny looking dog. They got more than they expected. Each got a face full of quills. I was working outside on my tractor and could not figure out why my boys kept coming up to me. That was until I stopped and decided to pet them - then I noticed they had a lot of extra big whiskers.
Amazingly I was able to pull about 4-5 quills out of each with no halter - they figured that was enough and went off. They still had quills so I went and got the halters, pliers and treats. I have done this with more than one hunting dog and it is never fun. My boys came to my whistle and let me put the halters on - I had to be careful while putting the halters on so as not to hit the quills. Then it was time to tie them to the strongest tie down I have.
I tied both and dreaded what was ahead. I was more than pleasantly surprised when both let me pull another 10+ quills from each with only a little head movement. I found a few tricks that helped. * If you can, use your hand not pliers. Getting japed with a quill is not that bad, it is better than japing your horse with pliers. * When going for the quill reach from below not over the top - if they see your hand they will move their head. * Using your free hand put a bit of pressure, not much like holding a childs hand, on his nose. This appeared to calm them down when pulling the quills.
I will be checking on the boys latter tonight and tomorrow making sure there are no problems.
Brian
