I know I’m a new member to this site, so, moderators, move, delete or lock this as you see fit.
Lately, we’ve seen some scattered posts about dogs. Some about hunting with them, some about “using” them as what amounts to defensive weapons.
Before I get started, I want to say, I’m no PETA idiot, I have at one time been a hunter, have “seriously” owned dogs for about 30 years. I’m more involved in dog field and obedience training than I am with shooting…and that’s saying something! I do not dress them in little sweaters, only my wife tells the dogs I’m their “dad,” not me. They’re not supposed to sleep with us…but if I wake up in the middle of the night surrounded by Labradors…I roll over and go back to sleep. My dogs are champions, healthy, obedient, fun-loving, happy and gregarious to a fault. [And thinking about a comment Glen Bartley made in another thread, yep, I too have spent thousands of dollars in health care alone….four thousand on one of them just to find out what was wrong…only to determine that nothing could be done for my friend, who was found to be dying of a rare cancer. Do we have a ton of extra money laying around? No! Was it a financial hardship? Yes. And, another four thousand bucks later, one of my current dogs, “Jim” has a new knee.]
What dogs are not:
Regarding defensive use, dogs are not guns. You can leave a gun in your house for years, unattended, and nothing bad will come of it. Not so with dogs, who need daily, hourly care. Dogs are not “tools” as guns are, which generally anyone can learn to “use” correctly. A gun does not feel pain or neglect. A dog does. A gun does not lash out unexpectedly due to pain or neglect…a dog will. You can cuss a gun out for not doing what you want and it won’t matter. Cuss out, or worse, beat your dog, and it matters. A big caliber gun is usually more lethal;, a dog’s heart or mentality is not limited by his size. Within every Chihuahua’s heart beats the same predator as the biggest Wolf. A dog is not, by virtue of size, weight or breed characteristics, a reflection on the relative “macho” of the owner. How many [to put it politely] under-educated dog owners have we all heard brag about the weight of their dogs? I know a guy who is so proud of his 140 pound lab [roughly twice the weight it ought to be], he can’t stop mentioning it. He has a fat dog. One who will die early, probably after early onset of crippling arthritis due to the enormous burden on the joints. 99.9% of dogs out there, no matter what the breed, will never, and I mean never, be “defensive” dogs. By that I mean, they will not, can not be trusted to attack the “right person” at the “right time.” Any dog mean enough to go after a human, cannot for long be trusted around anyone. Members of the household, children, their friends…all could suffer. And probably at one time or another, will suffer. There's no substitute for training. LEO’s or military personnel who are canine handlers, been trained well, bonded with their dogs, and had their dogs intensively trained, are probably as close to an exception as you’ll find. Dogs are not “macho intimidation” tools. If you want to see the result of this twisted thinking…look at what’s happened to the breeds…Rottweilers, Bull Terriers, and others, due to idiotic owners and backyard breeders having ruined the breed, the reputation of the breed, and in some communities, actually caused them to be outlawed! The owner is to blame.
What dogs are:
They are like guns…you take care of it to the best of your knowledge, and it will take care of you. Probably not in the way you think. “Fido” may never kill the bad guy coming into your house, but he will lower your blood pressure, enhance your daily life, get your sorry butt out of the house for some exercise, find the duck or the pheasant that you couldn’t in a million years, be your kid’s best friend [if not yours!] and…his best “defensive” tactic is to be your “early warning system.” Any dog can bark at a noise at the door, something that just doesn’t sound right…and alert you, the premier defender of the home, to a potential danger. And he would then have done his job.
Like guns, the more you handle them, the fonder of them you get. More than guns, they can be an actual friend and companion. Like guns, they are a financial obligation. You have to be prepared to spend some [usually, not too much] money to take care of them. You are obliged to keep them in a safe place. You are legally liable for everything the gun or dog does. And I dare say, there are more lawsuits concerning dogs than guns in our country.
So, suck it up! Get your dogs out of the sub-zero outdoors in the winter time. Get him out of the pickup truck bed when you’re driving anywhere but bumping along in the back forty. Face the fact that one of the dues you have to pay, is the fact that you just can’t pull up and go somewhere at the drop of a hat. I plan vacations around my dogs, not the other way around. Feed him right, watch his weight, get him his shots, brush him out, train him positively and consistently, take him hunting, teach him to bark at noises if you like. Let him sit at your feet while you clean your guns, he’ll adore you for it. Rather than be ignorantly proud of the ferocious beast you have chained in the back yard, be proud that you’ve got a trustworthy animal, an entirely different species from us, who is a good citizen, and welcome in your home, and in your family.
We have, in my opinion, a God-given responsibility to the animal kingdom. To treat them justly as we live with them, or hunt them, or eat them. I do not have a pet cougar, bear, or wolf, but I am intensely happy that they exist, for many reasons. Again, I understand those who enjoy hunting them. But don’t most of us have a wise mentor to thank…the one who taught us to shoot, hunt mercifully and justly, and ensure that we did not cause unnecessary pain to a noble creature?
I apologize for the length of this…take it for what it’s worth.
Len, proud handler and trainer of Frank, Jesse and James, kings of the Labrador world!
BTW, "Jim" also retrieves spent shotgun shells...and is disappointed when I don't let them get to the ground...
Lately, we’ve seen some scattered posts about dogs. Some about hunting with them, some about “using” them as what amounts to defensive weapons.
Before I get started, I want to say, I’m no PETA idiot, I have at one time been a hunter, have “seriously” owned dogs for about 30 years. I’m more involved in dog field and obedience training than I am with shooting…and that’s saying something! I do not dress them in little sweaters, only my wife tells the dogs I’m their “dad,” not me. They’re not supposed to sleep with us…but if I wake up in the middle of the night surrounded by Labradors…I roll over and go back to sleep. My dogs are champions, healthy, obedient, fun-loving, happy and gregarious to a fault. [And thinking about a comment Glen Bartley made in another thread, yep, I too have spent thousands of dollars in health care alone….four thousand on one of them just to find out what was wrong…only to determine that nothing could be done for my friend, who was found to be dying of a rare cancer. Do we have a ton of extra money laying around? No! Was it a financial hardship? Yes. And, another four thousand bucks later, one of my current dogs, “Jim” has a new knee.]
What dogs are not:
Regarding defensive use, dogs are not guns. You can leave a gun in your house for years, unattended, and nothing bad will come of it. Not so with dogs, who need daily, hourly care. Dogs are not “tools” as guns are, which generally anyone can learn to “use” correctly. A gun does not feel pain or neglect. A dog does. A gun does not lash out unexpectedly due to pain or neglect…a dog will. You can cuss a gun out for not doing what you want and it won’t matter. Cuss out, or worse, beat your dog, and it matters. A big caliber gun is usually more lethal;, a dog’s heart or mentality is not limited by his size. Within every Chihuahua’s heart beats the same predator as the biggest Wolf. A dog is not, by virtue of size, weight or breed characteristics, a reflection on the relative “macho” of the owner. How many [to put it politely] under-educated dog owners have we all heard brag about the weight of their dogs? I know a guy who is so proud of his 140 pound lab [roughly twice the weight it ought to be], he can’t stop mentioning it. He has a fat dog. One who will die early, probably after early onset of crippling arthritis due to the enormous burden on the joints. 99.9% of dogs out there, no matter what the breed, will never, and I mean never, be “defensive” dogs. By that I mean, they will not, can not be trusted to attack the “right person” at the “right time.” Any dog mean enough to go after a human, cannot for long be trusted around anyone. Members of the household, children, their friends…all could suffer. And probably at one time or another, will suffer. There's no substitute for training. LEO’s or military personnel who are canine handlers, been trained well, bonded with their dogs, and had their dogs intensively trained, are probably as close to an exception as you’ll find. Dogs are not “macho intimidation” tools. If you want to see the result of this twisted thinking…look at what’s happened to the breeds…Rottweilers, Bull Terriers, and others, due to idiotic owners and backyard breeders having ruined the breed, the reputation of the breed, and in some communities, actually caused them to be outlawed! The owner is to blame.
What dogs are:
They are like guns…you take care of it to the best of your knowledge, and it will take care of you. Probably not in the way you think. “Fido” may never kill the bad guy coming into your house, but he will lower your blood pressure, enhance your daily life, get your sorry butt out of the house for some exercise, find the duck or the pheasant that you couldn’t in a million years, be your kid’s best friend [if not yours!] and…his best “defensive” tactic is to be your “early warning system.” Any dog can bark at a noise at the door, something that just doesn’t sound right…and alert you, the premier defender of the home, to a potential danger. And he would then have done his job.
Like guns, the more you handle them, the fonder of them you get. More than guns, they can be an actual friend and companion. Like guns, they are a financial obligation. You have to be prepared to spend some [usually, not too much] money to take care of them. You are obliged to keep them in a safe place. You are legally liable for everything the gun or dog does. And I dare say, there are more lawsuits concerning dogs than guns in our country.
So, suck it up! Get your dogs out of the sub-zero outdoors in the winter time. Get him out of the pickup truck bed when you’re driving anywhere but bumping along in the back forty. Face the fact that one of the dues you have to pay, is the fact that you just can’t pull up and go somewhere at the drop of a hat. I plan vacations around my dogs, not the other way around. Feed him right, watch his weight, get him his shots, brush him out, train him positively and consistently, take him hunting, teach him to bark at noises if you like. Let him sit at your feet while you clean your guns, he’ll adore you for it. Rather than be ignorantly proud of the ferocious beast you have chained in the back yard, be proud that you’ve got a trustworthy animal, an entirely different species from us, who is a good citizen, and welcome in your home, and in your family.
We have, in my opinion, a God-given responsibility to the animal kingdom. To treat them justly as we live with them, or hunt them, or eat them. I do not have a pet cougar, bear, or wolf, but I am intensely happy that they exist, for many reasons. Again, I understand those who enjoy hunting them. But don’t most of us have a wise mentor to thank…the one who taught us to shoot, hunt mercifully and justly, and ensure that we did not cause unnecessary pain to a noble creature?
I apologize for the length of this…take it for what it’s worth.
Len, proud handler and trainer of Frank, Jesse and James, kings of the Labrador world!
BTW, "Jim" also retrieves spent shotgun shells...and is disappointed when I don't let them get to the ground...
Attachments
Last edited: