Show me your blacksmith pets

[Cannon Cocker]

I love him too. He's not a whole lot of chaos most of the time. I named him after one of my heros. General Mattis' call sign was Chaos. Is follow that man anywhere!

[Les L]

My two companions, my youngest daughter found the cat shortly after birth and brought it home it’s eyes had just opened and we had to bottle feed it. She named it Pooh, I call it Crazy, if you were around it you would know why. 

The dog, Max, is Catahoula/ Lab mix the girls got from the pound for my grandson. Very smart and friendly unless you’re a squirrel or reach towards my grandson    My grandson shares everything he eats with him from oranges to cookies, except chocolate  Max picks his own blackberries, figs and pecans as they come in season 

[Frosty]

2 hours ago, Les L said:

My two companions, my youngest daughter found the cat shortly after birth

WOW, your daughter was really well developed at birth!  Seriously, I'm a huge fan of rescues, they never forget. I've only had a casual acquaintance with a Catahoula so I don't know the personality. He was a fine boy, played well with others and liked people. 

19 hours ago, Cannon Cocker said:

I named him after one of my heros. General Mattis'

I don't recommend naming animals something you don't want them to live up to but it's hard to get very Chaotic from a Golden that isn't a puppy, even then it's a lovable chaos. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Les L]

Catahoulas were the war Dog and pack animals for the Natches Indians, absolutely fearless, their natural cattle round up, deer and wild hog hunting dogs and extremely protective of their families, but gentle unless provoked. They don’t bark on trail or warn before attacking when needed to protect their families. 

Max is anyone’s best friend unless an adult shows aggression towards my grandson or his mom  

 

 

[arkie]

A lady friend of mine has a Catahoula/Great Dane mix on her farm. Great dog. Gentle, great protector, wonderful with kids...but is terrified of thunder. Never saw a dog as well behaved as him.

[Frosty]

Sounds like a great dog. I don't know of any dog that'd let a stranger threaten a family member without getting involved.

Thunder scares lots of dogs same for gunfire or fireworks. One of ours will be rattled for hours after the guys stop shooting down in the gravel pit. Falki lives as a companion to a husky on a ranch in remote Arizona now. No more bands and booms for him.

Frosty The Lucky.

[SLAG]

Our pet cat also is very disturbed with thunderstorms. (her name is Litzie).

No amount of reasoning has changed her opinion of electrical storms. So we have given up trying.

She no longer hides,  but sticks to me like glue during those episodes.

She can sense storms,  hours before we can . Is it barometric pressure, odor, sound (high pitched or infrasonic)? I don't know.

But life would not be the same without her.

She'll go no where near the smithy. Perhaps it's something about her fur coat and sparks.

SLAG.

[pnut]

I lived near a minor league baseball stadium before I moved to my current residence. My cat hated the "Friday Night Fireworks" show they put on after every Friday home game. She would hide in the closet. It was about a twenty minute display and about five minutes of that was continuous bangs during the "finale".

There's a cat hanging around now that isn't afraid whatsoever of banging and sparks. He sits a respectful distance away when I'm at the forge. He just wants to be near someone. Unfortunately NO PETS where I live except stinkbugs and house centipedes.

Pnut 

I'll post a picture of the kitty next time he's around.

[SLAG]

Pnut,

You have insomnia too?

SLAG.

I may post a picture of our wonder cat as soon as Marg  (the Marvelous), shows me how.

Regards,

Dan.

a.k.a.  SLAG.

 

[JHCC]

When I was little, we had a Samoyed who was terrified of thunder and would always try to get under a table or something when a storm came. One night, a storm blew up, and he went underneath my mom’s worktable, but when he lay down, he engaged the foot pedal on her sewing machine. It started running, so he leaped to his feet. It stopped running, so he lay back down. It started running again, so he leaped back up. This repeated a couple more times before he finally decamped for the security of underneath the dining table. 

[pnut]

44 minutes ago, SLAG said:

You have insomnia too

No just weird hours. I was living with my sister who is a baker. She'd get up at two in the morning so I'd get up too. Can't seem to get back to a normal schedule now. 

 

5 minutes ago, JHCC said:

When I was little, we had a Samoyed

They have the greatest smiles.

Pnut

[JHCC]

That they do, but man do they shed!

[pnut]

I used to have chows. With long hair Spitz type dogs you just have to resign yourself to a little hair on every single thing you own.

Pnut

Or a lot of hair on every single thing you own

Edited June 2, 2019 by pnut

[JHCC]

One of the donors I work with had included in her will a gift of four cellos to go to our conservatory of music. She eventually decided to give two of them (including the most valuable of the four) because a lifetime of brushing Chow fur had given her repetitive stress injuries in the shoulder and she could no longer lift her elbow high enough to play. 

[pnut]

Double coated dogs have a shocking amount of fur. It's hard to get them wet all the way to the skin. When they blow their coats in the spring it's a daily chore brushing and sweeping.

Pnut

[Les L]

The dog and cat keep a respectful distance from each other when their in the shop until the weather gets bad then the dog lays down beside my chair and the cat lays against him. when the cats in the house and it thunders he gets on a chair under the table, the only time he does that.

[BillyBones]

We used to have a huge Rotti, great dog with the family especially my daughter. He was absolutely devoted to her. We would have to put him outside if we had to punish her for something or the dog would have attacked one of us. 130# of Rottweiler is not something i want to tangle with.  

[Les L]

Max has grabbed my arm when I threw a punch at my grandson shadow boxing, he just set and watched him punch me, and knocked me to the ground one day when I was hiding behind my truck to scare my grandson walking up the other side. He blindsided me, hit me a my shoulder and “whoof” at impact then stood over me until I told him to sit. He’s only 55# but pushes off on impact and will knock you down playing if you’re not ready 

[pnut]

Katedog the female chow/coyote I used to have wouldn't let anyone pick up my son if he was crying except me. Made for some long nights when she wouldn't let anyone but me get up with him when he woke up before he was sleeping the whole night through. 

Pnut

[Frosty]

I didn't say how we dealt with Falki's fear of booms and bangs. He was kennel trained from the day we brought him home. Basic kennel training makes things like house training easy: Take the dog out for a walk and give them the command, potty, poop, whatever, if they don't they go right into the kennel when you bring them back in. Nest time you let them out they go right outside, potty, poop. When they finally do they get high pitched happy praise, listen to a happy dog pack, and a treat. When you bring them back in they are free to roam the space you allow them.

We don't punish with the kennel but we do time out in it. You never say bad dog or admonish them and kennel them. They'll know it's a time out without help. 

What you want to establish is the kennel as their safe zone, THE place they can den up in and be safe. During fireworks, etc. we  almost never get thunder here, we throw a  blanket over the kennel with only a small gap they can peak through if they wish.

It requires diligence kennel training puppies but it's really worth the effort. You need to build them up to trusting that the kennel isn't a trap when the door is latched, they'll close it themselves when they learn how. Kennel the pup, latch the door, nothing but the command, do NOT reassure them or you'll teach them anxiety displays are good manipulative tools, it's a common unintended consequence. My command is: dog's name, "Kennel up." Don't bark in command voice, no NOT ask. You're the Alpha you don't ask subordinates to do things, just tell them what you want. Dogs understand the questioning tone instinctively, you can hear it in their conversation. If you ASK you're giving THEM the decision making authority. 

Sorry I get involved and ramble. Once your dog or cat is kennel trained they will seek their kennel in times of stress, I leave all but the door covered at all times so they can get in or out freely if I'm not around. This is denning up for security. Don't tray to talk them out, tell them it's OK but casually like nothing special has happened but don't try getting them out. Let them come out in their own time. If they've been denned up a long time, a couple hours say, ASK them if they want to go outside once. Bladders are good for breaking the ice so to speak. Give them a little longer than just tell them to go outside. "Go outside." It's imperative YOU not be frightened, angry, loud, demanding, etc. if your pet's frightened. YOU must be in command, nothing but NO THING is beyond YOU, you're the Alpha, in charge. They'll respond.

You REALLY need to take Alpha position back from your dogs. What appears to be strong protective behavior is also largely possessive behavior. If they won't let YOU discipline YOUR child they think it's THEIR child. Sure if I raised a hand to anybody in your family I SHOULD have your dog on me, you bet. But YOU and the missus need to be the pack alphas, NOT THE DOG. Dogs MUST be at the bottom of the  pack order behind humans. 

The ONLY thing one of our dogs is allowed to demand is to go outside, or warn of intruders in the yard. They are for the most part polite well behaved dogs though we're still having issues teaching Ronnie the year old Dachshund not to jump up on people. Mostly because everybody loves her so much they reward her for jumping up on them. People are sooooo much harder to socialize than dogs. 

Anyway, if you have a noise stressed dog, kennel train them and remember you can take the kennel with you so they'll always have a familiar safe pace no matter where you take them. Even to the vet to be put down.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BillyBones]

Les, is that a goose berry the dog is a sniffin? 

[Les L]

No, that’s blackberrys, their in a briar bush and I have to spend about 15 minutes picking stickers out of my arms every time I pick. He just closes his eyes and goes by smell. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Both of our dogs just love persimmons, they check the trees every day waiting for them to ripen, then have a feast on the ones that hit the ground.

[Les L]

Max goes by season, blackberry, fig, pecan. I'm glad my grandson doesn't like tomatoes, not really, but if he did he would give the dog one and then he would pick them before I could. 

I don't have a persimmon tree, but I'm sure he would eat them if I did.

[BillyBones]

My dog never really ate berries and the like, but he sure did like the green beans, peas, corn stalks (never understood that) and just about any other green veggie. Oh and apples.

I miss the pecans from when i lived in Louisiana. That would have been Dehnam Springs. I planted a pecan here. i am told that they will grow this far north but are not really suited for it. One of those things it might it might not.