A New Quarry for a Gun Dog: Alligators?

It took a bird dog to find an alligator on the loose in Ohio.

From UPI:



COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 17 (UPI) -- Workers at an Ohio company said a hunting dog spotted a 4-foot alligator near the office and alerted them to its presence.

Jeff Tate, who owns Buckeye Caseworks in Columbus, said employee Jeff Colucy was letting his Weimaraner dog, which is trained to spot birds, relieve himself near the building when the canine spotted the reptile, the Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday.

"My sales manager was taking his dog out to go to the bathroom, and he went to bring him back in and he was on point -- but not at a bird -- at a gator," Tate said.

Tate said he blocked the gator from escaping into woods behind the property while police officers tried to reach removal agencies.

The Feather Dilemma

Well, it's Boru's 12-week birthday today, which seems to be an important milestone in dog training. According to most books I read, this is a turning point in a puppy's training.

Boru and I are doing pretty well. We haven't mastered the range of commands recommended in Dokken's Retriever Training, but that's more my fault than Boru's. He's mastered "come" and "sit" with ease, so I'm sure he'd have "down" and "place," and "crate" if I was more diligent with my training.

According to the the Dokken bible that I'm following, by now, Boru should have been introduced to feathers. This is something that I'm very eager to do after hearing a story from my grandfather about his brother's dog who would retrieve anything, as long as it didn't have feathers.

The Most Important Shots My Dog Will Get (and I won't)

I took Boru to the vet today for some shots and a 3-month checkup. In addition to gaining 7 pounds, bringing him to 18 pounds already, he got his first Lyme disease vaccination.

I didn't have to think too long or hard about whether to vaccinate Boru against Lyme disease. I wish they could have stuck me with the needle too. As a dog who already has an affinity for jumping into the weeds and playing in the woods, the risk of Boru getting bitten by a tick is pretty high, and it's not even hunting season yet. Here in central Pennsylvania, Lyme disease is all too common among people, and dogs.

In 2002, GlaxoSmithKlyne came out with a human vaccine, but after some bad press and some class-action law suits, the booster went off the market. There are currently three different versions of a vaccine for dogs though, and it might be the most important shot that my hunting dog will ever get.

A Big Introduction

So, Boru and I spent Memorial Day at my sister and brother-in-law's river lot on the West Branch of the Susquehanna.

Boru was a champ. With three other dogs, kids of various ages, and a lot of other distractions, he listened very well. He is starting to come when I call him, and came a few times when he disappeared, which was awesome.

The two biggest things I was worried about for the weekend were how he was going to deal with being on a boat and how he'd take to the water. I'm glad to say that he passed both tasks with flying colors. Boru became a natural boat dog, sleeping mostly and enjoying the smells as we cruised the river.