Turns out she is a killer afterall...

[theresa]

My rednose APBT b!tch is sweet as can be - its all she was ever schooled for- she is a good girly indeed. Her momma was a true OFRN - Old Family Red Nosed strain and looked it. It has been said of the OFRN that their bites are so soft they couldn't bite their way out of a brown paper bag if they tried. The OFRN did seem to have a soft mouth, once snatching my parakeet out of the air and on the immediate command DROP IT spat it out, and the bird was totally unharmed! Her outcrossed daugher, on the other hand...

Hubby let her out into the yard while he prepared the coals for grilling. Good girly goes into the yard, stops near a rock, and squats to do her business. And then the rock moved, and in a split second she has pounced on and snapped at the rock. Rock chirps and hubby hollers DROP IT - which she did. Rock was apparently robbin chick lying low and camoflauged until it moved. Now both husband and dog are under fire from the robbin brigade who are swooping in to attack. They made it to the house safely. Robins check on dead baby. I am sent out to move the body out of the dog yard as the robins are not fully convinced their chick is dead.

Before the Bird Incident the squirrels were the target. Now that good Girly knows about birdies being the BEST squeaky toy EVER, she now wants to snatch birds out of the air.

Girly did not inherit her momma's bite, that is for sure!

[ammomac]

very cool - our welsh had a chance encounter that allowed him to snatch a bird from the air and it didn't take him long to figure out how to hunt them on his own. we have a 6ft high chainlink around the yard with a hibiscus hedge inside. he'll lay patiently in the yard about 20 ft out and wait for the doves to start coming in the hedge.

he waits... and waits. sometimes you'd think he was totally spaced out, but then when one gets in the *right* spot, he'll pounce and normally gets it. its over in nanoseconds and he beings me the dead bird.

he waits until the bird gets in a position that, when he rushes them, they can only come toward him get airborne or they get tangle in the hedge/fence if they go the other.

there's always feathers in our yard. ;-)

[theresa]

That is one smart dog! My fingers are crossed that my girly will quickly lose interest in back door dashing. HA! We'll see how it goes...

[ammomac]

door dashing was also an issue for us.

drove me nuts. i slowed him down by catching him in the door enough that he'd hesitate long enough I could get his attention and gain control to release him when _I_ was ready.

now he'll still do it if he has alerted to something outside and he knows you aren't paying attention, but 99% of the time he'll wait patiently until invited out.

[theresa]

Door dashing is normally not an issue - certainly not the front door. But the dog yard is another matter - I just open the back door and out the dogs go. Sometimes the latch is soft, so its not uncommon for her to nose the door open and let herself out to potty. Its when its latched and she noses it - well, I hope she doesn't break the latch! And now that she knows that the birds disguise themselves as rocks - she is agog to go out into the dog yard and spook the rocks! She recently learned to squeeze between the fence - I have a picket fence that seperates the dog yard from the raspberry patch. The birds know this area is secure, so the baby birdies hold up in there until they get their wings under them. Except now I found her in the raspberry patch - not good! Not only are the birdies not safe, but come ripening time unless I fix that fence, she will eat the entire crop!