Regular readers may know that I have long taken a stance against closed studbook breeding registries, which I consider to be unscientific Victorian relics that are causing actual harm to “breeds” by decreasing genetic diversity. Recently a perfect example has surfaced in salukis, where “traditionalists”— ie, people who want to limit the breed’s ancestry to …
Tag: Hounds
Dog Rant
The Lady With the Black Dogs (who happen to be “real” fierce staunch old- fashioned Afghans, rare today) sent me a note and a link, knowing it would provoke me and push all my buttons on genetics, bombast, and bullshit, not to mention on the kind of dog commercialism that makes AR types try to …
Of Illness, Facebook, and a Dog: Announcements
First: readers have doubtless noticed a falling off in the number of posts this last six months, and in the number of adventures that leads to them. For all this time I have been having difficulty walking (which I initially put down to arthritis) and also sitting in the hard chair I had here. It …
The Girls
Pennsylvania artist and pigeon man Hans Windgassen saw a pic of Ataika and Lashyn and wanted to paint them. I sent him more photos and this is the result. I think it captures Taik’s arrogance and Lashyn’s often worried look. He calls it “Les Girls”
Irbis recovers
He THINKS he is 100% better and that he can go chase rabbits, but he still has 6 weeks on restricted, ie leash, movement. He is bored, and not afraid to let us know it.
Recovering
Thanks to all of your generous help, Irbis is on the way to recovery. he is not at all sure about the collar. But he is even walking! Thanks to Jeff Nicoll, Reid & Connie Farmer, Matt Mullenix, Cat Urbigkit, Chris Markle, Kathy Bentzoni, Anne, Chas Clifton, Stacey Patterson, Bill & Katie, Joan Holdsworthy, Mike …
Animal update
Irbis is HUGE and still growing. Last year’s problem bird BB (Bad Bird, Bird Brain) is this year’s delight (Big Bird). Now I need a pic of the Barb- Taita “Chicken” (nicknamed for her ferocious rushes at our feet– her real name is Fidget , after Vadim Gorbatov’s Peregrine protagonist).
Lane Batot’s Trailhounds 4
Trailhounds Part 4……When I had kept Notches, the Black-And-Tan hound for a year or so, I became curious as to whether she still had her “raccoon phobia”. Though I probably would have found out eventually by happenstance–raccoons being common in the area–I decided to set up an encounter where I had some control of the …
Bird & Pupdate
She is not getting aerial as fast as I’d like but she is working perfectly with the dogs. Irbis,as befits his youth, stays a respectable distance away. Ataika would rebuke him if he didn’t. Ataika, who knows how to inspire confidence in a bird, gets a lot closer in hope of a tidbit.
Lane Batot on Trailhounds– Part 3
Once I had decided to keep Notches, the little Black-And-Tan hound, I naturally sought to fulfill my old desire of training a trailhound to pursue a variety of game, as the old time pioneers had done. I knew that with this previously traumatized dog, I would have to proceed slowly and patiently. At first she …