Williwaw, post: 437929, member: 7066 wrote: Not much of a dog guy are you
I'm not. I've been bit twice in the field, one just a nip, but the other drew blood. "Don't worry about him, he's friendly" is the one that chomped on the back of my thigh.
Jim Frame, post: 437930, member: 10 wrote: I'm not. I've been bit twice in the field, one just a nip, but the other drew blood. "Don't worry about him, he's friendly" is the one that chomped on the back of my thigh.
Yea, never let them get behind you, emboldens them for the sneak attack. Any dog can bite. I just have a soft spot for old dogs. I can usually read them well and win their trust, but every now and then... I get schooled.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
Many years ago I was getting set up to do a Saturday job when the client told me no one would be at home at that time. For some weird reason I thought to ask if he had a dog. He replied that he was very glad I had thought to ask that question. Yes, he had a dog, a very protective dog that would tear the tires off of my vehicle. However, he assured me that all I had to do was lower my window enough to call out to the dog by his name a couple of times and everything would be OK. You can believe that I made sure to write down that dog's name. True to his warning, the dog tore out from behind the house and gave every sign of being the most vicious dog in the world upon our arrival. I put the window down about half way and started to talk to him calmly and calling him by his name. He stopped and looked at me for a few seconds, then went back to his favorite spot and left us alone the entire time we were onsite.
I've often said the fiercest breed I have ever encountered was the Chihuahua. With no fear of their own demise they will strike with all 24 oz. of their wrath. Kicking at them only stimulates their joy of battle. I completed taping up the back side of a house once with one latched onto my pant's cuff the entire time.
If Chihuahuas weighed any more than 2 pounds they would be outlawed.
We don't have Bears here in Northeast Texas yet but we have dogs and hogs. In 34 years of Surveying I have been bit 3 times none serious. I rarely step away from the truck without my No.1 tool a 24" machete, I have found that the dull side will turn most dogs and for the others I keep it sharp. Yesterday I saw about 20 hogs, they went their way and I went mine but I had my 357 with me just in case.
paden cash, post: 437941, member: 20 wrote: I've often said the fiercest breed I have ever encountered was the Chihuahua. With no fear of their own demise they will strike with all 24 oz. of their wrath. Kicking at them only stimulates their joy of battle. I completed taping up the back side of a house once with one latched onto my pant's cuff the entire time.
If Chihuahuas weighed any more than 2 pounds they would be outlawed.
2 of the 3 dogs that have bit me were the small White Spize, sneaky little jokers.
paden cash, post: 437628, member: 20 wrote:
Years ago I found myself in small town called Yazoo City, MS. We were there "strand mapping" for a company that no longer exists called Bell Telephone. Strand mapping consists of locating utility poles (woohoo...) and determining their ownership for such things as a CPR (continuing property records) and joint-attachment grounding, etc. For a surveyor it's not very much like surveying. But like a good finish carpenter that found himself on a roofing crew once said, "Work is where you find it." And the work was exactly as exciting as it sounds. Any joy at all (none) was quickly removed from one's inner peace by the humidity, heat, mosquitos....and the ever present "Mississippi Redneck".Don't misunderstand me please. We are all God's chillins and we all have the freedom to be whomever we wish. And the whole world is full of rednecks. But Lordy let me tell you if they gave out trophies for it, they all would be on shelves in Mississippi, probably somewhere near Yazoo City.
Bell Telephone kept cable records on legal size sheets called "side by sides". Each sxs reflected an eighty acre portion of a section, being 2640' north to south and 1320' east to west. Our job was to reconcile the physical plant with the sxs records. This was a breeze in Oklahoma and Kansas where county roads were predictably aligned with the Public Land Survey System, but a real pain in the butt when the physical relief of an area depended more on topography than survey lines.
And so we found ourselves (without the help of Google Earth or even aerial photos) wandering around checking pole ID numbers and generally causing a stir amongst those indigenous folks that watched from their porch...quite the pastime in Mississippi.
Yazoo City sits east of a National Wildlife Reserve. I forget the real name, but folks around there just called it "the swamp"...appropriately. And roads around "the swamp" were few and far between. One main road that ran SW out of town had a catchy name..."River Road."...and for some reason every inhabitant of Yazoo City that lived anywhere near River Road was always in a foul mood when it came to strangers "snoop'n round". We ran into every last one of them.
One old goat in particular had a yard full of the ugliest dogs I have ever seen in my life, Catahoula Curs...or as the locals call them, "hawg dawgs". I guess these dogs are good hunters and the story goes they earned their name by hunting wild boars in the swamps. I don't know if they are good hunters or not, but two of them can chew the britches off of an unsuspecting surveyor in a matter of seconds.
We pulled up a long sandy drive one morning and stopped well short of the house. Fifteen hog dogs all began howling, barking and baying to announce our arrival. One old man in bibs sat motionless in his chair on the porch and stared at us. We needed to get through a couple of gates to follow a pole run through the bottom and it seemed like the cordial thing to do to ask permission. A co-worker named Jim exited the car and approached an old wooden gate that led up to the house. With clipboard in hand he smiled and hollered "good morning" to the old man on the porch. Luckily I stayed in the car.
The old man stood up with all fifteen dogs looking at him. As soon as he rose the dogs all surrounded Jim, passively "sniffing" him out, but seemed more curious than threatening. Jim patted a couple of them on the head..and with a smile on his face reached for the wooden gate. The old man said "get 'em" to the dogs...and then sat back down.
Jim was probably 20 or 30 feet from the car. It might as well been a mile. In a nanosecond he was curled up in a ball (to protect his tender entrails). 2 or 3 of the dogs chomped and thrashed at him with the devil in their eyes. One had him by the buttocks and was shaking him like a rag doll. Jim's eyes met mine for a second and the look he had on his face was pitiful. He seemed to be saying to me "tell my kin I loved them all..." telepathically. He looked like he knew the end was near.
I jumped out of the car and startled a few of the dogs. I realized really quick it might not have been the smartest thing I had ever done. Those dogs love to get up behind you and bite...well..your behind. But before I was forced to the ground the old man hollered "he-aww" and the dogs stopped just as abruptly as they started. Jim and I dove for the car and was a good hundred yards (in reverse) away from the house before we even started triage on our wounds. Jim was chewed to pieces and had lost a shoe. I had some nasty bites on my butt and the back of my thighs. Any dog that can draw blood that fast is a mean dog.
The only thing meaner I guess would be that old fart on the porch.
Those Catahoulas are some of the smartest dogs I have ever been around, I used to work for a man part time that used them to work all kinds of stock up in the Ozarks, they are really smart and really protective of their owner