My Inside Hunting Dog

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I am actively engaged in an experiment; for the last few days I have been having some "big mice" gnawing overhead in my attic. Its no big secret that out here in the country, "big mice" have a tendency to try to make your nice warm home a free place hang out in.The scratching and chewing has pretty much been driving the wife and I crazy, so we did some research online and then released our secret weapon...Issac.

I got Kenworth who is a retired Rabbit dog (Basset Hound) and Bailey who is a Black Lab that is scared of water. Then there is Issac. He is a Miniature Schnauzer who pretty much is a lap dog. Still his breed was bred to hunt rats on ships because of their small size and gentle demeanor when not on the hunt.

Anyway we called the Vet and he said not only is it okay for Issac to go on the hunt, it would be good for him, its what he was meant to do and release some of his energy. So as I type this is is running around in my attic on the hunt for these rodents. From the sounds of it (rumbling and walking overhead) he's doing pretty good.:thumb:

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Our Rat Terriers or our Mini Jack Russells would have a blast up there!!! I assume you have piney squirrels? So if you run into a problem of him being to large, have one Mini Jack Russell left out of the last litter!
 
Jon...you are right, I need a smaller dog. I think the "big mice" are living underneath some planks I have for my attic storage floor, and the ceiling of the house. This is 12 inch high area, about 6 feet wide the length of the house. I did that so I could get a full 12 inches of insulation over my place.

There is no question your pint sized Miniature Jack Russel would get the job done, but with three dogs already, the last thing I need is another dog. :eek:

We contacted a pest control place but they want WAYYYY to much to rid this house of those rodents. I was told by an old timer to get a rabbit. He claimed he has a rabbit in his hen house as "two rodents will not share the same dwelling."

I grew up in Maine,and country living all my life and never heard of that before. Anyone else?:dunno:

Not sure how a rabbit would be anyway, my basset Hound is a trained rabbit hunting dog, but at 10 years old, he's retired now. I don't know if old instincts would kick in or not.
 
Not sure if yer talking about tree rats or real rats. Real rats would be another kind of problem but easily remedied with D-Con. Squirrels can be a problem. And, I have no doubt yer terrier will go after them. But, another concern I would have. Stink. Rotting dead critters stink. Even if he eats them completely (unlikely), there would be other kinds of stinks emanating from yer attic, especially come springtime.
 
My first thought is the D-Con type poison also. But with dogs, or cats, if they get to the dead animal before you do, they just ate the same poison.
My parents have had a couple Min. Schnauzers. With the first one, Dad would shoot a squirrel out of the pecan tree, and Mitzi would grab the thing, kill it, then eat it. Everything but the tail! Rattler got her in the face when she was about 12 years old. The new one doesn't eat squirrels. Jim.
 
Yeah they are rats, or as my wife prefers to call them...despite knowing the difference...big mice.

I've gone through the D-con routine before, but it only thins out the herd. I suppose my dog could only do likewise.

As for my dog, he doesn't eat his kills. He is so funny, he is always so calm and lovable...until he sees a mouse or snake. Then his ears sweep back, he starts snarling, then jumps after the mice or snake. Grabbing them behind the neck, he shakes them apart. That's all he does...shakes them to death. Then his ears go back to upright, he walks over to us and wags his tail like it never happened.

This works great for me since I HATE snakes. We have no poisonous snakes here in Maine (the timber rattle snake was eradicated and has not been seen since in 1910), but every snake to me is deadly (heart attack wise). So now when I tread in snake country, I either:

A: Go there only between November and May
B: Put Issac on a leash and let him patrol the area beforehand to either kill the snakes or at least chase them away
 
Hi Travis,

I'm pretty much of a lurker here, reading up on what I can relating to wood carving... however, being a dog lover and rescuer, I wanted to add how important it is for dogs like Issac to "have a job." :) Otherwise, like people, they get bored, destructive and the next thing you know, they're out the door--- and I'm rescuing them. :) With three Beagles of my own and having previously owned a mini Aussie, I know of what I speak.

May I add having cats in residence helps immensely. "Big mice" and even "small mice" despise the smell of cats and will avoid your area.

Good luck!

--MJ, amateur woodworker and professional marketer :)
 
What about a live trap? Then take them outside for the dog to kill. We some times get one in a booster station, thats how we get them. But you have to be some what tricky with baiting it, got to make sure the bait is all the way back and even tie it to the cage. They have got the bait more then once and never trip the latch. I don't know how they do it, it takes very little pressure to trip it. A ear of corn worked pretty good.
Stacey
 
Hi Travis,

I'm pretty much of a lurker here, reading up on what I can relating to wood carving... however, being a dog lover and rescuer, I wanted to add how important it is for dogs like Issac to "have a job." :) Otherwise, like people, they get bored, destructive and the next thing you know, they're out the door--- and I'm rescuing them. :) With three Beagles of my own and having previously owned a mini Aussie, I know of what I speak.

May I add having cats in residence helps immensely. "Big mice" and even "small mice" despise the smell of cats and will avoid your area.

Good luck!

--MJ, amateur woodworker and professional marketer :)

I've had a few Beagles myself...again Rabbit Dogs. One was really well trained and ran rabbits really well, but he had one trait that made him useless for hunting. He refused to bark!

That did not bother me too much. He was a great dog and lived a long life. One day in his older years I opened up the door and he stuck his head out. He looked left, looked right, then slowly stuck his head back in the door. He was done and we both knew it. I put him down a few days later.
 
My Beagles will chase and catch almost anything. Rabbit population here is next to none, so they go after everything else instead. They've chased and caught birds, squirrels, frogs, cats, "big mice," "little mice," treed raccoons and 'possums, and even brought me a baby 'possum last year, which I saved and took to the wildlife sanctuary. No interested mammas were anywhere in the vicinity, and the baby was too young to be on her own.

What I haven't seen much of around here, interestingly, are snakes... John's post made me think about that. I live in the suburbs, but there's plenty of space for them to hide. Anyway, you are welcome to borrow any one of "The Three A'Beagos" to run off your "big mice." They'd have a ball. :)
 
The Rabbit population goes up and down here. Years ago we had plenty,then the coyotes came and wiped them out, now that the bounty on coyotes has thinned out that population, the rabbits are back. Anyway there was a time when I would just pick up the 410 and they would just go ballistic...both beagles and the Basset Hound! Just picking up the gun!!

No suburb life for me, I live way out in the country and have a little bit of land. I probably have 30 hunters that are allowed to hunt on me, and as luck would have it, today there was a big rabbit hunt...with beagles no less.That was cool to see and I would have loved to hunt with them, but atlas I am sick and had to go to the hospital instead. :(

One of the best places I ever hunted was on Criehaven Island. It was 350 acres of island WAYYY out in the Atlantic. The furthest inhabited island on the east coast at 28 nautical miles from mainland. Anyway some guy put rabbits on the island to hunt, and within a few short years they literally were overunning the island. There are no predators out there at all...no mice, snakes, rats or anything, just bunnies and pheasant. So we brought the dogs out for a good hunt, and despite them all getting seasick on the way out (3 hours by boat) we had a good hunt. 188 bunnies taken in two days time. And the dogs had a blast. They could not get lost, mess with an porcupine, skunk or bear, and just run and run chasing bunnies. Perfect hunting.

On one of my last posts I mentioned having to put them down. Well this is where they are today. I took them out to the island, let them run around a bit in Beagle paradise, then did what had to be done unfortunately. A good place to RIP if you are a beagle...or a human too for that matter. What a beautiful island.

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Now they preferred Rabbits, but my Beagles liked mice as well.

One day we had a mouse in the kitchen. Not a Rat but just a mouse. Anyway we watched the oldest Beagle Spike just crouch there. His head never moved, just his eyes as the mouse scampered closer and closer to him. Finally when it was within pouncing distance, he snapped at it, bit it's neck, then dropped it and walked proudly over to the ex-wife looking for a pet on the head.

Spike was also amazing with babies. The ex and I never had children, but when we had little ones over, he would walk all around the baby sleeping on the floor, but never step foot on the blanket. He would snap at the other two dogs whenever they got close to the baby. He was protective, but never bothered the baby.

Now gosh darn you MJ, you got me missing my beagles!!
 
I had a beagle once, name Conejo. Spanish for rabbit. Was a natural without experience but, unfortunately, didn't use him much. Loved to run. I kept outside on a cable run. That little dog could ruin a pulley in a few weeks, never understood how fifteen pounds of dog could give such a pull. Eventually sold him to someone who, sadly, turned out to be a jerk.
 
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