A dog is a reflection of its owner. She didn’t spend time to train the dog.

Simple problems allow for simple solutions.

Does @SteveDettelbach know you’re campaigning to take his job as @ATFHQ director? https://t.co/QPSjMTADoY

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) May 3, 2024

An A&E video piece.

A few takeaways from this.

It’s difficult for me to tell, but I think this was a black bear.

Next, she said she deployed her bear spray and it was completely ineffective.  Yea, I’ll bet.

Retreating, she stumbled backwards and fell down.  This is a bad position to be in when the bear jumps on you.

The dog intervened, and was badly mauled, but still lives and looks good.  Dogs are man’s best friend.  Get yourself one or more.  Also, notice that the bear went after her, not the dog.  It only went after the dog when the dog intervened.

Finally, she should be carrying a large bore handgun.  If I’m out and about in the South, I never go into the bush without a firearm.  There are bears, Coyotes, snakes and two-legged threats, as well as feral hogs.  This holds doubly true for the Northwest.  If you go “walking” or “jogging” in the bush without a big bore handgun, you’re asking for what happens next.

It’s a Brown bear I believe.

Here’s what I suspect is happening.  That bear knows he could kill the more aggressive dog.  What the bear is instinctively thinking is this.  If I turn my attention exclusively to that aggressive dog, what’s going to happen with the other three when I take my eyes off of them?  The bear did try to keep his eye on the one behind him out of the corner of his eye.

Fighting a dog isn’t like fighting a pack of dogs.

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See this depressing video in full.  This idiot gets annoyed with people walking through the airport, yanks the dog around on its collar, and teaches the dog nothing in the process.

Let’s go over that again.  The collar is around the dog’s neck.  You can do neck damage by slinging the dog around by the collar.  It’s a stupid and doltish thing to do.  This agent is completely untrained and inexperienced in how to handle animals.

Next, there is no instruction going on with the dog.  The dog doesn’t know what the handler wants him to do.  He (or she) has no idea how to make the handler happy with his performance because there is no teaching going on.  This is frustrating for the dog because dogs are bred to make us happy.  That’s all he wants in life, in addition to basic sustenance.

There is no instruction going on because the handler doesn’t know how to instruct the dog.  He is a dolt.  Not only is he untrained, he hasn’t self trained either.  He has read no books (perhaps he doesn’t know how to read), he has spent no time in obedience training with his own dog (if he has one), or else he abuses his own dog, and he has never spent time around farm animals.

Punitive punishment for dogs must be very quick, very short, and basically used only once so the dog knows what’s not acceptable.  Everything after that must be positive reinforcement.  Everything.  That’s why I congratulate my dog every time he let’s me know he needs to go outside to defecate.  Every …single … time.  And I will do this until he passes away.

If you do not know how to give positive reinforcement to a dog, find a good, loving home for the dog and go back to washing cars, bagging groceries and being alone in the world.  You’re no good for man nor beast.

And by the way, here is a recapitulation of my counsel to cops who reflexively shoot dogs.  Go work on a farm.  Although it must be observed that this guy is a TSA agent, and therefore is probably more of an idiot that most cops.

Few things piss me off more than seeing cops abuse dogs.

Via WiscoDave.

This TSA agent is unfit to handle a dog. pic.twitter.com/WaQ6mt6FR9

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) May 8, 2023

Source.

A string of mountain lion attacks on dogs in the Nederland area has left many community members concerned about the safety of their pets.

Nederland resident Peter James said the community has lost around 12 to 15 dogs to lion attacks in the past six months. Most of the attacks are logged on a wildlife tracker James said was created by a local designer.

“It’s gotten sort of out of hand and it needs to be addressed,” he said. “It kind of feels like, is the community responsible for maintaining this kind of safety?”

On Monday, a woman in Rollinsville shared in a Nederland Facebook group that she watched her Australian Shepherd get snatched off her porch by a mountain lion. James said group members have also posted about attacks on a Doberman and a Great Pyrenees.

Three weeks ago, James said around 50 people attended a Colorado Parks and Wildlife lecture on mountain lion safety at the Nederland Community Center, with over 70 tuning in remotely. Some residents, he said, are even concerned about kids becoming targets.

“This lion is now coming up on decks, taking dogs that are 100 pounds, and we’re worried about a little kid who weighs maybe 40 pounds,” he said.

Jill Dreves, executive director of Wild Bear Nature Center in Nederland, said she has noticed a pattern of recent lion attacks near Ridge Road and Magnolia Road.

“There is an increase,” she said. “It’s not made up. There’s a big increase in dogs getting taken by mountain lions.”

[ … ]

“I think the most important thing is to understand that we are sharing a habitat with the mountain lions, bears, moose and all the other wildlife,” Dreves said.

In another report, “Since early November, she had been contending with the lions, which she says had been “actively stalking” her mini horse and daughter’s pony. Her tenant, Sarah Bennett, had also encountered them on early-morning runs with her dog, Bagel.

The lions had been around for weeks by that point. Rose had seen them watching the horses from a hillside on her land in the Roosevelt National Forest. Reports of lions attacking dogs in her immediate neighborhood, coupled with their sudden interest in the livestock and Bagel, had put her nervous system in “overdrive,” she says.

The night she texted CPW was a breaking point. A lion had been sitting outside of Bennett’s garden-level door, seemingly waiting for her to bring Bagel outside to pee. Bennett saw it 25 feet away and rushed the dog back inside. “I felt like it knew our patterns,” Rose says. “It knew Bagel lived there, and it was waiting to attack.”

What are the authorities going to do about it?

“As morbid and messed up as it sounds, if we just have a dog getting attacked or killed and no human involvement, then it’s just lions doing lion things and we can’t kill them,” Peterson said. “But if we were responding to every pet that was killed by wildlife with lethal removal, then we would be spending the majority of our time as officers (at least on the Front Range) doing that, and we would have to kill a lot of bears, lions, bobcats and coyotes. Instead, I think the best solution is advocating for responsible pet ownership and being diligent with your pets when living or visiting areas where wildlife are likely to be.”

I agree with everything he said, except the part about “we can’t kill them.”  Maybe he can’t but you sure can, and I sure would if a lion was threatening me or my family.  I find it oddball that people who live in Colorado would be surprised at this sort of thing.  Where do they think they live, anyway?

I did have to read this part several times to get the full force of it.

AJ Koziel’s 90-pound Bernese mountain dog mix, Duke, vanished from his house in the Gamble Gulch neighborhood near Rollinsville on Oct. 27.

Koziel let Duke outside to go to the bathroom. When he didn’t return, Koziel knew something was wrong. It was dark, so Koziel waited for morning to go looking. When he found Duke’s body, on a hillside above his house, he says he saw claw marks on his hips and most of his neck, “one shoulder hanging off to the side, and half of the skin on his face torn off.” As someone who honors the natural life-and-death cycle, Koziel said he left Duke’s body where it lay, “for the raven and his brothers to feast on.”

Astounding.  Men, you are responsible for your beasts, and that means protection too if needed.  Don’t let them out alone.  Carry large bore firearms with you.  Be prepared to shoot invaders, whether two-legged or four-legged.  Be men, not sheep.  I would never have waited to see if my dog came back home, but then I wouldn’t have sent him out alone either.

Better yet, extend the hunting season and send packs of dogs after the lions (or even set up in a deer stand and wait for the lions if you know they are scouting the area).  We’ll see who runs then.  A mountain lion may be fierce but is no match for a 45-70 round.

But I doubt that the hippies who moved in from California would allow something like that.  It’s just like the hippies to move into the bush and expect the .gov to make them safe.

You look lonely.  I’ll be your friend.

Here, I’ll share with you.

Yes, I took it.  What?  Do I look guilty or something?  What gave me away?

I’ll be your ears for you.

I’m so happy to see you!

You CANNOT leave without me!

If only I had opposable digits, I could do that too.

We dogs know the difference between good people and bad.

Dog saves the life of his buddy.

Source.

Can I do that mommy?  Pleeeease?

Source.

With all the focus on two-legged threats recently, don’t forget about the four-legged kind.

Jennifer Stokya was visiting her mother in Arbor Vitae, north west of Fort Frances, when she was confronted by a bear in her backyard during a garbage run. Stokya said she lives in B.C. and just came down to visit her mother and help her with house chores.

“I stepped on the door step with full hands and fighting with trying to close the door behind me, I turned my back without looking up,” Stokya said. “Suddenly there was a loud hissing noise and a large paw whizzed past my head and it was a bear on his hind legs swiping at me.”

Stokya said she was trying to keep her dog, Dexter, from getting out the door. Although Stokya said Dexter is professionally trained to be off leash, he had been acting strange for several days and randomly growling at trees.

“Little did we know,” Stokya chuckled. “His swipe missed me and hit the garbage bag. He actually had me cornered, but thankfully the door hadn’t yet closed all the way, and Dexter pushed his way through the door and leapt into the air at the bear and successfully chased the bear up a tree about 20 feet away.”

Stokya said even while being chased by Dexter, the bear still managed to grab the garbage bag and a random loose coffee pod that had fallen out before running up the tree.

This is the season when bear sightings are most common. They are looking for food to add an extra layer of warmth before hibernating in the winter.

After calling the Ministry of Natural Resources, Stokya said they advised her to watch for the bear to come down and make noises to scare it away and make it feel unwelcome. However, the same bear came back wandering around the yard again.

“My mom spotted him first,” Stokya said. “She yelled and made noise and it didn’t even look at her. I came out and started yelling too and it at least momentarily stopped and looked at me and sniffed the air a little, recognizing me I guess. It wasn’t until my dog started growling and barking that the bear slowly ran off. I haven’t seen the bear since, but occasionally can smell that he is in the area.”

Stokya said a neighbour stopped by to warn them that he had spotted the bear behind the house when he he was driving by, so it’s still around.

“The next day the bear was back. But definitely not scared of us. I haven’t seen the bear, but definitely randomly could smell him so knew he was close by,” Stokya said.

“I was pretty shaken up for quite some time after, thinking of the close call, and how the whole situation would have been a lot different if I didn’t have my dog with me.”

Dexter’s treat for rescuing Stokya was steak for supper.

Who’s the good boy?  Dexter is the good boy.  That’s right.

Dexter is actually quite fortunate to have been a sole dog chasing a bear and to not only get away unscathed, but win the standoff.

More than one dog would have been even better.  If I lived in this neck of the woods, I’d carry a large bore handgun every step outside (and most of the time indoors).

But given enough of them, there isn’t an animal in North America who won’t run from a pack of dogs.  Even large predators will eventually give way to African dog packs.  In large enough numbers, they are an apex predator.

And our best friend.  At least, Dexter was.

Dallas News:

Grieving dog owners told House lawmakers Tuesday that animal training for police could have prevented the deaths of hundreds of beloved pets across the state.

“This training is mandatory for UPS and FedEx delivery men; why isn’t it for law enforcement?” said Cheri Scholz, who lives near Amarillo. Her 8-year-old blue heeler, Smokey, was fatally shot in 2012 by a police officer responding to a loose dog report.

Smokey had escaped from her yard. The officer attempted to get the dog into his car, but Smokey darted away, Scholz said. Neighbors who witnessed the event told Scholz the police officer then shot and killed the dog, she said.

The House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee considered two bills Tuesday from North Texas representatives that would require police to receive training in encountering animals. The bills were left pending.

Controversial dog shootings have grabbed headlines recently. Since 2009, Texas officers have shot more than 400 dogs, according to the animal advocacy group 4 Keeping Our Pets Safe.

Law enforcement representatives told lawmakers the training — a course that teaches officers how to deal with aggressive dogs and read an animal’s body language, among other things — could prevent officers from being attacked and save families the grief of unnecessary shootings.

“Canine encounter training will help fill this void and provide officers with effective options and valuable knowledge to use when we come into contact with dogs while performing our regular duties,” said Amy Knoll, assistant chief for the Cleburne Police Department.

One of the bills, by Rep. Helen Giddings, D-Dallas, would require all officers to receive training in encounters with animals. Another, by Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, would focus solely on dogs and require new officers and officers seeking promotion to complete a four-hour training program within two years.

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement would establish and require the training. Departments would absorb the cost.

Committee chairman Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, indicated that he preferred legislation that includes training for a variety of animals.

Phillips and Rep. Tony Dale, R-Cedar Park, also inquired about offering the course online in an effort to reduce costs, particularly for smaller police departments in far-flung parts of Texas.

“There are a lot of financial costs to training like that, where there’s travel and everything else, so that’s something we’re all going to have to think about,” Phillips said.

Gosh.  I hate it when that happens to me.  Every time Heidi runs off or barks at me or anyone else I haul off and blow her brains out.  I’m on my seventeenth or eighteenth Heidi, now.  It’s getting old, so maybe I need the same training.

Prior:

Note To Cops And Survivalists: The World If Full Of Animals, Embrace It!

More On Animals, Cops, Logistics And Survival

Michigan Cops Raid Wrong House And Shoot Beloved 15-Year Old Dog

Ventura County Sheriff: Coward

Via Uncle, this from Wes Siler.  I’ll leave the background and setup to Wes but copy in the money quotes to this post.

In all of our visits, we’ve never seen any cops. It’s just a small little bar and a campground way out in the middle of nowhere. I’d hazard a guess that they showed up this time to look in on events. While it was a “biker” camp out, these bikers were mostly 20 and 30 something creatives living and working in Los Angeles, Ventura or surrounding areas. The weekend is a chance for them to let their hair down and wear their leather jackets, but it’s not exactly what anyone would consider a rough crowd. The event is advertised online.

The deputies must have seen us leave and followed us back to our tents. No sooner had we sat down and cracked a beer (totally legal), we saw flashlights approaching and, when they were 20 or 30 feet out, heard a man shout, “Who’s dogs are these? Get them under control or I’ll shoot them!”

Both Wiley (85lbs) and Sansho (75lbs) are big dogs and they do sometimes growl, bark or generally act like dogs do when a stranger approaches us in the middle of the night. Neither one is remotely aggressive or dangerous in appearance. Just a couple of fluffy house pets who are good with kids and other dogs and people in general. They did not act in an aggressive manner as the police approached and were not rough housing either; they were exhausted from being the centers of attention in a crowd all night.

Two cops, in uniform, were standing in the center of the campground’s drive, one had his weapon out of its holster, pointed at the dogs. Two other men, who we assumed to be cops were also present. They wore black jackets and were clearly with the police, but did not identify themselves as such. One remained behind the two uniformed deputies, hovering back in the shadows, while the other circled around our little campsite to approach it from the other side. The dogs were taking turns sniffing each other’s butts and peeing on a bush.

Ty and I stood up, hustled to cover the 20 or 30 foot gap between us and the cops and dogs. Ty was immediately able to grab Sansho, but Wiley heard the commotion and scooted around behind the cops before I was able to get my hands on him.

During the 10 or 15 seconds it took for me to grab Wiley’s collar and clip on his leash, the cop who hadn’t drawn his gun remarked loudly, “You do not appear to have control of your animals.” To me, that sounded like he was saying that as a precursor to shooting them or as a suggestion towards further action.

“He’s just a little puppy!” I responded.Wiley is 21 months old and, while a big dog, is still just a goofy, floppy little baby that cries in my arms when he gets scared.

The cop with the gun then approached me and explained in great detail how he was authorized to shoot any dogs he felt were a threat. “I can shoot any dog that approaches me,” he said holding his gun, in a gloating manner. “All I have to say is that I feel they’re a threat.”

I’ve explained this before.  If law enforcement officers cannot handle animals – dogs, horses and other ranch and farm animals – they are pussies.  If they are scared of dogs, they have absolutely no business going after violent criminals or pretending that they are there to “protect and serve,” as the lie goes.

They need to spend their weekends for several years working at a ranch, farm, or dog breeder to learn to handle animals.  This is simple boyhood stuff that their daddies should have done with them when they were young.  If they didn’t, then the officers can blame their worthless daddies and settle the issue with them.  They have no business taking their frustrations, failures and inadequacies out on peaceable folk.

In the mean time, before extensive retraining, the Sheriff should pull his officers back from duties where they may be exposed to animals since they are frightened of them.