View allAll Photos Tagged WirehairedPointers
this is tough for me to admit, but i seem to be living under a perpetual cloud of guilt when it comes to my girl these days. i worry that i'm aging her prematurely. she's only 9, and yes, she has bridging spondylosis which is fusing her vertebrae and signs of arthritis. for all of these reasons, this girl should be exercised regularly. and yet ... i don't.
don't misunderstand ... she does get out, but not as often as she should.
so many excuses ... the heat, the rain, my exhaustive schedule that has me working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, my own health ... but the only real excuses are -- a lack of places to take her to run without an assault of offleash "friendly" dogs, coyotes, or the chance of her throwing her back out again, only this time, not recovering from it.
she needs short, regular runs ... i've considered posting an ad on kijiji/craigslist just to see if someone has some property they'd be wiling to let us use ... a couple of fields to run in without the fear of some dog owned by a dumbass running up to us. after she was attacked a couple of weekends ago, utterly unprovoked and completely blindsided, this girl is on edge. where i was confident only a few weeks ago that she could handle a situation with a loose dog if one surprised us and ran up to her before i could call her (even though my control over her hasn't presented us with a situation like this in years), i'm not so certain now after the attack has left her so edgy, so on-guard.
i have made arrangements to work with her around other dogs, but these 'encounters' will be occasional and only when we can arrange it.
when reading Steve Duno's Last Dog on the Hill he talked about how if you're not working you're dying (that's me paraphrasing) ... and the greatest guilt in my life right now is that this is holding true for matea. i'm not working her ... we haven't trained in the last three years due to her back. she used to run and retrieve, and work directionally in the field. we can't do that anymore due to her back.
i don't know what would be good work for her. to be honest, leash walks frustrate her, although leash walks with the challenge of other dogs is definitely 'work'. on friday she had a session with a friend/trainer and a stable dog, and a half hour walk and a half hour of sitting around and this girl was exhausted. and, of course, she did brilliantly because it was a well-handled dog.
anyway, i'm at a loss. some days i feel like i'm losing her, like i'm not giving her what she needs, and i'm worried she's going to just give up. i wish i could find a hunter to take us out once a week, but given her attitude with other dogs lately, we couldn't even do group stuff. not that i can't manage her in situations ... i just don't know how much i want to put her through at this point.
somehow, somewhere, i need inspiration, ideas, ingenuity ...
with the extreme heat we've been having, i haven't had the dogs out nearly as much as they should be. i could take them swimming, but have simply been too busy. so it's leash walks. we did get out the past two evenings before their dinner ... and it doesn't take much to wipe matea out with the heat.
i've got a Ruffwear Swamp Cooler on order for her. maybe that'll help.
not easy taking pictures of the L-man from next door ... every time the speedlight goes off he's scrambing over to see the photo, so instead of shooting a half dozen or more shots of a 'set up', i get one.
i know for some of you this photo isn't easy ... and i do feel the need to explain. wirehaired pointers are serious hunters ... some refer to them as the most versatile hunting dog. they are bred for 'sharpness', and matea certainly eptomizes this aspect of the breed.
please know that this girl is highly trained, and if i ever happen to see a groundhog (even after she's already got her sights on it), i will stop her. i would never send her off to deliberately kill anything.
however, if she's already got the groundhog, the worst thing i can do is call her off, leaving the animal maimed and suffering. matea is extremely efficient, and although this large hog was a battle for her, it was still over in under 25 seconds. most are dispatched well within 3 seconds.
part of owning a dog is being able to let them be dogs, to understand and answer their drive and their instincts (within reason, of course!), even though it's not always pretty.
had a mini-session with my girl in the studio ... kind of like, what can you get with a kong, a nutbag and a flash.
had a hard time deciding which photo to submit to the group ... you can see a few here:
www.flickr.com/photos/illonahaus/6113897873/
taken by heidi
14 December 2005
now THIS is matea . . like some tomboy, always sporting some scrape or another from her forays into the bush. that's my girl: no sense, no feeling.
since this photo was taken four days ago, she's given herself another equally nasty scrape above the same eye, AND I think she's done something to her tail.
like i always tell heidi when she spots blood on the trail . . . if the dog's not bleeding to death, she's all right.
i've decided to add this photo to my 'visual journal' because it's opened up the issue of e-collars. being passionate about my dogs and about training, i should have known i'd get long-winded when hombre/michael asked about the collar, and i should have known that the collar's prominence in this photo would spark a few questions.
so here it is, in my comments . . . my take on ecollars, the way i use it, and the phenomenal life it has given matea (and morley, for that matter). a life that very few people could have offered these dogs, a lifestyle that matea would be miserable without. i love this photo of my girl and her ecollar, because to me the ecollar represents her freedom, her happiness, her health and our incredible connection.
ADDED NOTE: if you're serious about ecollar training, two pieces of advice to get your started:
(1) NEVER buy a cheap ecollar ... it will only malfunction when you most need it, trust me on this. even the so called good brands like Innotek have let me down. use ONLY Tritronics or the new Dogtra collars.
(2) for some well-written, step-by-step articles on starting your dog on an ecollar you can read the articles under the Obedience section on the www.dobbsdogs.com site (go to their Library). ... although i do things just a wee bit differently than they do when first introducing dogs to the collar, but it's the same premise.
i can try to answer any questions privately when/if i have time, and if you are actually serious about this kind of training.
SEE COMMENTS BELOW for more information ...
shooting blind for last week's challenge. not the most amazing photo, but a deliberate set up ... coaching matea to put her head all the way down, shooting blind, then coaxing her eyes upward for the woe-be-me look.
after she started working on the ribs, and i'd finished with the other rack, i asked her to bring the one she was eating on . . . she did . . . reluctantly.
shows just how strong this dog is, huh? that rack was probably 25 lbs.
bad bad matea.... this event occured at 11:30 p.m., late winter. i feed my dogs raw, and coincidentally had cleaned and skinned 3 domestic rabbits for the freezer earlier that day. apparently matea felt that "4" was a better number and bagged this bunny in the back yard.
truly it was an excellent death. the bunny ran, jumped, hit the chainlink and bounced. matea caught it before it hit the ground, and literally one shake and she'd snapped its neck.
a true hunting dog, she was so proud of her work, and watched my every move as i skinned and cleaned this rabbit as well...11:30 at night, wearing my jammies, in the garage of my suburban home. but at least the bunny did not go to waste and became dinner sometime later.
as a postscript...the gash in matea's head was not a result of the bunny hunt but rather from her collision with a tree earlier that day along the trails....stupid trees!
i've saved the best till last . . . or first, depending on how you're viewing the stream, i guess.
untouched, uncropped, just 100% pure matea on this gorgeous snowy morning with the sun slanting down across the field and catching her just right.
i swear, it's only luck that captures these photos on my antiquated digital camera with hands so numb from the cold i can't feel my fingertips.
hope you enjoy!
12 november 2007
... her tongue was all over lincoln's face.
matea loves her boy linc. we get him for only a half hour on monday afternoons, and matea and he are pretty much inseperable for that time. lincoln is fearless of matea ... he lies on her and gives her big bear hugs ... when he plays fetch with her, matea shoves her toy right into his chest until he grabs it, which can take a few tries because he's usually laughing too hard.
it's odd how it's lincoln - the youngest and smallest of the three boys next door - who is the bravest with matea. she's defintely his dog, and he's definitely her boy.
i've decided to start a series ... a visual diary of my daily life ... the good and the bad that surrounds, but mostly the good. choosing one photo per day, as a highlight of that particular day, even though some days seem highlight-less and others - i'm sure - will have too many to narrow down to one.
here is the first....
17 November 2005
matea has been with me 3 years and 4 months now. she'll be 4 soon....or so we guess. she has always been far more dog than i ever bargained for, but because of it, she has taught me more than i ever imagined knowing about dogs, behavior, training, nutrition and health. she has been a fine and forgiving teacher.
she is not without her problems. the best trained dog of the bunch - anyone who knows her will agree - but she has her issues. she is fearful of strange dogs after suffering countless and unwarranted instances of bullying and downright attacks at leashfree dog parks from the age of 8-10 mos. i failed her as a guardian then, and am doing everything i can to convince her i will protect her. seeing her fear of strange dogs breaks my heart, especially when she is such an absolute doll and pushover with the dogs she knows, and is so fearless of everything else in life.
she has been with me through a lot of crap and, to be honest, she is not one of those mushy dogs that will rest their chin in your lap when you cry. not my girl. no, she's a tough one. she'll look at you as though to say: "what the fuck's your problem, sister? get your ass up and outta here and LIVE."
i love this dog because she is such a dog. she is not some surrogate child, not "my baby." she does not have human emotions, but is a true dog who celebrates the moment. daily, she teaches me to breathe, to appreciate the world around me, to smile and to laugh.
for me, there is no sight that moves me as deeply as when i see this girl running back along the trail to 'check in,' the feel of her body circling my legs as she moves into her 'heel' position, the press of her shoulder against my knee as though touching base, as though she finds as much comfort in that moment of reconnection as i do, and then her great burst of power and sheer exhilaration as she explodes on down the trail again. she did a lot of that today, and i think we both shared a serene and calm pleasure in this year's very first snowfall.
i love this animal. i love the peace i share with her. she is my girl.
Our dog Dexter, he's a wire-haired German pointer, a bit mad and he loves to go for a run.
Unfortunately his run was interrupted today by some guests who wanted to stay in our Brittany holiday Gite