Just lost a dog. She got ruined by a porcupine and it was simply unrealistic to try to remove all the quills and fight the infection. If she had come home sooner maybe, but she was in rough shape.
I hate that I wasn't there to help her when she needed me.
I have some pics of her I'm gonna post, you can come along if you like.
thread theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQsgE0L450
Really good looking dog
>>2131381
She was the best.
"is she had come home sooner"? Was she just in the yard?
>>2131388
Rural area, we own 125acres or so, she was gone overnight. It was unlike her, but she probably treed the porcupine after her injury and didn't want to leave it. We looked for her but she was gone a solid 20 hours.
She had quills in both eyes and all in her nose, I'm surprised she even found her way back. She knew the land I suppose, she'd lived with us for 9 years or so.
>>2131392
she looks like she had a good life
>>2131392
>125 acres for dog to roam free
>Was gone for 20 hours
>Dog had to drag its self home
Yeah fuck that. You're just as bad as the people who complain their cat got hit by a car. Protect your goddamn animals. Build a fence. Maybe you're even worse because it's a dog. At least cats somewhat have a good chance of avoiding shit.
This is your own fault and your dog died because of it.
>>2131384
It looks like it stinks badly . your house probably smelled like dog ass.
>>2131427
>the canis genus was meant to live in tiny confined spaces
>a dog in a small fenced in yard leads a more fulfilling life than one with free roam of land
You're the one who is being cruel to animals.
Would you rather live in a 10x10 cell and live to 90 or go wherever you please and do what you will and live to 70? I'd vote for the latter. To some of us animals aren't our entertainment, they're autonomous companions.
>>2131374
Sorry man, losing a dog is always hard.
>>2131430
I've run into this idea before, and I think I've found the cause of it. People who's dogs go outside tend to let them on the furniture because a dog who runs around outside tends to not smell.
Indoor dogs tend to have greasier fur and more pungent odors. I've only got 30 years of experience with many different animals to back this up so whatever.
>>2131486
>bitch bitch whine whine flimsy prison analogy
You're the dog's caregiver. You are obligated to protect it from harm. In rural areas, that means confining it when it's not being supervised.
>>2131500
I suppose this is why timber wolves thrived in captivity? Oh wait they didn't.
Domesticated animals aren't charges. I suppose for you city girls they are, but for people who grow up rougher, domesticated animals work.
You're the sort who would name a piglet and then overfeed it and never butcher it. You're sad, and you're the reason the planet is going to shit. You consume all the same resources as a useful member of society would, but you don't have any idea how the global ecosystem works.
No touching the dog pls sir
>>2131427
>farm dog gets quilled
>"you let them down, you're a terrible babysitter"
You have no idea how dogs work friend.
>>2131517
>city girls
It's ironic that you would invoke one of /an/'s most cancerous types of shitposter, given that the giggly bitches speculating on whether they could care for a St. Bernard in their efficiency apartment are objectively better with animals than OP: they are merely CONSIDERING neglecting an animal.
>for people who grow up rougher, domesticated animals work
Dogs work better alive than dead.
>>2131522
OP here
out of curiosity what would you have done differently that would have spared her?
My mom let them out in the morning, as she always does, but only the little one came back for food in the AM, so she called me and she and I went to look for her.
She was happy her whole life, and I don't think she'd have been happier if she'd be in a cage instead, so I think you're out of touch.
>>2131427
Dogs get quilled. It happens. Farm dogs by necessity have to be outside doing their jobs. It's their job to be outside with the livestock. OP sounds like they did their best. Especially trying to search 125(!) acres.
My heelers decided that elk were not allowed on my property. Scared the shit out of me. They took off after an elk herd and I didn't see the dogs again until the next day. I was hiking all over those hills trying to find them and finally came home when it got dark. The next morning I spent calling neighbors, calling the county animal shelter, driving around in my car calling their names. When I came home to get more water and something to snack on, there they were with proud grins and bloody paw pads. Freaking dorks. The elk definitely got the point though and never came on to my property again.
One of them got quilled once. They came hauling ass back to me just like they're supposed to in order to get fixed.
Farm dogs are generally happy as fuck, but they do tend to live very interesting lives. It's part of the reason that farm dog breeds are so much more intelligent than other dog breeds. You need the extra intelligence to take care of livestock and get yourself out of bad situations.
>>2131523
>I don't think she'd have been happier if she'd been in a cage
Mmm, delicious false equivalence. Of COURSE the only alternative to leaving your dog out to be picked to pieces by wild animals is locking it in a tiny box from a PETA advertisement.
What would I have done instead? Have a fenced-in area for the dogs to stay in when not being watched, like the rural dog owners I know have for their dogs.
>>2131524
OP again
I know the grin you're talking about. I know exactly what it looks like.
I think two years ago she'd have been back sooner, but she was pushing 12 this year. I think she had a good life, she loved us and we loved her.
>>2131528
>picked to pieces by wild animals
Did you look at any of the pictures? OPs dog is not getting picked apart by anything son.
You live a tiny focused life. It's not wrong, it's just not the only way to live life. You're the kind of person who would own a chihuahua and equate it to owning an Irish Wolfhound. You're stupid. It's a very different sort of life for a dog when you own a yard, or a city block. Then take a city block and multiply it by 10. Own that much land, and own a dog and deny that dog the right to that land.
(I don't actually know how big an acre is but I think its like a city block maybe?)
>>2131427
>>2131500
>>2131528
ITT: people who live in apartments judge people who own dogs
>>2131529
Mine are 10 now. Almost retirement time. The stupids things are only happy when outside though. Anytime I take them in, they look at me like I'm a freaking bully. Sorry guys, inside by dark every night. Gotta come inside at least once a day too.
>>2131530
OP's dog is dead. The pictures are a memorial to a corpse that could have been avoided.
I mean, look, if dogs are disposable ornaments to you guys, fine, let your dogs get killed because you're too cheap to throw some chain link around a quarter acre. Just don't cry crocodile tears for them when your inaction kills them.
>>2131536
You've obviously never been on a working farm. The dogs have jobs. We use field fencing, not chain link. Chain link will hurt livestock. OMG, just stop. You're fucking idiotic.
>this thread
>reasonable people saying you should supervise your dog and keep it in/near the house when not under your direct supervision
>hillbillies assuming that means "hurr no freedom for dog???" "dog need be free run forever"
>125 acres and OP's family couldn't be bothered to fence off a large space for the dog to run around
>instead lets the dog roam freely because "muh freedom"
>>2131427 is right. OP directly contributed to his dog's death. it sucks to lose a dog, OP, but don't act like you were doing right by her by getting her into that situation.
>>2131536
1 acre is about 43560 sqft.
Assuming your acre is a perfect square, then about 209 ft per side.
Assuming that OP has a perfectly square property, OP's land is 2333 feet per side. And it mostly likely is fenced and fenced very well. When you have that kind of land, you're usually running cattle since cattle are the most profitable. Which means insanely good fencing because cattle don't care about anything but the most sturdy fence.
>>2131535
Only piece of advice I can give (since you asked for advice right?) is feed them inside so when they're older they associate food with being inside.
>>2131536
I suppose the irony of your post is lost on you, because you're very unintelligent.
You call our dogs ornaments, and yet you keep yours in a chain-link case. Ours run around and chase squirrels, come home panting and happy with burrs in their fur and tongues out and tails wagging. I like to think OPs dog was as happy as mine have always been. I was never a "caregiver" to my dogs. They were members of my family and they were always as happy as we were. I truly pity the dog that lives under your thumb.
>>2131542
isn't that like half a mile? That's a lot of land ...
>>2131536
So you're very clearly from a city. Porcupines happen to dogs, it's a thing. It's not as if the porcupine hunted out some weak tiny dog in the dead of night and bested it in combat, dogs bite them because dogs are kinda dumb and do that shit.
Evolutionarily porcupines are designed to fuck up dogs(or wolfs), if a dog got fucked up it's because the dog was doing its job and the porcupine was doing its job.
>>2131537
>the dogs have jobs
They're better at their jobs when they're not dead.
>We use field fencing, not chain link
You use field fencing for livestock. You use whatever keeps the dog in for the dog. Better dog owners figured this out.
>>2131544
I don't have a dog at all. My friends who have dogs have dogs that are still alive because they don't neglect them.
>They were members of my family
If you ever have children, god forbid, I hope that you will recognize that they are members of your family AND that you need to keep them out of the chemical cabinet and from running into the street.
>>2131554
We had a horse get quilled once. Although, bitch had it coming. She's the only truly sociopathic horse I've ever met. The other horse would actually drive her off because she was such a bitch. Fucking face full of quills. Only time that horse has even been nice. She came and found me so that I could help her. They were deep too. She bit the fuck out of that porcupine. Porcupine may not have even survived it.
Called the vet since I didn't feel confident that I could get all the quills (they were fucking deep) and even the vet had to use tools to extract some of them.
>>2131559
>If you ever have children, god forbid
2 daughters, 4 and 6, they're flawless
>you need to keep them out of the chemical cabinet and from running into the street.
more city girl talk
They'd have to go more than a quarter mile to find the nearest road, and another mile past that to find the first paved one.
As far as MY dogs go? They are free to go as they please, I have a dual layer dog door (I'll put a link later because I swear by the damn thing) but they have the run of probably 12-15 times the land that OPs dog had.
They came home will quills once, I pulled them out with pliers. They've come home skunked probably 7 times. Tomato Juice is the secret.
If you and your dogs live near water be sure to kill the racoons, coons are smart enough to drown a dog. Same for porcupines, they're not smart but they'll cost you. Keep em wormed too, that's important for their comfort.
>>2131544
Yeah. They only get offered food inside. They get primo fucking food too. They always have high quality kibble available. They are fed on a daily basis, an egg, dog friendly veggies, raw beef (organs & muscle meat), yogurt, bits of fruit. They also have tendons and cartilage to snack and chew on. They still prefer it outside. But hey, farm dogs.
>>2131560
I've pulled quills from a horse that was older than I am.
I've found that horses don't take shit from any animal At all. Not even humans, if a horse don't like you they'll fucking show you.
>>2131564
dude both dogs I have and my cat eat raw spinach, for whatever resown they feel like its missing from their diet and they eat like 5 or 6 leaves a piece.
What kinda stupid cat eats spinach? I think he does it just because he thinks the dogs get more attention than he does.
>>2131376
That's them together.
>>2131554
>people drown, it happens
>so why even have a lifeguard?
Coyotes and wild hogs will kill any unsecured dog around here. Rattlesnakes can get to dogs through a fence, but a fence limits their range so the don't wander for hours delirious from sickness like OP allowed to happen to his dog.
>>2131569
The only thing living on my property that didn't get veggies out of the garden was the cat. She was an evil little thing. She appreciated the bit of egg, yogurt and beef she got every day though.
I had a goat that would stare me down any time I went into the garden because he knew that he would get weeds or insect damaged veggies if he hung out long enough.
>>2131570
You just keep on beating that dead horse dude.
>>2131573
>keep on beating that dead dog
fix'd
>>2131570
Maybe you need to be master of your domain.
Did you know before they were domesticated canines weren't driven to extinction by snakes? Kooky!
Did you know what some people have dogs to keep coyotes away from their sheep, and locking said dogs inside some retarded fence would defeat the purpose of that? wacky!
Did you know that your experience isn't the end all be all of dog ownership? Perhaps there are different situations in which different things happen and you're actually incredibly ignorant of them? Zoinks!
>>2131572
goats are too clever. I will never forgive goats.
We had to have my dog put down yesterday, OP. I know exactly what you're going through even though the complications were different. I'd post a picture of her but I am trying not to look at anything yet and just trying to deal with it.
She wasn't a farm dog but she was a very adventurous and smart girl who I swear used to be a human before she got reincarnated into a dog. I am at a loss on what to do with myself even though I know she wouldn't want that.
>>2131577
This is literally the most sarcastic post I have ever seen on /an/.
>>2131577
Did you know that if you deliberately endanger your dog, only other animal-abusers will take your demands for pity seriously?
>>2131580
Did you love her?
It's rhetorical we know you did. Just remember than, and remember your time with her.
>>2131500
I'm supposed to watch my LGD while it's up in the alps guarding my goats 24/7?
>>2131583
A) I'm not OP
B) OP did not demand pity, I'm literally copy pasting here;
>I have some pics of her I'm gonna post, you can come along if you like.
C) You don't own a dog, and I think most of the thread would agree with me in hoping that you never do. Dogs are not an animal you keep in a terrarium. They need to run, they need to course through the trees and woods. They need to be dogs. I guess maybe you just don't quite get what a dog is.
>>2131585
Of course I loved her. She was my best friend and the best dog I have ever known, honestly. Seven years we had her and each day was great. It was so sudden what happened that all the stress and grief is just piled on and while I'm trying not to cry like a bitch all the time it's just not being stopped when it wants to happen.
I hate dogs, man. They're so dumb.
dudes he's trolling, while I agree it's in poor taste to troll in a thread like this it's pretty obvious that nobody is really as stupid as
>>2131583
Value your time with your pup.
>>2131589
>I'm not OP
No, you're some other dumb fuck who shouldn't own dogs. You're all interchangeable.
>OP did not demand pity
Fair enough. What OP and you other animal abuse apologists did was demand not to have your bullshit called out, which is slightly different from pity.
>I'm a neglectful retard who can't comprehend the difference between a crate and a huge fucking yard with a fence around it
Yeah. I noticed.
>>2131593
How much land did your family own when you were young? How much room did you have?
>>2131593
>not making a zoo out of your home is animal abuse
Ok ok I understood your viewpoint, I didn't agree, because frankly you're wrong, but I understood why you thought it.
I live in an apartment now, but my parents had land, and I remember our dogs. I remember my friends dogs. None of them were fenced in. We were taught it was just not right to trap an animal that is instinctually territorial into 100 square ft. They want to run. Would you try to keep pet deer in a tiny lot with no room to gallop? If not how can you justify giving dogs no room to lope?
I'm giving you a second here to look up lope because you clearly know very little about dogs. I really hate you. More powerful than my hate for you is my pity for whatever poor creature lives in your prison of "care taking". Poor little creature.
Anyone who truly loves an animal embraces it's nature. You must have missed that memo. I hope you die. Literally I hope you die.
>>2131570
Says the hypocritical faggot who just a few posts earlier claimed false equivalence.
You're either immeasurably salty, or trolling. Frankly I don't care which.
>>2131603
>homeworld image
ok now you're cheating
>>2131603
>he thinks that allowing an animal in your care to just do whatever it wants is the best way to care for it
>he thinks the only way for a dog to enjoy itself is to wander around
>he doesn't take his dog on walks or jogging
>he doesn't take his dog to the dog park
>he doesn't actually take care of his dog, just lets it roam around at large
>he doesn't actually have a pet dog, he has an animal that he feeds and sees every once in a while
>>2131603
>Anyone who truly loves an animal embraces it's nature
it's in my dog's nature to knock my sister's boxes of fundraiser chocolate cookie dough off the counter and gorge herself on them
but I guess inducing vomiting wouldn't be embracing its nature
>>2131613
>>2131616
You have a very different idea of dog ownership than I do.
To me a dog is a creature that has it's own desires, and compulsions. I don't treat it as equal but I treat it as if it were alive.
I think a dog would be happier in the woods than in a tiny dirt lot behind an apartment building.
My view sees a dog as an independent animal, and not as some nursing babe. We're not going to reconcile our differences, and you're not going to concede even a small point so we're wasting our time.
If I had a litter of pups I'd give them to OP over you two. They may live shorter lives, but they'd be richer ones.
People who live in cities have lost touch with the agrarian side of their species, and unsurprisingly they've also lost touch with the agrarian side of their domesticated companions. You work on a farm? You might get kicked by a horse. You might get bit by a ewe. You might get knocked by a ram, these are things you accept.
When you own a dog in this situation, this dog might chase of coyotes. It might keep franklin ground squirrels from digging those holes that break your horses ankles. It might sleep with the sheep because for whatever reason he likes to sleep with the sheep. It might come back to your house smelling like it got skunk blasted, because it did. It might come back with quills in it's snout because that happens too.
Dogs, when they're really allowed to be dogs, get into trouble because they're trying to hold the line. They're pissing on your furthest tree to keep timber wolves, bobcats, coyotes and bears away. They're part of the team.
City kids will never really get that, because they think of dogs like a cell phone, or a laptop. They're a toy.
A team is different that a set of possessions.
The worst part is that city kids will never understand because dogs are SO willing to just be a team member, that they'll be happy even if they don't get to run around in the woods.
>>2131627
you're right but relax man
>>2131627
>It might sleep with the sheep
I thought we were talking about dogs not Welshmen.
>>2131627
I read this post with contempt but then when you said
>It might keep franklin ground squirrels from digging those holes that break your horses ankles.
I stepped back and was like "ok yeah he knows".
How can you even own that much land and not have at least 1 dog? Dog's are such an amazing help around farms. How else could you possibly keep your livestock safe. It's a crazy wild world out there anons. Farmers depend on dogs to keep out predators and to keep an eye on things when we can't.
>>2131641
Underrated post.
Seriously tho, are you kids so fucking dense that you are trying to tell people that you need to fence off your dog when you live on a 125 acre farm? I know /an/ is out of touch, full of trolls and preteen girls, and generally overreacts to anything and is quick to be judgemental and pull out the animal abuse card, but are we seriously suggesting that farm dogs should be confined to a pen? Did I really just read a post suggesting that you should take a farm dog to a dog park for exercise? Lol, ok, business as usual I see.
Sorry for your loss OP.
I guess she was just too slow.
>>2131627
>I think a dog would be happier in the woods than in a tiny dirt lot behind an apartment building.
this is why you're retarded. you think it's either "let the dog roam free to do whatever he wants" or "keep it tied up in a confined space doing nothing"
keep sperging country people and city people. I'll be up here in the "city" with a happy, healthy, alive dog.
>>2131772
No one is really happy in the city, dogs presumably included
>>2131775
>dogs presumably included
>>2131627
OP's dog isn't happy, doesn't have desires and compulsions. It's dead.
>>2132015
OP's dog lived a better, healthier, happier life than you are now. Dog may have died a couple years early, but considering the sheer joy and adventure she experienced, I think it more than equals out.
>>2131374
I just went through pet loss as well OP. It's tough to see them go. You gave them the best life you could. You have my sympathy, friend.
>>2131530
There are 640 acres in a square mile.
125 acres is a decent amount of land. No huge farm or anything, but a good amount of land.
>>2132040
If you don't have a family farm is it feasible to own several acres? Like if I wanted to have a chunk of land could I get 20 acres? Or is that amount unreasonable, since people tend to buy tiny bits of land.
>>2132227
Tends to get really expensive unless you buy land in the middle of freaking nowhere. Even then it can be retardedly expensive. My minimum is 5 acres. That makes me feel crowded. I don't want to be able to see my neighbors or hear them. I prefer 20 to 40 acres. That's comfy.
>>2131579
What did the goat do to you, anon?
>>2132227
You have to get rural, but 20 acres isn't crazy. You'll likely need to build your own home, though.
ur a douche, you could have fenced even 1 fucking acre and your dog would have had more space than ANY dog living in a city. and you could easily allocated more acres than that were you could still kept a good watch on her.
