Anybody Hunt With Their Best Buddy? Meaning, Their Dog?

[Critterhunter]

I've seen Bryce in the Explorer forum post photos of his dog on his hunts as well as a few people in this forum over the last few years post a photo or two of their dogs they take out on a hunt. Just thought I'd share a photo of my best pal as well. She's a husky but unlike any husky I've ever seen in that she has somewhat longer hair and kind'a looks like she's got some border collie in her, but she does have papers that says she's a husky. Somebody told me once that she's what's called a "long haired husky" but I never read the papers or looked into it to see if that was true.

4 to 6 years ago (my memory isn't that good on dates) my brother got a divorce and this dog was living 99% of the day in the house that neither his wife or him lived in during the divorce. His daughter was taking this dog out once a day to do it's business. When we found out that this had been going on for 3 or 4 months we said that's not right and we'll take the dog in.

Well, of course she grew on me and now she's my best friend. Her name is Sky. I don't even like to think about the fact that this dog lived several months all alone with only a person taking her out once a day. She's much too socialable of a dog to put her through that kind of isolation and it makes me sad to even think about that.

I've taken her out on a few hunts in the woods here and there and tied her to a tree very close by so she could watch me dig some silver coins. I'll bring a few coins over to her to show her how well I dig but she often gets bored and decides to dig for critters around the trees I tie her to. I must admit I haven't taken her out on one of these hunts in a while because I need to know where I'm going and thus can tie her to a close by tree. I really should take her on more park hunts and stick one of those anchor chains into the ground that you screw into the soil so she can watch me hunt and enjoy the outdoors in a park as I hunt.

Anyway, all I can say is that she'll be 10 in a few days and I don't like to think about having to put her down in maybe 5 more years or so. I can manage taking her to the vet to do that but I don't think I can be in the same room as they give her the injection to put her to sleep. I'm a hunter and I've killed (harvested is a better way to put it) many animals over the last close to 20 years but I'm sorry I just don't think I could handle being in the same room when they have to put her down. Just not strong enough to do that I guess. She's very smart and a inteligent creature in her own way and I'm just too close to her to deal with that.

She very rarely barked until I taught her to bark for a treat when I tell her to speak. Mainly she likes to howl a lot and whine. Not like a wolf that howles but rather in her own kind of "talking" way. She does this "talk" a lot when I interact with her to the point that other dogs who aren't so "verbal" just don't seem to be as smart or have the personality of her. If I ever do get another dog it's going to have to be a talker like her because now all other dogs seem boring to me. She just loves to talk!

Anyway, sorry to ramble on. This isn't the best picture of her but it's the only one I could find on the net. She just happend to be in the background when I was taking a picture of one of the electric RC homemade planes I built. Would like to hear your dog stories and if you take them on hunts. I'm thinking of teaching her to smell silver with treats by hiding them under cups and such and then taking her for walks in the woods and throwing a poker chip where she marks a spot (which means I'll of course give her a treat then because she won't do any "tricks" unless there is a treat involved). Then I can come back later and check the spot out with my metal detector. Don't laugh at this. If a dog can smell bones buried several feet deep then why can't a dog smell a silver coin say up to a foot or so deep?

 

[Critterhunter]

Sorry, totally forgot to post a picture of my best buddy. This is the only one I could find on the net short of breaking out my digital camera which is on the fritz right now anyway. She's in the background of a homemade electric plane I built with a scouting camera that gives a live video feed to my ground station TV screen or snaps a still picture for scouting out new potential metal detecting sites. Nobody owns the air, so it can be used to scout private property for old house sites and such before trying to secure permission to hunt there. I must admit I haven't done much of this RC aerial scouting in the last couple of years but I should get back into it. RC electric planes are great fun in their own respect. Met a lot of great friends in that hobby just like I have in metal detecting. And building my own planes by hotwiring them from foam blocks is dirt cheap, and allows me to also design and build my own designs. Anyway, here's my dog if you can see her good enough in the photo. She's got a border collie sort of look to her but she's pure husky according to the papers, or at least some kind of husky purebred...

Great thing about electric planes is no mess and no hard times starting them up or dealing with fuel. With light weight high capacity lipo batteries they have very long run times and a great amount of power. That's why I run a 3 cell lipo in my GT. It is smaller and saves a great deal of weight over 8AA batteries, not to mention it's perfectly fine to charge lipos in an hour or less and they don't discharge on the shelf like nimhs or nicads do.

Some pictures of aerial views taken with my planes and other scouting/plane building info...

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1133099,page=1

And a picture of my best buddy below...

 

[gear box]

I love dogs and Husky's are one of the most handsome. I got A couple of Yorkies myself and they wouldn't like anything better than rip a rabbit to shreds so it's best they stayed home. The naughty little buggers.
Good luck Gary

 

[matthias]

I love to take my 10 year old Collie/Mix detecting with me. I got her from the pound. Once we are safely away from the road she gets off the leash and will never stray far. She often stops and sits down to watch me when I stop to dig a target. Her name is Ashley. I feel bad when I leave her at home on a nice day so I often choose my detecting sites on whether or not she can join me. HH. Matt

 

[Critterhunter]

Cute dog. Glad to hear you got her from the pound. More people should do that rather than buying them from breeders.

Why don't you teach her how to smell silver Iike I think I'm going to try with my husky? If a dog can smell a bone 3 feet underground from a human body that has been sitting in the ground for 40 years, then I don't see why they couldn't smell a silver dime say 12" deep? I could take her for walks in the woods with some treats and tell her to "find the silver" and then just throw a poker chip on the spot and come back later and detect it. I taught her in about one hour with some treats to find the deer shed. First I would touch her nose with the deer shed and then give her a treat. Then I'd lay it next to me on the couch and tell her to find it and she quickly learned to put her nose on it or touch it with her paw. Then I laid the shed in the middle of the living room floor and tell her to find the shed and she'd go over to it and touch it some way to get her treat. By the end of an hour I could hide the shed behind something without her looking and she'd find it by scent.

So how hard could it be to teach her to find the silver under several cups? I could put regular coins under the other cups after a while and teach her that she only gets a treat when she finds the silver one. Shouldn't take too long to teach her that, and then on to a few silver dimes buried say 1" deep in the backyard, and on from there.

Crazy idea, aint it? But hey, it MIGHT work!