We now have a 29-month-old female German shepherd and a 3-1/2-month-old female anarchist terrorist German shepherd that gets away with far too much rapid-paced nonsense and games by being too cute. Our German security system.
The Original O'l Farts Club.
- Thread starter Putembk
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oldfogey8
Well-known member
I knew I was stupid running out into my yard to scare off a black bear last summer but I guess I didn’t know how stupid. We have at least 2 that demolish my bird feeders. One has a collar and 2 ear tags which I am told means he is a nuisance bear. And I guess not just to me. I started pegging him with a BB gun after a while. Maybe bears in the northeast aren’t as aggressive? I am not going to try to test that theory though…
Bears are or can be as unpredictable as humans, maybe a bit less so than humans.I knew I was stupid running out into my yard to scare off a black bear last summer but I guess I didn’t know how stupid. We have at least 2 that demolish my bird feeders. One has a collar and 2 ear tags which I am told means he is a nuisance bear. And I guess not just to me. I started pegging him with a BB gun after a while. Maybe bears in the northeast aren’t as aggressive? I am not going to try to test that theory though…
Most of the time, they want less to do with you than you do with them.
If they've been socialized to humans and human digs (a death sentence for most wild critters) they can come to expect the rewards with a sense of entitlement that can lead to conflicts (there's a reason the signs in the parks read, "DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS"). If they're ill or not in their right mind, they can become a hazard. And if they're frightened, which can be as slight an infraction as them not realizing you're there until you're way too close to each other, then they can be a problem (Or a sow with cubs can perceive you as a threat from a distance that OUGHT to tell her you're not a threat, but.... motherhood.....).
Those are the primary circumstances when a bear can become trouble.
Edit: Serious hunger, like verging on starvation, can also lead them to overcome their fears and become aggressive..
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oldfogey8
Well-known member
First time we saw the tagged bear, my wife and I were hanging out on the deck and he came up to the bird feeder about 20 ft from us, pulled it down and sat his fat ass on the ground and proceeded to eat sunflower seed as we watched him watching us. After a few smashed bird feeders, it wasn’t a ‘wow, isn’t nature cool’ thing anymore. I like to feed the birds(I have a flock of a dozen wild turkeys that follow me around the yard) but bears, coyotes, foxes and the occasional Fisher Cat I can do without. People in the neighborhood have seen a bobcat and a moose but I haven’t yet.
plus it's good for role play as naughty Radaghast!
If they become accustomed to accessing trash that's not secured, dog food left out on a porch, or even bird feeders, they will likely return when they feel the desire.
I was tilling fresh salmon entrails from the cannery, in masse, into my garden down in Southcentral Alaska 30 years ago, along with some hydrated lime to break it down faster, with a shitty glacial till gravel base under the garden. Tilling the salmon guts into the soil as deep as I could, which wasn't all that deep.
The animal control folks were live-trapping and relocating large-ish coastal brown bears a block or 2 away from our home there, and the primary culprit was folks leaving trash and dog food on unsecured porches.
I never had one of those bears in my yard that I know of, despite the garden as described, but the folks not tending to their trash and dog food were getting regular visits.
We shot a tagged (radio collared) cow moose once. She was older than she looked, especially for her size, and she literally ate like a well-seasoned or aged tender beef. Incredible stuff. The radio collar was for the Fish & Game biologists to track and study her.
They didn't take it personally when I turned in her 'jewelry', but they had YEARS of her history, what years she'd successfully calved, what year she had a stillborn, where she traveled to when feeding or mating, and more.
Sometimes the collars are for tracking and study up here, though when she filled our freezer, her scientific value plummeted.
They are beautiful
I don't hunt anymore but I still fish as often as I can. I used to fish tail waters all year long. But, I don't do that much anymore. Mostly cause I don't have anybody left to go with. As we have gotten older my fishing buddies have gone by the way side.
One thing I still do and always will is put em bk.
One thing I still do and always will is put em bk.
dogzter
Drapetomaniac
I was catch and release the last ten years or so in Florida.
Fish stock were bouncing back in a big way then and fishing was excellent but the pollution in the fish was horrendous.
Thank you!!
Our three children are all grown and gone, and all took the path to one degree or another of roller-coaster hostilities, intermittent peace, and distancing off and on, as though life and love are a revolving door or some shit. A common failure of youth (and much of humanity, in my opinion) to perceive life as though infinite in some ways, failing to address sleights, resolve conflicts sooner than later, remedy broken commitments or love, etc.
The dogs? I've had them around me since I was 2 years old, shortly before John Kennedy was shot, and many different breeds. Hitch-hiked North America for years with an AKC registered Norwegian elkhound who dealt with bears and cops alongside me, and only one or two 'mentally defective from birth' pups had anything other than a relatively dependable, loyal, loving, even-keel, steady-as-she-goes honest, in-depth relationship and mutual adoration (most of the time).
I used to tell folks (and as of now, I guess I still do) that if a dog steals something from you, they're either enjoying a game with you, or you really pissed them off, or it tastes good. And I've never had a dog steal my dope or my wallet, and never had a significant other go for a cop's throat.
Of all the pups of many different breeds I've had or affiliated myself with, German shepherds have impressed me beyond belief; loyal, gentle, loving, bonded, able to hold their ground when needed, and sometimes just as funny as can be imagined. Great senses of humor in the three we've had.
I'm a hardcore GSD convert.
oldfogey8
Well-known member
I know my bird feeders are bringing the gears to the smorgasbord. I stash them in my shed when I remember but they remind me the next day with smashed bird feeders and stolen suets cages the next day if I forget.
Run Away
I try to only fish in catch and release waters. Two reasons......one the fish are bigger because they are released to grow and fight another day.....2nd....I am fishing with like minded fishermen.
Colorado is so over fished that all you catch is stockers unless you have a secluded secret place or you know when the fish come out of the lakes to spawn.
That's a former friend's hand (and he's a tall, lanky fellow), to whom many of the pics (not all) belong and are credited to.
That bear paced back and forth in front of an old moose-hunting tree stand I used to use in the bush back then.
The bear wasn't there steadily but would come and go.
When the former friend dropped him due to the bear making further and further incursions up toward my former friend's home, and he took him in to a pro taxidermist to have him turned into a deluxe rug, the fellow swore up and down it was a Kodiak Brown trophy bear. it wasn't. It was an old and HEALTHY Interior Grizzly.
A MASSIVE grizzly. One that, for years after his being taken, left me looking over my shoulders and under my armpits when I'd pass that set of trails on the 4-wheeler. But I admittedly suffer a stout case of Bearanoia and have since my earliest days in the woods.
I consciously ceased purposefully hunting black bears in 1987. And ceased fishing for pike, too, around that same time, or even a bit earlier, swearing a peace pact with anything bigger than me with sharp teeth and claws, specifically, or just sharp teeth that take mid-sized feathered prey from underneath the water, like some Jaws mutant or something.. Though I'm not sure how literate the other parties are, and so suspect a lack of strict adherence to the negotiated truce.
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Even at the remote lakes we fish, we try to only keep ONE sizable breeder these days, if at all. And the eaters we keep are more often 25" to 29" for the lakers.
Otherwise, the youngsters and others we've talked with about our old-time fishing missions, 20 years from now, will either call us liars, or demand pics, because all of those fish will be dead..
yep .. in '66 my parents started selling male GSs pups to the Air Force for Viet Nam .. black and tans
Always had them even when wifee wanted chinese and french .. happy wife happy life
A dog that'll rip the legs off an intruder, bond to you like Velcro mixed with Super Glue, and sit with your baby with minimal distress from the unintended poorly controlled groping youngsters can render, sit patiently with the little one, sigh, and lick the arm and cheeks of the tiny offender.
You just have to get through the first 2 years of them being in their velociraptor stage and needing amphetamines to keep up with the little fuzz balls.
