Noah's Traumatic Experience
I was there, too, but only Noah was traumatized. We were driving home and I spotted a gold eagle eating a fox. The eagle was huge! I pointed it out to Noah and he stopped the car to look. I thought it was kind of cool, but Noah thought the fox looked like Tojo, so we had to rush home to "make sure Tojo's okay." Which is sweet.
Although, if an eagle can take out a fox, I guess an eagle could take out a shiba. Which worries him because Noah's mom (who lives out here on the property) was asking if Tojo could stay with her sometimes. She's attached to Tojo and Tojo's attached to her, but I guess now Noah's worried that an eagle will eat him.
Then, I just had to make matters worse by telling Noah about how Iceland sheepdogs are naturally wary of birds because in Iceland, the only predators to the sheep are eagles that kill lambs and eat their eyes. Skella does freak out whenever the owl flies overhead and she's caught a few birds before.
Anyway, I hadn't thought of eagles being a danger to my pups before, but I can't really say I'm too worried about it now, either. My favourite dog run in town has a nesting site nearby for bald eagles and I see them there all the time.
Maybe I should be worried?
Although, if an eagle can take out a fox, I guess an eagle could take out a shiba. Which worries him because Noah's mom (who lives out here on the property) was asking if Tojo could stay with her sometimes. She's attached to Tojo and Tojo's attached to her, but I guess now Noah's worried that an eagle will eat him.
Then, I just had to make matters worse by telling Noah about how Iceland sheepdogs are naturally wary of birds because in Iceland, the only predators to the sheep are eagles that kill lambs and eat their eyes. Skella does freak out whenever the owl flies overhead and she's caught a few birds before.
Anyway, I hadn't thought of eagles being a danger to my pups before, but I can't really say I'm too worried about it now, either. My favourite dog run in town has a nesting site nearby for bald eagles and I see them there all the time.
Maybe I should be worried?
Comments
I guess you didn't see the video Brad posted a while ago of an eagle taking a big goat off a cliff and flying with it to eat it? That was one of the reasons that Brad bought the CO, for guarding against land and sky predators....
At our dog park, which is not far from a nature preserve area, the owners of the smaller dogs are very aware of hawks, falcons, eagles, etc. The birds will occasionally circle the park area , they may be looking for rodents, but the Chihuahau owners aren't going to take chances...
See the link/story below. It talks about a Golden Eagle strafing and trying to take out a white-tail deer.
http://www.ilbirds.com/index.php?topic=32809.0
I have a picture somewhere of a hawk sitting next to the pool. Just sitting there. It wasn't scared of me at all when I went up to snap the pic.
Something to watch out for, I guess.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2309/1860676143_6c8e8ca50f.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2218/1860660775_ba8722b52c.jpg
The time that sealed the deal for me was when I walked out back to find Kona barking up at a HUGE hawk that was just floating over him. I ran out in the yard and got to within 50 feet (guess) before the hawk decided to go away. It really freaked me out.
I worry about Mochi, for example, when she was a pup - like 4 months - she spent a lot of time playing with Loa out there, a bird that size could take her with no problems.
We rarely see them now with the CO on the scene.
CAO are said to be very aggressive toward birds and are a bit less human aggressive than CO. One of them may work well up there for you.
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I'd like to have another big dog with my two Shibas. I have a GSD, but the poor boy is old and arthritic, and I don't make him stay outside too much--he mostly wants to be in, laying on a soft bed. But a couple of months ago, my girl Shiba got torn up pretty bad by coyotes. She was outside by herself at night (wouldn't come in when I called, of course). Looks like she stuck her head through the fence (which is stock fencing, now reinforced with chicken wire) and they bit her on either side of her head. And just yesterday I found a fair amount of coyote hair and a spray of blood in the yard, real close to the house, though my dogs are fine. The coyotes can jump right over the fence I guess...
And maybe the size of the dog doesn't matter that much....my vet said a big lab got killed a couple of months ago by a pack of 3-4 coyotes...the owners saw it happen, but weren't able to save their dog.
I go out with the dogs at night now...
eta: forgot to say, that's a gorgeous eagle though....how did you get those pics?
But, the funny part about Noah was mainly the "get home to see if Tojo's okay," because "what if that fox is Tojo?" part, because Tojo was safe inside, and the fox the eagle had was clearly not Tojo.
I think size does play a part, but I know some stories of coyote around here ganging up and killing rancher's LGDs (usually GPs)... That is why we have 2, also Luytiy is a bit bigger and more robust than the average GP you see here.
That is funny Heidi.
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