It is a well-known fact that poodles are great hunting dogs. Just ask my sister, Elsa. Sam here. She ‘hunts’ everything she can wrap her teeth around. I guess I shouldn’t cast negative aspersions since I’ve eviscerated my fair share of leather goods over the years. But she’s taken the whole hunting dog mantel to a whole new level.
First off, can I say she goes bonkers whenever a squirrel is within 87 feet of our house? We can be out for a nice leisurely walk with mom and she’ll see one of the bushy-tailed rats and will try to turn mom into a kite and climb up the tree after it. I’ll admit that girl has some wheels. Twice now she’s come within a whisker’s length of catching the two that terrorize her live in our big tree and raid the trash and recycle bins. One of these days guys…she’s gonna catch you. Just saying.
We were walking early the other morning and guess what we came across? A cute ‘widdle wabbit.’
Once we realized what it was, our poodle genes kicked into action overdrive. Say whaaat?! (spoken in ascending falsetto voice)
Just look at that pointing form of my sister! I was still trying to figure out just what the heck it is but she knew it was something not squirrel-like.
Mom could barely pull us away we were so mesmerized. Now every time we pass by this little mini-park, we start looking for Bugs Bunny. Mom said I look like Elmer Fudd when I’m searching, but I’m not sure what she meant by that. No doubt she was trying to be funny. To which I say, ‘don’t quit the day job.’ She’s no comedian, trust me on that. And she’s no great photographer either, as evidenced by all the cross light-beams. She apologizes for the crummy i-Phone pics but couldn’t hold two leashes, two pulling dogs amazing hunters, a bag of poop and the phone at the same time. I say she just wasn’t quite awake yet. She said sometimes, you just have to take the shot regardless of the position of the sun and objects. I say, ‘whatever.’
[Mom here…sorry about the crummy lighting, even editing wouldn’t improve them enough without those hideous light beams/overexposure. You should have seen the raw photos-eek]
So…do you have wabbits in your ‘hood? Are you a world-class hunter? Did you take classes to learn to hunt or does it come natural for you?
Happy Friday. Woo-hoo, how did we manage to get here so quickly? Oh yeah, that extra long ‘howliday’ weekend the other day sure made a difference, didn’t it? Have a wagnificent weekend.
Live, love, bark! ❤︎
This is great! I have 2 dogs…one tries to sneak up on the bunnies in our neighborhood and the other goes full throttle full time – that is also a fun experience to watch!
Always the adventure. I just hope I don’t turn into a human kite once she sees them!
Yep, lots of rabbits here too. Do you know what’s even better (according to Charlie, that is) than chasing rabbits? Dining on rabbit poop. #$#@ Makes me crazy.
Boy do I know what you mean. Yuck.
Cute post and pictures.
☺️ Thanks!
You’re Welcome.🙂
We have lots of rabbits in our hood, they need to move out!
I’ll send Elsa. 😆
We don’t have them at our house butt we have run into them many times and our poodle genes kick in too!
Your Pals,
Murphy & Stanley
Bunnies are one thing we haven’t seen around here. I can imagine the excitement if we did! Cricket was actually bred to be a rabbit hunter. She sure has the nose for it, but she doesn’t like loud noises so I don’t think she would have made it in that career (good thing she was only ever destined to be a house dog with us)!
We have rabbits…so, so many rabbits. And we have to attempt to chase every single one. Today I did manage to keep Choppy from going nuts over one, because I distracted her with a turtle, which fascinated her.
Elsa would have probably tried to hunt a turtle too! LOL
Choppy mostly jumped at it and nosed it – definitely something less about hunting and more about curiosity.
They seem similar to a small rock…with legs. Elsa would still probably put it in her mouth! #ohthatdog
I got Choppy out of there before she could see what it tasted like – that was already probably the most harrowing minute of that turtle’s life as it was!
Jack rabbits up here at the Golden K go flashing across the property at a distance never getting to close to the house. They’re way smarter than the deer who practically come right up to us looking for hand outs. Have a great weekend! Way hot here in the high 90’s so early activities and then perhaps an afternoon beer in the shade.
Same here (how soon before autumn?). Note to self: go to liquor store for cold beer. 🙂 Happy weekend.🍺
Good ‘ol bunnies! They’re everywhere here too, just begging to be chased!
And quick as lightening! Elsa must go into serious training to keep up with them. I just hope to hang on. 😁
All of the seven dogs in my lifetime – from Mom’s first poodle when I was 5 yo to this little black Tasmanian devil named Ducky – have been tree rat hunters. The first two poodles had a squirrel fall out of a tree right in between them one afternoon. All 3 stood there frozen in time for a moment until the squirrel gathered its wits about him (her?) and the 2 poodles took off after it, right to the base of the tree. Then, a few summers ago, Ducky and Callie caught one as it was trying to escape. It played dead while they and Shadow had a bit of a tussle over it. When I realized what all the noise was about, I separated the girls and gave the squirrel a chance to get away. I never saw a critter run so fast in my life.
We had a squirrel fall out of a tree on our walk a couple days ago! Hard to believe there are clumsy squirrel oafs they way they usually jump from branch to branch so adroitly. I’m sure Ducky could show us a catching trick or two!
Your fur-iends,
Sam & Elsa🐾
Little Miss Ducky is FAST on her paws, Sam and Elsa. I mean REALLY FAST. And quiet. When she first spots one, she will go into Pointer mode. And then subtly into stealth stalker mode, almost like our neighbors’ cat. If that tree rat is in our yard, it had best move quickly. But, if it’s on the other side of the fence/gate, the Duckster loses interest and goes back to playing with her Kong toy. At least until another tree rat catches her attention.
Are you sure she’s not part poodle? That’s pretty much the same way Elsa does it. 🙂
Our Mom would have probably done something stupid like drop the phone if she had tried to take a picture while juggling all that so you should be impressed with your Mom’s ability to even get a picture under those conditions. We have all sorts of wildlife here including rabbits. Let Tuiren get a sniff of them and she is off following their scent, unless Fenris thinks something is a threat he mainly leaves it alone although he has certain RULES about where things are allowed and gets annoyed at visitors that don’t follow the RULES. And yeah when walking in town with Mrs Tammy he chases squirrels up a tree and has even caused Mommy to take flight a time or too.
Ah yes, squirrel flights. Not exactly the flights us uprights are hoping for, is it?
We have rabbits loose in our hood as well. Sometimes, they even mingle with the squirrels. And sometimes, a certain squirrel photographer with an overactive imagination will capture the two together. I really think you all will enjoy this old post of mine!
https://evilsquirrelsnest.com/2013/04/27/whats-up-doc/
Hahaha! Loved that post. With our ongoing squirrel conflict, I’m sorry to admit I cheered for the ‘wascally wabbit.’
I would never judge anyone who decided to root for the evil empire! 😉
Thank you! I consider myself fortunate to have some of my shortcomings discounted. 🙂
OMD, I WISH! Oh how I WISH we had bunnies around here!!!! OMD, that would be soooo much funs! Butts, all I gots are the tree rats, possums, raccoons, skunks (haven’t actually SEEN those yets, just smelled them…phew!), we also gets roof rats that use our trees and power lines as a rat-superhighway…never will gets one of those…rats.☺ Butts, BUNNIES? Oh, nows that would be funs! let me know if you gets any furs….hehehe sorry.
Kisses,
Ruby ♥
You never know about tree rats, Ruby. One fell out of a tree a couple of days ago and I laughed my head off at the dogs. Sam couldn’t believe his eyes and Elsa nearly caught him. Luckily she was on a short leash otherwise there’d have been one less squirrel in the world. 😇
A few years ago we had a little bunny that lived under our front steps. He left lots of bunny poops under there BOL!
hugs
Hazel & Mabel
Bet the pups enjoyed those presents. 😀
We had a crazy rabbit in our yard last summer. It drove the boys CRAZY! Thankfully, it was no dumb bunny and moved somewhere else!
I can just see Pierre give that ‘wascle’ the business. 😁
You should make this a series on the joys of walking two dogs. I remember (I think) a hilarious post in winter that you did about the joys of walking dogs in winter 🙂
Our walks could rival any standup routine for sure. Always the adventure, no matter what the season.
I had no idea that Poodles were natural hunters! I’m guilty of believing that they are frou-frou dogs, but now I’ve been educated 🙂
They were originally bred for retrievering water fowl. Ironic since either of my web-footed dogs like water. LOL
Interesting!
Awww…bunny alert! <3
They are adorably cute but I know the homeowners over there aren’t too keen on their presence in the community garden. We think they can share a piece of lettuce or a carrot every once in a while, don’t you? 🙂
We struggled with rabbits in our garden in Colorado. Tried some cat-related home remedies…fur tied in a stocking and presents from the litter box! Results? Meh, not so impressive.
They must’ve been very hungry! Seriously they were relentless at my daughter’s place near Mt. Falcon. 😳
When my husband started wishing he had a BB gun I knew it was time to look up alternatives!
BB guns are strictly for squirrels. 🤣
Haha!! 😀
Anything that moves is game and there is lots of that in our hood. If Ms Zulu and I can ever come up with a solid plan to escape we should have a lotta fun. For some weird reason this is not allowed in our lifetime… sigh… Benji
Elsa seems to agree with you, Benji. And hope springs eternal. 😉
Too bad your humom didn’t let you run loose to catch that rabbit!! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rabbit before. We have lots of squirrels and ground birds around here…Wilhelmina has a really good radar for those birds! She always detects them before I do!
Birds don’t seem to captivate Elsa like squirrels and now rabbits. Except for a couple of the largest blackbirds we have who have absolutely no fear of dogs, she seems mostly disinterested in birds. So much for the ‘fowl-retrieving’ genetics in Elsa. LOL
Kudos to your mom for accomplishing the amazing dog parent hat trick of juggling leashes, poo, and a phone. That’s not an easy one. 🙂 And taking any kind of photo that actually includes the dogs in the frame? Bravo!
We can’t reward mom for playing the ‘mere’ human card. She needs to step it up more by maintaining composure and not get so excited at the sight of a ‘wabbit.’
Your fur-iend,
Sam
My lot keep eyeing the chickens and ducks…why bother to go further afield when you have prey on the doorstep…
Ooh, a poultry smorgasbord just steps away. I think your lot is pretty smart. 🙂
They can certainly outsmart me!
It’s hard to compete with the mind of a determine pup. I fall woefully short too often myself.
Tippy gets to chase all sorts of things: bunnies, squirrels, foxes, and turkeys, just to name a few. She has been known to catch a bunny every now and then. I don’t like it, but know it is natural. She is also the mole hunter extraordinaire and loves to chase the hard shelled beetles.
Nature and the ‘circle of life’ playing out, eh? 🙂
Yes. I don’t always like it, but know it is natural.
There are at least five rabbit nests in our back yard. The peeps won’t let the dogs out without being on a leash because they get very sad if they have to dispose of a deaded bunny.
5 nests?! Whoa. Body removal is never a fun chore for peeps, Kismet.
Both Bear and Sammy love to hunt. Bear just killed a skunk of all things. We have lots of rabbits to chase after. No squirrels though.
Oh boy, that’s treading dangerous waters. 🙂
He was very quick about it. Thankfully we have a good recipe to get out the smell.
Plan B…I like it. Perhaps you’ll share that recipe on the blog? I’m sure a lot of dogs in rural areas could stand a Plan B close by. 😉
Sure will.
Woo-hoo!
Morgan here. I’m not allowed outside (I would be considered a lethal weapon) but I did get 3 mice this week. One I killed and two got re-homed (because I didn’t get a chance to finish the job). They are calling it the 4th of July massacre here. Still stalking though.
LOL – 4th of July massacre! That’s too funny. So Morgan…how are ya with squirrels? We could use you around here.
Your fur-iend,
Elsa🐾
I’m great with chipmunks. If only they’d let me out.
Convince them of your terrific exterminating business. Maybe they’d go along with that idea with some supervision of course?
Not likely. They are so cruel.
☹️
The squirrels drive me crazy here. And I got to chase a bunny one day when Mom opened the front door. Mom said it was like I was shot out of a cannon, with my feet only hitting the ground twice before I was across the road in our subdivision. (And it’s a long way to the road, but all downhill.) Boy, was Mom not happy with me. And the bunny got away.
Those bunnies are pretty wily, Lucy. It’s good not to bolt out the door onto roadways, better to stay close to your mum (remember she’s the one with treats).
it’s still inside of you… your ancestors were fabulous hunters I bet. I know a woman who hunted with a black standard poodle named louise and although all the hunter guys grinned as the poodle-team appeared, the poodle passed all tests… that was more than this guys could say at the end of the day…
People are too often under the misconception that poodles are frou-frou dogs. They are in fact very clever and very athletic.
so many squirrels I counted 10 cavorting in the back yard last week at one moment! Cole caught a squirrel resulting in a trip to the vet and rabies booster, just in case. Do not underestimate the poodle’s skills y’all. Cute but mighty! Milo has already started the “bolt” when he sees one of the hundred bunnies in our yard. With all the foxes one might think the bunny and squirrel population would reduce!
Ah yes, that bolt. The one that apparently despises human shoulder joints. 😉
Sam and Elsa’s cousins love to hunt! They bring back live things… and repurpose dead things for their hunting games! Here’s a partial list: frogs, mice, squirrels, birds, a duck, rabbits, a raccoon, a cow spine, a deer leg or two, a calf jaw bone…. 🐇🐿🦌🐂🦆🐸🐭 Here in their new neighborhood it’s all about the bunnies 🐰🐰
Ha! Repurpose, love that! Oh Rudder and Axel…you guys make me smile.
Cute pictures!
No wabbits, no possums and no squirrels in our hood. However, to compensate we do, on occasion, have very big Emus, mostly quiet and peaceful. The fact that they could fracture a skull into fragments with a single kick is neither here nor there. Leave them alone and although they may cause traffic chaos, they will, in the fullness of time, wander quietly back into the bush from whence came from. I know, no fun here.
Sounds like there’s “tons of awe” down under-not boring in the slightest!