Month: April 2012

Categories Dog, Rants

Officer shot a dog, again.

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This one’s all over and lots of folks have commented on it.

The short form: An officer responding to a domestic disturbance call pulls his firearm before even seeing a person, except he’s got the wrong address, so when the home-owner and his dog wander out from behind the house the cop shoots the dog.

Ok, I’ve read several blog posts on this, most are disgusted at the shooting of another dog, at a wrong address on top of things.  I did run across one blog, by a cop I believe though I don’t read there often, who kept insisting that the officer has the right to defend himself  from an attacking dog and thats what this is so you all shut up.  Don’t have a link, if you all recognize this let me know and I’ll link, oh, and in case it wasn’t obvious I’m paraphrasing based on my faulty memory, cause I don’t have the link.

First off, the cop pulled his gun LONG before he saw a person on the property, I get that this is a DD call, which can potentially turn violent, but really?  Cops go to all DD calls with their guns drawn??  How are they NOT shooting more innocent bystanders??

Second, the audio from his car video clearly states that he gave the home-owner conflicting instructions:  first “put your hands up” then “get your dog”.  So basically the guy has a fraction of a second to decide which order to get shot for.  Personally I’d have been already grabbing my dog regardless of the “put your hands up” order, but then, considering the size and looks of Apollo I suspect he’d have already been shot before I could react anyway.

Third, everyone defending the cop keeps saying the dog was “running towards him and thats aggressive behavior”.  Except you know what??  ITS NOT.  Any dog, friendly or otherwise, who is allowed loose run on their owners property is going to run towards the “new guy” who just set foot on their property.  There’s two reasons for this, one: the dog wants to get a better “look” at the new guy, and for dogs that means “smell” and two: pretty much every halfway friendly family dog I’ve ever met has been inadvertently trained to “run up to say hi” to the person who just entered the property.  Think I’m nuts?  Think about it, your dog comes running towards you when you get home what do you do?  You pet him, and tell him he’s a good boy and how happy you are to see him.  Bet lots of your friends and family do the same thing.  Presto, you’ve just trained your dog in “aggressive behavior” thats going to get him shot by the cop who accidentally walked on your property cause they have the wrong address.

If you are so afraid of dogs that you’re going to shoot the family pet for running towards you to say “hi” or,  if you are so unfamiliar with canine body language that you cannot distinguish between the family dog running to say “hi” and the aggressive guard dog who’s carefully approaching while trying to warn you off, then you need to give up your badge and gun and go retire somewhere that won’t allow dogs near you.

 

Categories Nothing Much

My boots

4 Comments by

For Mrs S over at DIY Housewife.

Timberland’s site (looks like MSRP is $125)

and a quick check shows Dicks has the brown version for $105 (atleast on their website)

and Gander Moutain has them on sale for $84 (maybe I should go pick up another pair to stash….)

I’ve had this pair for 3 years now, and though they don’t get worn every day for the SUMMER (though certinally for at least some of the summer), by mid fall through mid spring at least they get worn every day in mud, rain, sleet, puddles, and snow.   No leaks, no cracks in the leather, the soles have held up well, and even a certian puppy deciding they were his to chew on hasn’t done TO much damage.  Can’t comment on arch support, as its not a problem I’ve ever had.

Categories Bleg, Trail Cameras

Game/Trail camera Bleg

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We bought a really cheap trail camera the spring after we moved in after seeing deer and turkey prints all winter in the snow.  Of course, its cheap.  Its reaction time from motion trigger to actual photo is at LEAST 1 second if not 2.  Which doesn’t sound like much till you realize how quickly wildlife moves.

The problem: as we look at trail cameras things like trigger speed often aren’t mentioned, at least in the price range we’re looking at.  I’d really like to keep this at not much more than $100 per camera cause we’re looking to buy 3 or 4 for the rest of the trails off the back of the property, and we’re not exactly made of money.

I’d kinda narrowed down my choices over the winter only to have the ones I was looking at either go up in price or no longer be availible.

I know there’s some hunter type people who read this, I’m hoping one or more of you has some experience with trail cameras, or can point me to a really good review site that has the information I’m looking at.  I’ve already hit Cabelas, Dicks, Bass Pro, and Amazon looking at cameras and reading reviews.

Wants:

A faster trigger speed.  I realize really fast is probly the realm of the $400+ cameras, but something faster than what we’ve got would be really nice.

Price preferably not much more than $100.  $120 would probly be ok if the camera was perfect, but $150 isn’t going to happen unless I can find it on sale.

Taking D batteries would be nice as we already have a setup to recharge them, but a different battery type wouldn’t be a deal breaker. 

A camera that would accept a solar panel would be a plus.  Probly not going to buy the solar panels NOW, but in the future I can totally see that in the future.

I don’t need video, but infrared flash for night time would be nice, the one we haven’t doesn’t have that.

Categories Nothing Much

Can I express my amusement….

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The folks across the street, the ones that I’ve now had to call animal control on TWICE cause they refuse to contain their dogs, bought a 3-wheeler about a month or so ago.  We frequently saw the eldest child riding it at break-neck speeds around their property, attempting to make it jump and what not.  Last night Husband looked out the window to see the kid pushing it out of the ditch.  Its now sitting beside their driveway with a for sale sign on it.  I am totally amused….

Categories Apollo, Artemis, Dog

Biking with the dogs, update

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Well, Apollo had a total freakout (ok, total freak out for HIM anyway), as in he planted his feet and REFUSED to move when we hooked him up to the bicycle.  Not entirely sure WHY, he’s seen the bike before, and I’ve even pushed it with him walking beside it a couple times to make sure it wasn’t totally scary.  He handled the harness ok.  But when I hooked him up to the bike and started to move, well, he didn’t.  Oh well.  I thought about trying to see if we could coax him into it and decided it wasn’t worth it for now.  Maybe later.

Arty however is still thrilled with it.  The lower attachment point makes a HUGE difference for me, and doesn’t seem to bother him at all.  So I’ll take it.

Categories Nothing Much

Wildlife

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A pair of Mallard Ducks just landed in the tiny little holding pond off the rear southern corner of our property.  When I say its tiny I mean its about 3ft across and 6 long and about 6 inches deep, but it stays wet pretty much all summer, and clearly these ducks knew it.  Very cool!