Ground Hog Day

[Woody]

First off, the Ground Hog is still alive and we will be live trapping him tomorrow.

Ovie is very interested in squirrels in the backyard. Both Georgia and Cooper would chase them as well along with other critters. Ovie seems more focused though.

A few day ago there was a ground hog in the backyard and he chased it until it went under the fence. We thought it was a visitor but found it that it is living under my deck. Daughters boyfriend dropped off a live trap today but not before the incident.

We were be careful letting the dogs out. They know it's under the deck and Ovie has been sitting by the door to go out after it for an entire day basically.

This morning while I am at work my wife calls be frantically because he got a hold of it. It's all on my video cam.

He just dashed out the door and got him before it could get back under the deck. My wife kind of was taken by surprise by the whole thing. My daughter came out and gave Ovie a tap on the butt so that he would drop it, which he did and the ground hog went back under the deck.

It was quite a scene.

Cooper used to catch birds fairly frequently and almost got a duck once. Georgia just like to give them a chase but has never caught anything.

Any comments or thoughts? Normal dog behaviour for a lab? Got a little prey drive? He doesn't bother with other dogs when we are walking.

[SunDance]

I've never had a pure Lab kill anything that it didn't also eat (Hershey (only as a puppy): baby bunnies, Baffle: sparrows). Sunnie killed some squirrels back when her legs cooperated (she likes dogs and cats as long as the cats are "family" cats)...she cornered a young groundhog against a tree once and was just trying to deafen it, I think (at any rate, I was able to just call her off). My Akita killed everything that came into our yard...she was fast and cunning. One of the groundhogs managed to get a claw into her face...needed stiches.

I always figured that my Labs (and Danny) just want(ed) to get close enough to smell butt.

We have a groundhog den coming up under our shed...have for decades...and the dogs immediately run to the shed to see if it's been around. We didn't see one last year or so far this year. I like our groundhogs...all of them have eaten only wild violets and plantains (never had any damage to deliberately planted stuff).

[Snowshoe]

Absolutely normal behaviour for a dog to chase and kill (try) a smaller animal that's moving. Especially a wild animal or one he doesn't know, like maybe a neighbour's cat. Groundhogs can give a good bite back, Ovie was lucky. Our dog got a nice hole right through her top lip.

Poor thing, do they have babies yet? If you've contacted a wildife rehab place, they can likely help out. There are rules on how to deal with any wildlife and how far away you may release them, no more than one kilometre. Where too, as release is often a death sentence, a slow death sometimes.

[Marmot]

We have a groundhog that crosses the back yard almost every morning, Salem like to chase it to say, hello? She hasn't caught it and we call her in when she starts chasing him. His burrow is not near our house but is right near the neighbor's side door....secretly hoping he sneaks in her house. LOL

[Woody]

Well the ground hog did not make it.

We tried to live trap him with cantaloupe over the weekend but never saw him again.

The dogs starting digging at the deck and we found him dead underneath. I had to cut off a board to get him. We have him a proper burial at the front of our house. We weren't sure what else to do with him.

Not the ending we wanted. We were hoping to catch and release him. We still aren't event sure how or why he ended up here. There are several large yards without animals around us.

[SunDance]

If you have a den coming up under your deck, you'll have future groundhogs.

Also, I've been told that groundhogs frighten easily. We had one die in a live trap and animal control told us that they frequently die of heart attacks after being trapped like that. Your dogs might have scared him to death.

[Marmot]

Sorry about your wild squatter, I was hoping the little guy would get a new home out in the forest.