A Clean-up project

[Yvonne G]

My leopard pen is getting to be too small for the amount of tortoises grazing the grass in there, so I have to figure out a way to enlarge it. Next to my leopard shed is a space about 25'x20' that I've used for the past 15 years as storage for all the tubs and containers that people have given me when they've turned in their turtles and tortoises. (behind the fence)

I've already moved out all the tubs and bins, but this is what the ground over the fence looks like:

Years and years of leaves.



So, Misty, my faithful companion and constant side-kick, was right there in the thick of things, snorting and sniffing to see what all I was uncovering. She dug something out and took off out into the pasture with it, lay down and started to chew on it. I went out there to be sure it was something safe. She has learned "drop it" very well. So I told her to drop it, and she did, and it was an opossum skull:

I told her she was a good girl for dropping the item, but I also told her that she couldn't have it (another phrase she understands - "you can't have that!")

I'm workin' away, clearing out the space and getting ready to rake out the leaves when I become aware that Misty is standing behind me just looking at me. I turn around and she's standing there with a mummified 'possum skeleton sticking out each side of her muzzle. The look on her face is, "Well, since I couldn't have that other scrumptious thing-a-ma-bob, can I have this one?" She was a very good girl and dropped it on command. Yuck! What a nose that dog's got.

I tell ya...it's just never a dull moment around here with this dog!

 

[coreyc]

Got to love a dogs nose wonder what else she will find for you

 

[Yvonne G]

She's such a smart little doggie. When she first started making the rounds with me she would get to the Aldabran tortoise poop before I could get to it with the scoop and rake. And it became a game with her, "chase me...chase me!!" Over the months I finally have been able to convince her to "drop it!" She'll still go over to a nice squishy pile of poop and put her mouth on it, but she doesn't pick it up anymore, thank goodness.

I really haven't done any down and dirty schooling with her. Just what comes up in our day-to-day life. And she has picked up things here and there quite easily. She knows to "come." She will "sit." We're working on "stay," but that's not quite so easy to do because I generally keep walking and she loses interest and just walks away. That one will take some formal training to accomplish.

 

[coreyc]

She's such a smart little doggie. When she first started making the rounds with me she would get to the Aldabran tortoise poop before I could get to it with the scoop and rake. And it became a game with her, "chase me...chase me!!" Over the months I finally have been able to convince her to "drop it!" She'll still go over to a nice squishy pile of poop and put her mouth on it, but she doesn't pick it up anymore, thank goodness.

I really haven't done any down and dirty schooling with her. Just what comes up in our day-to-day life. And she has picked up things here and there quite easily. She knows to "come." She will "sit." We're working on "stay," but that's not quite so easy to do because I generally keep walking and she loses interest and just walks away. That one will take some formal training to accomplish.

If you need training I think there is a guy on here that trains dogs I think his name is Tom the dog whisperer

 

[wellington]

Never know,what a dog will find. Never good stuff it seems. Train her to sniff out money or even edible tortoise weeds

 

[Yvonne G]

Towards the beginning of September I was asking her to find egg nests in the tortoise pens. She's very good at that, but she seems to only find the ones with rotten eggs in them. So far I haven't been able to get her to "drop it" when it comes to a rotten egg. They do love those rotten eggs!!

 

[Jacqui]

She does so good with old eggs and dead bodies, perhaps you could teach her to sniff out tortoises. Or loan her to the local police department for those specieal cases.

 

[harris]

I couldn't imagine going through life without my canines by my side.

How is Misty with the cat litter boxes? Mine sneak in the litter box any chance they get. I've thrown up many times when they "kiss" me immediately afterwards!

 

[ILoveTortoises2]

Can't wait to see how this turns out. I wish I had a HUGE yard for my torts when they get bigger. I'm going to be moving so I will be deff moving somewhere that has a good size back yard for my little torts.
Please send some picks as you progress.

 

[kanalomele]

Good girl Misty! She is just a delightful pup. I am constantly amazed by their noses. I have Dachshunds, scent hounds with crazy good noses. I have to keep one of my girls away from the areas where the Box turtles brumate because she will smell them deep under the ground dig them up! And good for you for expanding that Leo pen. They had grazed that grass down to nothing! A perfect ad for green living. Keep Leos...you will never need a mower!

 

[ascott]

I've thrown up many times when they "kiss" me immediately afterwards!

LOL...so gross but that made me laugh really hard....

 

[Yvonne G]

I couldn't imagine going through life without my canines by my side.

How is Misty with the cat litter boxes? Mine sneak in the litter box any chance they get. I've thrown up many times when they "kiss" me immediately afterwards!

I only have one in-the-house cat, so one litter box, and it's in the bathroom. I have the bathroom door ajar with the scale set behind it so it stays in position. Misty isn't pushy enough to try to push things open, so the box is safe from her. But, like you, I learned the hard way. Nothing's worse than cat poop, except maybe cat poop breath on the dog.

---

Good girl Misty! She is just a delightful pup. I am constantly amazed by their noses

I was taking a family around showing them all the turtles and tortoises and I had a piece of gum in my mouth that was getting hard to chew and no flavor, but no kleenex in my pocket to put the gum into. So surreptitiously, when no one was looking, I spit the gum into a cactus that was next to me. But the gum landed on top of the cactus instead of down inside it.

So, several days later, Misty and I were outside doing our turtle thing and she went flying by me, leaping into the Aldabran pen. She stopped, and looked around, came back out and made a Bee-line to that cactus and plucked that old, stale piece of gum off the top of that cactus. When she first got a whiff of it, she was about 75' away from the cactus. Their noses are indeed amazing!

 

[RosieRedfoot]

My lab, Dante once retrieved me a dead mouse on a walk. I thought he found a ball so I called him over. I made him drop it (I didn't know what it was so I put out my hand) and was disgusted by the bloated green corpse he so happily gave to me. Blech... Glad he didn't eat it since who knows what method it died by and if it had been poison it could have been fatal for him too.

My dogs love finding squirrel poop and cicada bodies to eat. I tell people there's a reason I don't let my dogs lick my face.