Charlie barks at mice

[Deleted]

Then she kills them. Then she delivers them to my feet.

She isn't much of a barker (yay!!!) and tonight she was barking at what I thought was nothing. So I put her on her leash to quiet her (I had company). After she calmed down for half an hour or so I let her off the leash. My company left and I was vacuuming (ya, exciting Tuesday night, I know) and suddenly she dropped the grey fuzzy dust bunny in front of me. But it wasn't a dust bunny. It was a dead mouse!!!

She IS a guard dog!!! I'm so proud! ;D

[servant_of_dog]

Way to go Charlie! But does that mean you have mice in your house?

[Deleted]

Not in general, I think this one just tried sneaking in today. I have no other signs of mice and Charlie started barking at a pretty specific time.

[servant_of_dog]

That IS good news then! (I have an almost irrational paranoia about mice in my house, so I wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad for you. )

[tiredboomer]

I had never heard of dogs doing this until our poodle killed one a couple of weeks ago.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

We've fostered a lot of dogs over the years, and several of them were EXCELLENT back-yard mousers/ratters. The very best one was a scottish terrier named Skipper ~ he was lightning fast and could catch them with unbelievable speed and accuracy. Ick, but wow.

Our indoor-only kitties are excellent moth and fly catchers, and watch outdoor mousies and birdies with great interest through the window.

[Deleted]

Feb 24, 2011 16:42:43 GMT -5 @tiredboomer said:

I had never heard of dogs doing this until our poodle killed one a couple of weeks ago.

Charlie is a toy poodle.

[merryheart]

We have had several terriers and poodles and all were excellent hunters. Poodles were originally bred for hunting before we got caught up in the mini/toy size phase. We used to have a dairy farm at the end of our block - yeah, kind of in the country - and in general, farms attract critters. It was not unusual for me to walk out my back door and find dead prizes left there for us. I also remember standing at my kitchen sink and something flying through the air caught my attention. The current terrier had caught a RAT and was playing by throwing it up in the air and catching it! Flying rat! I made DH go retrieve the dead rodent and dispose of it. He closed it up in a sack and put it in the trash can with a lid. Wasn't 20 minutes later and I am seeing another "flying rat"! It was disconcerting to think of that many rats around but we were very glad to have Skywalker at the time.

[merryheart]

Oh, and Balto the terrier used to catch mice but he was also an excellent fly catcher! He hated those little flying varmints! And he didn't eat them, just killed them.

[merryheart]

But Moo, the toy poodle, only barks and doesn't catch or kill anything. He is my daughter's dog and I think he is confused about what animal he really is. Most rats would be bigger than he is anyway.