Chris with Bean (Patterdale) and Pearl (Russell).Chris and I dug on two groundhogs and located four.
The first sette was a rock-and-root fortress which we gave up on after finding we could not get the bar in more than three inches despite 45 minutes of banging with shovel and posthole digger. The locator box said the dog was still four feet down, and it was pretty clear we were not going to get there before night fall. We moved off, and in time Mountain came out.
The good news was that the next two settes were conventional dirt and were easy enough to dig on. Chris' young Patterdale, Bean, is as slim as beer can and did wonderful work baying up a small groundhog that was very aggressive despite it size. Bean is a chocolate patterdale from Jeff Rowe's kennel in Tennessee, and I like her quite a lot.
Pearl found the second groundhog of the day. This was the same groundhog that Mountain had located in the large Sycamore trunk last week, but this time it was found on the dirt side of the ditch. Pearl came away from this dig (Mountain at the back door preventing a bolt) with nothing more than small scrape on the her front paw. The groundhog did not fair as well, and was dispatched per the request of the land owner who is trying to rid the creek bed of these burrowing varmints.
Mountain found a fourth groundhog as we were walking back to the truck, but Chris and I both decided to call it a day as it was 93-degrees in the shade, and we had not been digging in the shade.
Of course, Mountain had a different idea.
In the end, Chris and I walked back to the truck for something cold to drink and to put up the other two dogs. Surely Mountain would follow on. But of course she didn't, and so I walked back and found her where I had left her, silent now as she tried to dig on to the groundhog.
I walked back to the truck and Chris and I drove down to the sette with the tools, but just as we were unloading Mountain showed up.
Chris was very happy to see Mountain above ground, and so was I, as neither of us were too anxious to do more digging, even if this one was sure to be shallow.
Did I mention it was 93 degrees in the shade? True!!
All's well that ends well, and we sealed the day with a soft ice cream at the local country store. Hard to beat soft ice cream any time, but especially after a hot day in the field.
The first sette was a rock-and-root fortress which we gave up on after finding we could not get the bar in more than three inches despite 45 minutes of banging with shovel and posthole digger. The locator box said the dog was still four feet down, and it was pretty clear we were not going to get there before night fall. We moved off, and in time Mountain came out.
The good news was that the next two settes were conventional dirt and were easy enough to dig on. Chris' young Patterdale, Bean, is as slim as beer can and did wonderful work baying up a small groundhog that was very aggressive despite it size. Bean is a chocolate patterdale from Jeff Rowe's kennel in Tennessee, and I like her quite a lot.
Pearl found the second groundhog of the day. This was the same groundhog that Mountain had located in the large Sycamore trunk last week, but this time it was found on the dirt side of the ditch. Pearl came away from this dig (Mountain at the back door preventing a bolt) with nothing more than small scrape on the her front paw. The groundhog did not fair as well, and was dispatched per the request of the land owner who is trying to rid the creek bed of these burrowing varmints.
Mountain found a fourth groundhog as we were walking back to the truck, but Chris and I both decided to call it a day as it was 93-degrees in the shade, and we had not been digging in the shade.
Of course, Mountain had a different idea.
In the end, Chris and I walked back to the truck for something cold to drink and to put up the other two dogs. Surely Mountain would follow on. But of course she didn't, and so I walked back and found her where I had left her, silent now as she tried to dig on to the groundhog.
I walked back to the truck and Chris and I drove down to the sette with the tools, but just as we were unloading Mountain showed up.
Chris was very happy to see Mountain above ground, and so was I, as neither of us were too anxious to do more digging, even if this one was sure to be shallow.
Did I mention it was 93 degrees in the shade? True!!
All's well that ends well, and we sealed the day with a soft ice cream at the local country store. Hard to beat soft ice cream any time, but especially after a hot day in the field.
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