Dogs for after a major event

[Paul]

Just read about the poor guy who got "plagued".
Bit sobering that one.

I suppose the real problem was with the rats and they are increasing in numbers fast.
Over regulation hasn't helped with professional or amateur pest controller who are having to leap through all sorts of legislation and qualification cr^p before they are allowed to buy let alone put commercial rat bait down.

Plus the EU. The wonderful EU. The bunch of idiots who together with our leaders have banned all sorts of time honoured pest and rat poisons just to "protect the environment".

It's one of my dilema's regarding post event though.
Not about cats though, I loath them. Useful tire cleaners for me.

My dogs are useful.
Security, great bird and bunny catchers, and CAT CHASERS!
Curiously though they won't go near mice or rats including tree bunnies. Never worked out why.

Every year they get jabbed for the usual cocktail of nasties by the vet.
Plus rabies which lasts for a year or 3 years depending on what jab is given.
So what happens if there is no vet? No vaccinations?

The problem is twofold for me.
Keeping the rat population down is hard now. For everyone I trap, shoot or otherwise destroy I KNOW that there are 20 other little sods in the background. Every pest controller does and it's getting worse.

Post event, no poisons, possibility of free food, poor hygiene, third world deseases are going to rocket and plague is just one of them.

Then theres the chunnel. Just what cr$p is going to wander through that post event? I'm thinking rabies but you've got to think all sorts of desease (including two legged kinds) is going to amble through it.

So now you've got all sorts of flea transmitted desease.
Murine or endemic typhus, bubonic plague, and Rickettsia to name a few.

Yet I can't help but think that keeping a dog after an event is a good idea.
Just the security side of things and their food sniffing noses is enough for me to want them.

What's your thoughts?

[NorthernRaider]

You keep the mutts to keep the rodents down, after a societal collapse the numbers are like to surge alarmingly from the 10 rats to 1 human ratio now, but numbers will go through the roof feasting on the rotting food and unburied dead ( sounds like Liverpool now)

BUT the mutts must live outside, plus a good ratter is also a good burglar alarm if trained right.
Not frantic barking thus giving your location away but a growl to you, or pointing or one wuff.
I know farmers who only use pairs of terriers to keep the rats out of the grain sheds and barns because taught right and given the right breed ratters will stay on duty 24/7 quite happily, but a cat will get bored and once its fed will often ignore rodents even walking past its nose. Most of the countryfolk I know say only keep terriers in pairs and they work as teams and look after each other.
At times if a terrier disturbs a nest a rat can get onto a terriers back whilst the dog is killing another rat, so if you have two one will get the rat off the others back.

Often the hard part is stopping the little buggers from eating the rats so training needs to be good and the dogs not allowed to go hungry. Teaching them to kill and drop is important.

You forgot how one rats pee can taint all your grain if its diserased with stuff like Weils disease.

Keep cats and dogs as workers not cuggly wuggly pets is a good idea, I feel dogs are better than cats cos they can be trained and will remain vigilant , and can be trained to protect the families kids. A Parsons JR with its teeth on an intruders balls whilst its partners teeth are going for the throat is a major plus. BUT they cannot come inside AFTER TSHTF, so train em, keep em as working pets, let them in during the day whilst things are normal, but they must be used to living outside preferably in the sheds or barns.

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Cats are like Socialists, just ornimental.

[bigpaul]

i think after TSHTF i would like to have several dogs, maybe a couple of JR's for ratting, plenty of em around here this is Parson Jack Russell territory..he lived at Swimbridge near Barnstaple, also maybe something for hunting maybe a whippet cross, our dog is useless, too noisy and cant even catch the pair of mice we have in the garden, mind you i have heard it say if you have mice you havent got rats cos the two wont live in the same territory.

[NorthernRaider]

Parsons JRs, Short arsed JRs, Border Terriers etc bloody bullet proof working dogs, but speaking from experience with this Were Terrier we have they are not happy on their own, I'm looking for a neutered girlfriend for him now.

[TOF]

Here you go NR, you might find the perfect partner for him here.

http://www.jack-russell-terrier.co.uk/re...rrier.html

[Prepper1]

Any dog that comes near me or mine after an event will be destroyed.
Dirty animals shitting everywhere.
dead dogs don't bite.

[NorthernRaider]

(18 July 2012, 09:50)TOF Wrote: Here you go NR, you might find the perfect partner for him here.

http://www.jack-russell-terrier.co.uk/re...rrier.html

Wow ta very much I'll show the wifey when she comes home, could do with a girl dog (Neutered) to keep were-terrier company and share guard duty. Were terrier gets fed up trying to wipe out the local cat population.

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(18 July 2012, 11:05)Prepper1 Wrote: Any dog that comes near me or mine after an event will be destroyed.
Dirty animals shitting everywhere.
dead dogs don't bite.

Y'see this is why we have to learn to cooperate and respect each others preferences and individual plans for surviving, Some folks like Cats, but hate dogs, Vice Versa, Some hate both and some like both, Big Paul will eat either so long as they are organic

We all are going to suffer from feral cats, dogs etc after TSHTF, and within two or three years we will have feral vicous wild pigs to contend with as well, once we fall those smallish herds of wild boar down south are going to explode in numbers. It will be fun keeping their numbers down but at least we can eat em, Planning on using captured Greenpeace members as hog bait

[bigpaul]

a lot of farmed boar were released a few years ago by animal rights protestors from a farm about 20 miles from here, these have now spread over a considerable area, there was a big shoot organised by big mouth Johnny Kingdom but they came up empty, i know the boar have spread from where they were released and some are as far south as the outskirts of Plymouth..around Burrator Reservoir.

[00111001]

My cat's a very efficient killer. He nabbed himself a prize winning homing dove (I never knew such thing existed) when he was 8 weeks old. Then there was the epic leap out of the bedroom window to catch a pigeon mid flight. I'll be keeping him, plus he can look after himself, just bringing me the odd treat now and then. The rotty will come in handy PSHTF. He scares the crap out of people now, even though he's only 16 weeks old. Nearly got himself a tastey snack on Sunday, thankfully the little jack russel managed to escape before Winston got hold of him.