You know that I know what you're feeling Clint. Elly May is 11 years old now and I know it's going to absolutely gut me when I lose her. Still, it will be easier to cope with than if she had never made it home a couple of years ago.
I remember the occasion, still a miracle in my eyes. It's all about the memories, keep making them. It's what keeps them alive after they have left us. My dog was my first that I had from beginning to end, I was never there when the other pets in my life departed, so never dealt with the loss. 47 years it took to deal with that, wish I was still counting.
No, can't bring myself to get another one yet. I know that it can help, and likely would, but I just can't yet due to not being able to give it the attention as a puppy. Can't just get a puppy and throw it in a kennel for 12 hours a day and 4-5 hours attention in the evenings. Thought about adopting an older dog, but that puts me that much closer to going through it all again.
You really should consider getting another one. Pick a breed that can be trained to blood trail and you will have a hunting partner who can not only share your home life but your hunting passion as well. I know that a lot of people say you can't have an "in the house dog" be a reliable hunting dog, but Elly May has disproven that on multiple occasions. She doesn't really "hunt", of course, but she has turned out to be a hell of a blood trailer. I don't know what type of area you live in. If you're urban a beagle can be a real annoyance to your neighbors. They tend to bark and howl at anything and everything. There are a lot of different breeds that can be trained to blood trail a deer. I can't help feeling that a four legged hunting partner would go a long way to helping heal your wounds.
Oh, and for the record we have NEVER kenneled a puppy. I'd rather spend hours steam cleaning dog urine out of a rug than put a dog in a cage. That's just me though.
My dogs get crated every day when the wife goes to work, I let them out when they get home. Heck when we are at home 1 or more of the dogs will go in their crates to chill. It is not cruel it is conditioning. I do not tolerate dogs peeing or crapping in my house.
Old grumpy Tug still does his work. We have a neighbor at the end of the road that tends to let their dog roam, he makes his way to our house to pee and crap in the yard. When Ollie shows up I let Tug out, that little guy goes after him and runs him off all the way mad, the neighbors applaud Tugs work too.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with crating/kenneling. It’s just something we don’t care for so we do it differently. We’ve always made sure we had a fenced yard that would hold the dogs and we’ve always had a dog door installed that is open 24/7. They can come and go as they please but can’t get out of the yard. When we get a new dog we just have to train them to go outside to do their business and that’s that. They learn quickly by seeing what the other dogs do.
We have been lucky where we lived in that dogs were never fenced in, funny thing with the dogs when they go outside they want me with them. Wife and I both make certain to get home on time to get the dogs out. Funny thing is if it wasn't for the escape artist chihuahua the dogs would not be crated and they could hang in their dog room.
Made Pita spaghetti squash tonight she loves it, the other two dogs eat it but the chihuahua strips the rinds bare in moments.
We’re getting a new member of to our family. We get to pick Bailey up next Monday. Hope this Old Man can handle all the activity and training involved.
