# dogs to hunt pocket gophers



## Justin Gannon (Nov 17, 2008)

i live in arizona and have some gophers on my property. i do not want to poison them in case one of my working dogs eats it if it dies outside its tunnel. i also irrigate my property and am fearful of any poisons in the ground. i am looking for a small kennel dog who would enjoy eating a gopher every now and then. any suggestions?


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## Laura Bollschweiler (Apr 25, 2008)

Wouldn't most terriers fit the bill? My friend's Australian Terrier that she took to Westminster a long time ago was one of the best at rodent catching. Kinda surprising.

Only problem I see is the gophers rarely come up so the dog would probably have to dig it out, causing lots o damage to the ground. I'd be sad if that happened to my lawn 

Laura


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## Bart Karmich (Jul 16, 2010)

Get a heron. They're wicked gopher hunters. It's amazing to see the little critters slide down that slender neck whole.


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## Michele Moore (Mar 27, 2006)

Justin, 
what you want is this: 
http://www.rodenator.com/
I need one bad but they are pricey. My friends in New Mexico have one, it works great.


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## kerry engels (Nov 7, 2010)

Michele Moore said:


> Justin,
> what you want is this:
> http://www.rodenator.com/
> I need one bad but they are pricey. My friends in New Mexico have one, it works great.


 

That rodenator is way cool!


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## Jim Nash (Mar 30, 2006)

As a kid a couple of friends and I got paid a quarter a tail for gophers . A golf club and a couple of buckets for water was all it took and we got alot of gophers . Later we added a pump bb gun until the cops caught us .


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Even with a good terrier it's something you don't really teach the dog. They can do it or they can't.
I've had a lot of good terriers that dug the crap out of the yard but only one outstanding mole dog. My son's present old JRT. If he was standing still in the yard you knew he was hunting.
With the gophers it's even harder because the mole tunnels right under the surface. The gopher digs down to compartments.


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## Kellie Wolverton (Jan 16, 2009)

Bob Scott said:


> Even with a good terrier it's something you don't really teach the dog. They can do it or they can't.
> I've had a lot of good terriers that dug the crap out of the yard but only one outstanding mole dog. My son's present old JRT. If he was standing still in the yard you knew he was hunting.
> With the gophers it's even harder because the mole tunnels right under the surface. The gopher digs down to compartments.


When you are hunting do you ever worry about snakes down in those holes? 

We have rattlesnakes and all of this has got me to wondering about that.

Kellie


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Kellie Wolverton said:


> When you are hunting do you ever worry about snakes down in those holes?
> 
> We have rattlesnakes and all of this has got me to wondering about that.
> 
> Kellie



We have rattlers but most of the poisonous snakes we've run into are coperheads. I've seen a number of dogs bitten by them without any serious results other then swelling. One of my hunting partners was a vet and all she did with her dogs was antibiotics. No antivenom. I was bitten by a small one as a kid and never told anyone about it cuase I knew I'd get my butt kicked. :grin:
One of my other partners was a pathologist so we had it all covered! :lol: :wink:
In an area heavy with rattlesnakes I'd probably pass. 
For whatever reason a lot of dogs will avoid snakes in general although I had a Border terrier that loved killing them. He never got bit. Kinda reminded me of lash larue.....OK, that's probably way over your head. :lol:


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## Kellie Wolverton (Jan 16, 2009)

Bob Scott said:


> We have rattlers but most of the poisonous snakes we've run into are coperheads. I've seen a number of dogs bitten by them without any serious results other then swelling. One of my hunting partners was a vet and all she did with her dogs was antibiotics. No antivenom. I was bitten by a small one as a kid and never told anyone about it cuase I knew I'd get my butt kicked. :grin:
> One of my other partners was a pathologist so we had it all covered! :lol: :wink:
> In an area heavy with rattlesnakes I'd probably pass.
> For whatever reason a lot of dogs will avoid snakes in general although I had a Border terrier that loved killing them. He never got bit. Kinda reminded me of lash larue.....OK, that's probably way over your head. :lol:



We have had horses bitten, usually on the nose, by rattlers. Our vet has what we call his "Magic Snake Potion"...it has some vitamin mix, dexamethasone and penicillin. It worked wonders on the horse. I have heard that dogs will be fine. Our dogs have never gotten bit. We did have an ACD that would bark and circle the snake while kicking dirt into it until we could get there. It was pretty cool to see

I think, for the ulcer factor, I would have to have a critter killer that waited for the little heads to pop out of the ground;-)

Believe it or not, I know who Lash LaRue was/is.:lol: There is a guy that goes around to western festivals dressed as Lash LaRue, the kids even have a signed 8x 10 glossy from "Lash"


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

How about a slingshot? BB gun...yeah, now that's the ticket. Sounds like something I might do, that is if I wasn't afraid of Clown Vics...LOL


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## Skip Morgart (Dec 19, 2008)

Jim Nash said:


> As a kid a couple of friends and I got paid a quarter a tail for gophers . A golf club and a couple of buckets for water was all it took and we got alot of gophers . Later we added a pump bb gun until the cops caught us .


 
The water never worked good for us. Most of those underground critters have upper chambers (still underground) so that a lot of water just flows beneath them.


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## Ashley Campbell (Jun 21, 2009)

Tried road flares yet?
Pop one off, stick in one side of the hole and cover, the gas let off from them burning suffocates the creatures in the hole. 

That or do like my grandfather does, stick a garden hose down the hole, wait for them to pop up out the other side, and shoot them with a .45.


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## Kellie Wolverton (Jan 16, 2009)

Ashley Campbell said:


> Tried road flares yet?
> Pop one off, stick in one side of the hole and cover, the gas let off from them burning suffocates the creatures in the hole. .


I had never heard of using road flares!

My friend had a skunk burrow under her house. So they backed the car around and attached a hose to the exhaust and suffocated it that way!


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## Jim Nash (Mar 30, 2006)

Skip Morgart said:


> The water never worked good for us. Most of those underground critters have upper chambers (still underground) so that a lot of water just flows beneath them.


Worked great around here . We started with baseball bats and nailed them as they ran out . But some were smart and just stuck the nose above the water and stayed there . That's were the golf club came in . The bump bb gun worked the best though . But these were striped gophers . Never saw a Pocket Gopher .


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## Laura Bollschweiler (Apr 25, 2008)

I can't use the water or the road flares because I'm on decomposed granite, which means very good drainage. Is it wrong to really, really want a rodenator?

I have to admit.. I'm a total wuss. My mom is SO disappointed in me. So we have a system. I catch the squirrels that burrow under my house foundation and she comes over and shoots them in the Hav-A-Hart trap and disposes of them for me. I will set the gopher traps (I'm quite good at that) But she has to come over and check them because I will run screaming like the girl that I am.

We all have our faults!

Laura


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Howard Gaines III said:


> How about a slingshot? BB gun...yeah, now that's the ticket. Sounds like something I might do, that is if I wasn't afraid of Clown Vics...LOL


I used to shoot gophers from on top my grandad's roof. I used his old 22, single shot cat rifle. I still have that old gun. actually had it reblued and I refinished the stock just a couple of yrs ago.


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