# Question for the terriermen



## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

My neighbor has a Welsh Terrier who recently killed a possum. She was pleasantly surprised and all that but said she had a really hard time getting it away from her dog who growled at her when she reached for it to toss it out of the yard. So what do you do when one gets its quarry and how do you react to the little demon?


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

No different then with any basic manners. 

The factor that favors the terrier owner is the dog will seldom let go to bite you. Very possessive little bassids.

That's in your favor because you can scruff the dog USUALLY with out worrying about the bite.

I've had a terrier on each end of a raccoon and my only concern was getting bit by the raccoon.

I stepped on the ***** chest, pried one dog off, put it between my legs then pried the other off, scruffed both dogs and quickly booted the **** away from me. 

With a possum you can step on the possums chest while you choke off the dog (if needed). 

Quarry that's still alive can be more difficult of course but all the natural earth working people I know have a hog snare for those events. 

I was taking a casual walk in the woods with my two Borders terriers when I had the issue.

"ALWAYS PREPARED" ....maybe not. 

Bottom line is you need to be in charge of the dog and have the grit to back it up. :twisted: :wink:

One more thing.

Once a terrier, or many dogs for that matter, make a kill they can become OC about it.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Thanks - I will pass this on...put a leash on the little bassid and choke him off.


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

Nancy Jocoy said:


> Thanks - I will pass this on...put a leash on the little bassid and choke him off.


I know one guy who carried a 16 penny nail and would poke the sharp end against the roof of the dog's mouth to get them to out the prey. I didn't have a nail but tried to substitute using small sticks which didn't work for me. I ended up choking the dog off using their collar.


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## Jeffrey Eggenberger (Jan 3, 2013)

I would never use anything sharp! There is a stick that dog fighters are known to use on bullys that has carried over to sport dogs. Bite wedge? I forget what it is called. They show how to use it on youtube. My JR has brought me two big rats and a rabbit, she is good on the out command.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Jeffrey Eggenberger said:


> I would never use anything sharp! There is a stick that dog fighters are known to use on bullys that has carried over to sport dogs. Bite wedge? I forget what it is called. They show how to use it on youtube. My JR has brought me two big rats and a rabbit, she is good on the out command.




That's called a break stick. That can work well but can also injure a dogs mouth if not done correctly. 

The bite wedge is used for some early bite work with IPO and other bite sports. :wink:


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

I have had to choke a GSD off of a toy before - then go back to foundations for teaching the out - but for this I imagine just choking him off will work and be safe - I told her to use a leash so her hands are not near his head- this is probably not going to be a daily occurrence. 

I guess if it was you would want a proper out. Choking off seems to increase the drive (at least for the toy)


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## rick smith (Dec 31, 2010)

choking the dog off a live catch will do NOTHING more than to choke it off the live catch and have NO effect on preventing it from happening again
...i'm not a terrierman, but don't think it takes one to make this comment, so i'll believe it unless a terrier type thinks this is an incorrect analysis and explains why

and Nancy has already explained what would need to be done if this was an undesirable behavior
- since the owner was "pleasantly surprised" at the catch .....
............ nah....no sense going further ](*,)


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## Edward Weiss (Sep 19, 2011)

My big terriers learn "out" at a young age,with other mandatory basic commands,here, down etc.
No negotiating on these basics,e collar conditioned and e collar always on in the field.
Only time didn't out was a one on one coyote encounter,in my barn,no ecollar!
Never want that again,vet bills and scared the _____ out of me.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

The dog is 4 and it is the first time it has caught anything. I imagine most of what gets in their yard is squirrels and he is not likely to catch them..........I have never even seen a possum here before. (I know they are out there; they are everywhere)


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## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

My dogs have caught a couple of possums in my yard up here in Canada. I'd never seen a possum before, but they are moving further north.

Just a note - make sure they're really, truly dead. I've had to call Animal Control to take away a couple of injured ones. They really do "play possum" convincingly - little x's on their eyes, tongues lolling, and my dogs lose interest in them. I tossed the first one in a garbage bin, and when I checked it later, it was alive, though I'm sure it was badly injured, and AC euthanized it so it didn't continue to suffer.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

LOL from the South my grandmother said they used to eat possums when she was little. They would catch them, put in a cage, and clean out on grain. The squirrels and rabbits they just shot and ate.


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## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

I actually think they're kinda cute - with their little shoe button eyes and crinkly ears and pink noses - like a well loved stuffed toy left out in the rain, aside from the mouth full of pointy teeth. Maybe it's the malinois lover in me that has totally distorted my sense of cute.

They seem relatively harmless and are not a vector for rabies, I just wish they moved a little faster and didn't end up as chew toys. 

Here's one that was smart enough to stay on my neighbour's side of the fence.


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## Catherine Gervin (Mar 12, 2012)

leslie cassian said:


> I actually think they're kinda cute - with their little shoe button eyes and crinkly ears and pink noses - like a well loved stuffed toy left out in the rain, aside from the mouth full of pointy teeth.


yesdeargod they have a mouth completely full of needle-like teeth and a very throaty hiss that they can make while showing you those teeth. i don't know why they can be so malignant looking up in a tree and then go into faking death rather than fighting when they're on the ground...i don't think they move any more awkwardly hustling away than raccoons do. i guess they are just that uncomfortable being less than arboreal?
also, i've heard opossum tastes really stringy unless you braise it or use it for stew, but i've never had it.


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## Howard Knauf (May 10, 2008)

Last week I let my Mal and GSD out for a break at about 2 am. They shot down to the end of the yard and I could barely see them. From what I could see they were very interested in something so I grabbed a flashlight and sure enough they had a possum on the ground. I walked up to the dogs and told them to leave it, called them to me, and we walked away from it. My neighbor's JRT kills the hell out of possums here but I don't know if he can get them away from him. Chances are he can't because the dog has no formal training.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

A terrier with no formal training deserves the Mini-Mal title. :twisted:

:-k......Come to think of it most of the well mannered ones do too.

I love the little bassids!


I've eaten most everything that lives in the woods/forests except for possum. 

I've been told possum have to be parboiled a few times just to get rid of the grease.

Then there's that old expression "Grinin like a possum eatin $#!+"

That goes back to the days of out houses when the door is opened and one of those "kinda cute" critters is down the hole chomping away and "grinning like a possum eatin $#!+"

I've seen one of them crawl out of a cow carcass when I was rabbit hunting as a kid. 

I've dug to many terriers that were working possum in the ground but I ain't never gonna eat one! :-&


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

my grandmother told me no matter what you do with it it is greasy. very greasy.


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## Howard Knauf (May 10, 2008)

A possum got into the wife's pigeon loft one night. Damn thing killed 15 birds. It only ate the pigeon's crop and a tiny bit of breast on each one. A 22 rifle with CB caps in it is good possum medicine. Quieter than a pellet rifle but with more smackdown power. Afterwards I just toss em into the canal where the gators and turtles finish em off.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

In one VERY rural part of Missouri there were a lot of French speaking people (some were and are my mom's relatives).

They were and still are dirt poor.

In the early days (1700) they were first gen French colonials, or some commonly called Cajun French.

That historically means first gen French. Louisiana later changed that description.

Anyhow, these folks also had the knickname of Paw paw French (look it up on google).

It was said they were so poor that they lived off of Paw paws in the summer and Possum in the winter.

Thus the name. 

There is still a very small population that speak a very corrupted form of French. 

Not very long ago we tried to find my great uncle Edgar's old place in the area but when we came to a sign on a tree we changed our minds. 

The sign read

"if you come closer down this road yul be shot". 

:-o :-o 8-[ Nevermind!


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Well the little Welsh made its 2nd catch. She let him play with it for about 20 minutes, then gave him a piece of chicken, hooked him up and walked him away. 

I told her "hope he doesn't get any racoons" - I will ask if she is SURE the things are dead when she throws them over the fence though. I wonder if she feeds her dog outside .... I have not seen any possums in my yard and I back up to more woods than she does.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

I've seen possums take one hell of a beating and later just walk away. They are stupid enough to keep coming back if there is food involved.

Between the loose skin and most dogs not knowing how to make a kill because the possum "faints" I would think many get away.

One of my brothers caught one in a Havaheart trap almost every night for a week until he recognized the same ear notches showing it was the same one coming to the bird feeder.

BTW, the possum's faint is actually a catatonic state. They aren't "playing.


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## Howard Knauf (May 10, 2008)

Bob Scott said:


> BTW, the possum's faint is actually a catatonic state. They aren't "playing.


 Kinda like the fainting goats?

Ref the Paw Paw...reminds me of Shelby Stanga from "Axe Men"


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

I asked the dog owner.....she said "you know the possum disappeared" - I think the dog "killed" the same possum twice and then she said her dog had no blood on it. Maybe he is not as bad-ass as she thinks he is.

Playin' possum - she said she learned they even emit and odor that makes them smell dead to other animals and that they can be in that state for 5 hours or more.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Howard Knauf said:


> Kinda like the fainting goats?
> 
> Ref the Paw Paw...reminds me of Shelby Stanga from "Axe Men"




Exactly. The goats have the same reaction.

Shelby was always my favorite but I think he shows to much civilization compared to some of my family from the past on both sides. :lol:

I kept looking for some royalty but the further I got into my ancestry the further the family got from civilization. :-o8-[8-[ 

The Irish gangsters/politicians and murders on dad side seemed kinda mellow compared to mom's hill folk.:-o :lol: 

My Great grandad Scott was killed in a drunken brawl over a 2 dollar bet in 1904. I guess that was a bit of money in that era.

I found his grave site in pauper's field just a couple of yrs ago. 

Two of dad's cousins shot two fellas in a pool hall, Killed one, escaped in a stolen car, wrecked it, killed the driver in the other car. 

No one prosecuted because of fear of retaliation. 

Two weeks later one of the two cousins was shot in the back and the face in a tavern. Dead before he hit the floor. 



Grandad Wierschem had a piece of his nose missing from a fight and Grandma Wierschem's (Boyer) brother had a piece of his ear missing from a different fight.

Fact is the Beverly Hillbillies were upper crust compared to some back in the family. 

I have copies of the new paper articles about dad's family. 

I'm just happy I turned out to be such a lovable old granpa. :twisted: :wink:


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Nancy Jocoy said:


> I asked the dog owner.....she said "you know the possum disappeared" - I think the dog "killed" the same possum twice and then she said her dog had no blood on it. Maybe he is not as bad-ass as she thinks he is.
> 
> Playin' possum - she said she learned they even emit and odor that makes them smell dead to other animals and that they can be in that state for 5 hours or more.



I've never heard about the odor. I've always though it was just the lack of motion but a scent would make more sense.

A Kerry Blue I had wasn't finished with any varmint he caught till he crunched the skull. He even did that with mice so possum didn't have a chance. :-o


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## Tom Connors (Dec 30, 2012)

FYI, possums are one of the few mammals that will feed on ticks.


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## Howard Knauf (May 10, 2008)

Tom Connors said:


> FYI, possums are one of the few mammals that will feed on ticks.


OK.

A) Eewww!
B) Too much information 
C) Another reason to not like em. Sick.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

](*,) If I could only train one to feed on chiggers. 

Ticks can be picked and tossed.

Those damn chigger bites itch worse then poison ivy/oak.


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## Jeffrey Eggenberger (Jan 3, 2013)

The ex thought she heard the cat at the front door, "here kitty kitty", and the biggest ugliest possum stuck his head in the front door. She screamed and ran! hahaha! My Jack Russell Terrier is pretty well trained by me using Michael Ellis vids. Her "out" is really good. Also being her pack leader she pretty much offers them up to me.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

I did have a cat take on and kill a possum years ago. She got a rat and several squirrels as well. She was a dainty little thing. Great cat. I always wondered if that possum was sick before she took it or if she was just that good. It looked pretty healthy though. She always did crush skulls and eat the brains.


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

one time about 20 years ago I was at a friends house, just came back from training.
there was a possum in his living room.

He tried to push it out with a broom out the kitchen patio door, it would not leave, he shot it I think 3-4 times with a 22 pistol, at least once in the head, and then pushed it out, he then tried to put it out of its misery with a shovel, and the damn thing still did not die, it ended up actually leaving on its own power..after 3-4 gunshots and a couple whacks with a steel spade.

sad, not great story, but that thing was like the terminator.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

A story my dad always told was a friend of his wanted to know how to kill a possum.

Someone told him to step on the neck and pull up on the tail as hard as he could.

Didn't break the possums neck and the guy got a face full of possum pee for his efforts.

FYI
All the babies in any one litter are all the same sex.

The male possum has two heads on his penis.......really!


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