cheetah speed

[mrpuppy]

about 3 months ago I was walking bear past this old barn across the road, there were a bunch of scissortail barnswallows flying around it, bear  was walking about 3 feet in front of me on the end of his 2 leashes when a barnswallow flitted right  past my right shoulder at approximately rocket velocity,I heard the pfffffft and felt the rush of air when.......... .........A FASTER THAN SIGHT JUMP,A FLASH,A GRAB AND A GULP,AND WHAMMO,no more barnswallow,true story!!! I pulled the feathers off bear's lips

[Leah-n-boy-os]

Ummm, you might want to actully curb that behavior. Firstly, with all of the viruses that wild brids carry, it's extremely dangerous to allow your dog to eat them. Secondly, if his prey drive is that active, the potential for him to kill something else like someone's beloved cat, or a smaller dog is dangerously high.

[mrpuppy]

bear is 14 months old,we have 2 cats and a kitten who  he plays with all the time,both inside and out, they've never come to any harm yet!!!,they also eat out of the same bowl and the kitten often sleeps with him at night,curled up, almost invisible,between his front legs and against his chest,the cats often come up outside and roll around in front of him,inviteing a game!!!of their own volition!!,bear always obliges, we also have a boxer ,and I think pit cross, who somebody dumped and left to starve to death about 2 months ago,and a 2 year old magnificent beagle!!!, who was also dumped,they have some ferocious romps together!!!, if you understood newfies you would know that their dedication and loyalty and love towards their own family is absolute!!!!!!, and if necesarry, he would die to protect them!! its just that the original indians of newfoundland used them extensively to hunt with and that hunting instinct remains super strong with them to this day, if you read the lewis and clark story closely,than you saw he used his newwfie to bring him back squirrels to eat, in his own words,as many as he wanted!!!

[yogibear]

My Yogi also LOVES to chase birds. He loves to go to the soccer field and chase Black birds. He even looks out my 2nd story bedroom window and barks at the birds flying by...it is too cute. When he visits at my moms house, she opens the back door, lets him out, and says "go find the birdies" and he flushes them out of the bushes, bouncing and barking....it is one of his favorite pass times

[Leah-n-boy-os]

Ok, first off, I understand Newfies just fine  , and yes, I know that in historical times, they were used as hunting companions.

However, you said he "ate" it, yes? Not flushed it out, chased after it, or anything like that, right? I stand by my statement that letting him eat wild birds is hazardous to his health, and I also stand by my thought that he gave you (according to you) no warning that he was going after the bird, and that that level of aggression can be transferred to other smaller forms of animals.

[mrpuppy]

so true!!! ,a newfies ability to see and know everything!!!! that goes on around him never fails to amaze me,I can't count the number of times I've walked bear and he would suddenly stop and gaze intently at the high voltage wires,when I would follow his gaze,invariably there would be a bird perched there! about 40 or 50 yards away, or he would stop, sit down,and gaze intently up at the sky,sloooowly!! moving his head,always it would be buzzards,wild geese, or birds high up in the sky! his hearing is so sensitive that he can hear a cat walking through the grass in the dark in the front yard!,I can tell just by the sound of his bark that its a cat and often which cat!,and I can also tell just by the sound of his bark,to what degree whatever is out there is a threat!I firmly believe that being in the company of newfies amplify our own sense's to a degree not otherwise possible!!!

[mrpuppy]

in reply to leahs second question,gulp, the same way he did the rat who came out from behind the couch once too often,I have talked to linda volk at beach-nut newfies often, she is a supremely kind and knowledgeable woman,she has bred newfies for 35 years! she has about 22 of them,she owns a large,wooded, tract of land in tennessee where her newfies have freedom to hunt, she told me also that they regularly bring her back squirrels,skinned! newfoudlands are powerful hunters!!! don't underestimate them in this regard, however, this has nothing to do with their other innate qualitys!!! it is just another facet of their hypnotizing,uniqe personalities!!!!!

[AC]

its just that the original indians of newfoundland used them extensively to hunt with and that hunting instinct remains super strong with them to this day

I'm sure Newfs still have a very good hunting instinct, but the original indians (the Beothuk) of Newfoundland appear to have never used or had dogs!!!

[jabear]

Wether or not Newfs could be good hunters (Bear certainly could never do it with his broken sniffer ) is not the main point here. I think the fact that your Bear hunted something on purpose is something that you should keep an eye on. You don't want to come home to find "surprises" on your front door some day. Maybe you can redirect his attention to something more fun and healty- like soccer since he is fast or swimming or something.

[mrpuppy]

I don't mean this in a bad way! ,but they certainly got their poweful hunting instincts from somewhere!!!, maybe the vikings?, or maybe the original tibetan mastiffs?

[jabear]

I'm sure you don't mean it bad but it is gross! I think I would freak out if my Bear came home with something dead. Eugh!

And you could totally be right about the origins of the instincts...wh o knows.

[mrpuppy]

in reply to jabear,I think its a guy thing

[AC]

I don't mean this in a bad way! ,but they certainly got their poweful hunting instincts from somewhere!!!, maybe the vikings?, or maybe the original tibetan mastiffs?

They had to catch thier own food here and that was mostly fish and they were very proficient at it! There are even records of them diving for sea birds like turrs (no record of them catching a turr, but I'm sure it had to happen at least once! ). So I think they did have powerful hunting instincts that they developed on thier own to survive here on the island of Newfoundland.

[NoDogNow]

You know, Newfs were "ship dogs".  And for a LONG time, all ship dogs had to either eat the perfectly NASTY things that the poor sailors had on board to eat--like dried salt meats, weevilly biscuits and horrible suet puddings, washed down with watered rum grog--or they had to CATCH their own fish, ship's rats (which they had to compete with the poor sailors for) or sea birds. 

I'm sure that the whole "birdy" thing is entirely normal, and that he'll be fine.  Although...how good can feathers possibly taste? 

[mrpuppy]

read shogun!!! it will give you an even better insight into just how bad the conditions of those sailors on those midevial ships really were!!!