New member from WI

by **tiva** » October 2nd, 2009, 1:45 pm

HI-
I'm a new member from Wisconsin. My husband and I have a small farm in southern WI (and I teach wildlife and forest ecology). We have two rescue pit bulls, Vanya and Tiva. Some details:

Vanya: about 2.5 years old, neutered male, adopted from the humane society about 2 years ago. He's an exuberant young male, quite dog-intense (Jean Donaldson's classic Tarzan).

Tiva: about 13.5 years old, spayed female, rescued off the city streets of NY about 12 years ago.

My training orientation is about 99% positive (clicker), mixed in with 1% e-collar training (on very low stim, for Vanya who became a cattle-chaser).

I'm a member of a bunch of other forums, and I'm happy to be here.
Nancy, w/ Vanya and Tiva

by **maberi** » October 2nd, 2009, 1:56 pm

Welcome to the forum (I'm jealous of your career)

Matt

by **mnp13** » October 2nd, 2009, 2:34 pm

Hi Nancy!

tiva wrote:mixed in with 1% e-collar training (on very low stim, for Vanya who became a cattle-chaser).

Vanya must be a great dog, when Ruby decided that she wanted to eat my friend's fowl on his farm "low stim" wasn't in the realm of possibilities! :rolleyes2:

There's a video somewhere of Connor being headed off by a not-so-happy cow that he was annoying.

What kind of farming do you do? What animals do you have?

by **tiva** » October 2nd, 2009, 2:40 pm

Small-scale organic--lots of fruits and veggies. But really we're in agritainment--most of the farm income comes from renting out our house (we live in the workshop) to guests from Chicago, who want to come pretend they're farmers.

Critters: We have a couple dozen chickens (and Vanya has indeed learned to ignore them, with the help of that magic collar) and a few hives of honeybees. Our neighbors have dairy cows. We had a third dog, a husky mix, but alas, at 15 years, she didn't make it through the summer.

And I can assure you all: Vanya didn't actually learn to stop chasing the cattle on super-low stim. He got kicked, hard, after sneaking through two goat-proof fences (but not Vanya proof fences, turns out) and jumping the cows. He was one lucky boy. He survived, and now he doesn't go anywhere near the cattle field.

by **mnp13** » October 2nd, 2009, 3:16 pm

Our friend's farm was organic as well, we loved going there. They wanted to get into the same thing - renting out a small cottage so people could come and play farmer for a week. But sadly, New York's Organic food certification group decided to be evil a few years ago and basically caused 75% of the family organic farms to go under. Yes, I'm bitter, and will be forever.

Anyway, I hear you about the fences. Connor and Ruby would back up and charge the fences and just scream as they got shocked on the way under. Then go about their merry way on the other side. :rolleyes2:

The heifers weren't amused. The veals (or destined to be veals) were even less so. (what do you call young un-castrated cows? are they "cows"? the females are heifers but what are males?) The cows and bulls were really unimpressed!!

Here's Ruby with one of the pigs:

There were lots of posts with pictures from the farm, but they were on a long-gone forum and I have no idea where they even are at this point.... I'll have to dig them up...

by **pitbullmamaliz** » October 2nd, 2009, 4:01 pm

Hey Nancy, it's Liz & Inara from the CS yahoo group!!! Welcome to the gang! :wave:

by **iluvk9** » October 2nd, 2009, 4:04 pm

Welcome to the forum.

I am a cowboy chaser.

by **Marinepits** » October 2nd, 2009, 5:09 pm

Welcome to the forum!

by **madremissy** » October 2nd, 2009, 7:47 pm

Hello and Welcome to PBT :wave2:

by **Jenn** » October 2nd, 2009, 8:56 pm

Hello and welcome :wave2:

by **tiva** » October 3rd, 2009, 8:41 pm

Thanks for the generous welcomes (hi Liz and Inara!).

I re-read my second message and thought--oh no! you all will think I'm some evil dog-kicker! I didn't kick the poor dog, of course--the cows did.

by **Patch O' Pits** » October 4th, 2009, 7:31 pm

Hi and welcome to the forum! :wave2:

by **AllAmericanPUP** » October 6th, 2009, 11:38 am

Welcome!

by **kera09** » October 6th, 2009, 11:56 am

welcome to pbt! :wave2:

by **SLS61185** » October 6th, 2009, 2:17 pm

Hi, and welcome! I used to live in WI. Sheboygan, to be exact. Lived there for about 6-7 years... Just moved almost 3 years ago.

by **Pitbull-lvr-619** » October 7th, 2009, 2:51 am

Nice to hear you rescued them, i envy you having a farm sounds awesome

New member from WI

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