Westie Terrier Blog

A video of a man screaming at his deer-chasing dog in the U.K. seems to have created a small interest in how to bust dogs off deer.

Dogs chasing deer is not a new problem but an old one, and it is not limited to deer. Dogs may bust on fox, geese, feral cats, horse, sheep, bear, and even cars and bicycles.

Anything that moves away quickly — and especially anything that moves away while making noise — will tend to trigger the prey drive in a dog.

What to do about it?

Well to start, recognize that prey drive is a deeply-seated code that is curled up like a watch spring in some dogs, and that pursuit is a self-reinforcing behavior.

What’s that mean?

Simple enough: It means the dog gets a great deal of pleasure from the pursuit itself.

For a dog, chasing things is a peak experience in and of itself. It is FUN in capital letters.

What that means for you, the owner or trainer, is that you are going to have to use all three legs of operant conditioning in order to achieve success if you have a dog with a lot of prey-drive.

(From a recent article on the Terrierman Blog)

Deer-chasing Willow

I have a confession to make. Last month I came very close to losing my little Westie, Willow. It was a prime example of the danger of deer-chasing.

We were walking in Morrison Park close to where we live in Courtenay. The park is a large area of forest and streams where we like to walk almost every day. Its a great place to wander and gives a Westie a wonderful chance to exercise its nose.

Courtenay is a small city surrounded by forest. If you live on the outskirts of town, as we do, this forested area starts just a couple of blocks away and runs up to Mount Washington and then on to the west coast of Vancouver Island. Morrison Park is actually just a promontory of forest that has been set aside for recreation and there are no fences or any other containment. In other words, if a dog takes off in those woods it can easily be lost forever. Deer-chasing is very dangerous under these conditions.

And that’s what almost happened to me. We were walking in the park. Willow was loose, dragging a 30 foot long-line. Suddenly, she jumped a deer and she was off before I could jump on the line and stop her. That’s how fast you can get into trouble with deer-chasing.

That long-line is all that saved our bacon that afternoon. The brush was too thick to track her. All I could do was head off in the direction she was going and hope she would get hung up somewhere.

That’s exactly what happened. She got a couple of miles and the line finally tangled around a root and stopped her. Fortunately for us, she has been trained to sit calmly as soon as her leash pulls tight, and thats what she did instead of fighting it. As soon as her forward progress was stopped she sat and started barking so I could find her. Everything ended well and I learned a valuable lesson.

Here’s the thing: Westies are terriers. That means that the prey drive is pretty strong in most of them. They can be tripping along as cool as cucumbers one minute and gone in the next instant if something catches their interest. This is especially true if the dog is young and fit like Willow is. Deer-chasing is especially attractive for dogs in their prime when they still have lots of energy.

You may think that you don’t need to worry about such things, especially if you don’t live in a place like Courtenay where deer, and sometimes bears, are often seen walking down the street at midday. But, your dog has the same instincts and they can be triggered by kids on skateboards, cats or other things just as easily as by deer.

The absolute safest thing is to never let your dog off the leash, but who wants that? Having your dog running free beside you is a great feeling and something we should all work towards. That’s why Willow was hooked up to the long-line that afternoon. Deer-chasing wasn’t on my mind though. I was guarding against her chasing a squirrel and figured I would have lots of time to reel her in.

Its fine to let your dog off the leash once you’ve done some work with him. That work includes having him solid on-leash and then on a long line. It takes work and time, but its worth it. Things can change in an instant and its quite possible to lose your dog. It may not run off into the woods, but it could run in front of a car or get into some kind of mischief that ends with it in the pound or being put down.

So, do the work. Put the time into training before you let your dog run free. The training is fun and rewarding in itself and it will protect you from a lot of heart-break in the future. Deer-chasing is not the only thing you have to be careful of.

Westie dogs may, in fact, be the perfect dogs. They’re good looking, smart and they have great personalities. They may not be right for everyone, but the Westie dogs get my vote for the perfect dog.

That wasn’t always true. When I was younger I liked bigger dogs like Labs and Shepherds. Westie dogs weren’t even on my radar back then. The way I saw things in those days, dogs should be big, vigorous companions that could do their bit to protect you. They could also carry a pack to help with the groceries and they would keep the bears away from our little house in the woods. I didn’t even know what Westie dogs were in those days and I would have relegated them to the lap dog category with the Pekinese and the Chihuahua. How times have changed.

Things I love about Westie dogs

• Good looks – Westie dogs are the most recognizable dogs, even if they are usually mistaken for Scotties.
• Ideal size – Small enough to be picked up easily, yet big enough that they don’t get underfoot.
• Great energy – Westie dogs have lots of pep, but unlike some terrier breeds they mellow with age and leave that manic energy behind. Yet they never seem to get stodgy.
• Personality plus – I’ve never met a Westie dog that didn’t have a distinct personality. Many dogs are just dogs, but every single member of the Westie dogs seems to have his own unique personality.
• Cheap to feed – Westie dogs are small enough that they only need a couple of cups of food a day. You won’t go broke feeding these little fellas.
• Easy to clean up after – What goes in comes out. With Westie dogs you don’t  need to pack a bucket when you go for a walk.
• Very loving and affectionate – Give them a chance and they’ll love you to death. They want to please without being clingy. Exactly right.
• Independent spirit – Well, I usually love this aspect of Westie dogs. Downside is that it makes them a bit of a challenge to train.

Final thoughts on Westie dogs

So there you have it, my humble opinion about why Westie dogs are the perfect dogs. Looks, size, cost and spirit. What more could you ask for? You can tell I’m not alone in my opinion by seeing how many fan pages there are on facebook for Westie dogs. Everybody loves these guys.

(This news clip was published on KGW.com)
OREGON CITY, Ore. – A coyote attack on a small dog may have proved fatal, if not for the quick lifesaving work of the dog’s owner.

Ozzie the West Highland Terrier was with owner Ruth Mitchell on her parents’ farm between Oregon City and Estacada when the attack happened on July 15. Mitchell was watering the garden and Ozzie was playing with two other dogs – then there was a commotion out of the woman’s sight.

When Mitchell went to look, Ozzie was missing. The dog owner jumped a few fences and looked out into a field, where she saw the coyote with the dog in its mouth.
“When I saw the coyote I screamed ‘no’ as loud as I could and started running, and by the time I got to that fence he had already dropped Ozzie,” said Mitchell.
But when she reached her beloved dog, she found him lifeless, with two big gashes on his neck. So Mitchell performed CPR on the unconscious Westie.

“Because I love animals so much I was willing to do anything so I started blowing in his mouth, not knowing if that was helping and pushing on his chest,” she recalled.
And it seemed to work. Ozzie began breathing and was up on four paws after the CPR. Mitchell rushed him to her veterinarian, and after two surgeries, Ozzie was recovering well.

Wildlife officials said Mitchell did the right thing by yelling at the coyote. They said most often, that will scare the animals away.

If you live in an area frequented by Coyotes, keep a close eye on your dog. Westies are just about the perfect size for a coyote supper, as the story above shows.

We had lots of coyotes living around us in Maple Ridge and they definitely took their share of dogs, although they preferred cats.

Our Norwegian Elkhound, Saladdin, used to actively hunt coyotes in his younger days. He was fast enough to handle a single coyote without a problem and wise enough to beat a retreat if a bunch of his buddies showed up.

One Westie I knew of named Lacey lived on a horse farm in Aldergrove. Lots of coyote activity there, too. Lacey was always the first to sound the alarm and take off in pursuit when the coyotes showed up. Lucky for her, her pack included two standard poodles and a Great Pyranees and they always had her back.

But, it isn’t just little dogs that get et by coyotes. Some people we knew in Maple Ridge went to a party one night and left their German Shepherd tied up in the back yard. When they got home, all they found was his head and one front leg still tethered to the tie-out stake.

Coyotes are mainly night hunters, so keeping your dog in at night is a good start at protection. They do come around during the day as well, though. If you live in the country or on the edge of wild country the only thing you can do is keep your dog in sight, even during the day.

Coyotes usually catch a dog by sending a single member in to lure the dog into playing. They gradually draw them farther out and the rest of the pack surrounds them from behind. Westies, being the scrappy little guys they are, can also be sucked in by coyote plan B. That’s pretending to be frightened and running away so the victim chases them. The endgame is the same as plan A.

The bottom line is simply that we always have to know where our dogs are, and if we can’t pay attention to them for some reason its better to contain them somewhere than simply to let them run.