I’m glad the timing worked out for your young dog to be able to step up. I’ve got a 14 month old pup that I’ve been running as lead too. I got his mom from a buddy of mine as an older sure enough strike dog, but that litter was hard on her and over the summer she got some illness that was real hard on her and she hasn’t been the same since then. I think that all of that combined with getting cut down pretty good quite a few times over the years has finally caught up and is taking a toll on her. She stays close now and is slow. Her pups are out hunting and out striking her but she still likes to go and she will honor them and catch so I’ve still been hauling her. I’m hoping to have my young dogs really dialed in by this time next year to teach my current pups. It seems like something always happens to my older dogs before I can get a younger set trained behind them so I have to start from scratch. That’s getting old, lol.
How is Tuff getting along now?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes I agree, a good dog can carry a lot of history and stories with it from hard work but their sometimes comes an event that gets them down physically that wouldn't be to bad if they were younger but the miles and miles that were creeping in coupled with a bad sickness or injury can then have a significant effect on the dog which just makes the miles and history come to the present in a formidable way.
Tuff is Tuff. Dude was sore for about 1 full day and then you couldn't tell he was injured. I've not shared the actual story on his injury because idk lol. However I don't mind doing so. The injury itself wasn't that bad except for the minum coming out the hole in the bottom of the stomach. I tried fixing myself but I was making matter worse somehow. So off to the vet he went. Vet was having problems. Finally we found the issue to our problem getting the minum stuffed back in. The hole in the skin was about 21/2 inches from the actual hole in the abdomen the tissue was coming out of. So we had to cut him open a good ways. When we did cut him open where we could see, we found not a slice through the abdominal muscle but a fairly significant tearing and ripping back of the muscle/abdominal wall. Got that sewed up best we could and then the skin sewed up. The turd keeps jumping on the truck every time I let him out of the pen. I hate it but its holding nicely. I had a topical infection I had to address and I got it cleared up but you'd never known Tuff was hurt except for that 1 day of grogginess from being knocked out lol. He is extremely upset when he sees me getting the other dogs out of their pen and he knows I'm going hunting. It tears him up lol. I've been afraid he was gonna rip the stomach muscles open and I'd have a hernia to deal with but so far so good.
Often times Tuff stays in the house with me. He sleep next to my bed just below me. He has been once went to the bathroom in my house. I let him out in the mornings. There is no fence around my place but he stays in the yard or gets on the truck till I call him back inside. At camp I let him stay in my trailerinstesd of putting him in the kennel with the other dog I bring. Half the time I let him stay inside with me and half the time he is either on the chain or in a pen. He rides loose on the back of my truck even when I go to town for groceries or to the hardware store. He is much more to me than just the hunting dog that he is so well known for. He is a very good friend to me. Usually it is just he and I. Two bachelors with mutual respect and appreciation for one another. River sure enjoyed seeing him as do most people. They are sooo surprised at the nature of him and the utilitarian type dog that he is and not just the beast that he appears to be in the hunting videos. River wants to see Tuff in action and see how j really hunt rather than limp by with these young dogs. I doubt I'll hunt Tuff until she comes back in order to give that abdominal tissue 6 or 7 weeks to heal back strong. That will also give me that much longer to hunt Pira before I basically send her into semi retirement and get 2 litters of pups off of her. After that she will be close to 7 years old. I might breed her then to just sale pure bully pups off of her idk.
