It may come as a shock, but we do have the odd litter of pups. Four on the ground as I type. Yes there was a balls up, two planned two not.
Often I am getting approached by people wanting to buy them, so I’m going to start posting them here to keep people informed on what we have currently.
That and puppy photo goodness.
This litter is Courtney and Jack pups, Foxies. One female and three males ready to go now.
Contact Stephen 021858075
This link is Shaun, one of our shooters speaking with Radio New Zealand about rabbits.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/audio/2018641577/the-return-of-the-rabbits
This link is me speaking with RNZ about using ferrets for rabbiting.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/audio/2018641574/kill-that-rabbit
So the pup has been picked, it’s now home, where to from here? First things first, a feed and water for pup then playtime!
Generally one of the first questions I’m asked is how to toilet train the new pup which is actually quite straight forward. As soon as the new pup wakes outside with it, not in a few minutes but straight away. Very quickly pup will learn that is the deal and will start dropping hints it needs to go to the toilet, it’s up to you to learn those hints. Whether it’s the pup goes to a curtain spot, a corner or door there will be a hint. Accidents will happen but there is no reason to growl, in fact you are the one that should be growled at for not reading pup properly.
Next on the list is feeding pup, that should start the way you intend it to be fed for it’s whole life. I always get a bag of very good quality pup food to start them off but this gets mixed up with any food scraps and/or good quality dogroll. There is nothing worse than a dog that is fussy about what it will eat so much much easier to get them used to all the food right at the beginning.
Remember here as well, pup needs to be wormed every two weeks till it’s 14 weeks old.
The big thing right now though is handle that pup, spend as much time as you can playing as this is great handling and makes for a much more sociable and trainable pup later on.
Hopefully it hasn’t taken long to name the pup so call it by it’s name often.
When everyone is interacting with pup they need to use it’s name. When someone comes up they will call it something else, a genital correction here will make pup learning its name quicker and easier. A simple pups name is “here” can you please call it that, when they first meet, the faster pups name is learned the better.
Now go play with that pup!
So you finally found the pup you wanted. Congratulations! Let the fun begin. Training a pup is quite straight forward, consistency and repetition are the key words, if everyone that comes into contact with the pup acts and treats it the same it won’t take long for you to have a well trained dog.
Courtney and Jack produced these wee cracking Foxy pups
Before even picking the pup up it’s a good idea to work a few things out with everyone that will be involved, everyone needs to understand consistency is very important.
When pup is going to be walked on a lead what side will it be on?
Can everyone whistle? Are you going to clap your hands instead of a whistle. What whistles are going to be used to do what with a command?
Is there going to be hand signals used? What hand signals for what command?
If everyone knows the commands and uses them properly pup will not get confused so will learn much quicker.
If you are picking the pup up on the day of choosing or have picked it out earlier on the day of pickup make sure the breeder does NOT feed the pup if you have any distance to travel.
The reason for this is so simple, a belly full of food and a new pup possibly travelling for the first time very often leads to a car sick pup. If this happens it can put them off the vehicle so instilling an issue to begin with, water is fine but no food.
Make sure the pup has had a really good run when you pick it up so it gets a good chance to empty out, that and a tired pup will go to sleep quickly once the car is moving.
The reason for me starting these posts about dog training is fairly simple. I have a lot of dogs for work and breed replacements with extras being sold. That and the odd accident happens, namely sometimes I don’t notice a bitch has come on heat till it’s to late and some bastard dog has been into her already.
Have fun with that new pup.
Stephen
Man has there been a lot going on in the last few months! Killed a lot of rabbits somewhere in there as well. But that’s what we do in Otago, rabbit capital of New Zealand right here.
So time for some random things that have happened at Kill That Rabbit in the last few months in no particular order….
While all of you were;
A: Getting pissed
B: Being introverted
C: Spending quality time with your significant others
D: I don’t want to know…..
We were out setting a new record for us, new years 2017 we, Shaun and I, shot 823 rabbits AND knocked off early. Then think, we shot that huge number on just 11.5 Hectares. One shooter, I was loading, counting and driving and let me tell you, I was flat out.
We also went back a week later and shot another 380+ odd plus ferreted it etc. That one block has had way over 1500 rabbits killed on it, which brings up a funny story…
I was talking to a woman that ended up holidaying right beside that particular block just after we had a killing spree there. They couldn’t work out why random dead rabbits turned up and what the bad smell was.
Not every rabbit dies on the spot, and there was waaaay over a tonne of meat and guts rooting on the hill. The hottest summer on record, tonne of meat and guts on the hill, it was a thing to behold…
Oh, and we shot out that rifle that night, is seems having a loader and continuously shooting can be hard on barrels. Opps.
Courtney had pups!
Lots of pups and Jack is the father. Today Google informed me this is a five year old photo of Jack (with a black nut sack) which I’m shook about, I thought he was four at most so how wrong was I? Someone stole the dog he is sleeping on. Not literally cause I let them. 🙄
Young Evalynn fell in luf in shit so just had to move to Invercargill, cause, well that’s where Michelle is and we can’t keep a young lady away from her man… I’m waiting for the baby call.
As I mentioned in the last post, the new virus is about to be released. For some reason it’s all secret squirrel stuff when it comes to the Otago Regional Council telling people what’s going on. I’m sure there’s a good reason…
My son that’s left school now works for Kill That Rabbit, he’s a machine with the rifle and is going very well working with the ferrets. He is also going very well with the air rifle having an extremely good hit rate with that piece of equipment, a grand bit of gear it is to around built up areas. Next for it will be a thermal scope.
One of the dogs killed a ferret, a fine ferret he was as well. Pepper had been with us for a couple of years and killed many a rabbit. I have no understanding why Jack decided Pepper should die but I can tell you I was decidedly unimpressed.
We had words, strong words.
I’ll bugger off and leave you to it. Bastards. LifeOfARabbiter
Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) has given approval for the new strain of the rabbit calicivirus. The full statement can be read HERE
The local regional councils expect to start the release at the end of March this year (2018) hoping to have it fully released some time in April.
What this means for people with rabbits is once the virus goes through you will end up with approximately 35% less rabbits than you have now, in some areas there may be no difference, in other areas slightly more. This is the results they have found overseas, namely Australia where is was released over 12 months ago.
For people with smaller holdings it isn’t going to make a great deal of difference, for every 3-4 dead rabbits you see there will be another 6-7 that will not be affected.
However where the real difference will be is on bigger properties were even 35% is a huge number of rabbits. The stations and larger farms should be planning now on what follow up work they intend on doing as that is the critical part.
It seems I’ve been tardy with updating here, probably because we have been so busy!
Huge rabbit explosion happening in Central Otago at the moment, in fact it goes throughout NZ….
A bit of thermal action from a few days ago on a vineyard we have just started doing control work on. We did a follow up a few days later and am very happy with how it now looks.
So the 29th is the day for Evalynn, a whoppingly old 18. If you run into her ask her what it’s like being that old. Start with “Hey you old
cowchook”….
HAPPY BIRTHDAY princess cowchook
And here’s a pic of Princess cowchook today, rabbit blood and all…
I’d like you all to meet Evalynn, the young lass (17) that works for us as a rabbiter at Kill That Rabbit. She loves ferreting and spotlighting (when it’s not to cold, ‘bloody kids’) with a bit of pighunting in the weekends.
Wee Jo the whippet has taken a real shine to Evalynn, bloody hopeless for me as now she ignores me completely if Evalynn is in sight. Bolt is going the same way.
Oh, that’s Crank the ferret with the blood all over his face, just in case you weren’t sure who was who…
Kill That Rabbit 