Water Moccasins, Cane Toads and Puppy Tales

[hogaholicswife]

We went Saturday night, took all the puppies and two grown dogs.  It was mostly just to let the puppies run at night.  One place we didnt wind anything until the very end and that was in an off limits orange grove, my Nitro dog and hound swam the ditch along with my husband's Charlie dog.  We got them all called back but Nitro's collar quit so we called him for 10 or 15 minutes and he finally came back so we loaded up and left to go accross the road.

We dumped the grown dogs and Nitro out and they winded a small hog in some really thick stuff but never got him stopped, so after an hour or so of calling them they finally came back   

No hogs but the puppies stretched their legs and got a little more independence - we put garmins on some of the brassier puppies and they were going as far as 400/500 yards at the time before coming back after a while with their noses to the ground the entire time.  They have only been in the cane a handful of times and have helped bay a sow but they are off to a slow start, hogs seem to be moving in the heat of the day when no one will chance it ... but they are harvesting seed cane and actual harvest season isnt far off which is going to be a good thing for them!

Sunday morning my hound puppy's back leg was swollen, guess a cotton mouth got him in the ditch they swam ... they are horrible but I got him on a little baytril and he is already back to normal.

The husband spent Sunday and Monday night hunting cane toads in the rain, he killed a bucket full of them ranging from babies to some that weighed atleast a pound or two.  We have had several puppies catch them and they are as good as gone when that happens, we also had a weiner dog that would catch them by the back legs like a badger dog and pull them out of their holes so we could kill them .... she was a tenacious little thing ... Apparently we have a very healthy breeding population in our back yard/pasture that is currently lake front property! 

[slimpickins]

Pardon my "Yankee" idioticy, but what do you do with the cane toads?
Sounds like a good trip out overall for the dogs.

[ETHHunters]

Im not a yankee but I was wondering the same thing!

[hogaholicswife]

Toss them in the ditch so the puppies cant get to them, they are like a skink is to a cat ... they mess with their nervous systems when they get the poison in their mouths and it winds up killing them - the puppies like to chase/catch them but luckily they typically only come out at night and get in dog food that is out back for the dogs loose in the yard    We have ankle deep water standing through out the entire pasture and some of our yard, apparently they are like the spring frogs and love the rain 

[slimpickins]

Aha.......makes sense. Is this a frequent problem? Anyone cane toad break dogs? I'm just curious, like snake/cattle/deer breaking.

[JDJP]

Im sure she is talking about what I call Bufo toads. I kill every one i see. For some reason I had a bunch around the yard the last couple months. I guess my dogs have learned not to mess with them. I Killed the biggestone i have ever seen lst month. I held it up in front of a 5 gal bucket to take a picture, and back toes to nose i was as tall as the bucket, and he would not die.

They are a pest down here, they came in on a boat from somewhere on purpose or accident im not sure. And they love some dog food.

Glad to hear the snake bit wasn't to bad cottonmouths are nasty.

4-500yds at night, that sound good for puppies.

Harvest is soon, so you guys are hunting the tall cane? or are you hunting woods around the cain?

I forget where yo are are you on the west side of the lake?

[hogaholicswife]

The grown dogs do not bother them but we have lost puppies in the past so we try to kill every one we see, just seems the rain has brought them out so the husband put a dent in their population. 

My dad shot one the other day TWICE with a .22 before killing it and my mom was telling me about a lady in Ft Myers who caught one and called FWC to come get it, they told her they didnt want it and that she couldnt legally turn it loose that she would have to kill it so she was on the news pitching a fit about how she didn't know what she was going to do with this huge toad frog lol

We hunt it all on the SW side of the lake from tall cane to retention ponds/holly heads, it seems like we catch more hogs in the tall cane (except lately) than in the short or open fields but there are fewer people that hunt when the cane is as tall as it is now.  The farm managers tell us constantly that "so and so" seen a pack of them walking down the road but we just arent that lucky lol 

We do however take the young dogs after the harvesters shut down, things start creeping from block to block so it is a good for the puppies and extra excitement for us because we actually get to see the dogs work.

[spazhogdog]

There is nothing better than watching a pup go and try. Except watching them bay in an open field in the day time, which never happens to us. Are those toads just south? I am not a fan of toads or frogs unless it is in a frying pan. lol

[johnf]

didnt people ust to lick them toads to get high?

[rdjustham]

My dad shot one the other day TWICE with a .22 before killing it and my mom was telling me about a lady in Ft Myers who caught one and called FWC to come get it, they told her they didnt want it and that she couldnt legally turn it loose that she would have to kill it so she was on the news pitching a fit about how she didn't know what she was going to do with this huge toad frog lol

Your mom aint lyin thats my neck of the woods, and she called the cops before calling FWC.  Saw it on the news and couldnt believe it.  Glad they didnt send me to that one ida just killed it and been done with it.  Then sitting in front of internal affairs when FOX 4 got done with the story..