By Florida Bill Tip your hat to the hunter extraordinaire: the Cairn terrier. The little dog with the big personality.
The feisty Cairn, almost always wheaten or black in color, though maybe a blend leaning slightly to toward rouge, is a descendant of a wolf, believe it or not, and gained its fame and reputation as an aggressive hunter in the fields and underground tunnels of beautiful Scotland. Some say it was in the Isle of Skye. They were commissioned to examine rocky piles known to farmers as cairns and to rid them of any interlopers such as mice, rats, snakes, rabbits or squirrels or any other unwelcome critter hanging around.
In fact, it was said these hunters would "go to ground," in search of such critters, and there are still competitions where terriers are sent into tunnels with caged rats and timed on how quickly they reach the prey and for how long they perform: barking, baying, scratching or staring intensely.
With a determined nature and guided by a nose which can always detect a foreign critter hiding where he does not belong, the sturdy Cairn would do his work and provide for the farmer, his friend and mentor, a rock pile as free and as sterile as a rock pile can be. Unwelcome visitors are dispatched by the Cairns by grabbing them by the neck and delivering some mighty shakes.
In America and much of the world, the tough little Cairn has become a respected and beloved pet in tens of thousands of homes. They love their owners and the kids and other dogs--well, most of the time, when it comes to other canines. They do a good deal of barking and they will sound off mightily at footsteps, even those dropped by a squirrel or bunny. Some owners will laughingly say their Cairns bark at the sound of a leaf dropping.
They are powerful and dominating when it comes to rodents and the unlikeable critters are never too much for the determined Cairn. According to canine expert Stanley Coren, he learned of a terrier named Tiny who was said to have polished off some 5,000 rats in his lifetime. That's dedication.
Recently, I saw on a social media site an inquiry and concern from a Cairn "mom" that her pet was an overly aggressive hunter of little critters, and that perhaps that was a negative quality which her Cairn possessed. Somewhat distressed, she invited comments from other owners on what she perceived as an unwelcome trait which she was not fond of.
The answer is that the instinct to hunt is in the canine genes. For me, also a Cairn booster, I look upon their talent to ferret out the intruder with admiration--a Cairn doing what a Cairn was meant to do.
Not too long ago, our male, Andy, a handsome, wheaten colored Cairn weighing in at about 16 pounds, left our back door and raced to the far end of our fenced one-acre yard. He seemed to be on a mission. Minutes later I saw him furiously shaking a black "rope" in his mouth. It wasn't a rope, it was a black garter snake about three feet long. Most interesting was that Andy seemed to know that the alien was there. He made quick work of the intruder. How? What tipped Andy off? Just a couple of days ago, our 7-year-old black Cairn, Wendy, declined to answer our whistle and call which was completely unlike her while inside our home in South Florida. We went to look for her and found her staring at a closed closet door. It was the unmistakable Cairn "death stare," with her nose inches from the tiny slit under the door. No question, but there had to be something inside the closet where we have boxes stored with Xmas decorations and other items and some luggage. We were hoping that a mouse had not gotten into the house.
Opening the door, Wendy shot in without hesitation. She nosed around items piled on the floor and darted under the shelf housing the air conditioner. Presto, within seconds, she exploded out with a large Palmetto bug--an unpleasant fact of life in Florida--in her mouth, zoomed to another corner of the house, and then dropped the lifeless meddler onto the floor. Thanks, Wendy. We cleaned up the remains, and Wendy then went about her business.
Niki, another female cairn of ours back in our Chicago days, would suddenly stake out a pantry or closet and we knew it was time to buy a mouse trap.
The search by the young and middle aged Cairn is never ending. Maybe age will slow them down, but just a little. The cairn does not discern which intruder might be a more or less welcome addition to the terrain. They are all prey. Here in Florida, and perhaps elsewhere where there is an abundance of sun and showers, we need to keep an eye on the inquisitive Cairn lest in his instinct to hunt, he comes upon the dreaded Bufo toad, which will react to danger by exuding a substance on its skin which is poisonous to dogs and can even be fatal. When the Cairn sees the toad, he attacks and most large toads cannot move fast enough to escape. If it happens, which it has to us three times, we wipe out the inside of the dog's mouth with a wet rag and then rush the little fur head to the vet for immediate treatment, which will save the dog if the action is timely enough. Anyway, be on guard against these dog menaces. Bufos are ugly looking dudes whose size can match a dessert plate.
Is the cairn a dedicated hunter? I would say, yes, absolutely. We sometimes fear ours got an overabundance of terrier genes. So, what is it about an unwelcome critter which draws their attention? What do they hear? What do they smell?
The dog's nose is, according to some experts, about a million times more sensitive than man's ability to smell. In one experiment I read about, a tiny mouse was placed in the center of a one acre field of grass, and the dog--I like to think it could have been a cairn--was released to hunt. Within minutes, the proud dog returned, mouse in tow. That was all nose. It was the hunter, home from the hills.
The Cairn terrier has a tradition to uphold. Hunting is what he does and what he has always done. His people and the unconditional love which he bestows upon his owners of course comes first. But intruders and aliens are definitely not welcome in Cairn territory. So do not be concerned. Enjoy your Cairn. There is no other dog like yours in the world!!!!
XXX
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