Catching a Podengo - The Tail of Mel the Podengo who escaped in California

After a lot more experience of Maria, I can safely say that you cannot catch a podengo, unless the podengo wants to submit. Their speed and agility make it easy to elude humans in the open, unless equipped with nets or stun-guns.

Recently she ran about six miles, chasing two small deer through german pine forests. Eventually, as night was falling, she followed her own scent back to where he had started. A few months back she chased a vixen guarding cubs, through a large vegetable field. It was fenced off and divided into a lot of individual patches, which had small huts. But these were no help. Eventually she went up to a friendly lady who took her collar. But although a dog-lover, she did not understand podengos. When she let go, Maria was off again for another 15 minutes.

Giving chase never works. What can work, is to walk away shouting bye bye. But sometimes we have had to drive off in the car before she would give herself up.

We have found Podengo Medios act exactly this way. When Maria gets loose and there are squirrel about, there is no chance whatever of distracting her. She will run flat out, quite close, past you on the route between one fleeing squirrel and another. But she will ignore you and if you put out a hand she will easily dodge it. This can go on for more than an hour and as dark falls, your chances of even keeping her in sight diminish.

We found a trick that might just work for others if a Podengo has been distracted by chasing prey. We took Brando a Labrador-Podengo cross on his lead to the foot of a large tree. We repeated the word squirrel, several times. Eventually,. he started clawing the trunk and emitting little yelps as they do in the presence of prey. Maria soon came running to assist him and whilst she was clawing at the trunk also, we were able to snatch her collar.

I do not think that any of the Podengo Medios or Podengo Pequenos that we have encountered were really scared of us - or wanted to abandon us on a permanent basis. When Brando actually lost sight of us for over an hour, he returned, shrunken, hang-dog, fearful and crestfallen.

But they do enjoy their independence and will come back, only when they want. When they do they are submissive and gentle. We are now feeding Maria entirely by hand and blowing a whistle each time that we give her food. We hope that she will associate the whistle with food and decide that a biscuit in the hand is worth more than several squirrels in the bush.

I will let readers know if this works, in due course.

We have Mel. We had a sighing last night...rushed to the area and worked out a strategy to get him. He was herded into an abandoned dog kennel - went through two fenced areas at the outer rim of the kennel. Kathy, Heinz and I checked the pe...rimeter confirming the fencing was in good shape...except for a small opening where Mel has slipped though. We baracated the opening, in case he was inside the facility. We set up humane traps with food, hoping, he'd be hungry and driven to go into the trap. We felt Mel was hiding out...we had called his name, but decided to remain quiet and not distrub him.

We were in luck...the renter living near the kennel site is on vacation. So..this meant the Mel would have a calm environment with no one challenging him or big dogs barking at him. He was not acting like most dogs, who run off...he wasn't interested in communicating with anyone. In case he was hiding there, we wanted him to see our Pequenos...so after everything was secure, we walked around with our two females and one male. Then, put them up and sat for two hours in our cars waiting to see if he'd surface. When he didn't...we left and returned early this morning.

We had hoped to find him in the humane traps, but he wasn't about to take a chance. When we took our female out and towards the kennel fencing...Mel suddenly appeared...he kept his distance and any movement made him scatter. I took Hanna into the kennel area and Mel greeted her, but wouldn't get close enough so I could get him. He went right back into , "You're not going to catch me mode" any time we talked or walked towards him..We ignored him and continued walking away from him inside the perimeter. Mel wasn't acting frightened...just not interested in getting close or being confined.

Heinz continued to survey the inside perimeter...all the time ignoring Mel. Hanna and I blocked one possible exit area, where we thought he had entered the kennel...I passed Hanna to Heinz and brought in Gina and Gusto. We knew we had to move him to a more confined area, if we intended to catch him..But, we also knew we had to act uninterested and calm.

Now that we actually were with him, we knew we had a good chance as long as we were patient. Once we were able to contact the property manager, he came out and unlocked the kennel entrance, gate and building. We were finally able to herd Mel into a kennel run...close the door with Mel inside and Heinz at one end of the run and me in front of Heinz.....the property manager standing backup outside the run. I calmly walked up to Mel...he sat there..looked at me, as though he knew the game was over. He didn't shy away or bolt. He acted like nothing happened - giving me a little wiggle of his tail. He still had a lot of energy he was full sand burrs and stickers (no fox tails) and had about 20 ticks on him. He's in great condition.

When we got him home, he was not concerned or worried. Heinz cleaned him up, which Mel enjoyed. We gave him a small meal and some goat's milk. He sat on Heinz and my lap - he's not tired or stressed - He's resting in our bedroom in a nice wire crate on a fake fur mat/ We'll have our vet check him out this week.

Throughout this experience, Heinz and I have learned that these independent little creatures have minds of their own. They're tremendously smart...watchful and study the situation and people around them Most other breeds can be side tracked, but they operate on instincs and cunning. You can't dominate them, as they enjoy the hunting game..even when they change roles : they're the hunters and the humans are their game.


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