My BPCR Silhouette shooting partner

[Mike Venturino]

While I'm playing around with the computer this morning and avoiding doing any useful work I thought I'd post a photo of my BPCR Silhouette shooting partner. He goes with me to almost all of the matches here in Montana.

His name is Brennan and I got him four years ago from the local animal shelter. To make a long story short I was able to trace his background and now have his registration papers. He's a tri-color collie born on May 9th, 2000, and the finest dog I've had the pleasure to meet.

In this photo he's looking after my shooting gear while I'm at the firing line.
Mike V.

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/MLV1/BobG2007042LargeWebview.jpg

[markinalpine]

I let him guard my truck while I'm at the range. 65 Lbs of black happiness!
Born about 1 Jan 2005. Found by my next door neighbor with 5 others under an abandoned house trailer near his property (my neighbor's :veryconfu). We guess it was their mother run over :cry: up on the highway.
Mike, my neighbor, had seen her before and was concerned because dogs running wild can be a problem for stock raisers like him, but she never messed with his cattle. She was a dark red shepherd/chow mix, and Mike recalled there was a black Lab in the gang of dogs :twisted: who were hanging around the area a couple of months before he found the litter.

Mark [smilie=s:

By the way, Mike, nice looking collie!

[AZ-Stew]

Fine dog, Mike.

The older of my two English setters is "Lady". We bought her from a private party about 10 years ago. She's one of the best dogs we've ever had. Smart and obedient, but getting up there in years and it's starting to show, physically. She's not as quick outdoors as she used to be.

This June we picked up the pup, "Biscuit" (named by our grandson and wearing the red collar), from the pound in the next county. Boy, does he want to please his humans! Unfortunately, he suffered some sort of neurological disorder a month or so ago and we've been nursing him back to health ever since. He was deteriorating in his ability to control his motor functions and it was getting worse quickly. The vet put him on cortisone and he has slowly started coming around to his old self again. As near as we can figure, he still has trouble seeing or focusing with his left eye and seems to have numbness on the left side of his head. He's eating well and getting around almost like nothing happened. Needless to say, we're glad to have him back. He's such a beautiful dog in all respects, we'd have really hated to lose him.

Regards,

Stew

[MtGun44]

Really nice looking dog.

Bill

[JRW]

I hope this comes out, I can shoot better'n than i comput'r!

Below is my world class coach and birdhunting partner, along with her grandmother!

[HollandNut]

Awrite , pullin' out wallet with pics of the kids .. [smilie=w:

We have decided this is our last one , he's 13 , cant hear , can hardly see , and after a lifetime of never being without one , we have finally reached the point , where it hurts too mch to say goodbye ..

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a109/GroovyJack/pupridin1.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a109/GroovyJack/prayin.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a109/GroovyJack/dawg.jpg

[Mumblypeg]

OK, look to the left. There's mine in my avatar. Born in 2000 also. Yea she realy wears earmuffs... well sometimes.

[NVcurmudgeon]

Sorry no picture. My best friend was designated a "Brittany Mix" at the local Humane Society. He's marked like a Brittany and has very long legs, but the rest seems to be Beagle. Beagle face, tail, very thin short coat, and howls fit to raise the dead. Milo ignores the plentiful quail on and around our place, but he does point...cottontails and ground squirrels! He came with a little baggage, being a two time loser at the shelter, but he came right up to me and in fluent doglish communicated, "There you are, it's about time, let's go home." Milo was about three when we got him 16 month ago, and we have succeeded in getting him to forget the Beagle wanderlust, but chewing and garbage raiding still need a litle work. For forty years I have missed Jack, my most special ever dog, and thought I had had my once in a lifetime perfect dog. Milo with his great love and gentleness is well on his way to reaching that highest level of man/dog relationship. I feel very fortunate.

[Southern Son]

I cannot post photos at the moment, but I have two dogs. One Red Dobe (7 years old and still behaving like 7 months old) and one Staffy X Bull Arab (we think, could be anything in her, the way she goes after food, could be everything inside her). As a general rule, dogs make much better people.

[HollandNut]

Dogs do make better people , no doubt ..

And the more people I meet , the more I like my dog ..

[quasi]

are the dogs that you take to shooting ranges deaf or do you put ear plugs- muffs on them?

[Mike Venturino]

quasi: If its me you're asking, the answer is that where Brennan is parked is well away from the firing line, and he knows to stay there.

[felix]

HN, your middle picture has been my background picture on my tube for at least a year. Maybe time to bring it back online, front and center. ... felix

[JRW]

quasi: If its me you're asking, the answer is that where Brennan is parked is well away from the firing line, and he knows to stay there.

+1 also!

Katie, on the right in the picture, is far too valuable for me to risk her hearing. She is my hunt partner, and there is far too much money involved to engage in risky actions. When she is at the range with us, she is well away from the shooting to risk hearing loss. When she is at the range, it is under constant supervision of my wife.

[cajun shooter]

Mike, That's a great looking dog but it appears that she is underfed somewhat. Is that Yvonne who is keeping her so slim?

[watkibe]

Beautiful dogs, Mike and everybody else ! Thank you, Mike, for getting your dog from the shelter. I wish everybody did. As you found out, not all shelter dogs are mutts, there are pure-breds there too. All of my dogs over the years have come from shelters. If anybody out there is thinking of getting a dog, please think about looking at a shelter.
The picture shows me and my beloved dog Bailey on the Oregon coast last summer. We live together, just the two of us, and we are constant companions. He's a 100 lb 14 year old Aussie/English sheepdog mix, pretty old for a big dog. It's been a long time since I only had one dog; I lost my other one in the summer of '08.
I can't hardly say enough good about the 17 dogs I have had in my life. I loved them all and miss them all. I prefer most dogs to most people, and I try to be as good a person as Bailey seems to think I am.

[AZ-Stew]

Our dog previous to the English Setters, was Ginger, an Irish Setter we got from the pound. When we were leaving with her, one of the oafs at the shelter said, "That dog won't last two weeks", and considering her condition, I can't blame him for saying it, but he should have had the sense not to say it in front of my three small children. Ginger made a liar of him. We had her for 13 years before having to have her put down due to an inoperable mouth tumor. The morning she couldn't eat, I took her to the vet for the last time. Apparently, she had been abused before being sent to the pound. It took MANY years to break her of some of her bad habits and shyness. Nonetheless, she was a wonderful dog.

Regards,

Stew

[Mike Venturino]

We have six dogs at present and five of them came from the local shelter. The sixth one would have ended up there but we saved her first. They range from a nine pounder to the 109 pounder shown in my first post. We live out in the country with no close neighbors so their occasional barking fits don't disturb a neighborhood. Still we don't let them run loose.

My wife works part time at the local animal shelter. Its a private concern and receives no government money. The stories she comes home with about the sorry people dumping animals are so bad that I had to ask her to quit telling me about them. The critters thrown away are certainly better than the people bringing them in.

This following photo is of a typical winter's night in our household.
http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/MLV1/medogs021MediumWebview.jpg

[StarMetal]

Here's my new buddy, this is Max and this is when he was 8 months old and weighed 103.7 pounds. He just turned one year old yesterday.

Joe
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg51/starmetal47/MaxFlowerF-1.jpg

[markinalpine]

...have a name for that, a "Three Dog Night." Hence the bands name.


We have six dogs at present and five of them came from the local shelter. The sixth one would have ended up there but we saved her first. They range from a nine pounder to the 109 pounder shown in my first post. We live out in the country with no close neighbors so their occasional barking fits don't disturb a neighborhood. Still we don't let them run loose.

My wife works part time at the local animal shelter. Its a private concern and receives no government money. The stories she comes home with about the sorry people dumping animals are so bad that I had to ask her to quit telling me about them. The critters thrown away are certainly better than the people bringing them in.

This following photo is of a typical winter's night in our household.
http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/MLV1/medogs021MediumWebview.jpg

I guess if it wasn't so cold, it was a "One Dog Night."
Mark :coffeecom
ps, nice looking dogs :bigsmyl2:

[HollandNut]

All of ours have been either shelter dogs or from the vet where Sweetie werked for twenty odd years ..

[Buckshot]

This following photo is of a typical winter's night in our household.
http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/MLV1/medogs021MediumWebview.jpg

..............Is your wife in there somewhere? :-) A lot of folks have multiple dogs throughout their lives and will have one that sticks out forever regardless how long it's been gone. I had mine when I was about 10 years old. Or rather WE had him as I had 2 younger brothers. No other dog has even come close, and if I wrote about him it'd be a novel!

...............Buckshot

[AZ-Stew]

Mike,

Maybe you should cajole His Editorship, Roy, into letting you do a column on shelter dogs. Wouldn't hurt to ask.

Regards,

Stew

[Mike Venturino]

Stew: Good idea. I'll do that after a little bit. I want to wait because my very next column in AH is about a 3 year old girl with cancer and how us nasty, beer swilling "gun nuts" raised $25,000 in a couple of months to help the family.

Its amazing we were able to take that much time off from the roadsign shooting, and planning our next perfiditious gun crimes! At least that's how the media portrays us.

Mike

[SharpsShooter]

Here is my girl.. Where I go she goes. I can leave the keys in the ignition and my wallet on the seat.....and nobody bothers them.

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r255/SharpsShooter_photos/Sascha.jpg

She is sweetheart.

SS

[AZ-Stew]

Mike,

I'll be looking forward to it.

BTW, next time you're going to go out shooting road signs and such, give me a call. I haven't done it for a while and I'm getting that old itch again. :kidding:

Regards,

Stew

[JohnH]

Mike, I couldn't help but comment; In your "typical winter night" picture, the little one who's head is laying head on your left thigh looks remarkably like our Boo Boo, a chihuahua/min-pin mix that weighs 8 1/2 pounds and has the heart of a lion. She is one great hunter and always in the lead on our walks. Listening to her run rabbits is a good as listening to coon dogs on the chase. About a six weeks ago she tangled up with what I believe was an immature coyote, she had marks on her back and behind her head. She shouldn't have made it really. We figure the 'yote thought he had a rabbit but little did he know he had Boo Boo. We feel sorry for the coyote. Boo has healed just fine and is back to her fearless ways. Thanks for sharing these pictures of your family with us.

[Mike Venturino]

JohnH: That little gal is 1/2 dashund and 1/2 rat terrier. We also have her dashund mother. They were brought into the shelter and dumped by a woman's daughter within 24 hours of the old lady going into a rest home. They were lost and terrified and took to my wife or vice versa. Needless to say it didn't take long then for them to end up here at home. We have dogs weighing from nine pounds (the one in the photo) to 109 pounds (the big collie) and the nine pounder is the only one to have bitten anyone. If you step though our dog unbidden she will bite you. If you're invited she's ok. Glad your Boo-Boo survived the coyote!

Mike