Ain’t that a crackup? It’s not unusual to raise orphan big cats with a puppy to give them a “littermate”. Usually though you have to separate them at 12-16 weeks though to keep the lion, tiger, leopard etc from eating the pup.
For some reason though these two really took to one another and last I heard they were still quite the pair.
I have a friend, partner who is a breeder in the RSA whom I’ve shipped 7 dogs over the years. They did so well both in competition and in the field that he’s raised something over 400 out of my bloodline now in about 10 years.
We have 4 dogs. Bought an Australian Shepard for my wife on Christmas. We are going to have him trained by a police K9 trainer. It’s a two week “boot camp” then follow up training after that.
We have horses and there are times when my wife is alone in the barn. I want her to have a dog that is very well trained (especially around 1000 lbs animals) and protective when he needs to be. I did catch someone at the barn early one morning. They put a flashlight to my face, I pointed my Glock at the light and he ran off. My wife doesn’t carry, so a well trained dog is the next best thing.
I’m am hopeful this training works as well as I am told. I will keep everyone posted.
I will keep you posted @Dawn. I am working on her to carry. She is afraid of them right now. Could use advice on getting her over that fear. She wants our daughters to learn and I know she sees the benefit of being armed.
Wish I were closer, that’s kinda my niche… people with a lot of fear, especially women and new shooters.
I’m more than happy to get on the phone any time if shes interested on talking some of it through.
Best advice I can give you is find her an experienced woman instructor, someone her age-ish if possible.
There are things about the way women process firearms fear that are just different than most men do. Being able to work that through with a confident calm capable woman instuctor just moves women through that faster and with less stress than working it through with a male instructor.
Happy to chat with you as well, there are some things you can do to make it easier, or harder, for her.
The most basic class I know of is the NRA Home Firearms Safety Class and it’s a fairly good class for the hesitant novice.
From there, an NRA Basic Pistol Class is a step up but still very basic and takes students with zero knowledge to successfully shooting at the range in two days. Neither the classroom work nor the range work are at all complicated and is very low pressure.
Get her through those classes, then if she’s at all intrigued or interested start putting in some range time with her.
Heck see if you can get her to sit through the Basic course with you that you’re going to be taking.
Just gonna say a fairly large number of my fearful women students got shoehorned into a class before they addressed the fear… they didn’t come out if it wanting to shoot any more than when they went in. The basic pistol and safety courses are excellent, but they’re not really designed to address the needs of a genuinely fearful new or non shooter.
A private or small group class with a woman instructor who has experience dealing with that can work wonders.
Once they’re past the truly scary stuff, then the basic pistol class is the place to be.
A lot of my students have felt pressured by husbands or boyfriends to shoot or to take a class they really didn’t want to … and often the guys really don’t know they’re not helping. The women do it, but if it doesn’t really work on the fear, they just get more fear.
There’s a big difference between the nervousness that lack of experience brings and actual fear. The basic pistol class will fix the first, but not the second.
True, but that’s not why many women fear guns. It’s not fear because of lack of information.
We fear guns because we cannot imagine how we would live with ourselves if we accidentally shot and killed someone … and that someone was our own child.
^^^THAT, by the way, is not addressed in ANY class I’ve ever been in… not the heart pounding gut-dropping panicky fear that comes when that’s what blows through your brain as soon as you think about picking up a gun. And we go there in a flat half second.
I’ve never met a man who does that… gun to OMG what if I shot and killed my own child??? without even a breath between, but I know a lot of women who do.
And they usually don’t articulate it to the men in their lives because they don’t want to look irrational.
Basic pistol won’t get you through that, because it’s not designed to. Its Pistol 101, not Fear Management 101.
For any woman who can understand the logic of firearms for self defense but really resists shooting one or touching one or maybe even looking at one, there’s some variety of that fear at work.
And trust me on this, they can’t hear any kind of pistol instruction over the sound of the fear in their own heads.
Address that first, and they make outstanding, focused, first rate students.
Agreed on all of that and I think the Basic Course is a good introduction as it not only covers the most basic things about firearms and gun safety we discuss the moral and ethical issues surrounding armed self defense. We also almost always have a good percentage of women in the courses so they are in a friendly crowd of like minded women happy to discuss it.
We’ve also done some women only basic classes so that they’ll feel that much more comfortable and free to discuss such things.
I’m with @Zee on this one about getting a female instructor or even checking out a Girl and a Gun or Well Armed Woman groups. By just talking to other women who carry, they can help address the concerns she has with ideas on how they got over it themselves.
Men and women can be very different when it comes to guns. But every person is different also.
Maybe start out with having her help clean the guns? If she sees them as pieces to put together and gets used to handling them, she might want to take the next step.
I think a class would be great if she’s calm about her fear. If she gets in her head and really shaky about guns (like physically shaking from fear), I would suggest either 1:1 training or a very small group of women in a class.
And please feel free to invite her here - even if it’s just to read and not interact. She will definitely learn a bunch and it might help her get over her fear.
WOW. Thank you for all the advice, it is truly appreciated. I will try to get her to a class. My wife never liked guns and there have been incidents in our lives that made her think twice and she wanted me to be armed. I always enjoy going to the range, but out of respect for my wife I got rid of my 1 gun.
Now she doesn’t mind me having weapons hidden around the home.
Maybe this should be a different topic. I do want to report back to you on the dog training.
thank you if you’re going to be in MO or MI, let me know … you’re in Kentucky? If I’m going to be there, I’ll let you know.
There is probably a womans firearm group near you though… I’d seek them out. The Well Armed Woman and A Girl and a Gun are both good ones and they have groups all over.
I do want to keep everyone updated on my dogs boot camp. How can I keep this stream on the forefront so I can get to it easily. He goes in less then two weeks.
without even a breath between, but I know a lot of women who do.
thank you 
if you’re going to be in MO or MI, let me know … you’re in Kentucky? If I’m going to be there, I’ll let you know.