narrow escape

[Bambi]

I took the dogs for their walk yesterday and as I was moseying along I could hear Belle barking loudly. I realized that this was not her normal 'whee' bark so I hustled along to see her and D'Arcy circling a porcupine. Now D'Arcy has had 2 encounters with porcupines and lost both so he's looking at me and making little pounces to the critter but not getting any closer. I call him and he comes looking quite relieved. Belle's history I don't know so I call her expecting that she's got a face full. But nope, not one. So I suspect she's encountered one before.

It's a young one and I've been trying to get shots of it for a while now with no success. so I'm not going to miss this opportunity and I put the dogs in a down stay and go closer to get my shot. He/She is NOT impressed and starts to climb the tree. the light sucks but it's probably as close as I will get in the wild so here it is:

[Wicked Dark]

Whenever people downplay the need for good dog training, tell them this story. That is so great you could do that with them. The photo is pretty good given your situation. Shows good spine detail. And those claws! Mighty rodent for sure!

[Iguanasan]

Considering the situation you did extremely well! Very nice work. I would have been very careful about spooking him, that's for sure.

[Bambi]

thanks WD. D'Arcy didn't move a muscle but temptation overtook Belle and she did break. OH well. I do agree though about the dog training. My view is that a well trained dog is a free dog. If they are obedient then you can let them off leash.

[Hillbillygirl]

Cool shot there Bambi. Have seen a few in the wild, but never gotten any shots with camera.
Nice to hear about the dogs being so well trained, and manageable. I'm pretty sure I would have had a few quills to tangle with.

[Mad Aussie]

Cool shot. Haven't seen many photos of these. Didn't know the rear end had a different density of quill than the rest of the body. Didn't know they were a rodent either actually.
Well trained dogs to stay when there was something to chase.

'Stay! Woof! Good Dog' ... I seem to remember hearing that at the nd of TV shows years ago.

[Peter]

Look at the claws on that animal. Nice photo.

[JAS_Photo]

Cool capture for sure! Quite the claws on that guy! Glad the dogs stayed clear (mostly)!

[Bambi]

thanks everyone.
MA- their defense mechanism is to turn their back so what ever is attacking them gets a mittfull of quills. Works extremely well, except when they try it against cars :(
Iggy- I wouldn't have gotten so close with a critter like a raccoon but these generally don't attack and after being harrassed by the dogs he/she just wanted to climb a tree and mutter about us for a while. That said, I stayed back about 7 or 8 feet.
HBG- I've done a few quill removals myself

D'Arcy is better trained and I've been able to call him off deer and rabbits. I'm less successful with Belle but she's coming along.

Those claws are fierce- they work well to climb trees, peel bark and dig up turf.