Post by Don J. Ott on Apr 18, 2006 10:00:25 GMT -5
Ott’s Cisco

By: ROWDY BOY
Have you ever known a dog to have such a high prey drive that it becomes more trouble than it is worth? I know this may sound perplexing to some avid game dog fanciers but this is the case with Cisco. After having owned CH Rowdy for so long I thought that I had experienced the full spectrum of manageability problems with game dogs. That is until Cisco came along…
I bought Cisco from a reputable kennel in Texas. He was nearly four years old when I purchased him. Cisco was the finest catch dog that his previous owners had the privilege of owning and he had caught more than his fair share of wild boar hogs!
His style was superb… He would rush in and battle a hog, working his way deep into its stifles until it could no longer lift it’s hind end. He would then work the front legs and chest until the hog was immobile. All the while keeping himself out of harms way using his speed and agility to prevent himself from being impaled by the deadly tusks of the boar. His hunts were amazing! He would allow himself to be slung several feet into the air by a hog only to have the opportunity to come back, barnstorming into the hog, causing optimal damage to what ever he hit. He was like a surgeon, immobilizing his prey, allowing his handler to go in and knife the hog for the final kill.
As I said, his previous owners were quite happy with him and I had to offer a nice chunk of change to even get them to consider selling me this dog. Not to mention that he was already producing winners and he would likely earn the title “Register Of Merit”. However, I did finally manage to offer them a reasonable price for the dog and was able to purchase him.
The gentleman I bought Cisco from warned me of Cisco’s extremely high prey drive so I decided to use a transport company that was very experienced in the field of moving high strung game dogs. S&L Transport would be perfect for the job.
It was around 2:00 AM when Cisco arrived here in Indiana. The gentleman who delivered Cisco to me explained that Cisco would scream with furry at the very site of another dog. He said that he had to keep Cisco’s crate covered and facing away from the other dogs for fear he would bust out of his sky kennel to get to another dog. He said that any time Cisco even thought he saw another animal Cisco would rock his crate and scream at the top of his lungs!
As I said it was very late when Cisco arrived and it was hard to get a proper look at him outside so I decided to bring Cisco inside the house for a better look. I brought Cisco in through the front door and we proceeded to go directly into the kitchen where the lighting was the best. We got into the kitchen and I began inspecting Cisco very closely.
I was down on one knee and was petting Cisco when He became fixed on something over my shoulder. He began to scream in a very high pitch voice. My first thought was that the children had let the cat out of there room somehow so my first instinct was to reach around and grab Cisco by the back of his collar to prevent him from going after our house cat.
Cisco turned around and bit me on my fingers really, really hard. My next thought was “ That cat is gonna have to die cause I ain’t getting’ bit again!” and then I just let go of his collar! What happened next blew me away!! Cisco nailed the glass front of my oven door about five times before I realized that it was his own reflection that he was after!
Now this is not the first time I had seen a dog get fired up at his own reflection but it was by far the first time I had ever had one bite me just to get to it. Another thing that kind of put me in a state of awe was the number of times that he hit the black glass front of my oven door. I was pretty impressed with his display of animal aggression.
A couple of months later I decided to do some testing of my own. Cisco showed to be everything I expected him to be. Without going into too much detail on the game test that was provided, let me just say that I was ready to start conditioning this dog for a hunt!
I made a few calls to some veteran hog hunters to try to schedule a hunt for Cisco but before I could get him hooked a tragedy happened…
Me, my wife and my children were out shopping one evening . When we came home our house was in flames! The fire department ruled it to be an electrical fire. That put a real strain on my family and my dogs. No one was hurt except for our house cat… She didn’t make it.
We had to send about ¾ of our dogs to be boarded at another kennel until our home was
rebuilt. Due to Cisco’s extremely high prey drive we could not find anyone that would keep him for us. All I kept hearing was “Yeah right, and take a chance on him getting loose and killing my whole yard??? NO WAY!” At the time I thought that my friends were turning there backs on me when the chips were down but I later found out exactly what they were concerned about!
Since I had no one to board Cisco for me while I was rebuilding my house I had no choice but to keep him on my yard along with about 10 other extremely intense dogs until my house was rebuilt. Isn’t it funny how yard accidents almost always happen when you aren’t home? That was the case with the first yard accident that occurred after the fire.
One morning I pulled up in my drive way to work on my house, as usual, and I saw Cisco, standing by the gate of the privacy fenced portion of my yard. At first sight he looked as if he was covered in mud and he had something in his mouth.. It looked like a busted basket ball in his mouth at first. It wasn’t until I got out of my truck and came closer that I realized that it was a stifle in his mouth!!!
My yard looked like a battle zone, bodies everywhere. I was even more horrified when I discovered that a neighborhood kid had come over and turned them loose just to see what would happen! With no witnesses there was not much I could do though. Cisco sustained substantial damage to his face during this encounter. My yard population shrank to about 3 dogs that day.
Due to the extent of the injury that Cisco sustained during that kennel accident I decided to retire him to stud and not to hunt with him like I had previously planned to. It took several weeks for Cisco to recover from that episode so you can imagine how sick I felt when yet another yard accident involving Cisco occurred a short time later.
I was still living in an apartment because my house was not finished yet. I received a call from a neighbor telling me that my dogs were loose and fighting. By the time I arrived Cisco had killed yet another of my favorite prospects. This time the swivel on Cisco’s Chain had broken and he went after a 14 month old prospect that I had really high expectations for. Cisco hit a bleeder in the young dogs stifle and he died before I could get to them to stop it.
Just like before Cisco sustained a lot of damage to his face from the other dog trying to get Cisco out of his rear end. This time Cisco lost some teeth.
Shortly after that second yard accident I received a call from a fellow hog hunter who was wondering if I had a 41-42 lb male open for a hunt. I knew that Cisco was in no shape for a hunt but I did have “Garner’s Elmo Jr.” that could be in keep by the date that they had selected.
Elmo Jr. is a very hard mouthed rear end dog, similar to Cisco in style.
I began putting Elmo Jr. in keep and continued conditioning him for his first real hunt for the next several weeks. We were about seven days out from the day of Elmo’s hunt when the unthinkable happened… I had brought Elmo Jr. Back to my yard and placed him on a work chain. Cisco wasn’t having it… Cisco actually broke his chain in order to get to Elmo Jr.
Again, I received a call from my neighbor telling me that my dogs were loose and fighting. I wanted to puke! I rushed over to my yard to find that Elmo and Cisco had been at it for a while! I separated them pretty quickly. Cisco’s legs and hind quarters had been mangled!
I laid Cisco on the ground across the yard as I knew that he could not stand or walk due to his injury. I figured he had no choice but to lay there until I could get to him. I feared he may have hurt Elmo to the same degree as he did all the other dogs he had attacked… Boy was I wrong! Cisco began to crawl over toward Elmo screaming his war cry the whole way. This idiot seemed to actually think he was winning! About that time a friend arrived to help me out with treating the dogs injuries. Elmo was standing at the end of his chain screaming for more of Cisco. As I turned to see Cisco dragging himself across the yard I realized that Cisco was the one who had sustained the most serious injury.
I quickly reverted my attention back to Cisco due to the realization that Cisco had chosen the wrong dog to jump on that day. Cisco had suffered some very serious damage to his hind quarters and front legs. This time I was seriously worried that I might actually lose Cisco. My friend that came to help thought the same. He tended to Elmo while I worked on Cisco. This was seriously getting old!
After I was finished with Cisco’s IV treatment and finished stapling his wounds I cleaned out a kennel spot for Cisco that I knew he could not escape from. This was a kennel I had built for my Brandy dog to whelp puppies in.
Brandy is about the best escape artist I have ever had so I had to build an extra secure kennel for her to whelp puppies in. I figured Cisco would remain in that kennel until his wounds had healed. I started thinking “This dogs life would make an interesting story.”
A couple of weeks after I placed Cisco in the escape proof kennel I decided to write this article. I was on the second paragraph of this very article that you are reading now when I heard a ruckus out on my yard. I looked out the window and it was Cisco and Elmo at it again! This time it appeared to be my fault. Apparently when I was feeding the dogs I didn’t get the latch shut all the way on the kennel that Cisco was in. I rushed out and separated them before anyone was seriously hurt (Thank God).
At this point you are probably thinking one of two things, maybe both…. One, you are thinking “man, I know exactly how this guy feels” or two you are thinking “This guy is a dumb ass because he can't contain a game dog. Let me tell you this… Cisco is by far more “Game” if that is the word you choose to use to describe a dog like him, than any average pit bull. I choose to use the words “Fight Crazy” or “Plumb Nuts” to describe a dog like Cisco!
When I told Cory of S&L Transport that I was writing this article he told me to be sure and mention in this article that he would testify to anyone who asked that Cisco is probably the most insanely animal aggressive dog that he has ever had the challenge of shipping! So I will tell you all...If you don't believe me that this dog is out of the ordinary ask Cory!
This is the end of this Chapter of Cisco's story but you better believe That his story is far from over! Cisco is deep game and he throws the same into his offspring. I expect you will hear a lot about his offspring in the years to come!
Following this article are some Photos of Cisco Battling it out with a 360 lb Wild Boar hog. Cisco was weighing 39 lbs at the time. ENJOY!!!

By: ROWDY BOY
Have you ever known a dog to have such a high prey drive that it becomes more trouble than it is worth? I know this may sound perplexing to some avid game dog fanciers but this is the case with Cisco. After having owned CH Rowdy for so long I thought that I had experienced the full spectrum of manageability problems with game dogs. That is until Cisco came along…
I bought Cisco from a reputable kennel in Texas. He was nearly four years old when I purchased him. Cisco was the finest catch dog that his previous owners had the privilege of owning and he had caught more than his fair share of wild boar hogs!
His style was superb… He would rush in and battle a hog, working his way deep into its stifles until it could no longer lift it’s hind end. He would then work the front legs and chest until the hog was immobile. All the while keeping himself out of harms way using his speed and agility to prevent himself from being impaled by the deadly tusks of the boar. His hunts were amazing! He would allow himself to be slung several feet into the air by a hog only to have the opportunity to come back, barnstorming into the hog, causing optimal damage to what ever he hit. He was like a surgeon, immobilizing his prey, allowing his handler to go in and knife the hog for the final kill.
As I said, his previous owners were quite happy with him and I had to offer a nice chunk of change to even get them to consider selling me this dog. Not to mention that he was already producing winners and he would likely earn the title “Register Of Merit”. However, I did finally manage to offer them a reasonable price for the dog and was able to purchase him.
The gentleman I bought Cisco from warned me of Cisco’s extremely high prey drive so I decided to use a transport company that was very experienced in the field of moving high strung game dogs. S&L Transport would be perfect for the job.
It was around 2:00 AM when Cisco arrived here in Indiana. The gentleman who delivered Cisco to me explained that Cisco would scream with furry at the very site of another dog. He said that he had to keep Cisco’s crate covered and facing away from the other dogs for fear he would bust out of his sky kennel to get to another dog. He said that any time Cisco even thought he saw another animal Cisco would rock his crate and scream at the top of his lungs!
As I said it was very late when Cisco arrived and it was hard to get a proper look at him outside so I decided to bring Cisco inside the house for a better look. I brought Cisco in through the front door and we proceeded to go directly into the kitchen where the lighting was the best. We got into the kitchen and I began inspecting Cisco very closely.
I was down on one knee and was petting Cisco when He became fixed on something over my shoulder. He began to scream in a very high pitch voice. My first thought was that the children had let the cat out of there room somehow so my first instinct was to reach around and grab Cisco by the back of his collar to prevent him from going after our house cat.
Cisco turned around and bit me on my fingers really, really hard. My next thought was “ That cat is gonna have to die cause I ain’t getting’ bit again!” and then I just let go of his collar! What happened next blew me away!! Cisco nailed the glass front of my oven door about five times before I realized that it was his own reflection that he was after!
Now this is not the first time I had seen a dog get fired up at his own reflection but it was by far the first time I had ever had one bite me just to get to it. Another thing that kind of put me in a state of awe was the number of times that he hit the black glass front of my oven door. I was pretty impressed with his display of animal aggression.
A couple of months later I decided to do some testing of my own. Cisco showed to be everything I expected him to be. Without going into too much detail on the game test that was provided, let me just say that I was ready to start conditioning this dog for a hunt!
I made a few calls to some veteran hog hunters to try to schedule a hunt for Cisco but before I could get him hooked a tragedy happened…
Me, my wife and my children were out shopping one evening . When we came home our house was in flames! The fire department ruled it to be an electrical fire. That put a real strain on my family and my dogs. No one was hurt except for our house cat… She didn’t make it.
We had to send about ¾ of our dogs to be boarded at another kennel until our home was
rebuilt. Due to Cisco’s extremely high prey drive we could not find anyone that would keep him for us. All I kept hearing was “Yeah right, and take a chance on him getting loose and killing my whole yard??? NO WAY!” At the time I thought that my friends were turning there backs on me when the chips were down but I later found out exactly what they were concerned about!
Since I had no one to board Cisco for me while I was rebuilding my house I had no choice but to keep him on my yard along with about 10 other extremely intense dogs until my house was rebuilt. Isn’t it funny how yard accidents almost always happen when you aren’t home? That was the case with the first yard accident that occurred after the fire.
One morning I pulled up in my drive way to work on my house, as usual, and I saw Cisco, standing by the gate of the privacy fenced portion of my yard. At first sight he looked as if he was covered in mud and he had something in his mouth.. It looked like a busted basket ball in his mouth at first. It wasn’t until I got out of my truck and came closer that I realized that it was a stifle in his mouth!!!
My yard looked like a battle zone, bodies everywhere. I was even more horrified when I discovered that a neighborhood kid had come over and turned them loose just to see what would happen! With no witnesses there was not much I could do though. Cisco sustained substantial damage to his face during this encounter. My yard population shrank to about 3 dogs that day.
Due to the extent of the injury that Cisco sustained during that kennel accident I decided to retire him to stud and not to hunt with him like I had previously planned to. It took several weeks for Cisco to recover from that episode so you can imagine how sick I felt when yet another yard accident involving Cisco occurred a short time later.
I was still living in an apartment because my house was not finished yet. I received a call from a neighbor telling me that my dogs were loose and fighting. By the time I arrived Cisco had killed yet another of my favorite prospects. This time the swivel on Cisco’s Chain had broken and he went after a 14 month old prospect that I had really high expectations for. Cisco hit a bleeder in the young dogs stifle and he died before I could get to them to stop it.
Just like before Cisco sustained a lot of damage to his face from the other dog trying to get Cisco out of his rear end. This time Cisco lost some teeth.
Shortly after that second yard accident I received a call from a fellow hog hunter who was wondering if I had a 41-42 lb male open for a hunt. I knew that Cisco was in no shape for a hunt but I did have “Garner’s Elmo Jr.” that could be in keep by the date that they had selected.
Elmo Jr. is a very hard mouthed rear end dog, similar to Cisco in style.
I began putting Elmo Jr. in keep and continued conditioning him for his first real hunt for the next several weeks. We were about seven days out from the day of Elmo’s hunt when the unthinkable happened… I had brought Elmo Jr. Back to my yard and placed him on a work chain. Cisco wasn’t having it… Cisco actually broke his chain in order to get to Elmo Jr.
Again, I received a call from my neighbor telling me that my dogs were loose and fighting. I wanted to puke! I rushed over to my yard to find that Elmo and Cisco had been at it for a while! I separated them pretty quickly. Cisco’s legs and hind quarters had been mangled!
I laid Cisco on the ground across the yard as I knew that he could not stand or walk due to his injury. I figured he had no choice but to lay there until I could get to him. I feared he may have hurt Elmo to the same degree as he did all the other dogs he had attacked… Boy was I wrong! Cisco began to crawl over toward Elmo screaming his war cry the whole way. This idiot seemed to actually think he was winning! About that time a friend arrived to help me out with treating the dogs injuries. Elmo was standing at the end of his chain screaming for more of Cisco. As I turned to see Cisco dragging himself across the yard I realized that Cisco was the one who had sustained the most serious injury.
I quickly reverted my attention back to Cisco due to the realization that Cisco had chosen the wrong dog to jump on that day. Cisco had suffered some very serious damage to his hind quarters and front legs. This time I was seriously worried that I might actually lose Cisco. My friend that came to help thought the same. He tended to Elmo while I worked on Cisco. This was seriously getting old!
After I was finished with Cisco’s IV treatment and finished stapling his wounds I cleaned out a kennel spot for Cisco that I knew he could not escape from. This was a kennel I had built for my Brandy dog to whelp puppies in.
Brandy is about the best escape artist I have ever had so I had to build an extra secure kennel for her to whelp puppies in. I figured Cisco would remain in that kennel until his wounds had healed. I started thinking “This dogs life would make an interesting story.”
A couple of weeks after I placed Cisco in the escape proof kennel I decided to write this article. I was on the second paragraph of this very article that you are reading now when I heard a ruckus out on my yard. I looked out the window and it was Cisco and Elmo at it again! This time it appeared to be my fault. Apparently when I was feeding the dogs I didn’t get the latch shut all the way on the kennel that Cisco was in. I rushed out and separated them before anyone was seriously hurt (Thank God).
At this point you are probably thinking one of two things, maybe both…. One, you are thinking “man, I know exactly how this guy feels” or two you are thinking “This guy is a dumb ass because he can't contain a game dog. Let me tell you this… Cisco is by far more “Game” if that is the word you choose to use to describe a dog like him, than any average pit bull. I choose to use the words “Fight Crazy” or “Plumb Nuts” to describe a dog like Cisco!
When I told Cory of S&L Transport that I was writing this article he told me to be sure and mention in this article that he would testify to anyone who asked that Cisco is probably the most insanely animal aggressive dog that he has ever had the challenge of shipping! So I will tell you all...If you don't believe me that this dog is out of the ordinary ask Cory!
This is the end of this Chapter of Cisco's story but you better believe That his story is far from over! Cisco is deep game and he throws the same into his offspring. I expect you will hear a lot about his offspring in the years to come!
Following this article are some Photos of Cisco Battling it out with a 360 lb Wild Boar hog. Cisco was weighing 39 lbs at the time. ENJOY!!!
