[Dailydrool] Dumpster diving

[R Groves]

I think its a nearly great idea .. BUT ... I'd recommend *not* to just leave
the traps set while you are away.
 
If one of those traps comes down on a hound... say an ear ... or on their
jowl (flappy part of the mouth) ... this type of pain, potential blood
letting could be more than expected and more trauma than you wanted.
 
You want the dogs afraid of just "getting up there" but you don't want them
so tormented that they no longer approach the counters, or begin to fear the
"SNAP" sound, or that get a scar from having the trap snap onto an ear, and
then the dog wrestles to get this painful thing off them.. causing
potentially more damage ... a pinna edema (fluid/blood build up making the
ear flap much thicker than normal). I've had two go through it ... they can
be painful enough to a hound that just touching one causes them to grumble
or snap in pain.
 
The only way to make the traps safer, would be to have some form of "stop"
gap (think nail or staple or screw under where the wire snap comes down) in
there to allow things to be open enough to be wiggled free from one, and
even then ... how big of a gap do you put into them, and still get the
"SNAP" effect that scares the dogs? ... I thought I read somewhere that
there were some (more expensive) mouse traps that allowed you to set the
snap/spring strength, maybe one of those would work, and yet not cause
damage.
 
Or maybe the old fashioned snow ball effect ... the hound gets up there..
and nudges something that sets off the trap far enough away from the animal
to not get the animal nicked, but still within range of sight and hearing
... setting off one trap causes the others to get set off too... making more
noise and scaring them away... 
 
Either way .... good idea ... but please ... please don't just leave them in
place when no human is there and can take care of one of them if they get
caught in a trap.
 
-Robert

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Subject: [Dailydrool] Dumpster diving

I just set the open tub of margarine out surrounded by mouse traps. It only
took a minute before he set one off and took off into the other room LOL. I
found the trap on the floor. I reset it, and the margarine AND a can of dog
food are up there, but he hasn't gone back yet. Maybe this will actually
work! I just need to set the traps before I leave (and remember to move them
so I don't get snapped). 
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