Mooka, our Husky mix, is obsessed with hunting moles

All dogs are strange. Every dog owner knows this. That's part of what makes them so interesting and adorable -- their strangeness.

Of course, if dogs could talk, I'm pretty sure they'd say, "Hey, you humans are even stranger!" No argument there.

I wasn't a dog person until after a divorce I got married again to a woman who had a purebred German Shepherd. I had a cat. But not for long, since the dog and cat didn't get along. Fortunately, we were able to find a cat lady on the Oregon coast who was able to adopt my cat.

Following the purebred German Shepherd, we've had two Shepherd mixes and, most recently, a Husky mix. Here's a photo of Mooka, taken shortly after we adopted her from a Texas shelter in 2019.

Even though Mooka only weighs about sixty-five pounds, right away I could tell that her Husky'ness translated into an impressive pulling ability. I'm six feet and 175 pounds, but when Mooka pulls on a leash attached to her halter, it's a bit tough for me to hold her back.

That part of being a Husky mix obviously made sense to me, since Huskies pull heavy sleds. And she's good natured, a real people lover, which also fits, given that Huskies traditionally worked closely with humans in an inhospitable environment.

What my wife and I find difficult to understand, though, is why Mooka is so obsessed with hunting moles, gophers, voles, and indeed anything else that lives underground.

When I take her for a walk in the morning, she's had her doggy breakfast. Yet today, like most days, as soon as she got out of the door, Mooka headed right for her favorite mole hunting area on our ten acres in rural south Salem, Oregon.

Catching up to her, I found Mooka carefully sniffing each of about a dozen mole mounds in a grassy field below our house. She inspected each one, eventually focusing on what I assume was the hole with the most recent mole activity.

I've never had the patience or the inclination to wait and see how long Mooka would keep on obsessing over the mole mounds. She never leaves them on their own. I have to call her away from them with increasingly loud calls of "Mooka, let's go!" 

She'll reluctantly walk away from the mole area with a wistful look backward, and an aggrieved attitude of a dog who was having ever so much fun until her killjoy human pulled her away from a joyful activity.

I've read that Huskies have a high prey drive.

OK, that explains why Mooka also is very interested in squirrels, deer, raccoons, and other creatures on our property. It just surprises me that a Husky mix would be so obsessed with hunting ground-dwelling animals.

Doesn't seem like something an Arctic dog would do. However, I suppose moles and such are common in Alaska and other points in the far north during the warm months. Regardless, this is probably Mooka's strangest habit.

She also is an anti-retriever, liking it when I throw a stick and she runs away with it, wanting me to chase her. That's strange, but our last Shepherd mix did the same thing. So maybe I'm the strange one, since I play the dog's game and try to catch them when they race away with a stick.

Comments

[Geek Husky]

Hy
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Husky generally doesn’t pose a significant threat to deer, but their natural instincts and playfulness can lead to interactions. Responsible ownership, training, and awareness are key to fostering a harmonious coexistence.
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