Apollo, the 1/2 Shepard – 1/2 Doberman dog, was a handsome, slightly dopey looking dog that came to the farm within weeks of my farm arrival. He was fairly large, barked when ever a car pulled in and did his job well.
There are many, many, great Apollo stories, almost all having to do with rocks, wood chucks, deer, and hunting.
His nature was guarding and protection, he came right to you or your car, just making sure you were allowed to be on the property. The one trick that absolved you from being a trespasser or friendly visitor was a rock or stick. Just show him one of those 2 things and throw it for him, you were immediately allowed to be on the property. By the time that dog died he had no bottom teeth and most of the others had been quite worn out.
He always had the best view from wherever he sat. If he was in the old cow barn, he watched the driveway, the tractor shed in the back, he was watching the orchards, from the tractor shed in front, he was waiting to go take care of the chickens or waiting to go to the horse barn. If something was going to take place, he would be part of it.
Apollo loved to hunt, wood chucks were his favorite. Shelley and Apollo would go the horse barn most mornings, the path through the orchards was prime wood chuck hunting. When I arrived at the farm, the wood check dens were easy to see, they liked to dig holes every few hundred feet, be able to pop out eat and then move. When you hit one of those with a machine, it was a bumpy, noisy experience. We had an abundance of them, in orchards, hayfields and pastures. It took him about three years, but they soon came under control.
Apollo had a route he would follow, and over time that route would just get wider and wider. Each time he caught one, he would carry it around, quite proud. Some times he would leave them near the wood pile or at the back door, maybe the barn, letting us know what was going on.
His best hunting stories though, were that of hunting people. The farm was a fairly big place, 300 acres or so. Ponds, fields, woods etc. deer were plentiful and while the land was posted for no hunting, that did not stop people from trying. This is 100% percent true. Bill and I were cutting some very large oak trees on the back side of Boy Scout Ridge, (an old boy scout camp area). Apollo was with us, doing his thing, watching, chasing etc… were taking a break, filling the saws and racing by us went 2-3 deer, a minute later, Apollo. We call him off, he mostly listens.
We pack up, start the machines and head down the woods road, right there is Apollo leading the tractors and ahead of us about 100 yards is hunter, not in orange but in camouflage. The hunter turns to his right and bolts into the woods. That was not going to work out for him.
We see him and know where he is going to come out, but more importantly Apollo sees him and all Apollo sees, is something is running. For 5 minutes all we hear is barking and brush. One of us stayed there and one went to the other side of the swamp. That dog herded that hunter right through a swamp, over a fence, right over to my truck, where he hoped I would help. Apollo of course was happy to keep barking. That guy was so far into the middle of the farm I wasn’t going to let him off the hook easily. Neither was Apollo, he handed me his rifle. Bill arrived on the tractor, took the rifle, emptied the cartridges, we exchanged very few words. Apollo got into the back of the truck, the hunter sat between Bill and I – we dropped that hunter off at the police station. An interesting thing did happen after that, the number of hunters did seem to drop at the farm.
On another occasion Shelley is out on her horse, with Apollo. He is going back and forth on the trail but cannot find what he was after. Shelley comes around the corner, entering the field and who does she and the horse catch, but another hunter. I think he had a Bow. Trying to stand still and not be seen. The horse saw him, then Apollo. He apologized.
Apollo shared space with Poppy, a border collie, trained up Sam puppy, another border collie, maybe he even helped with Lucy the border collie, was around for the great Pyrenees watchdog. At the end of his reign he tried to hunt a person on a motorcycle. He could barely move much then, he didn’t care much for bikes, but mustered up one last nip, we put him down a few days later.