Dog takes capricious horse to water, and makes her drink even when its minus 50C

Siberian Times ^ | 05 December 2017

[TigerLikesRooster]

Dog takes capricious horse to water, and makes her drink even when its minus 50C

By The Siberian Times reporter
05 December 2017

Even in the intense cold, animals need to drink, but shaggy horse Kunduchene refuses to budge, unless escorted by Umka.


Umka the dog with Kunduchene the horse. Picture: Sakha Press

The unusual scene is from Dyupsya village in Ust-Aldan district of Yakutia, the largest and coldest region in Russia, also known as Sakha Republic.

One of the oldest sayings in English is: 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.'

But Umka seems to manage both these tasks well with stubborn Kunduchene.

Each day the mixed Central Asian and Caucasus Shepherd takes the disobedient six year old horse across the snow to the ice hole for a drink.

'It was impossible to make her move and go, she was such a nuisance - so we taught the dog to help us'. Pictures: Sakha Press

Semen Sivtsev, the horse's owner, said: 'When Kunduchene was a foal, I had a lot of trouble with her, but now my helper walks her to the watering place.'

His daughter Maria Zakharova: 'It was impossible to make her move and go, she was such a nuisance - so we taught the dog to help us, and Umka enjoyed his new mission.

'At first, the horse did not obey Umka either but he kept pulling her and now they are managing well.

'Umka is about 60 kg and Kunduchene is 160 kg, so it took them just about two days to understand who is more stubborn, and now they are great friends.

'Kunduchene loves Umka, she allows him to smell her, and she is smelling him too, checking if this is her friend. He is protecting her.'

Umka with Kunduchene, at home and walking another horse to an ice hole. Pictures: Sakha Press

The horse joins other animals queuing at the ice hole.

Umka waits patiently while the horse takes a daily drink no matter how cold it is.

The owner says his dog has also started escorting other horses back from the ice hole.

[Rusty0604]

Sweet.

[bgill]

I was wondering about his poor paws.

[Celerity]

But the owner is named Semen.

[Texan5]

Could be, but he dog has a docked tail, too-a lot of people here trim the ears and dock the tails of dogs like Mastiffs, Bullmastiffs, Danes, etc-other people leave both natural. The neighbor’s Mastiff has a docked tail but not the clipped ears.

[Hot Tabasco]

I was wondering about his poor paws.

Paws look bloody, too

You're right, I never noticed them.......

I don't know much about dogs and their ability to adjust to extreme climates but that particular dog doesn't seem to have the adequate coat for that severe cold.......Huskies, yes but not this dog.......and we're talking about 58 degrees below zero F...........Oh well.

[Texan5]

Curiosity got the best of me, so-according to several sites with photos of both Caucasian Shepherds and Central Asian Shepherd dogs-they are native to really cold places and they look very similar-and like the doggie in the article their ears are pretty short, lots of them have docked tails. They have a thick coat that is not terribly long-my Siberian Husky girl’s coat was almost the same length-we got her from a kennel in WA, near the Canadian border.

Those Russian/Asian shepherd dogs are really big-the Caucasian ones can get above 200 lbs, the Asian breed standard is not much smaller. They are working dogs-mostly guarding people and livestock, but they can be used to herd, too-neat dogs-wish I could afford one-they are really pricey.

[20yearvet]

My older brother told me that one over 60 years ago.