While living in Boise, Idaho, my labrador retriever got a mouthful of quills
at 6,000 feet on a nearby snow-covered pine mountain at Bogus Basin ski resort.

He was running around at night there unleashed with his bitch companion,
my other lab. He took two quills that pierced his tongue as well as a face full.

This was back in late 2002 and the vet bill was $250 then. Had to go to a 24-hr animal hospital in the city.

My male lab also has taken a number of skunk sprays without learning the first time.

Suffice it to say, no more pine mountain for my dogs after that.

Which kind of TX terrain holds these quilled rats?

I'm not worrying about dogs for feathered game in the flatlands
or blood-trailing a deer with a dog on leash.

I actually saw my first porcupine road kill last week. Right here in Wise county.

I know they are in Sutton county

West Texas. There are tons of them.

Coleman and Valera down to San Angelo is where I see the most. I have also seen them on the red river between Wichita Falls and north of Vernon.

I have seen them in South Texas along the river systems that come down out of the Hill Country. Seen them west of San Antonio into the Trans Pecos and all over the Hill Country and northern edges of it. You are doomed.

Everywhere in Nolan County

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

Even Hays county

They say of you cut off part of the exposed end the quills are easier to pull out. I've seen them in Cooke County as well.

Don't porcupines have to be in a forest of some kind? Around trees? I can't imagine they are out on the flats in wide open country as the prairie.

I wouldn't let my dogs roam the woods unleashed anymore.

Don't porcupines have to be in a forest of some kind? Around trees? I can't imagine they are out on the flats in wide open country as the prairie.

No, I've seen them on the prairie around Pierre, SD and on the prairie in eastern Montana. Had a dog try to retrieve one that was in a sunflower field--there wasn't a tree for miles around. Also, seen porky road kill in the Texas Hill Country.

I've seen quite a few of them just south of Ozona when hunting.

They could pretty much be anywhere in Texas.

Saw one dead on road outside of Brady a year or two ago. Seems like I saw another one dead on the road closer into the metroplex, but I can't recall when/where.

Had a friends dog get quills in Kaufman County.

I saw one last night in a CRP field. I'm about as far away from a forest as you can be (Texas Panhandle). Luckily my dog who was only about 5' from it was on the up wind side and moving too fast to notice it. As soon as my dog went by I saw it move and stand to watch my dog. They need to add a dot to Hockley county on that map. I've seen plenty around here over the years. My neighbors two bull mastiffs met one several years ago and it filled both of their faces with quills.

Tons Angelo way... But never had a dog get in them

All over the Hill Country

I had a birddog that pointed one that was 15 feet up a wild plum tree in Hemphill County several years ago. Landowner was with me and would not let me shoot it. I have seen them in practically every county in the Rolling Plains I have hunted in. These porcupine down here in Texas are dwarfs compared to the ones I have seen in ND and Montana. Those bad boys up there are as big as our javelinas.

This worked for me, seemed to make them much easier to pull. Old boy told me it lets some air out of the quill.

Porcupines will be the least of a dogs worries if they are roaming around unleashed.

Never seen a hunting dog doing it’s job while on a leash. That’s a ridiculous statement.

Saw one dead on Manchaca road in Austin last week.

Lots south of Abilene...around Buffalo Gap...

I think they’re in any county you run a dog. I’ve seen the most in Terrell county. I’ve never seen one in the Sandhills.

I had a buddy when we were in high school hide a dead quail in my truck. We were always doing some kind of prank to oneanother. Another pal and I caught a porcupine down in Terrell county while deer hunting, brought it back to ODESSA, and put it in a chicken pen. We waited until a party one night and got the porcupine with welding gloves. We tied his keys on a string around that animals neck and left it in his truck. He never left a stinking surprise for me again. It was one hell of a show. It’s easy to kill a porcupine with a tire iron unless your really drunk!

I'm in Dickens county in southern pan handle and they are a pain in the neck. I see at least 2 to 4 every year. My spin has gotten into them a couple times. Fortunately I was able to remove the 10 t0 15 quills myself. I grew up in the northeast and saw them occasionally in the big timber country. Having only 5 to 10 ft mesquite surprises me that they are here.

Things are changing. I'm from Ks. and the first time I saw an armadillo was at a field trial in OK. Never saw one my whole life in Ks., now you see more of them than about any other varmint in the state. Moved way north in just a few years. Call it what ever you want but critters are moving away from changes in their environment.

In the panhandle they are all through the Palo Dura Canyon. Used to let them be until we started having cattle injured. Now they get shot on site.