foxhound45
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Posts posted by foxhound45
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Airedale - We work 'em hard or else walk 'em home!
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I think you summed it up in one.....
"walking round some disused earths today".
If you knew they were disused.....maybe at 10 months old he did too. Give him plenty of time to mature, he is still a kid.
If he worked wonders in the hard end then you could have the makings of a brilliant terrier, but let him make mistakes. The more mistakes he makes the more he will learn. Some lads don't class there dogs good until they have had 4 or 5 seasons put in and even then they still might only class their dogs as mediocre. So patience is the best thing here. Oh and the obvious.....
Never let him run without a collar.....locator collar on (dog taken off the chain)......dog on the chain (locator collar then taken off).
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That's a full working greyhound Cantona. My big fella Cú Dubh (KUDU) which in Irish means "Black Hound".
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I wrote it because I am proud and deeply protective of who we are. Glad you liked it.
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Hunting and man's relationship with his hunting dogs have ensured our survival to this very present day.
Hunting is man's right, for some a reason to exist and is a natural law in maintaining nature's balance.
The dogs which have been sculpted from different terrain, different quarry, working scent or sight or "sense" as the case for our "earth-dogs"; but all hunting breeds share one common factor, the desire to work and the desire to kill.
When we look at art forms such as Ju Jitsu, a picture is formed of various disciplined schools, each being formed centuries ago in feudal Japan. Due to this, the world respects martial arts as an art form is steeped in history and heritage.
Hunting with dogs is an art which predates ALL martial arts. Hunting breeds from Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales are utilised all over the world. Hunting fraternities from foreign countries regularly ship our best dogs from our rich hunting islands in order to improve their own bloodlines or because their similar breeds just do not have the same fire to hunt, or in fact their own breeds just "do not exist"!
Our lurchers from Ireland carrying Wheaten bloodlines for fox, our infamous Norfolk lurcher for the hard hitting work over rough ground that requires brains, our Scottish deerhound greyhound crosses renowned as coursing legends and our Welsh black and tan terriers or Welsh hounds used for the thickest of cover, are all highly specialiased breeds. These "new world" types from many foreign countries sometimes completely inferior to our own.
Each of our breeds or types developed through the art of hunting with dogs, created through centuries of hunting from our fore-fathers before us. These are closely guarded bloodlines, highly protected from inferior genetics and in-breeding which we see from the modern day pet breeder. The nemesis and destroyer of all the hard work and breeding our hunting families have completed throughout the ages.
When we look at our hunting as an art form we have so many different disciplines just as Japanese arts and traditional sporting forms, such as Karate, Ju-Jitsu, Boxing and now new composite sports such as MMA,
Each town and village has a fraternity of hunters, each hunting home could be considered a school where hunting may have been handed down from generation to generation. We school our next generation of children, but we also school our next generation of dogs.
As a child when we are first introduced to hunting, for example ferreting; and we start at the beginning. We learn a mixture of traditional and modern animal husbandry, as children scolded for forgetting to feed the ferrets or clean the hutch, with our older generation giving us the the time to develop in the field, honing our skills and helping us learn to read the countryside.
We school ourselves, sometimes without a mentor present, skills such as... which holes are rabbit, fox, badger..... and in perfecting our art we rich a new level of personal development and evolve our hunting into a new art form; for example, from ferreting to lamping to digging to hound work.
We have specific tools and maintain our equipment to a high standard. Our spades are never left to rust. Our leads are hung up to dry and our nets are cleared of debris and folded a specific way so they are ready to be used the next day in the field.
We make the perfect slip lead, have our own special gear for the field, Some jumpers to camouflage, others to protect from thorns, fabric for silence when hunting on the lamp and we find ourselves becoming absolute perfectionists, detesting things incapable of standing the rigours of our hunts.
With each discipline we select the best dog, or the dog which we deem to be the best. Each hunting household known to work a type of dog or type of dogs a certain way and rarely do we find a house working all ways but instead we band together to bring each type of hunting as a team. Some of us chose to work hounds, our friends lurchers and others terriers. We may work each but we work together. Because this is the way of the hunt.
Even though our breeds are world renowned, our hunting has never been threatened to such a high extent until these recent years. It has became so bad that not even the strong Staffordshire Bull terrier can be used for hunting due to fear of dogs being confiscated in that we we may be perceived as baiting badgers. We cannot publicly post our photos to each other for fear of our dogs being taken from us.
Our very way of life, our existence, is now dictated to us by those who have became so civilised they no longer contain the very biology, at a cellular level, which is "HOW" to hunt. Just as some breeds no longer have the skill set, either genetically, physiologically or just not having the necessary fire, which is neither a physical thing or a genetic thing but down to the spirit of the bloodline over time.
Our people must understand that our dogs DO get hurt. They DO get bit. They do die in the field because this is the way of the hunt. It has always been the way. Without the potential for harm to both our dogs and ourselves it would not be called hunting. Hunting is the embodiment of man and his dog and each are built to withstand pain, recover from pain but more importantly......
TO KILL.
And killing is what separates us from those who aim to eradicate our art, our way of life. The way of the hunt.
They have lost the way and therefore feel alien to it.
To conclude, our hunting families are deeply protective of their working dogs and do intend to hand the skills of the countryside down to the next generation so this way of life is never lost. Just as we intend to also hand down the bloodlines of our hunting breeds which we have tried to improve in the short space of one lifetime, so they too are never lost to time.
Hunting is our art. A way of life rich in tradition, steeped in heritage; and for this reason deserves protection from the EU courts, from the government ballot box but also the fire of our working breeds if lost, can never be re-built and they too deserve protection.
Our heritage is the "Art of Hunting with Dogs", we are hunters and so are our dogs. This is our way of life.
This is the Way of The Hunt.
This post has been promoted to an article-
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Slap that dog all over facebook lad! There was a lad on here earlier in the year and he had the dog back to him with in a week. It even reached my own facebook and he was from London and I am here in Ireland, just goes to show how many follows it got to reach over here. He turned his dog mega hot, although i think that could go two ways.....the other way a bit more grim.
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I think what blue223 is saying is his Jack Russell is more versatile than an Airedale, but we have never hunted together.
As for my lines, I have a mixture of Mogollon and Redline in some bitches and dogs originating from the West of Ireland in the other.
Does anyone have any good working photos of their hounds and terriers to bring life back to this thread? Large terriers such as wheatens and Irish terriers or even large leggy Lakeland photos would be great to see.
To finish on a note, working Airedales can be a case of beggars can't be choosers. Basically when a pup comes to a working home it has to be worked due to the low availability of good stock. When we look at Patterdales and other working terriers there are good bloodlines available although I know a good working terrier is rare these days, but there are litters to chose from. With this breed sadly it is not the case meaning litters are rare and working litters are like a holy grail, hence this is the whole reason to keep them alive.........so that our largest terrier isn't assigned to the history books due to the first and second world wars causing every Airedale in the country to be used and then destroyed.
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And properly they are kept.
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They all have their own raised boxes which are bedded with straw.
They all have a 10m x 10m pen to run in.
They are dogs. I will never trust them with lambs no matter how experienced they are in the field.
Sticks and bones get chewed.......they will chew on anything that gets thrown in the pens. When did letting working dogs chew on sticks become bad stockmanship. I work them pens everyday, scrub them clean, carry buckets of fresh water across the yard, tend the dogs feet, teeth, wormers and spend a fortune on meal. Don't lecture to me about stockmanship because I can assure you the Sperrins in Winter is not a nice place to be working pens and for me these dogs are something I live to work.
I will let them chew on anything medium to soft that makes their stay in the pens more bearable, which includes sticks.
As for the sofa....they have never seen the inside of a house except as pups, they won't enter a house and if I brought them in they would be on edge and wreck the place.
Ahhh this is great, sure I could play this game all day without once ever me asking to discuss your pens.
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Well the straw is dry and since I live in the mountains they MUST be bedded on straw because it gets so cold up here.
They are on chains because it is lambing season and I don't want any young bitches getting out in my absence and finding a hefty bill of a few grand going through the letter box.
The "scrap" is a pillow they tore apart between them during playfighting and the sticks are there for them to chew on so they don't get bored.
And the pen itself is a walled sheep pen approx 10metres by 10metres, ample space with straw filled boxes. But hey, maybe if I put them into a galvanised pen 6 feet by 6 feet, with an epoxy floor and great drainage and then change the bed of straw for a wooden box with no bedding that might conform more to what some people think a dog should be housed in.
Good man yourself.
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You wouldn't dock a hounds tail.......so why would you dock an Airedales tail.....because of looks?
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Cracker photos! I had to do a double take on where you from because they made me feel right at home!
Strong legs needed by humans and dog for that ground!
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Genral Lee.......ya know what.......working them and walking into the pens each day with them there is an great feeling. They get better and better every week.
i would really like to see large hunt terriers make a comeback, especially the Kerry Blue (lets not get into this debate again!), large Lakelands, Fox terriers, Irish and Wheaten terriers to name but a few.
They have a place in the field and between us all on this site we probably own the best native working bloodlines in the world.
This is one fiery bitch below and only just over a year old.
And another young bitch (unrelated) I have coming on....
I will try and keep the photos coming because I know how hard it is to find current photos of these big terriers working hard in the fields.
"Work em' Hard or Walk em' Home!"
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Don't be afraid of keeping the long tail on the Airedales, they still look the part and really serve a purpose when reading a dog as it works ahead of you on a scent line. The tail straightens out and the tip dangles just above the bracken, heather and brambles moving a distinctive way, a clear indication the dog has picked up scent.
I would just like to share a few other photos in case anyone is really thinking about starting their own working Airedales in the field.
These bitches are just over a year old and really starting to show their fire in the field.
Just a few to show that all the working lines aren't finished yet!
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Hey Donmorris, sounds like you have your dog broke already, the signs of your pup wanting to play is a good thing, he may soft mouth them but I have seen dogs and ferrets enjoy a good bit of boisterous fun and it can be hilarious to watch if the ferrets and pup know their place and have a game of chasing.
Let the pup be a pup, him playing with the ferrets means he sees them as fun not as food. But just keep a watchful eye that he doesn't over-step the mark or that kill trigger isn't engaged where he would shake it like a rag.
Other than that don't ever listen to anyone who assures you that their dog is broken to ferrets until you have worked that persons ferrets with that persons dogs. You can turn the best ferret in the world into one that sulks with just one bad encounter at the mouth of a hole.
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I just picked up a cracker big albino hob.
I will be servicing my two jills and once I have that complete he will will be available for loan to anyone who needs him.
No cost, totally free.
I work in the Newry area and can drop him off in Mayobridge, Newry, Armagh, Aughnacloy and Omagh.
So if anyone is having a bit of difficulty in finding a male like I did then sure no need to keep looking, we'll get ya sorted with a litter.
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Hey JDarcy you are totally right, I termed it Deer bed as some don't know the reason behind a scrape. I have some great Sika scrapes in......secret locations.......near home. Driving to work the other day I saw 16 deer out feeding at 6am, in permission I have to shoot!
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Everyone prefers a certain type of dog and everyone is entitled to it.
It is funny how lads night not like a dog that looks too much collie but like one that is too much bull. Each to their own.
The lurcher has changed over the years from the Norfolk or Smithfield Collie type, to the three quarter and now to heavy set bull types.
Some lads state a working lurcher is not a working lurcher unless it can take a fox. Some great fox dogs would be a demon to work around ferrets, or too heavy for the hares. A working lurcher is a lurcher capable of doing the work asked by its owner.
Your collie type is a smashing looking dog and I have owned three quarter greyhound collie crosses in the past and they were all smashing fox dogs, great feet for rough ground, could take a knock on the lamp, would hit cover and used them alongside ferrets. I could never have worked a heavy bull type around ferrets in the past because many would have crunched the first rabbit as soon as it hit the net.
I bet the collie crosses in these photos have real brains and the powerful jaws of a farm collie too, which aren't to be underestimated.
You have all the ingredients there, brains, stamina, agility, tough feet, good hard coat, powerful jaws, good acceleration and most all the ability to work with the handler in retrieval and hunting up.
I think it is one thing saying good on ya for having such a unique type of lurcher, but I think a lurcher like this takes a unique type of handler who understands what the dog is, how it works and the ability to make a good hunting session a great one by having that unique relationship. It looks as well that you ask a lot from the dog and by the sounds of things since you say you would be lost without it, it must be doing everything right.
I would really like to see some good hunting photos of this next season or if you have any from this season, since it is a lurcher we don't see much off and it would certainly widen my experience of working dogs.
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Can anyone help.
I have two jills and I'm having trouble finding anyone with a hob/dog ferret in the Omagh area.
If you know anyone selling a male or would even lend one in return for either a few bob or a kit then please could you give them my details, it would be greatly appreciated.
If I can get two litters going then I will be able to help any young starts with a kit and advice keeping the whole thing going as our way of life has never been under so much pressure as what it is now and the more interest the future generation show in hunting the better as we rely on their support for the future.
I can pick up from the Armagh or Tyrone area and if slightly further a field I will certainly try and make the time.
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Jamo, I swear to god, I got away light. If someone asked me to go tomorrow to the most lethal rabbit ground known to man my answer would be "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Are ya nuts!".
I don't want to kill your buzz as I am sure you are really lookin forward to it but honestly, you will encounter kits in every burrow!
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I would be absolutely amazed if you get a closed ticket! Especially on a hmr.
I shoot a centrefire and have a good bit of experience with open and closed tickets especially with friends applying.
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Jeez lad, an open on a hmr should be easy enough! What age are you?
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You are right lad, I saw baby rabbits in Jan and fledged baby magpies already!
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Guided stalks and say you wish to be part of a syndicate go a long way.
Be insured and a member of the club.
I found being a member of the British Deer Society goes a long way too.
If you are young as in early 20's with little experience I don't think there is too much you can do, but I am [BANNED TEXT] there are many a young inexperienced shooter on here that have an open
Wanted Irish Greyhound Bitch
in Working Dogs & Livestock
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I guess one of us will have to recite the ballad of Master McGrath!