skycat
-
Content Count
7,517 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
15
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Articles
Gun Dealer's and Fieldsports Shop's
Reloading Room
Blogs
Calendar
Store
Classifieds
Everything posted by skycat
-
People bang on about Saluki temperament, and yes, they can be a lot harder to handle: I've had Saluki lurchers who didn't even act as though I existed until I started working them; others very timid and sensitive, others bold as brass. I've had some which are really sociable to other dogs, and some which can't to stand to share the same kennel or sofa. They can be as different to each other as any other dog breed, but the thing to remember is that you really have to earn some Saluki type's respect, whereas other types are a lot more forgiving of human error and are also seem more to be born
-
Hordes of dogs are clingy, stressy, suffer from separation of anxiety: has nothing to do with her breeding and everything to do with the way she was reared and handled in the past. No dog is perfect. And the reluctance to bring a rabbit right to you has also nothing to do with stubborness or so-called Saluki tendencies, but everything to do with incorrect training in her past home. A dog which lacks confidence in its owner/handler, or has been abused for not coming straight back when called: this sort of thing is hard to get over no matter how great the dog's present home is: habits ingr
-
What sad little minds those people must have: like has already been said, they are probably just pig sick because they haven't been able to get anything like such a fantastic shot. Sod them!
-
If they are puffy around the eye then its probably due to scratching itself on brambles etc. This won't stop it completely, but a good layer of Vaseline or Sudacrem around the eyes does help them to slide through cover more easily: ditto the ears.
-
Hare hunting/ Spanish Copa del Rey Preliminary rounds
skycat replied to Franciscob's topic in Lurchers & Running Dogs
Forgive me for not agreeing that was a course in a million, though it was in one sense, if you are looking at it from an insane amount of determination from the dogs, but those dogs ran themselves into the ground, and I wouldn't be surprised if they never fully recovered: the darker dog was down on the ground at the end, having done most of the work. The lighter one looked to be tying up at one stage, but came back into the course later, though it was pretty much following on towards the end. Yes, I know the ground was like concrete, which didn't help the dogs any when turning, but they run -
99% of what determines whether or not a Saluki type will retrieve depends on the bond the dog has with its owner and how much time the owner spends developing that bond and playing the right sort of games with the dog as a pup. All mine have retrieved with minimal retrieve training, and whilst I'd never say that I am a top trainer, I do spend a lot of time making my dogs feel valued and important to me. Carrying prey home (back to the den) is, or should be, a natural instinct in all canines. It's generally people who mess up how their dogs feel about them. Just my experience with this sort of
-
Watching them run in slow motion like that: amazing: the supplest dog alive: more like a cheetah than a dog the way they move.
-
It's partly a lack of confidence, and not knowing what is happening: the whining is 'help! what's going on? what am I supposed do be doing?' sort of noise. It's good that he wants to be with you: shows that he looks at you as his protector, which is how things should be. Keep exposing him to as many different situations as possible. Don't fuss him or reassure him when he does it: just carry on as normal, but try to interact with him as much as possible. Try taking a toy he can grab on to and tug on when you take him out. Sometimes the whining can be the pup's drive and energy which has no
-
The toughest skin I've ever seen is on the Airedale and her daughters: they've dragged themselves over barbed wire so many times and barely left a scratch where most dogs would have been ripped wide open.
-
I have the same problem with my whirrier. His ears are constantly raw at the edges and gouged along the flaps. I use Vaseline, but I also slather them in Sudacrem before he works: helps to stop them getting caught up, not completely, but it helps. Every few weeks he has to have an enforced rest on the lead for a few days to allow them to heal a bit more. But they won't heal up properly until late spring!
-
Most Collie crosses which appear smooth actually have a double coat, the inner coat remaining dry in all but the very worst weather. I've had smooth coated Collie types whose undercoat acts as good insulation and stays dry even after a swim. But of course, the more Greyhound you put into the mix, the less coat the dog will have.
-
What's up Weasle? Where was I being sly? All I meant was that people who really know coursing dogs, can appreciate better the angles, effort etc they make and get into. Bit like someone who doesn't know the rules of football watching a game: they won't appreciate the efforts made half as much as someone who understands what they are looking at. Why do you always try and make trouble and look for insults where there are none?
-
I agree. It is not your normal sort of book at all: more for people who really appreciate and understand what a dog can do, and the photography. I was blown away when I first looked at those photos. Trouble is, we get used to amazing photography over the years. How do you go on from something as different as that? IMO Of Dogs and Deer wasn't quite as good, though many of the photographs are still of what I would call 'fine art' standard. Was I just ever so slightly desensitised to the quality, having already see Hare and Swift Hound?
-
If the pup had been intensely socialised it might not matter if you took it at 15 weeks old, but by 'intensely socialised' I would be wanting that pup to have travelled regularly in a vehicle, and been out and about to take in new sights and sounds, met different people and dogs: how many breeders would go to all that trouble? Not many. Many people who breed lurchers don't even let them out of the yard or run, and don't understand how important it is to use that 'early learning' window to accustom the pup to the outside world before that 'learning window' closes, forever in the case of pups of
-
It's not that they shy away from digging articles: there just aren't any coming in! I've been asked many times to submit digging articles, but as I don't really dig any more I would have to stick to 'memory lane' articles. I really should do more terrier articles anyway, but the real pro digging men seem to stay away from writing: can you blame them? That's what I meant about the silent majority of people who seriously work lurchers and terriers: most wouldn't dream of writing about their doings, preferring to keep their heads down and stay discreet, leaving it to us lesser folk to explo
-
Penny they don't print it for the community, its a business and lurcher/terrier lads are a huge proportion of that number. I hate the term underground magazine, Plummer used to use that one.......... Alright, magazines not available on shop shelves: better? Course its a business; but a business is only viable if it sells what its producing. The more controversial the stuff they print, the better it sells, like any newspaper or magazine: do you really think that the CMW staff are unaware of marketing tactics? A successful paper will contain a mixture of informative, entertaining an
-
If I honestly thought that the CMW had it in for lurchers, I wouldn't even dream of writing for them. Believe it or not, I have some honour, and I make much more in a week cleaning peoples' houses than I do from writing so its definitely not the money. I do understand what you are saying though. If there hadn't been that photo of a dog coursing a hare in that article then lurcher men wouldn't have felt targeted, and none of this furore on this forum would have happened ... or would it? One of the Poacher Watches was set up to combat deer poachers: but they don't say what kind of poachers!
-
I don't know about in your area Charts, but there have been several items on Look East (my local area news programme) over the last few years. If the public didn't know what hare coursing was before, they certainly know all about it now. I've even had an old woman walking her dog past us when we were ferreting. I saw her standing and watching so went over to her to bid her good morning: she said that she hadn't known what to do because she thought that we might have been hare coursers! Amid scare mongering by the police, and prejudiced items by the media, the public are ever more confused, sca
-
Penny they don't print it for the community, its a business and lurcher/terrier lads are a huge proportion of that number. I hate the term underground magazine, Plummer used to use that one.......... Alright, magazines not available on shop shelves: better? Course its a business; but a business is only viable if it sells what its producing. The more controversial the stuff they print, the better it sells, like any newspaper or magazine: do you really think that the CMW staff are unaware of marketing tactics? A successful paper will contain a mixture of informative, entertaining an
-
Bless you! Can't you afford the soft stuff? Or does it give you some degree of satisfaction to scratch your arse with a pic of a dog or two? :tongue2:
-
No Charts: what it actually says, is: Poachers are dangerous and violent criminals....etc. So whilst it doesn't actually say the word 'all', it is implied. What is of most concern is that these words appear right next to a photo of a dog coursing a hare, which is in the Poacher Watch pamphlet. So it is really causing the reader to associate violent crime with hare coursers. Like I said earlier, there are a lot of people quietly doing their thing, but its the actions of a very small minority who are damaging the lurcherman's reputation still further: like we really need that sort of bad pub
-
OK, I'll say this once only: the CMW is not 'against decent lurcher lads' as you put it matt32. It is a newspaper, and it contains a wide variety of opinions from all types of hunting and field sports, and this includes citing the crimes that are committed by hunters: almost weekly there is something about some hunt or other that is being prosecuted, or some gamekeeper who is supposed to have killed some protected animal or bird. It is NEWS, that's all. Newspapers and magazines have to appeal to as broad a spectrum of people as possible in order to survive. Yes, I can understand how we lur
-
Has the dog been seen by a vet? If not, get him to a vet asap. Classic signs of internal bleeding are pale gums, lethargy, low temperature.
-
Are you honestly suggesting you leave broken toes to set by themselves? How do you know they are broken? Are they dislocated maybe? I've seen the results of broken toes left to heal by themselves: and it ain't pretty, and the dog won't run very well ever again! Get dog to a vet asap.
-
Maybe an article on how not all dog lads are criminals and those that are only represent a tiny unwanted minority, the same minority you'd find attracted to any "hobby". Coming right up! I've been working on this in my head for the last few weeks, wondering how best to word a retaliatory article without alienating anyone at all: feckin' impossible really! Ever the diplomat ,I have been finding it hard to say what I want without downright attacking certain factions within field sports: I know what it's like to be tarred with the same brush as those who are blatantly criminal in their a
