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skycat

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Everything posted by skycat

  1. skycat
    The dog needs to see whatever you throw as 'your' possession, so shouldn't want to run off with it. Jim Greenwood taught me this trick, and it has worked with even the most horrible dogs LOL Sit or crouch down in the back yard or garden and play with a ball or dummy or whatever: scoot it around your feet, laugh to yourself and make out you're having a good time: I know it sounds crazy but believe me, if you are worried about looking a prat then don't bother trying to train a dog LOL LOL. The dog will come over and natural curiosity will make it wonder what the hell you are doing: don'
  2. skycat
    In my experience, Saluki types are different to any other sort of dog, and the more Saluki they have in them the more cat like they are: wanting to do their own thing. Plus their brains just don't compute wanting to please the owner until they are much older: they are all hunt and drive, though you have probably found that your's is away with the fairies half the time LOL Don't worry: take as long as you like and want in building up a really good relationship with the dog: you won't ruin him by not entering him early, though a lot of people seem to think that any lurcher should be catchin
  3. skycat
    Sound a decent litter, obviously well cared for and parents too: should be nifty little things shouldn't they. All the best with them.
  4. skycat
    Stone sheds are very cold: keeping the cold in in the winter and the sun out in the summer: put a wooden box about the size of a tumble dryer with a lid and pop hole in one side in a corner of the shed: raise it off the floor a couple of inches: put loads of clean straw inside the box and your pup should be warm and snug. I always put the pop hole off centre so the dog has a corner out of draughts to nest into. No dog, let alone a pup, does well in a cold bed.
  5. skycat
    Breeding that close is only a bad thing if there are genetic faults back in the line which you would obviously double up on breeding that close. IMO you have to know the line back many generations: like for 20 years or more, to truly know if there are any faults which could re-surface. I did a cousin to cousin mating a couple of years back and no problem, but now I'm stuffed as I don't know what to put to the bitch I kept who is doing everything asked of her. I could put her brother back to their dam to fix the traits I like so much, but she's too old. If you can truly say, hand on heart,
  6. skycat
    ~Deepest sympathies to you: and yes the feeling of guilt is overwhelming at first, but you couldn't have known what would happen: even in the seemingly safest of places a lurcher is never safe: friend of mine used to say that a dog is only safe when its on the lead, and then a car came past and side swiped him and his dog (on the lead) when he was out jogging. He nearly died himself and the dog was wiped out instantly. These things can happen at any time though thank God we don't know when they will happen or we'd never do anything with our dogs at all! Only time I had a dog nearly drow
  7. skycat
    At 10 months old the teeth haven't yet set properly in the jaw: the roots bed down into the jaw bone from betwen 9 - 12 months of age: which is why it isn't a good idea to let them see hard biting quarry until after that.
  8. skycat
    Good analogy that S: I might have to steal it from you LOL
  9. skycat
    Surely the whole point of feeding raw is to AVOID giving 'mixer' or biscuit type dog food as this would defeat the object of feeding raw. I know that you can mix it, many people do, but the whole thing is about notfilling a dog's stomach with cereals which its digestive system is less well able to digest. On the odd occasion when I do feed cereals (biscuit/mixer/complete) I don't feed meat at the same time as the two take different lengths of time to digest. Some people poo-poo this notion as being a bit over the top, but I've noticed that if I do mix meat and biscuit my dogs are a lot loos
  10. skycat
    Gotta agree: I'd have thought that you would be well placed to feed your dogs on what they catch: whole carcase, maybe not all at once, but a mixture of meat, offal, bone, fat and a bit of hide and hair for roughage is the best diet for most dogs: no worries there about what percentage protein and all that crap they go on about: the whole beast contains everything in the right amounts for dogs as well as wolves. Only thing I would say is that my dogs with a fair bit of Saluki in do better if they get some carbs, usually in the form of boiled brown rice: chuck in a few minced veggies as well
  11. skycat
    Damn! I've been after some for ages, but your'e way too far away from me: lost my little flock of banties over a year ago to a fox: now have a neighbour who is a dab hand with the snares so hopefully we won't have that problem again. Don't suppose you know anyone coming down south?
  12. skycat
    If the dog was shut in the crate for too long as a pup and was forced to use it as a toilet then he will most likely continue to see the crate as such: I'd either kennel the dog at night or leave him shut in a room with a washable floor: at 8 months he is well able to hold his bladder and bowels so get rid of the thing that is causing a problem. If you then find that he is crapping in the room look at what you feed the dog: dogs fed on complete manufactured food need to crap more often and do more when they do go: consider switching to a raw diet and feeding the dog last thing at night: makin
  13. skycat
    If its what I think you mean, its when they get an irritation in their sinuses or nostrils: you know like if you try and clear the back of your throat and nose by snorting inwards. Dogs living/working in dusty/dry conditions are more likely to do it, but I had a lurcher that did it all her life from time to time: I reckon she just had sensitive sinuses.
  14. skycat
    I syringe out with salt water then use an antibiotic ointment in a syringe for cows with mastitis, such as Dry Cow or Ubro Yellow: there's several makes: stick nozzle as deep as possible into puncture and fill up with ointment. Usually saves having to jab dog up or put on a course of antibiotics: hits the bacteria at the source.
  15. skycat
    I watched Hurt Locker this week: had to go round all the dogs cutting their claws from time to time as I couldn't stand the tension! Good film, though I thought it lost its way a bit towards the end: so many do, shame.
  16. skycat
    Have you got any photos of the dog: I'd like to see what its like, and was it a KC English Airedale that produced this dog?
  17. skycat
    As most racing greyhound bitches have their seasons supressed with Durateston (testosterone injections: male hormone) it can take some a long time to come into season and it can mess up their cycles forever. I know someone who routinely jabbed their bitch up for several years and had to wait forever for the bitch to come into season when they wanted to breed from her, and she never did get pregnant.
  18. skycat
    Quitea few dogs chip teeth, most times it doesn't bother them at all: if your dog is having problems then it must be because the nerve has been exposed: very painful! The canine tooth is very deeply rooted in the jaw bone so extracting it would be done under general anaesthetic, difficult but can be done. You can get cosmetic dental treatment (a filling etc) costing an arm and a leg if you really don't want the dog to lose a tooth, though dogs cope quite well if they only have one canine missing. Up to you really and how much money you want to spend.
  19. skycat
    Has the dog been working cover: nettles or brambles? Also how old is the dog? My Border Whippet who has hairless bollocks makes his sore as he flies through cover like a lunatic: when he first started doing this they looked really sore and red afterwards, now he's maturing a bit the skin seems to have toughened up abit. If your dog isn't working cover is it possible he's peeing his bed then lying in it?
  20. skycat
    For about 2-4 weeks after the season finishes most bitches continue to run well, but after a month their muscles will soften, fat will build up internally as well as under the skin, the ligaments slacken and the mammary glands will start to swell up: all this is part of a perfectly normal phantom pregnancy and mimics a real pregnancy without any pups inside the bitch. This state of affairs will continue until about 3-4 weeks AFTER THE BITCH WOULD HAVE HAD PUPS and some bitches are soft for as much as 2 months after they would have had pups had they been really pregnant. It's the hormone l
  21. skycat
    Wonderful photos: just seeing how relaxed both bird and dogs are together is great. Have you done any more filming of them working together: I'd love to see some more.
  22. skycat
    My Beardie bred lurcher to lurcher line with no wheaton or bull in were dynamite on a regular basis: this was quite some few years ago now and I no longer have that line unfortunately, but they would draw fox, take on top s/h, and one was only a 22" bitch: she lived for foxes: her advantage being that she could get places a bigger dog couldn't. The dogs I have now need more careful entering but once they've made the grade they never quit even when getting some stick and they've no bull in them either.
  23. skycat
    I love bringing a pup on, and yes, as I get older I'm in far less of a hurry to get them entered: that first year goes all too fast as you get on in years so now I make the most of it. I can understand young lads with their first dogs wanting to get out and get hunting, but time spent socialising and training will always pay off in the end, not to mention the permanent injuries young and over keen dogs will pick up if entered too early.
  24. skycat
    Beautiful shots: thanks for that: lovely.
  25. skycat
    What really gets me is that it is legal to take a litter of 3 day old pups to some vet to have their tales docked, which involves travelling (not a great idea for a young litter to say nothing of the stress to the bitch whether you leave her at home or take her with you) and also involves exposing the pups to possible infection and disease (imagine some sick dog has sat on the table before you get there and the vet has failed to swab the table properly. They are then docked using exactly the same procedure as you would do at home (no anaesthetic), yet this is classed as legal where an owner w
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