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
-
This litter hasn't happened yet, and will only happen if enough seriously interested sensible people put their names down for a pup. I shall be acting as go between for the breeder, who hadn't intended breeding again, but as I have already been contacted by a couple of sensible people he will do another mating, but only if there are enough potential owners who are able to give these pups the lives they deserve. If you are interested in an Airedale pup please pm me and I'll give you my number so we can talk about it further. Bearing in mind that the litter might not happen for 6 months
-
Doglost doesn't say they are 'obviously NOT' working dogs, but 'NOT obviously' working dogs: in other words, they may be but they have no scars etc which would mean they were more likely to be working dogs. The being friendly doesn't come into it, if you see what I mean. Easy to misunderstand I agree, its the placing of the word NOT in the sentence which changes the meaning.
-
Whilst I haven't any experience with Spaniels, my shooting friends who do work Spaniels, always work on the obedience long before they get the dog out in the field. Dropping at a distance can be very confusing for any dog, and I don't try and establish that until the dog is at least a year old. Long before that they learn the 'wait' command, as in going through fences etc. Before long they are stopping at a distance when I say 'wait'. Once the dog is stopping at a distance when it is going forwards it is not too long a jump for it to learn the 'lie down' command. However, just to confu
-
This is not a subject I would normally comment on but I have to say that whilst it is tame, the fact that it is on the high street shelves (in some places) means that everything written in it must comply with the ban, annoying though that is for those who send in articles. Would you, who slag it off, rather there was no publication at all that printed articles about working lurchers, terriers and ferrets? As someone already said, the fact that hunting is still a legitimate occupation, even despite the ban, means that whilst we can keep it in the public eye then the man or woman in the st
-
It is totally normal for a pregnant, (and even a bitch after her season which is not pregnant) to lose muscle.It's all part of the process during which her body prepares for birth: due to the hormones she produces after a season. If she's only got 3 weeks to go then take it easy with her: no running on game and as she gets heavier don't take her for long walks: its not fair on her as well as carrying a litter inside her. Its not just the muscles that slacken and soften: the ligaments too (the things that hold bones together) So no jumping or running; if she's a sensible bitch by all mean
-
Don't be tempted to give her calcium tablets: there is evidence to suggest that adding extra calcium to a pregnant bitch's diet can actually increase the possibility of eclampsia (milk fever). Just make sure, like has already been said, that she gets a good balanced diet: plenty of chicken carcases, breast of lamb, whole rabbits etc.
-
The drip board on the outside is a very good idea: keeping the run off from hitting the side of the court. Good set up.
-
Funnily enough I've just being doing some research on this! If a dog has neither the breeding (instinct) or had had the necessary training when young (as in the opportunity to chase, grab and kill what it chases) it becomes a lot harder to get them to do it when older. There are certain 'windows' in time during a pup's development which allow them to learn certain things at certain ages, once those windows are closed it becomes far more difficult to teach them. When I say young, I mean only months old: I always train my pups on rabbit skin dummies from an early age. Try dragging a ra
-
Sounds as though he might have had a chill in the guts: inflamed due to all the snow he ate. Just a thought. Not all dogs have diarrhoea when they have bad guts: I once had a severe intestinal bug go through my kennels: all but one dog had the shits really bad, but this one dog just stopped eating for a few days with no other symptoms, then recovered fine.
-
Great photos! Lucky you to be able to go out and hunt and hunt with hardly anyone throwing an anti wobbly fit.
-
You don't say how old your pup is: it is natural for a pup not to want to leave the safety of its home, and if you notice very young pups in the nest they venture just a few feet before returning to their nest. It is instinct that makes them want to learn the way back to their nest quickly when they start to explore, and the same applies when you take the pup outside its home. I routinely carry my pups at 8 weeks old down to the end of the lane and back. They usually start off walking on the lead but when they get about 30 yards from the gate they stop: I then pick them up, carry them down
-
She was the smallest of them wasn't she? Lovely looker too! Sounds as though they all have that same temperament: easy to train and desperate to please. Mog is so obedient that I can release the other dogs when out on exercise with an 'OK' command and she will walk beside me until I tell her she can go on as well: she'll be quivering with anticipation but won't run on until I tell her she can: The only time she goes a bit deaf is when she scents a munty in the cover! No great problem. LOL
-
problems once quarry is caught
skycat replied to flyinbonnie's topic in Working Dog Health & Training Talk
9 months for a dog of that breeding is way to young: bones and joints not finished growing yet. Plus its going through the defiant stage where it challenges you: also the fact that he won't retrieve 'his' rabbit means he is totally at the wrong time of his life to start lamping. Note: obviously this varies from dog to dog, but males generally take longer to finish growing up, both physically and mentally. Concentrate on giving him the right steady sort of exercise, getting a good bond, and retrieving dummies in the field, not just at home. He'll be spot on for next season if you can be p -
I've known two hard fox killing Lakie bitches who refused to go to ground if there were cubs in there: mine, the daughter of the first bitch, actually brought out cubs unharmed if they were small enough and attempted to mother them: that could be your answer. I certainly wouldn't get rid of the bitch for that reason: just take another dog along with you that will do that particular job.
-
A lot depends on the size of warren you are working, the way your ferrets work and how many people there are there. Nothing worse than entering several ferrets at opposite ends of a sizable warren and only one person to keep an eye on them. If the cover is thick you won't see the ferrets move off from the warren if they come out on top. With a medium sized warren we tend to put 2 or 3 at one end of the warren, but a ways apart: that way we hope to drive the rabbits to the other end of the warren rather than ferrets from opposite ends of a warren which, as has already been said, is more l
-
Not being funny: but what makes you think he is dehydrated? And what sort of dog is it? Some dogs don't drink very much at all and if the dog is being fed on wet (as in raw meat etc) food they will drink a lot less than if fed on a complete dry food. The usual test for dehydration is to pinch a fold of skin on top of the dog's head: just for a few seconds: if the skin returns to its normal postion quickly the dog is NOT dehyrated. If the fold stays how you pinched it even after you let go then the dog is probably dehydrated. Also: is there any possibility the dog is drinking water f
-
Brindle: the only one left out of the litter. Would I have chosen any of the others? I don't know, probably not: I've got a good feeling about this one and she is very easy to live with: full on in the field and at home you don't know she's there. Incidently, she was the one I picked from the photos Heart of Wales put up on here when he bred the litter, and she was the one I ended up with: strange how things work out. Superbly intelligent animal but not manic like some Collies.
-
LOL @ Tomo! All bar one of that litter were brindle and the one was black, but the dam was a white GSD. Yes, its a cross I was interested in for a long time having had Shepherds many years ago. Intelligence and biddability wise I can't fault her, but she is a big old lump for rabbits: 33 kilos! Yikes! Her feet aren't the best either: suffers on very hard ground and struggles on boggy going. I've seen other first crosses come up a lot lighter built than mine though. Having said all that, I'd never part with her: she's got incredible prey drive and if the ground's right she'll mop
-
You have PM
-
Sorry: I just can't help myself commenting on this one! At 10 months old this dog is still a pup itself, so the guy has got himself another pup: why? I honestly think that there must be something wrong with people who sell a pup at 10 months because they have got another pup: or did he get both at the same time and decide now to get rid of one because it is too much work to bring on two? If lurchers cost a damn sight more money maybe there wouldn't be so many youngsters for sale: and maybe, just maybe, people would stick with the one they have and put the work in rather than chop and cha
-
Scarlett, Dill's sister, who I took in after her owner could no longer keep her, went to a very good pet home. Nothing wrong with her, but it was obvious straight away that at 11 months old I was going to end up with serious double trouble, Scarlett following Dill everywhere....and far away. LOL Litter mates egging eachother on etc. Scarlett on her own was quite shy, unsocialised and backward in many ways, so I made the decision to let her go to a pet home where the only demands made on her would be to be a good companion dog. She's getting on very well and I'm happy for her. I think she
-
Fantastic pics of the rabbit hitting the long net
-
That's good news about your dog. I remember seeing a one eyed coursing dog once, though apparently it had lost the eye as quite a young pup so had had time to adjust. Caught a decent number of hares, but like has already been said, tried to keep the quarry on its sighted side and ran with its head at an angle.
-
Dill is now just 12 months old: just come out of her first season, and only the other day I was saying that she was still a bit puppyish: we went on a fox drive a few weeks ago and unfortunately she didn't get to see any foxes before they were shot dead. So I took a brush and threw it around for her: she spent ages shaking it and generally pratting about though didn't really show any interest in the dead foxes when she saw them. My mate asked me if I was 'going to persevere' with her!! I think he thought that she'd be 'up and running' by now. These dogs are slow to mature: I wasn't worried
-
The thing is not to try and pull a foreign object, thorn etc out of the eye yourself: it needs to be done professionally as you could do more damage pulling it out yourself than has already been done. Friend of mine had a similar thing happen to his dog: took it straight to vets: dog fine now but needed micro stitches to eyeball. We had a situation once where a twig had gone into the corner of the eye: about the thickness of a thin pencil, seemed imovable. Trip to vets with my OH sitting holding the dog so she couldn't paw at her eye: knocked her out and found a twig nearly 5 inch