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skycat

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Everything posted by skycat

  1. skycat
    Many years ago, before I had lurchers, I had had two Wolfhounds. They were what brought me to lurchers. The first I owned since a pup, and she could catch rabbits with no problem at all. I lived in the New Forest with her for a time and she got very good at stalking and catching rabbits. The second I didn't get until she was 6 years old, and she had been abused. She had a slightly bent front leg from a badly healed break, and she was a ferocious guard dog and very suspicious of men she didn't know. I was looking after a herd of goats in France and she adopted the goats, acted as herd guardian
  2. skycat
    Nothing like my sweet Schucky: though nobody ever made the connection did they? She was named after this legendary beast before I tamed her.
  3. skycat
    I always cringe when I see a dog retrieving over barbed wire. But yours makes a lie of delicate Whippets
  4. skycat
    We get myxi here every year. This year it seems quite a mild strain and it hasn't wiped the rabbits out, there's still plenty left. Those that the dogs caught seemed to be getting over it without having gone to skin and bone as they do sometimes. It varies a lot in intensity and symptoms, or do some survivors just build up better immunity?
  5. skycat
    It's when she starts to lie on her back and waving her paws in the air to lure them in that you should be worrying .... or enter her in Britain's Got Talent ...
  6. skycat
    Andy still talks about Mossy from time to time. Very clever bitch. Took a lot of hares through cunning, though not a hare dog as such, and she'd hunt moor hens too, following the bubbles underwater until they came up for air. He bred a couple of litters from her, and her granddaughter got killed before he was able to breed from her: he said she was his best ever lurcher. I never saw Mossy, but that last one was a really traditional type lurcher: sensible, brave enough and a surprising amount of stamina for something with either no or very little Saluki in her. Though I remember Tony Smith sayi
  7. skycat
    I used to have an amazing cat. He wasn't very big, but he regularly used to bring rabbits back down the lane from the paddock at the end. He used to eat them under my car, having learned that if he brought them into the garden the dogs would nick them off him. When he was very old he still brought the odd baby rabbit back, but never once in 16 years did I see him target or catch a bird.
  8. skycat
    I've seen loads of hare photos, but there's something about these that just captures the loony qualities of the hare: just look at those big bulging eyes! They really are a nutty looking creature. I know that I'm being anthropomorphic in saying that, but their expressions are quite mad.
  9. skycat
    The problem with a lot of fairly high jumping done before a dog is fully mature is that the damage is invisible and the effects do not show until the dog is older, maybe 2, 3, or even 4 years old. Gaz: are you sure that your pup hadn't just outgrown her strength when you said she went through a 'lazy' stage? Pups grow in spurts, and when the bones are growing the muscles take a while to catch up in terms of strength. That is why I don't like to do much jumping at all until the bones have finished growing and the muscles are developed enough to propel the dog over things without jarring jo
  10. skycat
    Tremendous length of neck on that pup:
  11. skycat
    There is a big difference between balls and rabbits. Balls belong to you, they are low value, but a fun thing to mess about with. Rabbits are real. They're a big deal to the dog: he sees them as HIS, not yours. So naturally he doesn't want to give them up to you. Sometimes dogs settle down once they are catching a lot and the novelty has gone from catching them, but not always. Once the dog gets into a habit of doing something it is harder to change it. The trick is to get him bringing a rabbit to you because he is so damned proud of what he has done and he sees you as the best place
  12. skycat
    It's a lovely photo of a well loved old dog: and WE know that, as much as we know that old lurchers often get skinny as they lose muscle but don't have the thicker skin and subcutaneous fat of other breeds which would hide that fact, but I still think that photos in the public domain need to be assessed with the general public in mind. Good PR is everything in this media-driven age.
  13. skycat
    If you look at the caption with the photo the dog was 14 years old in the photo and wasn't long for this world. Nice photo, but good PR would have used a younger, less ribby animal with a decent shiny coat. Lurchers are often called 'skinny' by the general public and see lurcher owners as uncaring yobs. no sense in underpinning their views with photo of dog under par, or maybe they could say it is a rescue that had just been taken in and had found love and a caring home at last.
  14. skycat

    Barf Feeding Pups

    skycat replied to jäger's topic in BARF Diet

    Forget all that stuff about feeding a certain percentage of its weight: feed young puppies as much as they will eat in a few minutes. Once they walk away, take the bowl up again and don't leave food down for pups to graze on. If the pup hasn't eaten enough at one sitting, it will be hungrier the next time and eat more, providing of course you are feeding it something nutritious that it actually likes! Also, make sure the pup is able to eat in a quiet place without distractions. Much depends on how the pup was reared before you got it, as well as its breeding,as to how greedy it is.If the p
  15. skycat
    Fitness isn't something that is achieved just once, then not bothered with again. It's like training for any type of sport or serious lifestyle. If you aren't actually competing your'e training. Fitness is lost just as quickly as it is gained, so sending a dog away to get fit would be totally pointless unless the owner was prepared to continue the conditioning once they got it back again. As for training a dog to lamp: it would be much better for both dog and owner to learn together as any issues are often the result of poor handling or the owner not knowing what he is doing. Lamping isn't
  16. skycat
    I never measure anything, but I suppose a handful cooked, but depends on the size of the dog and how hard it is working as well as the breeding. I've found that heavily Saluki saturated lurchers do better with a decent amount of carb and slightly less protein than an out and out sprint machine.
  17. skycat
    My Airedale lurchers wouldn't mind it. They do a slightly milder version, (not quite so much fallen timber) but often laced with old barbed wire fences, boggy dykes, pools, thick hawthorn and brambles. Luckily they have thick skins. I saw Schuck hang herself over a barbed wire fence the other day and she had to struggle to get off it: got her just in front of her hind legs: not even a scratch on her: it would have gutted a more sighthoundy lurcher.
  18. skycat
    High protein and fat: protein to rebuild muscle tissue, fat for energy: but if the dog is being fed correctly all the time, for the work it does generally, then it shouldn't need a particular type of food after work. Having said that, I'd lay off too many carbs for the after work meal as you want to put protein and fat first. However, a well balanced diet should cover all the bases providing it is made of quality ingredients.
  19. skycat
    Love the look of the black bitch.
  20. skycat
    It doesn't even tell you what the ingredients are. So you can probably assume that most of it is wheat: why not just buy a few loaves of whole meal bread, dry in the oven and break into bits yourself. At least you'll be sure what it contains, rather than wondering what crap has been swept off what factory floor to go into a manufactured 'bread'.
  21. skycat
    Max: the worst things about this whole debacle is that it has been played out on the internet. The birth of anything new is never easy, and given the space and time to consolidate ideas, people and direction, progress will be and is being made. It would be a mistake to take everything that is said on the internet as gospel, for situations change, and peoples' ideas crystallise, and new opportunities arise from what might be seen as a problem situation. To my mind there is, and never has been, any need for conflict between apparently opposing organisations. Pride, prejudice and misinformation
  22. skycat
    I find it very sad that Alan Tyer has seen fit to refuse a meeting with the steering group based on the, and I quote: 'the vile behaviour' of a few.. Surely, if we are all truly determined to provide better representation for the lurcher there are bound to be those who refuse to 'play nicely'. Surely it would be better to ignore the nasty bullies and work together to ensure that any lurcher organisation represents all lurchers and their owners who wish to play a part in improving either an existing association or club, or creating between us a new and modern face for the lurcher and its work.
  23. skycat
    When I teach a lurcher to stop at a distance I start with the dog very close to me. Once the dog is reliably sitting on verbal command 'sit', I add the whistle command at the same time as a hand signal: hand held out, palm facing dog in a pushing away action. Once the dog is sitting purely to the whistle and hand signal, which I always reward with food in the training stages, I wait until the dog has pottered away down the garden, then use my voice to call its name and attract its attention. Then I give the stop command, using hand and whistle. I have always found that the 'pushing away' hand
  24. skycat
    Heat lamps are great providing you use them sensibly. If the kennel is well insulated and not open to a large area of cold air a heat lamp can actually make things too hot for the bitch and pups. Indications that the pups are too hot are: pups spread out all over the box, or trying to get into corners away from the heat. Pups listless and limp when picked up, or crying continuously. Pups should huddle together, this is normal, but if they are constantly trying to burrow under one another to seek warmth, feel cold to the touch and are listless and limp and crying, they are too cold. Yes, s
  25. skycat
    Barley straw for dogs that are likely to be going into their kennels a bit damp. Must not say wet, or I'll get thrashed The only material, as in duvet, blankets etc that will not leave the dog sitting on a wet surface is Vetbed, as moisture passes through it, but even that will get soggy if it is not changed frequently. Don't like shavings or chopped straw as the dog can't dig and make a nest from it. Whole straw is something that a dog can arrange to suit itself, and whilst it is messy, most will be retained in the kennel providing you have a barrier of about a foot in height to stop it fal
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