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skycat

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Everything posted by skycat

  1. skycat
    Those snakes are certainly in good condition. Beautiful.
  2. skycat
    Sorry, but I'm going to disagree! If a pup is seriously overweight then its growing joints and bones can be under too much pressure. Yes, they need to be well covered and not scrawny, but not fat. Some pups are really greedy and will eat until they can't move: they shouldn't look like bloated balloons after a meal, which is why it is better to feed pups little and often when they are young: that way they don't feel hungry for too long, then guts themselves when you do feed them. If you are worried if your pup is overweight then stick a couple of photos up for us to see.
  3. skycat
    Good for you getting your dogs out there and showing people what Staffs should look like and what they can do apart from waddle around overweight like most pet ones. Hope it all goes well for you.
  4. skycat
    Great read and pics: I've only been stag hunting once and didn't see much at all: down in the New Forest years ago. Look forward to more of your days out with them.
  5. skycat
    How about an Airedale Greyhound? Plenty of nose, hunting instinct, grit, intelligence. They used to be popular many years ago: I wonder if they disappeared just because of changing fashion or was there another reason? I was speaking to someone in Wales last year who said that when he ran them many years ago they were the best for finding/hunting he'd had.
  6. skycat
    Very well put! Just about says it all: though I'd add that many really good dogs often have a lot more breeds in them than just Saluki and Greyhound: you only have to look at the Merlin/Eve lines. Supposedly there's Bedlington, Airedale, Collie, Deerhound, Whippet: in fact you name it and it's probably in there. One of my better dogs was mongrelised lurcher to mongrelised lurcher, but bred from good coursing dogs on one side, and a rufty tufty line of who knows what breeding on the dam's side. I saw the great grandmother (and her sister) to one of mine running hares many years ago, and if
  7. skycat
    OK, so what I SHOULD have said in the first place goes as follows................ How's about a photo of the pup stood on the ground so we can see it's shape better: it looks a bit Chinese with its eyes all slanted like that from being scruffed. By the way, whilst it doesn't physically harm a pup to be scruffed and dangled in mid air, I can think of better ways to hold a pup up. It would be better for the pup's confidence and ability to tolerate handling if you held it under its chest and its rear end. Plus we can't really tell what it loks like being dangled like that. Is that bett
  8. skycat
    Most terriers are tougher, and they weigh less overall, if you see what I mean: their skin is much thicker as anyone who has vaccinated or jabbed up both terriers and lurchers will know, and their pain threshold is usually a lot higher too. What would bother a lurcher doesn't even register in many terriers' brains as pain! I've always scruffed my terrier pups, but once I've got them and hold them supporting their back ends as well if I'm going to hold them off the ground for more than a few seconds: like sticking them under one arm: and their hindfeet usually support themselves: mostly stuck
  9. skycat
    Well I guess we have different attitudes to dogs in general. I'm not saying that it will physically do a pup any harm to scruff it, but by and large lurchers tend to have much thinner skin than terriers and many of them hate being scruffed. I often scruff my terriers to lift them either from holes or into their travelling boxes, but they are only held like that for a short time. In my humble opinion scruffing a pup is something to be done only for a very few seconds if you have to. I usually lift my pups by placing a hand under their chest and the other hand under their back end: that w
  10. skycat
    Those must be fairly shallow warrens for the rabbits to bolt well at this time of year. We've just been out and tried to do a big warren under a hedge: huge numbers of holes and the rabbits just don't bolt, or if they do then they're little ones that drag the nets off, through the nettles and the adult rabbits just run round and round underground! Bloody infuriating. At least you've had a good haul there: we'll just have to try and long net this place.
  11. skycat
    How the hell can anyone see anything much of the pup with it dangling in the air by its scruff: can't you even hold a pup properly for a photo: it's not a ferret! and it doesn't do them any good to be dangled like that once they're past a few days old: even the bitch wouldn't do that to her pups once they're more than a week old. I'm saying this because I'd hate to think that someone who doesn't know about how to handle dogs comes on here and sees this and thinks this is the way to handle a pup. And as for the comment about 'cracking eyes'.......well they only look like that cos they sk
  12. skycat
    I know how it is, not that I've hunted boar: but when the action is fast and furious the last thing you think of it taking photos: most of the time I'd have a job just to carry the camera around without damaging it: heavy cover and bad weather aren't really camera friendly!
  13. skycat
    Who actually has any that work MOST keepers of them things are only interested in the conformation Are you just talking about Parson Russells or ALL Russells, because if you are I think you'll find that there a good number of working Russells, or Russell TYPES if you want to be picky about the terminolgy.
  14. skycat
    I wondered if you had any more photos of the dogs working in Germany: or any hunting stories involving the Airedales to tell us.
  15. skycat
    I knew that but just wanted some different input from another person! LOL I like to hear opinions from all angles: the more knowlege I can gain the better!
  16. skycat
    To me that is the whole point: different types of dog need different approaches to training, and that is the hard part: tailoring the training to suit the dog. Knowing exactly what will work with a certain dog is very difficult, especially with lurchers that may have so many different breeds in them, and particularly those breeds which are very chase orientated. There is a trainer who has helped me a lot: his name is Jim Greenwood, and he's a superb dog man. Here's a link to his website: http://amarna-letters.co.uk/dogtraining/jjcontactus.html
  17. skycat
    Hi Erik: got any more photos of the Airedales? What and how do they hunt in Germany? Do tell us more about what they do over there.
  18. skycat
    What a lot of people are forgetting is that in training a lurcher//hunting dog, you are, at times, asking the dog to choose between you/initial training and that prey drive which kicks in when the dog puts a rabbit up in front of it. Unless the dog has been conditioned thoroughly and correctly the 'chase the rabbit' option will always win hands down. Even with a well trained dog this often doesn't work if that dog contains a lot of Saluki, for example: their hunting instinct is through the roof and they haven't evolved to take orders all the time, unlike Collies and GSDs which have been d
  19. skycat
    i dont think thats correct sKycat theres a few drugs out there available to vets that will work on dogs and cats one in particular up to 33 days i think... You are right! I just googled this: not a very nice option by the sounds of it: I'd sooner cull most of the pups at birth, let her rear a couple and hand them over to somewhere like Lurcherlink to find them good homes at the appropriate age. Just an idea. Here's the link for that drug to cause abortion in bitches. http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathp.../terminate.html
  20. skycat
  21. skycat
    Don't be daft: any home intervention will seriously put your bitch's life at risk! Get her to the vet asap and get her jabbed up: not an ideal solution and only any use if within 24 hours of the mating. Doesn't always work properly either: bitches have been known to deliver one or two deformed pups even after getting the jab, which incidently will also bring her back into season proper for another 3 weeks as a rule. If several days have passed since the mating or you don't want to take her to the vet you'll just have to go through with the pregnancy. Once she has the pups you have a cou
  22. skycat
    If you put both your ferret hutch and hen house up on legs at least one foot high then there will be less place for rats to burrow in underneath plus you'll be able to see if they are burrowing in and around the area. Keep rubbish to a minimum so there's no place for them to hide. We only get the occasional rat and I always keep a couple of traps set round the back of my sheds on what used to be a rat run: well away from the dogs and chickens and covered over with planks so birds don't walk into them and get smacked.
  23. skycat
    It could be Collie Nose: even dogs with only a small percentage of Collie in them can get it. See this link for more info: www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1592&articleid=412
  24. skycat
    He's not too thin at all: lurchers aren't Labradors! To see a couple of ribs at the back end of the rib cage is perfectly normal. He looks very well to me: how old is he? You should see my Saluki type at the moment: the word hat rack comes to mind!
  25. skycat
    Lions???? Since when are there lions in Canada PMSL Mountain lion, otherwise known as cougar.
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