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skycat

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Everything posted by skycat

  1. skycat
    Before any training, build a bond with the pup. Play with it. Don't try to make it do anything apart from want to be with you. Make yourself fun to be with and never do 'training sessions' with the attitude that the pup has to obey you just because you are the human. Read loads on how a dog's mind works before you ever start training, which should be more about learning how to engage the pup than shouting orders. You could start here: http://denisefenzi.com/2013/11/27/building-engagement-through-play/
  2. skycat
    It's not during the season that it affects them, but after, for as much as up to 12 weeks after their season has finished. This corresponds with the duration of a pregnancy and the time that the bitch would be nursing pups. Some of my bitches lose muscle dramatically, 'grow' udders (their mammary glands swell up and even produce milk in some cases). Working a bitch hard in this state means that she is more likely to suffer from tendon and muscle problems, and there is increased fat around the heart and other internal organs she won't have the stamina or strength to work as normal. Each bitch i
  3. skycat
    Threads like this restore my faith: great to see bitch and pups being so well cared for.
  4. skycat
    If this is an abscess and something is trying to work its way out, and it comes back despite being removed, I would leave it to burst naturally as the dog's body wants to do ... that is if it would be safe to leave it to burst and drain naturally. I've had a couple of dogs with lumps that were removed surgically, came back (one did it twice) and then I let them burst and drain, just keeping them very clean and washed out with salt water every day. The lumps never came back once they'd done it naturally. Just a thought. It might not even be a foreign body, but a some nasty bacteria that grows a
  5. skycat
    Ours don't even squat at night, let alone in the day time: yes, we can only dream
  6. skycat
    My God, those are incredible photos
  7. skycat
    Good that you got on top of the problem so fast. I had a dog fall very ill after drinking from a dyke out coursing once. He came down with a massively high temperature and he crapped green fluorescent diarrhoea. It practically glowed in the dark! Reckon he must have taken in some chemicals or something nasty. Made a full recovery though.
  8. skycat
    Skycat,you making a permanent move or just a seasonal adjustment to your living arrangements ? Permanent! Over the hills and far away ... well, as far away from human habitation as possible on this little island.
  9. skycat
    How amazing! I wish I'd known about these long ago, but as we're going to be living on the road in a bus next year .... just wondering if I could do the inside of the 'bedroom' with it. That way we park up in a forest, open the rear doors and have forest inside and out ...
  10. skycat
    Excellent vid and photos.
  11. skycat
    That refers to overshot, not undershot. I've seen this in a lot of lurchers. Once they start teething at around 4 1/2 months of age they can look very overshot, which is when the top jaw is longer than the bottom jaw. So which is it with your pup? Over or undershot? I had one lurcher that was so bad at 16 weeks of age that the person who had bought her came back to me to complain. I told her to wait until the pup was a year old before deciding whether or not the dog was overshot. She ended up with a perfect scissor bite.
  12. skycat
    A stunning bunch of photos: particularly like the close up of the Deerhound lurcher.
  13. skycat
    And people get disappointed when their lurchers don't pick up bunnies on short sharp runs. When a Whippet has to rugby tackle a rabbit you just have to know that they're not as easy as some people think. Excellent catch
  14. skycat
    Some pups are like small children: picky. My pups won't eat their veg when they are young, but they all eat it up as they get older Try adding some tinned sardines to the dry to add flavour, or boiled, ground liver. Keep trying him with new and different things. It won't make him fussy, and will just encourage him to eat a bit more of all sorts of different stuff. Also, if the pup has just left its litter mates, the lack of competition can throw a pup right off its food. Being in a new place can do that too. I take it he has been properly wormed with the right wormers? Not the crap from
  15. skycat
    There is no point in meeting with Tim Bonner until or unless we can offer a comprehensive and well thought out plan of action to improve the status of the working lurcher; a plan that can be highly visible and approved by the CA. To do that we need to put in place a strong working group who will have the stamina and interest to see things through and be available and willing to work ridiculously hard long term.
  16. skycat
    Have you tried feeding a quality dry food such as Iams or Purina? The more expensive dry foods are meat based, which means that meat is the main ingredient. Alpha is, I believe, cereal based. You can mix a bit of tinned food in to soaked dry food, which will give it the flavour the pup is used to. Then gradually reduce the amount of tinned food. How old is the pup anyway?
  17. skycat
    If your dog's coat looks better on tinned then maybe she is missing our on something in her raw diet? Fat? Certain vitamins/minerals? What exactly does she get on her usual raw diet?
  18. skycat
    Neck injury? Hurts it to put its head down and strike?
  19. skycat
    It's not just the durability though is it? I've had fragile-looking little Whippety things, albeit with Saluki in them, and some have survived many seasons work whilst others have killed themselves early on in their life. IMO it's more about how aware (spatial awareness), sensible (self-preservation) and quick-thinking a dog is. As well as where it works of course.
  20. skycat
    I use dog claw clippers, and yes it may bleed a lot, but not always if the blood vessels have already been damaged when the claw twisted. Heat and inflammation set in to protect the joint. It doesn't necessarily mean that it is infected. Antibiotics should only be used if it is definitely infected. The trick is knowing when there is infection and when it is just localised inflammation: if in doubt go to the vet.
  21. skycat
    How old is she? What size? What type of lurcher? Far too many people try to get their pups jumping before their bodies are fully mature. A large type of lurcher isn't physically mature until it is 18 months old, some even later. Many people also make the mistake of only teaching the dog to jump solid obstacles, rather than see through things like fences and gates. Dog need to learn to jump low netting fences. Chicken wire is ideal and can be set up in the garden bent in half to begin with and gradually raising the height. Not all dogs even like jumping, and a bad experience early on may put t
  22. skycat
    The young dog needs teaching manners, and it's not enough to just keep the Lab on a lead. Engage the youngster with games, as I said earlier. Make YOU the focus for his energy, not the other dog. Neither is it fair to keep the Lab on a lead all the time. The teenage time is trying for everyone, and the better you manage it through training and games and work the better for everyone. Just telling the young dog off won't work at all, and he'll simply see you as a block to his fun rather than someone who gets his attention and focus.
  23. skycat
    Yes, I'm a sucker for trying to do something to promote hunting in a favourable light. I'm not holding my breath though, as I think we need someone at the helm with the charisma, energy and long term drive for our efforts to produce anything meaningful and permanent. Anything like this needs a structured approach, masses of commitment and time and dare I say it money? To produce anything similar to BASC, MAFH, NGO etc etc we need more than just great ideas.
  24. skycat
    The Association of Lurcher Clubs was supposed to be actively promoting all sorts of things, the last I heard, several years ago. They were a presence at various game fairs (are they still?). What do they do now to try and pull lurcher owners together? I never read anything from them in any of the sporting press. Their original idea was to unite all lurcher clubs under one banner and to give lurcher owners fair representation within the CA. As I see it we are as much to blame as the ALC in failing to unite in any way at all. Years ago I tried to unite the clubs only to fall at the first hu
  25. skycat
    You should never expect an older dog to tell a pup off. It's great when you have an older dog that can correct a pup in a controlled manner, and teach it respect, but if that older dog has the kind of temperament that merely puts up with bullying, you not only teach the pup that it can behave in this manner, but you risk making the older dog miserable. It will either continue to be miserable, or it may one day decide to retaliate for real, and if the pup is of a temperament that won't take that kind of retaliation lying down you may end up with two dogs that can't be left alone together and wh
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