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
-
I used to take in quite a few lurchers as rescues, not necessarily dogs that had been dumped; just dogs people didn't want any more, and I wouldn't have kept a single one myself. They were all rehomed as pets eventually. Not only did they all have 'baggage' of one sort or another, but I just couldn't form the necessary bond with them. I applaud people who do take in second hand dogs and make useful workers out of them, but it is so much harder, and not always worth the struggle, to try and fix problems of bad breeding, bad rearing, bad or nonexistent training, and in my experience, most dogs t
-
So would you be if you'd had no one to play and socialise with: you should have kept two pups. They develop much better in company than alone.
-
Not always. If the gut is carrying a bacterial infection then antibiotics are used, though as I said earlier, probiotics can also stop diarrhoea providing the infection isn't too severe. It all depends on what is causing it.
-
If the pup had very bad worms they could have damaged the lining of its gut, which could take some time to repair itself. Stick to boiled chicken and boiled rice for a week or so to see if things improve. Diarrhoea can also result from the inflammation, and can be self-perpetuating: in other words, once the gut has started to whoosh food through too fast, this continues. Dehydration results, which is also an ongoing problem. The more the gut is inflamed, the more the gut takes fluid from the body to try and rectify the situation. There may also be a bacterial infection. If things don't cle
-
Matt: I won't claim to be an expert on all the various drives that the 'attack' dog trainers talk about, but I have noticed through the lurchers in my life that most of the best fox dogs, the ones that developed a real hatred of foxes, and which would stop at nothing to get to them, were all very short fuse, edgy dogs who were bitten before they retaliated. they never went looking for trouble if there were other dogs around, but they were the first to retaliate if another dog went for them. All my lurchers were introduced to fox in the presence of another experienced lurcher, and usually at th
-
If a good fox dog, that is well socialised, it turns on another dog it is far more likely that it has other issues. I had one lurcher who had a mega high defence drive. She was a brilliant fox dog, and all rounder, but she couldn't tolerate another dog having a go at her, even bumping into her during play. She was only 100% tolerant with her dam and her own pups when not working. However, when she was working, she never turned on a terrier or other lurcher once in her life because she was totally focussed on what she was supposed to be killing, so in a way I do see where Craigntod is coming fr
-
The thing is to explain to the nephew that for you to be in line with the law, you need the permission from his uncle. Say that this will avoid any problems with police etc if someone tells tales on you. Make out that you've been stung before by not actually speaking to the land owner: no reflection on the nephew and explain to him how the law likes to tie people who hunt up in knots given half a chance. Why not ask for the uncle's phone number so you can speak to him by phone? Just a thought.
-
Borders aren't docked anyway. I've had very little problem with my Whirrier's tail. It is fairly short, by running dog standards, and it doesn't curl over his back. He does skin the end of it in thick brambles, ditto his ears and face, but nothing too serious, and he doesn't care anyway. I've never had to lay him off because of it, and have had a lot worse with docked terriers who carry their tail at an angle guaranteed to split the end.
-
You can take a rolled up rabbit skin, tie it on a piece of string, and drag it through various bits of cover, letting the pups chase it. From there you can progress to hiding it in a small bramble or patch of nettles, for example, leaving the end of the string on the far side. Then let the pups, who will have already learned to follow the scent, go in and find it, while your or a friend drag the skin through to the far side. I know this isn't the real thing, but it will give them confidence to follow the scent when there is nothing in sight, and to creep into darker areas than simply tracking
-
I've given up trying to say which type of lurcher is least injury prone. I've had really heavy big dogs that floated on air, and lightly built ones that hammered the ground like charging bulls: you could hear them coming from far away so hard do their feet hit the ground at a gallop. Isn't a lot of it how they move?
-
I quite agree, and I've also had the 'misfortune' to own one of the feral, 'ignorant' sort of Saluki lurcher, but a lot of that was my fault. Had I taken him ferreting at a very young age rather than letting him learn to hunt up alone, he would have been far more likely to have seen me as an intrinsic part of his life, rather than a mere hanger on, occasionally necessary to his main purpose in life. I know that you can't control the breeze, but there are ways in which you can invent a damn good pair of imaginary wings. That said, do we really want to spend our lives trying to harness the wind
-
Whilst I'd have to agree with part of your statement wirral countryman, in that coursing lads don't need etc etc, but I'd disagree with the 'intelligent' bid, and I'd qualify coursing lads with the words 'most'. May sound as though I'm nitpicking, but there's more than a few Saluki types doing much more than 'just' coursing. ALL of my best all round types had a good dose of Saluki blood in them and they were bred from 'proper' coursing stock, so perfectly capable of knocking over 3/3 good hares with fair law, as well as ferreting, foxing, lamping and mooching. Properly brought up, that kind of
-
If you want to keep her then PLEASE, PLEASE get some outside help: we all need a bit of help from time to time. If you get in touch with Jim Greenwood: just Google him, he will be able to help you. There are very few lurcher trainers as good as he is, plus he does this for a living as well as being one of the nicest guys around. You only give up when you have explored ALL the options, and if you haven't tried getting help from a lurcher specialist then you haven't tried all the options. Just my opinion, if you really do want to keep the dog.
-
The problem for anyone who has not had a lot of experience is that they see a particular breed and are attracted to it. Most people go firstly for dogs they like the look of, then wonder if it has the qualities they want. I'm lucky in that I was introduced to terriers by someone who worked them almost in the way that I wanted to, and although my first terriers were Lakies, I soon realised that I wanted something a bit more 'houndy' in temperament, not so likely to get into fights or end up smashed to bits below ground. It took a few years for me to drop on the line I have now, and although I p
-
willow: I can't find the photos I took of Cricket as a pup, but he was smooth until around 8 months of age. His breeder told me that all the pups ended up broken coated: good harsh coats. Generally when breeding a first cross of anything that has a rough coated parent, the pups will be rough or broken: like with Deer/Greys or Beddy/Greys. It's when you breed again to another smooth parent that you get smooth offspring.
-
Kev: the litter I just bred: Cricket to a smooth terrier, only produced three pups. Two have come out like Cricket, though whilst they have decent thick hard coats, I doubt they'll be rough coated as adults (they are 5 months now) but the one that has thrown most to her dam has a bloody Whippet coat, and is a tiny, fine-boned thing, but she's all her mother in her head: an unfortunate combination as far as her body is concerned: feisty as hell, working rabbits through cover already, on her own. But that's the way the cookie crumbles: one things for sure, as she won't be much bigger than a big
-
My former boss in pest control has always had Borders: they worked cover very well, ferreted superbly with great calmness and concentration, worked the beat out shooting, and even went to ground on occasion! Not that he wanted them as earth dogs
-
Broken? Dislocated? If you don't know what is wrong with the dog and can't find out yourself, there's people called vets who may be able to help you? Common sense should tell you not to run the dog if it is in pain and not getting better, and get help.
-
When my Airedale was younger (she's now coming up 7) she'd hammer through the thickest brambles and come out dripping with blood from round her eyes, and her ears. Now she's got older and more experienced, she lets the small terriers do the hard work in deep brambles, but it's uncanny how she manages to be the one to actually catch bigger game first: I guess rabbits are less stimulating than bigger game She'll still go deep into a bramble to retrieve a rabbit if there are no other retrieving dogs there. I'd say Cricket, the Whirrier, has to be my best all round in cover, as at 17" and s
-
My old terrier Midge, now getting on for 10 years old, was much more vocal when she was young: yapped like a good 'un when chasing through cover. Now she only barks a few times, harshly, to get a stubborn rabbit to shift when she can't get right to it in thick brambles. Her daughter is also showing the same traits at only 5 months old: squeaking in pursuit out of frustration and excitement.
-
The problem you are having is that you didn't get the right relationship with her at a very early age. I know this sounds critical of you, but loads of people have had the same problem with these highly driven and very independent types of lurcher. I had one brought to me at 4 years old, a superb animal, but she'd been allowed to do as she pleased: in other words, from day one her owner had just taken her out on walks in areas where there was a lot of game. By the time the bitch was a year old she was going off hunting and catching deer, and the owner was then throwing a wobbly when eventually
-
Do You Run You Dogs On Ploughed Fields
skycat replied to bigoy19706's topic in Lurchers & Running Dogs
No one has mentioned the type of soil involved. It all depends on what plough you are talking about. Fen silt is runnable whether or not it is wet or dry, but wet it is truly a bottomless swamp, and will exhaust a dog quickly, whereas the hare just runs over the top as it weighs so much less. Clay is the killer: rock hard when dry with razor sharp edges, and claggy to turn the dog's feet into huge 'snowshoes' of clay when wet, so the dog is carrying dead weight on the end of each leg. You can't ever say that you do or don't run on plough until you have seen what sort of plough it is. -
You cannot expect this sort of dog to come to you, or want to be with you out of respect/fear/harsh obedience training. The Saluki didn't evolve to 'do' being trained in the way that Collies and the like have been bred for hundreds of years. If the relationship between you and your bitch hasn't already been irrevocably damaged, then all you need to do is take her hunting. Work as a team to find game: which is why ferreting is such a good base for building the team bond. Once she sees you as necessary to what she is hard wired to do (hunt) your problem will be almost solved. I strongly
-
Hang on, if she's not pissing in her bed, what's the problem? Surely if she's going in the run that is OK? On the other hand, if she's used to being a house dog, then possibly stress is making her pee a lot when she's in the run: nervous, worried etc.
-
Do you know why the previous owner sold her? In some cases, spayed bitches suffer from urinary incontinence. Is she peeing a lot of small pees or big lakes of pee?
