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skycat

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Everything posted by skycat

  1. skycat
    your the last person i would expect to admit the bedding down of wet dogs sure id been shot down in flames if id said that reason im questioning it because although dry throughout summer may well be a different case during cold winter months and someone else mentioned to me that condensation may be a problem,prob stick to the one i got rather than a smaller one as im sure this will overcome the problem with increased air flow cheers Common sense should tell you that I would never leave a dog wet and cold in winter: and I often put dry towels over the lurchers after they've been rubbe
  2. skycat
    I tried plastic barrels once: not for long. Even with drain holes in the side (bottom) there was always condensation dripping from the top side/roof, and the bedding was always damp. OK, my dogs often go in to their beds wet, but in a wooden kennel the damp evaporates as it should, whereas in the plastic barrels everything was damp all the time. Maybe my barrels weren't big enough? Who knows, but these days I stick with wooden ones.
  3. skycat
    The way I see this new law is that it will be open to all sorts of crazy claims. For example, I live in a quiet cul-de-sac, sometimes in summer we get 'tourists' wandering up the lane. Our dogs are behind a six foot solid fence and door gate: they can't be seen, and the lane is about 12 feet away, across my front lawn, but what if some nosey person comes on to our front lawn and tries the gate? The dogs kick off big time, and some have barks that sound truly scary, so that person could say that they had been 'worried' by the noise and get the idea that they were being 'attacked' through the fe
  4. skycat
    Interesting thoughts there. But if dog didn't follow its rabbit into the hedge round here they'd lose a lot. Our rabbits are very spooky and we have a lot of light pollution. That said, my dogs have to learn NOT to stop at the hedge when first lamping, as they are used to losing rabbits in tight cover during the day: I guess it all depends on the type of land you hunt over ... and the dog's mentality of course. Different breeds/types show different traits both by day and on the lamp.
  5. skycat
    Ferreting without a doubt, for any dog, regardless of what its job will be as an adult. I've started all my dogs this way: coursing, foxing and lamping dogs. They all go ferreting first, usually around the 5-6 month mark, though not all are ready at this stage. It's a matter of assessing and knowing the pup. Ferreting teaches a dog that you are an important route to hunting, so the pup learns that it gains reward through you, not by feckin off and doing its own thing. Ferreting also teaches self control on the dog's part. It learns to be patient, to watch, to use its nose and ears, and to
  6. skycat
    No worries. I had to learn about this many years ago when a coursing dog I had got very sore nail beds. The only way to prevent it happening each time she ran was to actually bind up the nail beds, covering the line where the claw meets the toe, with sticking plaster, fixed in place with super glue. Just soaked her feet in hot water at the end of the day before pulling the plasters off: another coursing enthusiast gave me that tip. Not all dogs suffer that way, and I've never found out why some do and some don't.
  7. skycat
    Yup, definite advantages to bringing a dog up with cats. Sparrow, the merle in the photo, has killed feral cats when out hunting, but knew full well that a cat in a farm yard at the end of a ferreting session was not the same thing as a cat in game cover on a shoot. She wasn't happy at this cat trying to steal the kidneys from these rabbits, but she wouldn't have dared try anything on. Dogs learn in context: so a cat in a farm yard, or at home in the garden is different to one way out in the wilds. But they do need to be brought up seeing cats in different situations before you can say that t
  8. skycat
    They can get sore nail beds, mud sores after running over plough, wet ground etc. I doubt you have the same problems in Australia, but here in the land of muddy winters it can be a real problem for many dogs. The mud gets forced up under their nail beds and can, if left there, form hard crusts as they dry, which in turn can cause infection: nail beds oozing pus, swollen toes: not nice at all. Best to clean it all off before it dries. I usually just use salt water and a soft toothbrush, always brushing away or alongside the nail beds, not into them, then rinse with running water to make sure it
  9. skycat
    So, you get a Whippet on a whim, for the crack, admit that she's done nothing, seen nothing. Does that mean the dog was kept as a pet, or just kept shut in some kennel all its life? And you wonder why she's not a ready made, raring to go rabbit-slaying demon! This is a living breathing, feeling animal you're talking about, not a robot. If a dog is deprived of the correct upbringing, the opportunity to learn how to be a predator, it may well end up quite literally retarded, without the correct wiring in its brain which makes it actually want to chase and kill. Whether or not she can make
  10. skycat
    Doesn't matter what size the dog is, or if it is friendly, everyone out with a dog in public has a responsibility to ensure it does not go charging up to other dogs or people who don't know whether or not the dog has something nasty planned. Most people can't read dogs at all, so anything running towards them seems a threat. The fact that different types of dogs exhibit differing behaviour also means that dogs that are of a different breed may not recognise a particular animal's intentions. Misunderstandings between dogs happen all the time due to this. For example, the Collie that freezes
  11. skycat
    So do I: what we get is a mixture of real hunting, a man with a ton of dog sense ... and humility: a very rare combination methinks. Not to mention the dogs of course!
  12. skycat
    If you can get the dog to associate the sound of gun shot with something that totally fulfils the dog in every way he should be able to at least come to terms with his fear of the noise. Is the dog a working dog? Firing a cap gun, or something fairly quiet, then showing the dog its quarry to rag/retrieve, can often work. Funnily enough, my Airedale doesn't particularly like gun fire or thunder, ( she wasn't introduced to it at an early age) but she learned to associate the sound of the shot with something to retrieve, which is her biggest joy in life: well, one of them. However, it sounds
  13. skycat
    Starting them too early is bad news I agree, especially a pup on its own. I just found this video of Decker terriers out ratting: shows a pup playing with a young rat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxFIXiXU7ZU
  14. skycat
    Without knowing anything about Decker terriers, or whether or not they are truly bred for work, it is hard to say whether the pup's upbringing or its genes are in question. My first reaction was to say to myself that if you throw a rat down for a pup in an artificial (non-hunting) situation is that the pup does not have the experience, excitement/energy/drive to really know what to do. The fact that this pup did kill its first rat, and sort of went on to kill more, says that it does have some sort of instinct, but maybe lacks the real hard kill instinct, or the confidence. But with the amount
  15. skycat
    If you really have too many to eat at once, then you can slice them thinly and dry them: that's when they really give a superb flavour to risottos and stews etc.
  16. skycat
    They look like the classic 'penny bun' boletus, aka cepe. There are none of this family of fungi that can be confused with poisonous ones, so you should be OK. The only dangerous boletus are the ones that stain blue when you cut them open: Satan's mushroom is the main culprit. Not like the Amanita family which contain many toxic examples. Here's a good article and photos of them: http://huntergathercook.typepad.com/huntergathering_wild_fres/2010/09/ceps-know-your-boletus.html All I can say is "Lucky you!" to have them in your garden!
  17. skycat
    I had two many years ago. The first I had from a pup and she'd go miles with me on my horse, and she caught a few rabbits too. But we are talking about over 35 years ago so maybe they have gone downhill since then and she could have been a freak. She wasn't that big: around 32" at the shoulder, which I gather is undersized by modern standards. Lovely dog, easy to live with and very obedient. The second one I had was a rescue, and had a slightly crippled leg due to it having been broken and not properly set. I got her as a 5 year old shortly after I lost the first, and she was a truly awesome g
  18. skycat
    A very interesting read Ned, and praise for having put this together. Whilst your method is not necessarily applicable to many lurchers and the very varied jobs we want them to do, and may even seem at odds to some of the training methods used by lurcher owners, the whole book speaks of long experience in the world of the pig dog, and dogs in general, and most importantly, your ability to read a dog and develop its potential to the best. I've read it once, and shall read it again, for it is full of useful insights into how a dog's mind works, how it develops and what we should strive for when
  19. skycat
    Abscess caused by foreign object that has gone into the flesh from underneath: probably a thorn. They always burst on top of the foot/between the toes as that is the easiest way out for anything to come. Dog is usually in a fair bit of pain just before it bursts. Let it lick it as much as it wants and when it bursts flush out the hole with boiled, cooled salt water. Should be OK so long as there isn't a major infection going on which you'd see as the whole foot would start swelling up and getting hot, in which case you'd need a course of antibiotics.
  20. skycat
    Feckin hate the stuff: mostly cereals. Tried it once, just a tiny amount mixed in with their food, and most got stinky diarrhoea. I noticed the kibble smells rancid as well: like gone off chip fat: just shows you what they must put in that food.
  21. skycat
    Eh? I've always fed raw meat to pups and never had a problem. If you've had a problem feeding raw to pups then it must have been a very unfortunate instance, one which no one could avoid, such as a dodgy immune system in the pup, or maybe an underlying defect, or just plain bad luck and an overload of a certain bacteria combined with a viral infection. One can never say anything in life is 100% safe, but I'd sooner feed pups raw than cooked, as dogs are designed to digest raw,which is the best possible food for pups. And I'd definitely warn anyone against cooking tripe: the smell can ki
  22. skycat
    Most rescues will let an old person adopt an old dog, providing that the person is capable of looking after it, obviously. There are many older dogs looking for homes and most get passed over as people don't want the hassle, or the grief of bonding with an old dog for only a few years before it dies.
  23. skycat
    If the bitch, or the dog, was bought off travellers, how on earth does the breeder really know what is in the dog? Could be anything, or what the sellers thought the buyers wanted to hear. Cracks me up when someone tells you that a dog is bred in such and such a way when they have no proof, and probably less idea. I met someone the other day who had a rescue dog they'd been told was a Deerhound/Greyhound: wasn't rough coated and apart from obvious Saluki ancestry somewhere there was no way anyone could have said what the breeding was for sure.
  24. skycat
    Some lurchers just never take to water. I've had some that you can't keep out of the water, and others who won't ever go out of their depth, even on the hottest of days: I've even tried swimming with them to encourage them, but those that don't want to won't. No point trying to force a dog to swim if it just hasn't got any desire to. Most of my Saluki bred ones haven't been swimmers, but I've had the odd one that loves it. Best way to encourage a dog that is nervous about swimming is to get a shallow lake or river where you can walk out with the dog until it has to swim: but that doesn't m
  25. skycat
    Defo a grass snake: http://www.herpetofauna.co.uk/ident_images/NatrixnatrixAH.jpg
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