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skycat

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Everything posted by skycat

  1. skycat
    Breeding from a bitch on her first season is dodgy to say the least: she may not have enough mental maturity to be a good mother, and she may not be physically completely mature either. But more than anything, why breed from what is little more than a pup? You only have to go on Preloved, for example, to see how many litters of lurchers there are out there, and how many people find it hard to get them sold to decent homes.
  2. skycat
    I do a bit of everything with my dogs, so I want them to be able to work by day with their noses before letting them run the beam. There are some I haven't entered to the lamp until they were well over a year old, knowing that they were still too headstrong. Schuck is a good example: very driven nose dog. She was 14 months old before I took her out on the lamp, by which time she'd got her head together, had her first season (heat) and steadied down nicely. I think different types of dog mature mentally at different ages: Saluki influence in the blood needs a good year before the dog is really
  3. skycat
    I suppose it boils down to having the confidence in the dogs obedience . I agree it's important to show a pup as much as possible as it grows so it knows the dangers that they may come up against . I try to show my pups different types of terrain so they are unfazed and safe when they run. ................................. and now i'm not saying you run your dogs on dangerous ground but for anyone unsure weather to run a dog on dangerous ground DO NOT DO IT. It's not the worth breaking a dogs leg for the sake of a rabbit no matter how well educated a dog may be................................
  4. skycat
    Interesting reads there Bosun and wirral countryman: I've always entered pups by day, then gone on to lamping once they have steadied down a bit, are ferreting well, and hunting by day sensibly as opposed to just tearing about. I can honestly say that I've never had a pup go off on the lamp looking for game at night, and that's across the board with all sorts of different types, not just ultra biddable Collie types. I even run them by day as they are growing up on the same ground they will later lamp as adults, especially tricky ground with lots of pitfalls, dykes, holes in the ground, ban
  5. skycat
    Not all adult dogs like puppies, especially in this case as yours knows that this pup is there to stay. It is hard to do, but make sure you change nothing in your dealings with the adult. Don't let her think that the pup is more important than her. Greet her first, call her to you, make her sit or whatever you do to get her attention. Then praise, pat/cuddle her BEFORE you even look at the pup, no matter how much it is trying to get your attention. The pup will be on several meals a day: try dividing your bitch's food into the same amount of meals so you can feed her at the same time as th
  6. skycat
    Little pus filled lumps? Reaction to nettles or grass. Sudocrem or just dab with something like TCP to dry them up.
  7. skycat
    Yup, even in 'nice' towns like Cambridge, lurchers have been stolen when tied up outside shops: still see it in my village at the local shop despite the fact that dog theft is well publicised nowadays: mostly old fat Labs and lap dogs though.
  8. skycat
    So many dogs get stolen from in front of shops: don't do it Gaz: not worth the risk, no matter how loyal and well trained she is. Plus, dog off lead in town, no matter how steady: accident waiting to happen. Only needs a car to back fire right next to her, or something unexpected to happen like an idiot treads on her, dog jumps sideways into the road: even the steadiest dog can freak out, run amok in traffic. Yeah, sure it looks good seeing dogs walking to heel through town off lead, but IMO risking the dog's life ain't worth it.
  9. skycat
    A dog with strong pastoral base line should be able to be trained to wait until told to go for something ... and no, I haven't got one. Once upon a time I really, really trained my dogs, to see what I could do with them ... down at 100 plus yards with hand signals, stop during recall, wait until rabbit far enough out in the field to be worth a chance, send back 100s of yards for a dropped rabbit hidden somewhere. All interesting and fun stuff to do for those with the time and the inclination ... nowadays I tend to wander around and let them do their own thing I'm more into animal behav
  10. skycat
    the idea is that you get the dog to search on command. My terriers will walk at heel down a lane, and only go off hunting when I tell them they can. Takes a bit of training, but once the dog knows that you are leading the 'hunt', and that you will take it to places where it can find stuff, then it realises that it can have more fun with you than on its own. But you have to build the bond first, and respect too, and you do that through play, finding games, and more importantly, games that satisfy the dog's drive to grab once it is back with you: this is why tug training works so well both for r
  11. skycat
    If he likes looking for stuff: take him out where there is no game. Show him a furry dummy, then get someone else to hide it in long grass (tie him up if you haven't got anyone to help you), just walk a few yards from him to begin with, then let him loose on a long line to go find it: let him see you hide it to begin with too, then gradually make it further and further away. Keep him on a long line: about 15 foot of clothes line will do, that way he can't bugger off to do his own thing. Make a big deal of it when he does find it, loads of praise, go nuts with him, let him pull and tug on it be
  12. skycat
    Try contacting him at New Wave Tattoo Studio in London: his number is on his website. He wasn't, as far as I'm aware, chairman, but he did belong to two coursing clubs. I don't think he works lurchers any more, but he may have some contact details on the people who bred his dog.
  13. skycat
    Ooh err: I went all weak at the knees when I saw that photo. Do love a manly man who doesn't need posh clothes to impress
  14. skycat
    Get her really playing with you: build the bond. Roll around on the ground, play tug, talk to her as much as possible. And learn to read her too: how she's feeling: tail and ears up when she comes to you, or down. What sort of voice does she respond to best? Try and avoid loud voice: whisper to her in a high pitched voice: treat her as though she's a tiny pup. Mentally she may be months behind what she should be if she has been neglected in any way, and by that I mean neglected as in her mental state. Dogs that have never been played with, taken out and about, socialized, will be retarded in t
  15. skycat
    Lovely lovely litter
  16. skycat
    Needs to be somewhere with a good flow of air: not a ferreting box in this heat. Shivering can be a sign of heatstroke, unlikely he'll be cold. Ferret that drinks for 15 minutes is very dehydrated or very ill from some other cause. Was there water in his hutch/court?
  17. skycat
    Sick b*****ds
  18. skycat
    Happy birthday indeed: makes me feel quite young really
  19. skycat
    I agree with the theory that you should teach the retrieve even to natural retrievers: of course it's a lot easier as you only have to say 'fetch' as the dog is carrying stuff to you when it's a pup, and it gradually associates the word and the action, but it does mean that in a less than perfect situation the dog will continue to retrieve. Just this morning we were out mooching along a flooded dyke and the Airedale caught a young rabbit, was bringing it back to me when they put another one up so she dropped the first one as she was chasing the second, right in the water. I got the dogs back a
  20. skycat
    If you get that recall book you'll see that it is pointless to continue using the same recall command as the one that the dog has learned to ignore. You have to start from complete beginning again using different commands.
  21. skycat
    Surely anyone with half a brain can see if a dog is over-heating? Tongue a mile out, dark red in colour, panting like hell, or even worse, not panting much at all which means the dog has gone past that stage and is very dehydrated and on the point of collapse. Also, who would seriously try and give their dog a hard work out in this weather? Quite apart from anything else heat stroke can cause long term organ damage. OK, if the dog is super fit, acclimatized to hot weather, it can tolerate heat better than an unfit dog, but it is still madness to exercise a dog hard in this weather, even durin
  22. skycat
    Urtica Urens from Dorwest Herbs: works brilliantly: just make sure to get the right one: there are two. One increases milk supply, the other reduces it: make sure you get Urtica Urens 3c, NOT 30c. http://www.dorwest.com/Products/URN3C/urtica-urens-3c-three-100-pillules And this won't dehydrate the bitch either or make her scour, unlike stuff like Galastop etc. Just remember not to handle the pill with your bare hands: tip into the bottle lid and straight into the dog's mouth.
  23. skycat
    Full on dogs with loads of drive can usually benefit from tug training: forgot to mention that earlier! Thanks paulsmithy. Once again, tug play needs a set of rules put into place: don't just let the dog tug and go nuts without putting the framework in place first. I can send you the stuff I wrote about how to do this: just pm me your email address and I'll send the article off to you.
  24. skycat
    Nutter And way too much time on your hands
  25. skycat
    Soo clever: I'm in awe
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