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skycat

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Everything posted by skycat

  1. skycat
    Socks: that photo reminds me of a Golden Plover similarly injured and left with a badly broken wing. A mate of mine took it home and gave it to me. It lived in my garden very happily and became almost tame, until a bloody great crow came along and killed it.
  2. skycat

    SHOPPING

    skycat replied to keepitcovert's topic in General Talk

    The UK economy is mostly service based, which means that the population has to brainwashed into spending as much money as they can afford, and often a lot more. No matter how strongly I try and resist the general air of 'we must stock up for months in case of ... fill in the blank: snow, siege, global melt down etc etc, I still find myself buying that little bit more food than we actually need for a week. Culture, media: they are all to blame. Kudos to those who go and sit on a mountain for the next week.
  3. skycat
    Yes, quite agree. In the case of my current lurchers the thing they lack is speed, but more than make up for it in determination, never-ceasing to hunt (OK, that's both good and bad depending on where and what you are doing), and a canny ability to slide through the deepest cover like eels.
  4. skycat
    Just come back from a mooch with my trusty hounds, one of which I could happily have drowned in the lake ... at the time. Whilst most of the time Schuck is obedient, retrieves rabbits beautifully, even when there are other dogs around, when it comes to red furry things her feral nature takes over. Inside a very dense bramble the size of a house, I had to wait until the cow had finished venting her spleen before she'd come away. You might say that's no great problem, but it could be when it's getting dark and there's millions of dog walkers wending their way on innocent strolls after work. At l
  5. skycat
    Interesting to read about Bruce. Fact is, I've known one or two lurchers like that, and even one that buried its catch, though I did, at the time, put it down to a lot of Saluki in the breeding. Saluki blood is always a good one to blame when things don't go according to plan LOL I also think that in some dogs, it takes a while, yes, up to 2 years, for their brains to mature to the stage where they see us as an essential ingredient in their hunting lives. In an ideal world we'd take a pup literally everywhere with us, no other dogs around to incite possessiveness or jealousy, but even th
  6. skycat
    That's great: love the 'classic but slightly camp' marking photo.
  7. skycat
    Has it got Saluki in it? If so, then they come with longer lasting batteries and a 20 minute walk just won't cut it for dogs like these. They also need to spend hours just playing about: throwing toys in the air, stalking birds down the garden, digging, racing up and down like mad things until they finally keel over and go to sleep for all of half an hour before they wake up and want to do it all over again. Also, decently bred working lurchers have been bred precisely for the reason that they have a much keener interest in life than many other breeds. So, take the dog on a 20 minute walk, but
  8. skycat
    Totally disgusting that these dogs are being treated like worn out tools or disposable items. Especially when knowledgeable homes are available. Signed the petition.
  9. skycat
    Fat is more important than carbs, but I've noticed that dogs with Saluki in their breeding seem to need more carbs than those who are Saluki-free. Increase fat content if the dog is working hard or you'll see the weight drop off them. If it's got Saluki in it then add more carbs. There's no hard and fixed rule for feeding any dog as each individual has slightly different needs depending on age, temperament, work load etc. Best to use your eyes and hands to assess a dog's condition. If it starts to show too much rib or tires quickly then increase fat or carbs or both. Dogs fed entirely on meat
  10. skycat
    Who the hell would feed their dogs cucumber? Seriously! It's nearly all water, the skin is hard as feck to digest for humans, let alone dogs, and the amount of minerals it contains is negligible.
  11. skycat
    Daily exercise/mooching about with more than one dog doesn't mean to say that each dog isn't or can't be worked individually either ferreting, lamping or, in the old days, coursing. Taking a group of dogs out together is just a good way to keep them occupied and reasonably fit as far as I'm concerned.
  12. skycat
    With pack caught rabbits I say 'mine' and they all let go: obviously I only say it once I've got hold of the rabbit myself. 'Under' and 'over' obstacles: saves daft dogs trying to jump stuff laced with loose wire on the top. I also say 'it's gone' if they haven't seen a rabbit come out of cover and are still looking for it.
  13. skycat
    I've had several lurchers damage/rupture toe ligaments, though in the case of a completely flat toe on the hind foot it never caused a real problem, providing I kept the nail cut very short so it was less likely to catch on stones etc. Depending on the running style and weight of the dog most flat toes aren't a bother, though outside toes on the front foot that are weakened in this way can affect the dog's turning ability and are more likely to become further damaged. I have tried keeping a dog on the lead for months on end in the hope that the ligaments would knit back together or regain thei
  14. skycat
    Is that on moochers or here? There no longer seems to be a search option to find members any more, or can I just not see it?
  15. skycat
    They may be great dogs, but I'd never buy in an adult, or even a sub adult: much safer to bring a puppy into our existing pack situation.
  16. skycat
    Sorry, memory like a sieve! Only way you could find it is by putting stag into the search option: but that might also bring up thousands of threads about deer!
  17. skycat
    If I was ever going to breed from Schuck I'd want to put something like Bruce over her, but, being totally honest, she has faults, bad feet being the worst, which she certainly didn't get from her sire who had the best feet I've ever seen in a coursing type. It was the Airedale who had feet as flat as pancakes, and a build that was never designed to stand up to years of hard work in the field: very straight in the stifle. I think the Airedale guys in the states must work their dogs differently to the way I worked Dill: maybe not as much, or on much softer ground. Who knows.
  18. skycat
    No. I lost the last of my rough coated line this year. Should have bred from Sparrow, but never did. Now I have only the two Airedale lurchers, and they're 7 1/2 years old now. I might have been tempted to breed from Schuck, but it's getting so hard to find good homes for pups these days. I'm looking for a traditional type of lurcher: Deer/Grey Collie/Grey type: it will be the last pup I rear, so wanted to end my days with a similar type to the lurchers I had for so long. Something that's easy to live with, but from sound stock; just for a bit of mooching and lamping. Tomo: thanks.
  19. skycat
    Thanks. Done that. But the breeder doesn't know.
  20. skycat
    Does anyone on here know anything about Dave Platts' dog Saracen? It looks more Greyhound than Deerhound in a photo I've seen: what percentage Deerhound in it? Does the dog work? Is it any good? Any information would be welcome.
  21. skycat
    I reckon they do. Two years ago we saw the normal number of young rabbits in spring, then they all just disappeared. Not and adult or half grown rabbit in sight, and no carcases either, as you'd get if they'd died from myxi. This happened two years on the trot, then this year we started to see more and more young rabbits. This year they've had myxi, and it's the first time in two years my dogs have been picking up myxi rabbits this autumn. Never thought I'd say it, but what a relief to see myxi again instead of no rabbits at all. Though there must have been some left to repopulate the area so
  22. skycat
    Whilst raw minced bone and meat has got to be better than a complete food, feeding only mince kind of defeats one of the objects of feeding raw: that of getting a dog to chew its food, which cleans its teeth and exercises the jaw. I can understand why some people, if they've had a bad experience of feeding bones in the past, might not want to give carcases or raw bones, but without chewing on stuff like that the dog will still end up with brown, plaque-covered teeth. If I was at all worried about a dog swallowing a bone whole (wing, for example) I'd feed the dog quietly away from other dogs a
  23. skycat
    The problem with putting a protection jacket on a lurcher likely to run through wire is that the jacket will get ripped to shreds, and may, if the material is tough enough, end up trapping the dog while the prey gets away.
  24. skycat
    Ah! An anomaly! I'll keep further thoughts to myself, wouldn't want to end up being sued by an anomaly for defamation of character
  25. skycat
    I can remember getting my first job in a bar full of local lads, mostly farm labourers. Their aim was to make me blush: a silly, little girl in a bar full of men. It was the sort of hazing any new person of either sex is subjected to in a gang/pack situation. If I'd been a young man I've no doubt they'd have played a similar game with different innuendos. I learned, fast, to beat them at darts and turn their dirty jokes and double-entendres on them: they loved it. What saddens me these days is that the 'victim' stance of so many young women. They want all the attention, but on their ter
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