Neal
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Everything posted by Neal
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Here we go. If this works there'll be two of her marking rabbits and one side view for a better idea of her build. She's difficult to photograph as she's one of those dogs which comes straight over as soon as I kneel down to take a photo at her level.?
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There's a short section on this cross in John Cowan's "The Gamekeeper's Dog" in which he says pretty much as has been written above i.e. potential to be "the ideal keeper's dog" as it'll hunt well, face water readily and be biddable. Looks like you've picked a good 'n.'
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Just realised I've not replied to this. All my recent photos are on my phone whereas I go on the internet via my chromebook. I think there's some way of connecting the two devices...but it's beyond my caveman standard of tech knowledge. I'll try to pop on here tomorrow via my phone so I can put up some photos of Maudy on a recent trip to Dartmoor.?
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Yay! I've finally got one right. Every time I see these threads I either don't know the answer or else don't see them until someone else has already got it right. Mine was purely a guess as I occasionally see a pair of Ravens sitting on the pylons in the local forest. I nearly thought, 'No, it's probably not a raven; I'll put crow.' Do I get a prize? I saw the first cuckoo in Belstone this year too but was very disappointed when they didn't give me a t-shirt making it offical.?
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Don't worry, I'm sure it's blown over now. Don't worry Jigsaw, I certainly didn't read anything you've posted as negative in any way. That's the problem with social media/texting etc you can't see someone's face so can't pick up on the extra nuances so it's easy to think that someone's being sarcastic when they're not. As I did with black neck: sorry black neck.? Anyway, let's get back to the subject of mating my nine month old kelpie (which hasn't caught anything yet) to a kelpie x whippet to produce some 3/4 kelpie 1/4 whippets. If I can't sell them at the first push I'll adve
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Gee, thanks.? I've come over all unnecessary.?
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Raven?
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I'm with you on that one...but then I'm a bit biased towards red and tans.?
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Yeah, some of them do have a tendency to do that. Not all though. I was once told that the best way to teach a kelpie (or other breed for that matter) to be quiet is to teach it to bark on command first. I've tried a few times to teach dogs to "speak" but I just can't do it. I think it's because they can see through me and they already know that I don't like a noisy dog so they're thinking, 'I'm not stupid, if I start barking you'll only tell me off.'? Maud is nine months old tomorrow and currently stands at about 19" and is a tad over two stone. Should be a good size for bushing and
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That's the problem with this site...I never know when someone's being genuine or taking the piss.??
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There are dozens and dozens of french bulldogs near where I live. One lady I knew had two and one of them cost her thousands of pounds to have its mouth fixed. She said that what people don't realise is that all those convoluted folds on the outside are replicated inside the jaw too. As a result, one of hers was hideously deformed inside its mouth and riddled with infections. The only way to fix it was to basically give it, what amounted to, interior cosmetic surgery.
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Sounds familiar. Wasn't there someone back in the 90s who said he was going to mate merle border collies to his beardies to see how many generations it would take for them to be classified as pure beardie. And then, lo and behold! a year or so later he's miraculously discovered merle beardies in some hidden backwater. Now everybody is saying that beardies have always been merles and it's only because the original show ones didn't carry the gene. Before long the whole thing becomes so complicated that everyone simply accepts it. Now who was that??
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I think you've hit the nail on the head. Some people say beardies are nutters and that they'd prefer a border while just as many think that borders are nutters and would rather live with a beardie. Then again...as many again can't stand either of them and think all those pastoral types are a bunch of nutters. ? It's just a case of whatever fits, gels, suits you. Or, as somebody far wiser than I once said, "temperament is king."
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My favourite dog that I remember from my youth (I'm taking teens here though, rather than Primary school age) was my dad's border x bedlington. I may get some of these facts a little bit wrong as it was a long time ago, but I have a feeling he was from an accidental mating rather than purposely bred. He was a gingery colour but with a scruffy, curly blond outer coat and stockier than the one in your photo and probably around 16" at a rough guess. I seem to remember than he was used more for bushing than earth work as he was a little too big but he was often used as a draw dog near the end
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Either of these two. Scout (the black and tan bitch) had a superior nose and was much quicker off the mark, but Rust (the red and tan male) had the knack of being in the right place at the right time.
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Don't get me wrong bird, I agree with you that Dutch herders (and the other similar dogs) are great working dogs. It's simply that I'd find them too "worky" for me. I prefer a laid back, easy going, rastafarian type dog. I know that sounds ridiculous coming from someone who uses kelpies, but that's why I always do so much research before I get each one. Not that it always works.? My best ones have been keen to work as soon as we're in the woods, fields and moors but switch off the rest of the time. Your Buck sounds more like my kelpie/collie x greyhound than the bitch you mention. I'
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Right, I've made my mind up! I'm mating Maud to a beddie/whippet x lab!?
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The main thing that's always put me off Dutch herders and the like was meeting one in my local wood. I was going to collect my kids from school and the school borders my local wood. The chap and I were chatting about our dogs (his was a Malinois and I had two or three kelpies with me). He was bragging about how amazingly well behaved his dog was...then we got to the side gate to the school. I tied mine up where they waited patiently while his shot into the school grounds and ran around in circles like a nutter, refusing to come back.? Re the kelpie x Patterdales, I remember an article in
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Well said OldPhil.? One of the biggest drawbacks for any collie type is the negative publicity engendered when you meet one with traits you may dislike and it can effect (is it effect or affect...I can never remember?) every subsequent one you encounter. I was lucky in that I liked the beardieish elements of the first three lurchers I had and the borderish elements of three (two of which are the same dogs as they had both). Unfortunately, there were also some beardie and border elements I didn't like as much. While the same is true of the seven kelpie blooded dogs I've had, I've
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On the other hand...it seems as though any combination of dog breeds is advertized on the internet nowadays. Time was when, researching kelpie litters several years ago, You'd get one come up every few weeks but most were kelpie x collie. In the last two years I've seen two litters of kelpie x patterdale and several kelpie x labrador (one of which was labelled kelpadors!?) as well as a few other types. Seems some people just don't bother to split their dogs up when one's in season and sell whatever comes up.
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Although, I've only kept pure kelpies for the last twentyish years, if I was tempted back to "the dark side" of a dog with some sighthound blood, I'd favour whippet over greyhound. I know all the arguments for and against and perfectly understand why the vast majority favour the greyhound, but I simply prefer that stamp of small nip and tuck dog. However, I also prefer a pastoral weighted cross...and I think I'd struggle to shift a litter of 3/4 kelpie 1/4 whippets!? Maybe a reverse 5/8 3/8 by mating Maudy to a 3/4 collie 1/4 whippet.??
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That's been pretty much my attitude to the kind of dog I want for several years now. I can completely empathize with where you're coming from. Obviously I'm probably coming from a completely different perspective to most people on here, but, for me, catching something is simply an added bonus to a great day out with a great dog...but I guess people who catch sod all always say that.?
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My 3/4 collie was a full brother of Enoch but from a later litter. Really lovely dog. Very easy going and completely indestructible. He was caught up on a strand of loose barbed wire once and simply tugged himself free without a mark on him, just a ball of fluff left on the wire as though left by a sheep. I bought him as an adult from an English Lecturer in Bedfordshire. Unfortunately, I didn't have him for very long as I split up with my girlfriend of the time and the cottage I was living in was owned by her father. I couldn't find anywhere in Cumbria to live so ended up moving back to
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My first kelpie was like that. On one occasion he brought me an old, long-dead, stiff-as-a-board rabbit. Another time he brought me a fresh rabbit...followed by another...and another...I decided to follow him to see what was going on (he could catch rabbits but he wasn't that good). He'd found a pile of about a dozen rabbits that the farmer had shot and left to rot from the night before and was retrieving them to me one at a time. He also retrieved a dumbbell hand weight from where it had washed up on a beach and insisted on carrying it about two miles back home. It wasn't until he g
