Neal
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Everything posted by Neal
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I discovered a new species of bird at the weekend. The family went to Longleat to see Steve Backshall. While there I overheard a conversation between three young boys. They were standing on a bridge over a small stream watching three dark blue butterflies (not sure what species). One of the boys said, "Look at those birds. They're really small."
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I've read somewhere (I think it was in one of Adam Henson's books) that Vizsla's are one of the fastest dog breeds, only a bit behind greyhounds. Edited to add that I've checked online and it claims 45 mph for greyhounds and 40 mph for Vizsla. Not that speed is everything I hasten to add.
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I tried similar when I bought my first kelpie. The intention was to use him as the indicator/bushing dog and for the lurcher to be the catch dog. Unfortunately, the lurcher stuck to what he'd always been doing (bushing his own) while the kelpie waited outside. Result: the only rabbits we caught were caught in bushes by the lurcher. Then, literally the week I rehomed the lurcher, both kelpies caught their first rabbits in opposite corners of the same field. Several people have told me over the last few years that they think a gundog would suit my temperament and the way I work my dogs
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I took my eleven year old daughter (now twelve) to see the beat at the wedgewood rooms in Pompey in March. After the gig a bloke in full harrington, pork pie hat, DMs etc came over and said to her, 'I know you feel tired at the moment, but when you're older you'll thank your dad for bringing you to this gig.' When I told him she'd already seen Madness twice times and we're going to see them again on Father's Day in Southampton, he told me that, many years ago, he was invited by his mates to see a new band in a pup around the corner from where they were living in North London. When he tur
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No, I get exactly the same. Sometimes I've played back ones I've failed to delete and I can hear myself in the background saying, 'and a pheasant...come on...can't you hear the pheasant?' I'm a lot less polite to Alexa! I always thought seeing a gold or firecrest was a red letter day, but I now know I'm hearing both species every day.
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Despite the reservations mentioned earlier in the thread, I still regularly use mine. It's helped me to get a lot better at recognizing different calls. I find it particularly helpful with LBJs when you can see something flitting about but can't make out the details.
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There was a feature on the tv earlier this year about the growth in deer numbers. They were talking about the need to cull and interviewed a woman who ran a pre-school or nursery who'd put venison on the menu for the kids. I can barely go out for a walk near me without tripping over roe. I'd never seen muntjac around here until very recently but have put up two in the last season. Unfortunately, Maud decided to be really clever and say, "No; you said I can't chase roe deer, you didn't say anything about muntjac." They're building a new reservoir where I walk the dogs and I was chatt
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I've met two recently. The first was cocker x Russel. It was only kept as a pet but the owner said she thought I'd like one as she knows I work my kelpies and hers had caught several rabbits and squirrels. Lovely little thing it is. The second was a dachshund x cocker. Once again it seemed like a nice dog but when I asked if it was worked he said that was the intention but didn't say any more. I noticed it at first as I was crossing a bridge and it was in the stream below us; looked just like a cocker from above and it wasn't until I saw the leg length that I realised it must have da
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In my first house the previous owners had made a rockery out of their old crap covered with soil. When I cleared it all out to build my ferret court I found a crisp packet. Not sure, but I think it was Salt 'n' Vinegar; either Smiths or Walkers. Must have been fairly old as the price had a d instead of p. Didn't realise they were worth much. I might even still have it tucked away in a drawer somewhere.
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Re Ruby: For the last few years I've been considering getting a different breed for a change and your tales of Ruby was one of the reasons I realized that it's more about the individual dog than the breed. I doubt if all Poms are like her.
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Changing the subject a tad: I saw something I've never seen before on Friday. There was a hen house sparrow on the ground a few feet in front of me and I initially thought it was picking up a piece of cellophane. I've often seen pieces of plastic in birds' nests so I presumed she was using it for that. She then flew up to the top of the hedge alongside me and it wasn't cellophane...it was a ruddy great dragonfly. Almost as big as her. I have no idea if she caught it or simply found it and no idea what she intended to do with it. Very odd.
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A few years back, I was working in an Infant school class and we had a game set up on the interactive whiteboard. It would provide the kids with a word and they had to decide if it was a real word (in which case they dragged it to a treasure chest) or a nonsense word (or drag it to the bin). If they were right the pirate did a jig. On one occasion it came up with the word adze...and the bloody thing thought it was a nonsense word. Oh well, at least the kids learnt a little bit about archaic tools that day.
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I'm the same. I have a notebook in my bedside drawer which I write down any unusual words in when I'm reading. I also use it for writing down unusual words for possible future dog names.
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I found out a new word yesterday. A friend send me a text inviting me out for an afternoon shant. I presumed it was a typo or predictive text gone wrong but it's a Pompey word for a drink.
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Also, while I was at art college, somebody told me that the "duck" in cotton duck canvas (which we used for painting on) translates as cotton, so it was actually cotton cotton canvas.
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There's a place somewhere in the UK which, if translated, means Hill Hill Hill! Basically somebody came along, asked what it was called and was told "hill" in the original language. They then called it Hill Hill and so on. I can't remember the name of the place but it'd be something like Montfell Hill.
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The bloke who zapped mine said that one of his female colleagues had given birth and passed kidney stones and said she'd take the pain of birth over the kidney stones any day of the week. I often remind my wife of this...although I should add that, when giving birth, the only pain relief she had was half a paracetamol. I meanwhile was contorted on a stretcher wailing, 'Give me the morphine!' with my second attack.
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I often get up at least once in the night but, in my case, it's because I drink lots of fluid as I've got kidney stones. I had by first batch almost twenty years ago. They were all either zapped, removed or "passed" (ouch!) but they came back several years later. I now take indapamide every day. It's to lower blood pressure (which I don't have a problem with) but one of its side effects is to reduce the body's production of potassium. As my stones are potassium based (and I'm a natural "stone former"), they've not grown any bigger in the five years or so I've been taking it. To get b
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I'm no good at foreign languages (apart from, like most, a smattering of french) but I learnt BSL when I was getting into teaching. However, I've always been good at imitating voices and accents. When I went to Paris in the early 90s during my Fine Art degree I took along a phrase book and simply read the phrase I needed before going in each shop. My girlfriend at the time was from Coniston and had an accent half way between George Formby and Orvill the duck. Everywhere she went it was immediately apparent that she was NOT french. Because of my french accent everybody assumed I was a loca
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There's a bit about this in one of the Robert Galbraith novels. Cormoran Strike is being interviewed by a girl in a wheelchair and discovers she can walk but simply wants to identify as a disabled person! I can't remember the exact quote but he basically tells her to "f... off!" I wonder why they didn't include that section when they put it on BBC1?
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Whereabouts did you get her from? I've seen a few kennels I like the look of (Gonegos, Culdrein and Lyharr) but would appreciate any personal recommendations.
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Running terriers with highways close?
Neal replied to terrierman5432's topic in Earthdogs & Working Terriers
My brother once had a patterdale which was a grandson of "Jack." It jumped out of a second floor window to pick a fight with two German Shepherds. I can't see a breed which does that giving up at a fence. -
Incest is relatively boring
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I'm pretty sure I've written this on here before, but I'm impressed by the gradually growing number of working ACDs I've seen in recent years. A few years back, with the exception of John Holmes' Sunny and Kulta etc, they were all barrel-chested, short legged dogs which looked unable to do a day's work. But I'm seeing more and more adverts from working rather than show lines and, in most cases, the type seems to have improved as a result. I saw one recently (which I tried to talk my wife into but she said two kelpies is enough) which was undergoing training as a medical assistance dog bu
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My sodding kelpie bitch is the opposite. She retrieves all and sundry inanimate objects all day long (not by request, she just picks up random objects and brings them over) but every squirrel she catches she just goes "crunch, crunch, drop" and then goes off looking for the next one. I've even tried retrieving training with the ones she catches but she simply can't see the point of chasing after a dead squirrel that she's already caught. Must be cleverer than me! Your crosses look very handy. I saw a sapling advertised a few weeks ago but it was much slimmer,racier then yours. I like a wo
