Neal
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Everything posted by Neal
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We had one last summer which had young too. As you say...very pretty little things. Unfortunately we discovered a few days later that they can be cannibalistic so we had to split them up! It was a good feeling, releasing some of the young, after previously only looking after them temporarily and then releasing them with the adults we've had. But the toads win hands down every time as pets...not quite as good as dogs but...hang on...toad x whippet...now that sounds interesting.
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I like the idea of the bath tub. My kids and I have been thinking about what to keep them in longer term as the old 3' glass tanks I used when I was younger are extortionate nowadays. I was worrying about it flooding but I suppose that, as long as you place some drainage material around the plug hole you'd be ok.
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We're lucky enough to have a few near me too. My daughter has been keeping one as a pet during the summer which we returned to the common today...we decided to keep the four toads though! I think the blue flecks on the males are something which gradually increases with age (they can live to a fair old age in captivity) and the black line on the females goes down the middle of the back. (I think...that's got me thinking now...I'll have to post this and then check in my book...if I can find it).
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Jodie Marsh Goes Hunting - Tuesday 13 September At 10Pm On Tlc.
Neal replied to Born Hunter's topic in General Talk
"You can't change the world but you can change the facts. When you change the facts you change points of view. If you change points of view you may change a vote and if you change a vote you can change the world." Slightly paraphrased from a Depeche Mode album track. -
Completely agree with morton above. If I had a dog with bad feet (and I do) then I wouldn't improve the next generation by mating her to a dog with better feet; I'd improve the next generation by not breeding from her because of her bad feet and look elsewhere.
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I can recommend Fjallraven. Excellent and hardwearing clothing with lots of innovative details.
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We're lucky here for them too. We get a lot of palmates in my local wood and saw my first great crested this year on the local farm.
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...and it cares for two kinds of skin: the skin you're in and the skin you live in...now I'm showing my age!
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I've got an original copy of that book..some amazingly weird and wonderful odds and ends in it.
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Thanks everyone. I'll let you know if there's any improvement.
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They look very nice! The leather grease advertised on the same page is similar to the stuff I use on my Lundhags...I can recommend them too, though mine are the one piece leather boot (was called the Scout but now the Forest) which doesn't have a waterproof liner and relies on the grease. I've also got a pair of Professionals but not worn those in anger yet as they're strictly for foul weather as they have a padded lining.
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Thanks Skycat. Out of interest, which antiseptic did you use? The other thing I've considered is something to dab on her feet which will dissuade her from licking...bitter apple?...or Scotch bonnet! You'd think with her being pure kelpie she'd be ok in the feet department but her feet have always been different to my other three kelpies. Theres were tight and rounded and never needed trimming while hers are more of a hare foot...similar to a little collie x whippet I once owned.
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Jiggy, she used to be an outside dog but I moved them both in earlier this year so her bedding is now usually the sofa! Beast, thanks for that, I actually decided to start doing what you advised after walking her yesterday evening so I'll keep at it and see how she gets on. Shame really as my four year old daughter liked having a dog with purple feet.
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Thanks for the advice so far. No sign of any splinters or foreign bodies and definitely not boredom related as she doesn't have an off season.
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My bitch has raw areas between two of her toes on three of her feet. It's not on the same pairs of toes on each of the feet and hasn't affected the pads at all. I was assuming that it was due to her over-zealous cleaning, as she's a bit feline about foot cleanliness, but couldn't work out why it was only ever those three feet. However, I then noticed that, on the rare occasions that she wees while on the lead (due to the camber of the road) it only flows over those three feet...maybe a coincidence? I've been spraying between the toes with Battles gentian violet spray and not walking he
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I've not seen it with my own eyes but...I bought some bantams from a lady last weekend who had a very handy looking springer which, she told me, had killed a fox.
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Completely agree. As I've said, most dogs bred for a particular job (as oppossed to a particular appearance) tend to vary in appearance. My old Rusty (in my avatar) was often mistaken for a husky cross (even by people with sled dogs), Amber looked like an ugly collie cross, Scout looks like the runt in a litter of whippet x Alsation/Collies and Noggin is the only one which looks like an "archetypal" Kelpie (if there is such a thing) though he was regularly mistaken for a Rotty pup before his ears went up. When I booked Noggin I didn't ask for a particular colour, height or build but rathe
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I believe a lot of Welsh Sheepdog breeders are against them going to homes where they won't be worked on stock (understandably) so the trick would be in finding a lurcher friendly farmer with a Welsh Sheepdog. Re the difference in appearance...when I watched the opening clip of the programme I actually thought the small black and tan was a kelpie cross as it was almost identical to my little Scout. Although she's a pure kelpie she's very mongrelly looking and looks more like a 3/4 sheepdog 1/4 whippet. The part in the programme I found interesting (apart from the quote by the old farme
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I always find that the problem with discussing pastoral dogs (both pure and within a lurcher) is that so many people think they all behave like a stereotypical Border Collie. I don't know if any of you saw the recent Kate Humble programme about Welsh Sheepdogs but a comment by one old Welsh gent really struck me as hitting the nail on the head re the difference between the two main "types" of herding dog. He was saying about Borders in trials going this way and that with a stream of "Come Bye," and "Away." He then pointed out that a Welsh Sheepdog doesn't work like this...put one in a fiel
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Dogs are really quite interesting because there are so many varieties / breeds of dogs that do different applications instinctively. One application that we could say for sure is instinct is hunting. Yet the hunting instinct manifests it's self in many different forms from breed to breed. If we agree that the wolf was the ancestor of dogs and all the different types of hunting that different breeds do had to be taught, as they vary from the way a wolf would hunt, would the fact that different breeds now hunt in different ways naturally be an indication that the taught hunting has now become em
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Don't try it this weekend...there's the South Downs Country Show on!
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I'd always been of the opinion that, as ferrets were produced from pure polecat ancestors to be tamer and therefore easier to handle, using a polecat was a retrograde step in terms of having a handleable co-worker. Different I suppose if you want to keep one for the same reason that people like exotic pets but not if you want an agreeable working partner... ...then again...I can't talk as my dogs are about 5% dingo. D'oh!
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The episode I remember best was one with kingfishers in. If I remember correctly somebody was trying to raise one; either as a pet or because they'd found it injured. Jack Hargreaves died on my 25th birthday and I just can't imagine anybody doing anything similar nowadays without it being either sanitised or condescending. For a while we had a good series down here in Hampshire called Countryways which was presented by Jim Flegg or Clegg and Jill Somethingorother. I've just googled it to find their names but couldn't...but I did find out that it started in 1984. It was a lovely mix of feat
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Thanks again for all the advice. Here's a final update: We didn't go away on that particular weekend as our friends were unable to book a space at the campsite in the New Forest that we'd intended to go to. However, we went ahead and bought our own tent and went to the Witterings on the south coast last weekend instead. Scout stayed at home with three duff feet (she kept the other one with her too of course!) and Noggin slept on a picnic rug in the communal area. He was perfectly behaved and didn't make a noise all night. The one odd thing was that all the time we were putting up the tent
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Quick update: the two main things suggested cleaned it up and speeded it up a tad but one of them involved downloading google chrome which has speeded it up even more so thanks for that!
