Neal
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Everything posted by Neal
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Thanks J.D. I'll try it.
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Thanks F.o. D.R. To be honest, Noggin was brought in as a replacement for Rusty nearly two years ago...I wasn't expecting him to keep going this long. He's still happy and wags his tail like mad whenever he sees me. He's been skating across the tiled floor of the kitchen for a while but he's now having trouble getting onto the "dog sofa" and even standing up straight on a carpeted floor is proving difficult and his accidents indoors are becoming frequent!
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2015 ended on a positive note for me with my youngest kelpie, Noggin, catching his first squirrel on 31st December. Needless to say I was looking forward to more of the same for 2016 but, unfortunately, things didn't turn out as I'd hoped. To start with Scout started limping after a walk in early January. Despite the fact that I can be as guilty as the next person of kennel blindness I've always said that not all kelpies are made the same and while they have a reputation for outstandingly tough feet, Scout's have always been her weakness. They're not the round hard feet of Rusty, Amber
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The number of rabbits on my permission fell away dramatically a few years ago; so much so that when my two remaining jills died nearly three years ago I didn't even bother to replace them. I can go for months without seeing any and even further afield I'm lucky if I see more than a handful on any given walk. My poor old new recruit (nearly two year old kelpie) has only chased less than half a dozen in his whole life...if it wasn't for squirrels (of which he's caught one) he'd be redundant.
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I live in the shadow of the South Downs in an area which is mainly clay so it's, as pointed out above, cloying and energy sapping for man and beast in the winter but also baked hard like concrete in the summer. And then, if I decide to go to the slightly higher altitude of the downs themselves...there's lots of chalk and flint...no wonder I catch most of my stuff in the woods!
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As Paulus said, the magazine is only as good as the articles it receives. While I miss the articles by many of the "old guard" I also find myself looking forward to the articles by those who've started contributing over the last few years, especially the younger generation as they are, after all, the future of our sport... ...apart from the idiot from Hampshire who keeps harping on about his ruddy prick-eared Australian mongrels...let's face it...they're neither earth dogs nor running dogs! (I've tried putting a whistling emoticon in here but it refuses to let me post it!)
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Hi Gary; those are the Professional High...not the Scout. I have a pair of both and they're amazing boots and would highly recommend them.
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I've seen them several times taking blue tits in my garden; usually plucking them from a bird feeder. The odd thing is that there are always far more house sparrows (nearly two dozen) in my garden than blue tits but he always seems to favour the blue tits. Also, I can always tell when they've moved back into my local wood to breed as there's a sudden and dramatic increase in wood pigeon kills.
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To me mooching means roughly the same thing as "dogging" but my wife says I'm not allowed to use that word anymore...especially if I'm mooching near a particular carpark on the top of Portsdown Hill! On a more serious note, I think it's one of those words which has slightly different connotations for different people e.g. for the last twenty five years, mooching (or dogging) is something I do in the company of my dogs whereas before that it was something I did with a plastic tub on the old railway line looking for toads and slow-worms or on the local golf course looking for nests.
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re which breeds have the best feet, don't forget there may be a lot of variety between individuals. I have three kelpies and the bitch has tiny hare feet whereas the two males have extremely tough rounded feet. Although the bitch's feet are probably tougher than a lot of lurchers, she still cuts them and slices layers off occasionally whereas I don't think the old male's ever cut his. Also, due to the shape difference between the feet (as somebody said above) when she damages her feet and is out of action for a week or two then her nails grow out. Conversely the old boy (now sixteen) only
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Taping Dogs Toes Up Before They Run ???
Neal replied to whitefeet4190's topic in Lurchers & Running Dogs
I know it's not the same thing but I know you can get boots for working dogs in Australia. They wear them for two main reasons: resistance from hot roads and thorns on plants like bindi. I've just had a quick check online (to make sure I wasn't having a senior moment and imagining it) and you can even get ones with vibram soles! -
A very important point! One man's litter wastage is another man's pride and joy.
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Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't he breed a litter of 3/4 greyhound 1/4 Bedlington's from Spud? I'm also sure that he went on to say that, although the pace which you mention was improved, he found them lacking in every other way. I'm not knocking 3/4 breds per se but you often hear people saying the same i.e. they rave about a half bred, use it to produce a 3/4 bred in the hope that the added speed will improve it but find it's lost all the other qualities they loved so much in the original dog. As you say, "What it lacked in pace it made up for in brains and drive."
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When I moved to where I now live in South Hampshire and got myself a little piece of permission there were easily enough to keep the kelpies and ferrets happy. Lots of the fields, especially those bordering copses were devoid of crops around the edges for ten yards or more sometimes. That was only about ten years ago but now I can go for months without spotting a rabbit on there. I only ever took a few each outing...partly because I walk there so didn't want to carry a lot, partly because I'm only allowed one shelf in the freezer , and partly because my dogs aren't fast enough . It's gradual
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what beardy crosses have you had mate, I wouldn't mind a half x, but have access to all quarry on permission, so more inclined to 3/4, but it's finding one.Be a great help knowing what half x lacked etc , as they don't throw same shape and build as border xs do. I had a 1/2 beardie, 1/2 greyhound bitch who was 22"; a 3/8 beardie, 3/8 border, 1/4 greyhound dog who was 24" and a 3/8 border, 1/8 beardie, 3/8 whippet, 1/8 greyhound bitch who was 19". To be honest it was over twenty years ago and they all came from the same place (even the collie x racing whippet was from one of Hancock's
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I'd definitely agree with that. I've had three beardie crosses (with and without border blood) and I found them more like my kelpies the more beardie there was in them...or rather... the less border. My favourite example was when I was walking across Coniston Moor through knee high heather with my first cross bitch and I was constantly kicking her in the chin as she stuck so close behind me so that she wouldn't have as much work to do in negotiating the heather. I finally turned around and asked her to bleep off (much to my embarrassment now that I'm older and wiser) which she did. I immed
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I wouldn't necessarily say that one is better than the other simply different. In my humble opinion, based on the four kelpies I've had, I'd say that they don't always do "exactly as they're told" immediately and prefer to work off their own initiative. It depends on what I'm asking them to do, and my tone of voice (or panicked yell) but sometimes I'll get an immediate unequivocal response whereas other times they'll stop and look at me as if to say, "Are you sure?" Then, if I ask again they'll say, "Oh, alright then, if you're sure...but don't say I didn't warn you," as they usually know
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Well...that was a funny coincidence...opened my copy of EDRD which came in the post yesterday to find an article by Dave Sleight with a photo of the bitch I mentioned above. She was called Blue Moon and had a lovely calm temperament; I'd forgotten that she was also Purdey's dam.
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I used to post on a kelpie forum which eventually died a death about two years ago due to Facebook. I almost joined myself but whenever I see my wife looking at it and seeing photos of people's dinner or solitaire hands and photos of people who know people who know people that she once met I decide to just go my own way and pop on here instead. Sometimes you have to do a bit of sifting to get a good opinion or answer to a question but I often find it's worth it if you try not to get riled by the few who don't share your opinion.
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Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that! Can I give it some thought and get back to you? It'd have to be on the understanding that there were enough people interested for there to be the need for a litter of pups. It'd have to be Noggin too as Rusty was sixteen eight days ago and can barely scratch his own bum without falling over...but I love 'im.
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I've never used mine at stud; I did try mating Old Rusty to a friend's kelpie x collie once but my other bitch was also in season at the time and, for some reason, he didn't want to know but still wanted to mate "his" bitch. When I bought Rusty it was with the intention of producing a litter of kelpie x sighthounds as I liked the kelpie/collie x greyhound which I bought from Dave so much. However, I gelled with the kelpie temperament so well that I just kind of stuck with them instead. I don't catch anywhere near as much now but I enjoy my walks a lot more than I did...nothing against the
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That's ok Stud dog; it was a long time ago now (probably about fifteen years or more as my first kelpie was just a pup and he's just turned sixteen!). I mentioned it to Dave the next time I saw him at a show but I've not seen him for years. Edited to add: I think the bitch was called Blue.
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My wife used to live in Japan and she's told me some fascinating tales about what life is like there. She said the Japanese are extremely polite e.g. eating while walking around the streets is frowned upon. My particular favourite is that school children clean the classroom themselves at the end of the day; moving the desks to the side of the room and scrubbing the floor with hot soapy water...I can't imagine some of the kids I've taught in the past buying into that.
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Stud dog; he kindly lent an ex-friend of mine once a whippet/greyhound bitch (not sure of the percentages) which he'd mated up to a bedlington for him. While he was "looking after her" he allowed her to kill two cats (while still pregnant) and then, when she was due, he went off to work and left her to it! I took a day off work and spent the day with her instead which was fortunate as she had complications as there were only two or three pups so they were all big and the first one got stuck so I had to give her a hand with the delivery as she couldn't get it out on her own...fortunately he'd c
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I asked dave when I nipped in to see him it was kelpiexcollie back to a greyhoundxwhippet line he hade so there was a touch of greyhound in them Thanks Stud Dog.
