Neal
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Everything posted by Neal
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Fascinating video. Hard to watch the dogs getting slammed into the gates, though. I had to watch a few more similar ones after that as the whole herding thing is so interesting. Seeing the way a small predator can gain control over enormous cattle. The power of the eye, that determination and focus is amazing. I just got the feeling if the dogs were bit harder and use there teeth more, say like a acd would , they control the cattle better , and prob the dogs not get so knocked about. Holding back like they are , is making the cattle domineer the dogs more , well that's how it looks to
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I didn't know he'd ever bred any kelpie x greyhounds...I thought his were all either kelpie/collie x whippet or kelpie/collie x greyhound. Not a criticism I hasten to add as the collie used was from a particularly good line (IMHO as I had one) but definitely collie in them...hence the merle colouring as you can't get merle kelpies.
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The ones near the hedges are the only ones mine have a chance on...anything further out will outrun them.
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Looks like there's a good episode coming up in a few weeks featuring Amanda Owen: "The Yorkshire Shepherdess." I'm reading her autobiography at the moment.
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When I lived in Cumbria I taught both my lurchers to jump but, in hindsight, that's probably because it was mainly dry stone walls they were getting over. Now I'm back in Hampshire I don't think I've ever actually taught any of the subsequent dogs to jump. I guess that's probably because it's either dense woodland or barbed wire fences so they tend to go the fastest way for them which is usually through or under. I did have a tiny collie x whippet once though who was extremely agile and would regularly run up into the bottom branches of trees if the trunk was less than degrees. I've got a
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All these photos, and the accompanying for and against comments, reminds me of when I was training my first lurcher. She was a first cross beardie/greyhound and had the frustrating habit (or so I thought at the time) of thinking for herself. She eventually became a beautiful jumper but refused to jump just because I was asking her to and, in my youth inexperience, I couldn't understand why she was so stupid that she'd ignore a request to jump a fence in front of her and choose to crawl under a gap a few yards away. Like with most of my experiences with dogs...I eventually learnt that she was r
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...just for that photo...the timing and pose are perfect.
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I've got a really geeky memory. Didn't you have a collie hybrid called 'Maddie' which would jump anything? I'm going back to The Shooting News era. Or, even better, how about the one of Speckle jumping off the jetty? That's my all time favourite lurcher photo.
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Fuji, that looks similar to where I work mine but I have a smattering of broken breeze blocks, barbed wire, broken glass and smashed palettes too. Then again, as mine have no sighthound blood, they're so slow it's like a walk in the park anyway. (Touch wood!)
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Not had a deaf pup but currently have a deaf adult due to old age...funny thing is that I have no idea how long he's been deaf as he always had the knack of doing the right thing without needing to be asked. It wasn't until I walked up behind him in my walking boots on a tiled floor and made him jump as he was looking out of the back door, wondering where I was, that I realised he couldn't hear me. Gradually retrained him over the last few years to work to hand signals...but the facial expressions he's picking up on probably help more than my hand signals.
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Congratulations! If you need to borrow a kelpie to help with the sheep...
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Need New Boot, What Do You Think?
Neal replied to Somewhereyournot's topic in Hunting Boots & Clothing
The problem with lined boots is that once they're wet you have two problems: they take ages to dry out and you loose your confidence in them keeping you dry the next time you put them on. Leather boots properly treated dry much quicker and, if they do get wet, you just add a bit more of whatever it is your treating them with. I can recommend Lundhags. I have the Scout which is much lighter than equivalent Gore-Tex lines boots and mine are over three years old and still going strong. -
Good luck! P.S. Bo Duke re the accent: somebody told me that the reason the Portsmouth accent is so different to the normal 'ampshire accent is because so may people moved down from the East End to get jobs in the underwear industry which used to be big in Portsmouth (pardon the pun). Apparently, Madonna's cone bra outfits were made there too. On a different note, when I went to art college in Falmouth and told somebody I came from near Pompey she said, "You don't look Italian."
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That's some compromise Neal One thing I would add is that Hampshire could quite possibly the dog theft central of the U.K. It did seem to calm down a bit when I lived there but it certainly was a hot bed for lurcher, terrier and gundog theft She's worth it. I do love all these negative opinions about the availability of rabbits in 'ampshire...it makes me feel better about not catching anything...I can blame it on geography rather than crap dogs!
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I'm from Hampshire and would pretty much agree with what others have said. I was born in Gosport, went to art college in Falmouth, lived in the Lake District but ended up back "daan saaf." When my wife and I got married she wanted to live in Southsea and I wanted to move to Devon...we settled on Waterlooville as a compromise! Just got back from a week in Dartmoor and, while I like The Forest of Bere (which is the area I live in) it's certainly not Dartmoor. As Bob alluded to, I hate how unfriendly people are in comparison to the west and north of the U.K. My small piece of permission
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I'm going to miss reading about her in your posts. I'm glad the positive memories are outweighing the negative ones.
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I've heard of sheepdogs having pedometers fitted and doing a hundred miles in a day. I guess it depends on the individual dog...if it's one which barely leave you're ankle then it will only do a tad more than you whereas one which continually p*ss*s off a few hundred yards and keeps having to be whistled back then it could do three or four times as much as you.
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Lol why not it's how they are trained my friend has Akita x malamute and that dog is not a dog ild like to meet anywhere to be honest My mate had one I was with that dog nearly every day since it was a pup and every time me or someone was around that dog he would just stare at you waiting for you to do something wrong you could tell he wanted to bite someone. A coal yard up the road from me had them and some crossed with Rottweilers they were the most aggressive dogs I ever seen thank fook they never got a hold of anyone they definitely would of killed them My wife has been tellin
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I think this is probably the most positive Hancock thread I've ever read on here...by this I mean the nature of the well thought out opinions and arguments (e.g. Ideation and Fuji among others) rather than being pro-Hancock. I've not had a lurcher for over ten years and my memory may not be too accurate but my first two lurchers were bred by him. The first (bought as a pup) was a first cross beardie x greyhound sired by Remus. She had a very strong hunting instinct but we simply didn't gel...not her fault...not mine...we were just different. The second I bought as an adult and he was from
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I think these two posts sum up the main thing when considering using any pastoral/farm/sheep/cattle dog/collie. I remember in my very early days of lurcher ownership when I was living in Coniston with a first cross beardie x greyhound sired by Hancock's Remus. I saw a lovely scruffy beardie (or so I thought) wandering around the shops one day and followed it around for ages until I found somebody who could tell me who it belonged to. I eventually found out that it was a pet but was out of two working dogs on a farm bordering the old railway line so I went along to see for myself. The dam w
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I think you've spelt kelpie wrong Phil!
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I'd completely agree with Tiercel. I've had both and I find dogs are more like mates. They can be more headstrong but I prefer a dog which thinks for itself rather than needing hand-holding. As a gross exaggeration, I'd say that dogs act like they haven's done anything wrong, even if they have, whereas bitches act like they've done something wrong, even if they haven't. It's down to the individual though; both you and the dog. My current bitch is the best bitch I've ever had but she's also the most doggy bitch...but she still doesn't have that special something that only a dog brings to th
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Despite what I wrote in my previous post I do find that I tend to take them off when working the dogs on my permission. Not sure why; maybe I subconsciously worry about them getting picked up without any I.D. when not on my permission or maybe the opposite i.e. feel more confident in them being without a collar on my permission. Does anyone know if it's a legal requirement for a dog to wear a collar with I.D. as I always thought it wasn't but I'm sure I've been told by somebody recently that it is? As we're now, apparently, required by law to have them microchipped wouldn't that be I.D. e
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...or "Night Boat to Cairo." I can see it now; one long nutty train dance circling the globe...then maybe we'd all start getting on better.
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I always put collars on just loose enough for the dogs to be able to slip out of them if necessary; whether that be getting caught up on something or somebody trying to walk off with one of them.
