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Neal

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Everything posted by Neal

  1. Neal
    Due to bad traffic yesterday grinding Portsmouth to a halt, my wife and I decided to stop at a pub with a ball-pool/soft play area rather than face God knows how long in traffic with two kids under six wanting their tea. However, when we found out we'd have to pay extra for the ball-pool we declined. But...it gets worse...imagine my surprise when some other kids arrived...and had to put on day-glo-yellow hi-viz vests in order to go in.
  2. Neal
    Nothing like a bit of useless science to throw a spanner in the works! On a slightly more useful note...I'd always want the dam of the litter to have a lovely calm temperament as that is what the pups will spend their first few weeks with. Failing that...listen to everybody else as I've had a pint with my lunch and I'm writing gobbledygook.
  3. Neal
    As Bird has said above...the pups will be 50/50 in terms of the genes they can inherit from either parent but there are certain aspects which can only come from either the male or the female line. For example, mitochondrial DNA will only be passed on by the dam (the mitochondrial DNA in the male sperm is, I think, contained within the tail and is solely used to give it the energy to reach the egg at which point it is no longer needed). However, I think I read somewhere that mitochondrial DNA doesn't effect either inherited behaviour or the outside/physical nature of the pups...don't quote
  4. Neal
    You're right foresterj...I forgot to mention that bit. I thought my scouts were expensive enough but they're lasting longer than my usual footwear.
  5. Neal
    I've been back on the Penrith Survival website since posting the above and the Scout has been replaced by a boot called the forest...looks almost identical though. And for those of you who don't mind a bit of extra weight and prefer a warmer boot they also stock the professional high and syncro high...very comfy.
  6. Neal
    I've always worn lightweight footwear so when I bought a pair of the Meindls I was exhausted by the end of the day. I now wear Lundhag Scouts when I'm working the dogs...though I usually wear Brasher Supalites or inov8s when I'm just walking them. The Scouts are great, heavier than my usual footwear but light by comparison with Meindl, Lowa etc and they're not goretex lined so more breathable. They're very comfortable...as long as they fit...and I can recommend the guy at Penrith Survival for whatever boots you decide on. Very knowledgeable and professional service.
  7. Neal
    Find out as much as you can about the line that the kelpies blood is from as there have been a lot of different imports over the years...none from bench blood I hasten to add but not all kelpies are the same. It's a bit like when beardie blood was trendy in the 80s and it was assumed that all beardies were the same. I've had four kelpies and the first three were very different. The only reason my newest is similar to the old male he's replacing is because I did a hell of a lot of research before ordering him into what had made my old dog so good and then finding a breeder who was line bree
  8. Neal
    My mother in law has it too and, like Beast says, manages it fairly well by being careful with her diet. In her case she finds it hard to digest the skin on any vegetables and fruit.
  9. Neal
    Do you mean the kelpie or the bedlington? When I bought my second and third kelpies my wife was terrified of killing one of the dogs on the farm as they kept diving at her wheels as she drove down the farm track. My bitch is particularly terrier like in her outlook (as well as physically...if I hadn't met the parents I'd swear she was a patterdale x whippet) and the only time she switches off is when she's indoors. My two males are from a slightly different line though and are far more easy going.
  10. Neal
    Aah...but not all kelpies are created equal.
  11. Neal
    If I was to go bushing with only one dog then it would have to be a dog I liked...then it'd be easier to come home smiling if we came home with nothing in the bag.
  12. Neal
    I was walking two of my kelpies, Scout and Noggin, to the local wood a few days ago when I noticed a couple waiting at the bus-stop just before the wood. The chap looked like he'd seen a ghost and was nudging his wife excitedly and gesturing towards the dogs. As I got closer he said in a broad Australian accent, "Useful looking dog mate, looks like he's got a lot of Elfinvale in 'im." It turned out that he was an ex-shearer who'd kept kelpies for thirty odd years and he was on holiday with his wife. He was very impressed with Noggin (my five month old pup) and added that all his had been,
  13. Neal
    Re Rod Stewart etc...I think it's been trendy for a while now to be more proud of your Celtic roots (that's with a hard c not a soft c) if you're born in England but of "mixed race." I'm only one eighth Welsh (I think) but I still support them in the rugby; though that's more to do with preferring their playing style...and my daughter has a Welsh name; though that's as much to do with liking the name. Having said that, thanks to 2012 and all the events that happened in that year, it seems more acceptable now to be able to fly an English flag without being labelled racist. As for the Games
  14. Neal
    I'm in South Hampshire too and, like you say, a lot of the ground is flinty...either that or heavy clay which sticks to everything in winter and then turns to concrete in summer. I used to get a lot of foot injuries when I had lurchers but since moving to pure kelpies I can't remember the last time I had a foot injury (touch wood). A racing whippet breeder once told me that, in her opinion, racing and coursing whippets and coursing greyhounds had better feet than racing greyhounds because of the greater variety of surfaces they were expected to run on. However, as has been said above, most
  15. Neal
    I think my best "cocky" moment was many years ago and I was out with my little collie x whippet. The two people I was with both had large deerhoundy dogs and were in the process of taking the mick out of my pocket sized waste of space as they all worked a large patch of gorse in unison, completely ignored by my little thing, who was criss-crossing a small patch of rushy grass which was so small that we could all see it had nothing in it...except that it did! I felt good that day.
  16. Neal
    My local Jolleys pet store has a drop in vet for initial jabs and boosters once per week, though, as most have said, I also only have the first jabs and then the first booster. Not sure how widespread Jolleys is and whether they do this in other areas too.
  17. Neal
    Not certain Bird, but I think the heelers are slightly more heat resistant...but there's a bit of heeler in kelpies and a bit of kelpie in heelers.
  18. Neal
    I've read that blog...obviously started out very biased. I think the main problem, as far as kelpies are concerned, is people buy them believing the hype that they're just like collies but tougher because of dingo blood. They may be tough but that's just as likely to be due to good quality collies being used in the first place (though recent DNA evidence has proved that there is dingo blood in modern kelpies). However, like collies they can be very sensitive and take offence easily if bullied or pushed or...sin of sins...told what to do when they already know what they're doing. In the ea
  19. Neal
    Try living with a kelpie...I don't get the chance to have lazy summers any more...mine are still searching for the sunniest spot in the garden in a heatwave. Last summer I took the six year old bitch out for a five hour walk up on the Downs when the hot weather started and, after a lot of coaxing, I finally managed to encourage to her to take a couple of sips from a puddle, but I could tell she was only doing it to please me.
  20. Neal
    Wuyang, I find the vocal nature of kelpies varies depending on breeding and upbringing. My bitch makes a fair bit of noise behind a rabbit, as she's not fast enough in the open, and barks when she's treed a squirrel. However, her breeding is slightly different to my two males who are far calmer (I'll write more about that in a separate post). Despite that, they're all fairly quiet at home and in fact when one of my neighbours saw me walking the dogs during the day, a month or so after moving home, she said she hadn't realised I had dogs. As to your other point, they definitely work di
  21. Neal
    The only time I've had permission was when I had a dog with me. I asked a chap who was shooting on the land about sporting rights and he said it was all spoken for. I said something along the lines of, "OK, thanks anyway," and went on my way. He was so impressed at the behaviour of the dog that he called me back and said he was actually the farmer and gave me permission to do the ferreting...with the dog of course.
  22. Neal
    RussBoy, although my three are kelpies rather than collies, I'd guess the build, agility and speed are probably fairly similar and I don't think I've ever caught a rabbit with them in the open. It's always either hedge bottom, bush, brambles, rushes or, on one occasion, under a water trough. There will always be those who criticise collies for not trying but I've found that the difference is that although they know when not to try (which is what understandably irritates some people so much), they also know when to try and in different ways which is why I've caught more in the aforementione
  23. Neal
    ...and it's the missing link which no longer exists.
  24. Neal
    He may be ugly, Forest of Dean Redneck, but I love 'im.
  25. Neal
    Thanks Tiercel. The first photo was actually the second one I was sent of him, when he was one month old...reminds me of a Tasmanian devil in that one. The next two were taken on the same day while he was out in the local wood with Scout...I think he was about eleven weeks old...but started on the beer already. The next one was when he was about three months old and the final one was on the day I brought him home so he was seven weeks and six days.
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