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Neal

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Everything posted by Neal

  1. Neal
    I know my three are pure kelpie rather than collie but as the line of work they were bred for is similar a few comments on mine may be relevant: I often hear people decrying both collies and kelpies for being hyperactive and unable to switch off. My three all spend most of their time at home asleep (unless they hear me go in the bread bin) but when they're out they work non-stop. However, I've heard owners of closely related kelpies say theirs won't switch off which would lead me to believe this side of the character of mine could be down to upbringing...who knows? As to the working vs
  2. Neal
    I always used to think that I went bushing with my kelpies but after reading this thread I'm starting to think that maybe I'm just taking them for a walk during which they enter bushes etc and occasionaly catch things.
  3. Neal
    Great post Lifelong Cumbrian! I travel to my permission on foot as I don't drive so I've never used a longnet but that option makes a lot of sense to me; especially as good old purse nets can sometimes be tricky to set as my ground is so overgrown. Thanks. Edited to add: I'm particularly glad I read this post as I was thinking of getting some more purse nets before next season. I was clearing out my shed and my four year old son asked what the purse nets were so I gave him a demo using the underside of a patio chair as a hole and a ball as a rabbit. I showed him when he was younger but he
  4. Neal
    When I first bought my current eldest bushing dog Rust (the old kelpie in my avatar) I already had a lone lurcher who did his own bushing and catching. As a result, the kelpie thought, "Sod this, I'll just wait outside and let him do all the hard work." With time though he realised he'd catch more on the inside and they decided to swap roles. Although I favour an obedient dog I have to admit my youngest kelpie (approaching six) does occasionaly cock a deaf one. I remember one occasion, when she was much younger, and she was certain there was a rabbit in a sopping wet rape field which was l
  5. Neal
    I thought that first one was a Swedish Vallhund (sp)!
  6. Neal
    Another vote!
  7. Neal
    The problem with line breeding is knowing which dogs/bitches to use from within the family. Some look good on paper but don't click whereas others do; it can be a case of trial and error. For my next dog I decided to think about what I like most about my present dog, look at his ancestors (their working style and temperament), find out where he's getting his plus points and buy a pup which is line-bred to that dog or dogs. It may work but than again...
  8. Neal
    I was clearing out the wood store during half term and was thinking of cleaning out the nest box I keep there...until I heard an ominous buzzing sound coming from within. Not sure which species they are but they're fairly small with a white bum and one yellow band across the "shoulders" but are otherweise fairly dark. Every species in my insect book which looked like them said underground nester. Also, although the bees are about a month later than usual this year, I've not seen as many dead bees.
  9. Neal
    Re Sandymere's earlier post: I remember reading once that one of those breeds with a corded/felted coat (either puli or komondor) was just as effective at keeping out heat as keeping them warm. I suppose it's a bit like wrapping a snowman up with clothing to stop it melting! I don't get that problem with my three kelpies...when it's over 30 in the shade in the middle of summer they're still looking for a sunny spot to lay in...bloody nutters!
  10. Neal
    I'd always been firmly in the small lurcher as oppossed to whippet camp. I guess my preference was probably based on the fact that, like a lot of people with their first lurcher, I gave more thought to the base blood than the sighthound involved. However, my brother has three pure whippets and can't sing their praises enough. His appear to be pretty bombproof and by this I mean both physically and, more importantly, mentally. Returning to the original question for this thread: my advice would be that no matter how much theorizing and prethought you give it you can never know what your idea
  11. Neal
    The problem with collie x whippets is that when a lot of us were forming our opinions on which type of dog would suit us best the only reading material on the subject said they were no good so we tended to dismiss them without any first hand knowledge. However, you'll usually find that those who've had them really rate them.
  12. Neal
    I'm currently ferretless after loosing my two jills at the tail end of last season to illness. However, I preferred my previous working team of fully vasectomised hobs due to the added stamina. They were more likely to get occasionaly tangled in the nets but as I walk to my permission I needed something which could last longer.
  13. Neal
    The problem with assuming that it's one over the other (re nature vs nurture) is that it's so easy to give a great argument for either side. There are also so many examples which appear to disprove a rule. For example, somebody mates two great dogs together and produces nothing of note so the assumption is made that nurture is more important because the dog and bitch concerned had nothing good (genetically) to pass on and therefore they themselves must have been made good by training. However, mate one of them to a different dog or bitch and the opposite could happen. This is one of those
  14. Neal
    I've read that Idris Elba is on the cards.
  15. Neal
    I rarely get problems with the feet on my three kelpies. The male has hard round feet and I've never once needed to trim his nails. The bitches have slightly longer softer feet but again I've had less than a handful of foot injuries in a combined age of about 28 years from the three of them. There's also the mental attitude. Mine work in areas with a certain amount of flint but more of a problem is broken glass from teenagers' camp fires and thorns. The difference I find now is that, whereas in the past my dogs would fall over and do an impression of an Italian footballer, my current three
  16. Neal
    All things being equal, which they're usually not, I'd also favour a smaller dog; my current bitch is a tad shy of 18". But when I was younger I used to hang around with a bloke who had a monstrous line bred deerhoundy dog which put my collie x whippet to shame when it came to the nip and tuck of diving in and out of bramble patches where we worked them.
  17. Neal
    I'm always amazed at how few farmers use dogs. When you think about how low their wages are and how important a member of the workforce they have the potential to be. It's a no-brainer!
  18. Neal
    There are a number of cattle on the farm where I have permission and it's certainly one of the reasons I favour pure kelpies over the lurchers I used to own. The farmer who bred my two bitches had a stud bull which terrified everybody who dared enter his field but every time their sire went in the bull was shaking in his boots.
  19. Neal
    I love the one of the collie turning and the grain on the first photo has a wonderful effect. P.S. I mean photographic grain...not crop grain!
  20. Neal
    The shakataks: it's my euphamism for the runs...it's also the name of an 80s pop group!
  21. Neal
    Congratulation Paid! My son's school has a similar set-up whereby they have one day per week when they wear wellies etc and spend the whole day basing their learning around things in their outside area...incidentally, their outside area has two resident roe deer (in addition to the ones in the larger wood alongside the school). Last week he pointed out some "slots" to his friends and bored them to death by telling them he could tell how fast the deer were moving by the shape of the slots (what a nerd). Unfortunately, this is only during their foundation year.
  22. Neal
    Many of the problems facing society today are due to the way in which today's young are encouraged/forced to grow up too soon. How often do we hear people on this site reminiscing about their childhood? Would we feel the same if we'd spent longer in school and therefore less time being self-motivated. I'm a part-time house-husband and part-time teacher so perhaps my opinions may be different to some but one example will help to prove my point: my eldest has started in Foundation this year and, now that the clocks have moved forwards, we've altered his route home. I take in a pair of wellie
  23. Neal
    I find that Metacam gives mine the shakataks on the rare occasions they've been prescribed it.
  24. Neal
    The only time I've ever heard of Beardies carrying the merle gene was in an article by Plummer in which he stated that they'd always carried the gene... ...this was about a year after another article in which he stated his aim to produce a strain of merle Beardie by adding merle Border blood to his Beardies. He went on at great length about precisely how much/little Border blood there'd need to be before they could be regarded as "pure" Beardies. Short memory eh!
  25. Neal
    I can believe that as my youngest (now five) used to track roe from around that age. It used to puzzle me at the time as it was when I was introducing her to ferreting so my brain was in rabbit mode. It took a few times for me to accept that it wasn't a coincidence.
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