Neal
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Everything posted by Neal
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I've always found it's the new growth that causes the biggest problems. They walk over it and the irritant goes into their pads and they then spend the rest of the day licking between their pads and ice skating all over the wooden floors in a vain effort to stop the tingling. Even my kelpies occasionaly get it and they regularly walk and run over awful ground without any problems whatsoever. The only dog I've ever had which was completely impervious to nettles was a 3/4 beardie/border 1/4 collie but his coat was so thick that not even a heat seeking missile could have found its way in.
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I use three kelpies but they flush to each other rather than to a lurcher. One is only a shade over seventeen inches and I've yet to see anything that she won't get into and through.
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I used to walk my old kelpie round a playing field where they played Sunday league football and it was always littered with plastic bottles. Every day he'd hold one between his front paws and twist the lid off with his teeth and then carry it all the way home and drop it by the recycling bin: honest! He also once jumped down from a 6' sea wall to retrieve what I presumed was a blue plastic bottle. About half a mile later, when the wall had reached sea level and I got close enough to check out what it was I discovered it was an extremely heavy hand weight. Can't remember how many kilos it w
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Ironically, my three kelpies are the same with foxes; they race after them whenever they see one but once they get close enough it's as though they're saying, "Oh high cousin, sorry, I didn't realize it was you," and trot back. Apart from the time they saw one in the garden, a few years back, the week after some of my chickens had been taken. I think they took it personally that time.
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Kelpies can be just as variable as collies. I've heard of some which are 24" at the shoulder yet I have a bitch who's only a shade over 17"; she looks like a terrier x whippet but I've seen some kelpies which look more like heelers. It's the same with temperament. Two of mine are very friendly and will mug anybody for a stroke whereas the other won't have anything to do with anybody other than me. Mine are very laid back and spend most of their non-working time asleep but I've heard of some which find it hard to switch off. They all catch rabbits but are a bit outclassed in the open.
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I always thought Penguin was a bull cross (3/4 greyhound 1/4 bull). I'm fairly certain I read that somewhere but can't remember where...I'll see if I can find the right book over the weekend.
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Unfortunately, my eldest first encountered a pheasant shortly after being hit by a van as a pup so the "explosion" scared the living daylights out of him. As a result he's never been interested in pheasant though he now points them avidly. However, both he and my youngest bitch have taken several wood pigeon, helped along by the fact that her first two had been winged (no idea who by though) which boosted her confidence for future catches.
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I use three pure kelpies. Their nose is impeccable as is concentration, stamina, constitution etc. They're also great at using their own initiative rather than needing to be told what to do but I have to admit they lack pace for bolters in the open...but as I don't get much "open" around here I'm not too worried.
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Or save your back and leave the nets at home...and let the dog have some fun.
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It's amazing what you can find by accident. When my son, who's now two, started eating solids he was very eager to try my breakfast but I wasn't sure if it was suitable or not. In order to find out I put "can babies eat alpen?" into google and the second site on the list selected the parts "babes" and "eat" and...well...I'm sure you can guess the kind of site it went to!
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Chicken Run
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I have a paramo jacket and although, due to the price, I was a tad worried to say the least about wearing it "in the rough" I'm over the moon with it. According to their website, due to the way it works, you could prick it all over with pins and it would still be waterproof: don't know whether or not they've actually tried that though. However, mine's had a few brambles thorns piercing it and it still doesn't let a drop of water through. Another great feature is that, even in these temperatures, I'm still only wearing a t-shirt underneath yet it wasn't too hot in the summer either.
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I fully accept that a dog bred this way will have less speed to muster up than a "conventional" lurcher but I bet there are a lot of pure collies, retrievers, terriers etc which can catch more rabbits than some lurchers. After all, it's not the speed but what they do when they get there. I have an eleven year old pure kelpie who was hit by a van at eleven months old, as a result, he has a completely knackered pelvis and in addition is calcifying up between his vertebrae; but he still catches rats, rabbits and squirrels...because he really wants to.
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I'm going to phone the BBC to complain about Wallace and Gromit...in case it encourages anybody to expect their dog to do the ironing!
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I've always assumed, as somebody said above, that it's like nervous energy or pent up excitement. I have a pure kelpie bitch who does exactly the same thing but only when she's standing outside the house waiting for me to put her lead on, whether it's snowing or a blistering heatwave.
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I think it depends on whether or not there's an ensuite.
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In the nineties, Plummer wrote an article about how many generations it would take after adding the merle gene via border collies before the resultant beardie/border crosses could be classed as pure beardies. Lo and behold, a year or so later, he claimed to have proof that pure beardies could carry the merle gene...and expected none of us to question it.
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Well said Shepp! I mean the second bit, not the first bit. Like many people I've gone through phases of giving up on it and then getting bored of having nothing better (until I discovered EDRD). Although I'll admit it can sometimes be a tad PC, at least I'm now finding I can read several articles per week whereas a while back I could go several months before finding an article I'd want to cut out and keep.
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Before I write this post I'd like to add that this is a huge over simplification but...in my experience of collies and collie crosses and kelpies and kelpie crosses: the former do what they're told whereas the latter do what they think is right. As someone quite rightly said, it's largely down to the personality of the dog in question and the owner. If I had to put money on it I'd probably say that the border (or border type) collie is the most versatile breed but, and like Annabell Weir it's a big butt, I'd still prefer to stick with my kelpies. As I've said many times on here before
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Recommended hard wearing w/p trousers?
Neal replied to Fat-Ferret's topic in Hunting Boots & Clothing
Out of interest, there was a write-up of the StealthGear trousers in this week's Countryman's Weekly. Still can't afford them myself yet though. -
I watched the first couple of minutes but then felt guilty about getting "something for nothing" so I've put it on my Christmas list instead.
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Kelpies...noisy..? My last lurcher was also a kelpie/collie greyhound and my experience was pretty much the same as Jigsaw's. However, kelpies can be very vocal and two of my three can bark like a Finnish Spitz at treed squirrels, hedgehogs walking past the run at night etc whereas the other is so quiet you'd think she's had her vocal chords removed. Maybe she thinks the other two are doing enough barking for all three of them.
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I had my older bitch spayed after a really nasty incident which may have been complicated by her having another season. She was over three at the time and the fact that I no longer had to worry about her seasons made me decide to go ahead and get my next bitch spayed too. However, she was only about eighteen months old and had only had one season. The day before her spay was due, I read a thread on here regarding spaying with advice from, among others, Skycat. Following the advice I came really close to cancelling the spay but decided to go ahead with it as it was so last minute. Although
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I used to love a programme called Country Ways. Not sure if it was in the Meridian area only, but it was full of coppicing, gamekeeping, flyfishing etc but I've not seen it on for a couple of years. As for Countryfile, I watch it every week but only from about 50 minutes in, so that I can watch the weather for the week ahead.
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I was at Whipsnade earlier this year and the bears polished off a whole clutch of mallard ducklings which the parents had decided to teach to swim in their pond.