Neal
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Everything posted by Neal
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Many thanks for all the advice. No trees too close to the house so I'm OK there. I left both traps active all day yesterday and through the night and there's been no sight or sound of anything else. If anthing else occurs I'll definitely take the advice of calling in a professional. Incidentally, when the building work started last summer and we had the initial rat migration, a neighbours cat accounted for some of the young as well as my traps and dogs. When the neighbour phoned up the local council they said there wasn't a lot they could do. Helpful!
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I had a 3/4 beardie/border collie 1/4 greyhound dog and a half bred beardie x greyhound bitch when I lived in Cumbria in the early 90s. The bitch had a very strong hunting instinct whereas the dog was much more easy going. I agree completely with the comments about the coat. On one occasion the male walked between a fence and a trailing piece of barbed wire which had come loose and was hanging from it. His coat became snagged on the trailing wire but, while I was on my way down through the wooded slope to free him, he simply gave a grunt and tugged himself free. There wasn't a mark on him
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Thanks, that's what I was hoping. It's the first time so I'm hoping it'll stay as a one off but will put some mesh over the end of the drainpipe at the back as that's the only access point I can think of ie up the pipe, into the gutter and into the roof via the sparrows' nest. If it wasn't peeing down with rain I'd sit in the garden and check if the sparrows are still using the nest.
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I know this may seem like an odd question, but I was wondering how much poo, ie individual stools or whatever the correct word is, the average rat produces in one day. My reason for asking is that, since building work started on a new church in the land behind my house, I've been getting more rats than usual coming into my garden. I'm not usually too worried about them as with a combination of traps and the dogs I can keep them under control. As I said, "I'm not usually worried about them"...until today! You'll know where this one is heading as soon as I start the first sentence. Every
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My bantams once killed a young rat but they didn't go quite as far as eating it.
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You usually find that the vast majority of people who criticise whippet crosses have never seen one working and are basing their opinion on misconceptions. Also, one criticism levelled at them is that they can't catch a rabbit if they have to run more than, for example, 50 yards. What the people who make these comments seem unaware of is that, in some areas of the country, hedges are rarely more than 50 yards apart so runs are usually of the "short sharp burst" nature. Where I live, most of the rabbits are caught either in or very close to cover and a rabbit in the middle of a field, givin
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Happy to help!
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Thanks Romany!
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Sorry Shell, I forget to check yesterday evening so I've just popped out to the car now in my dressing gown. Ours is a Maxi-Cosi Tobi. Don't forget that the time to change car seat is determined by the size rather than age of the child. As an example, my son, Oscar, has only just gone up to the second stage of seat within the last couple of months even though he's now nineteen months old. Apparently, it's based on where their head is rather than the legs ie it doesn't matter if their legs seem a bit tucked up as the most important part to protect is the head. We got ours from Half
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Hi Shell, my wife had similar problems finding a seat for our car which is a Nissan Almera Tino (I'm a non-driver so I just use a mountain buggy ). I think our baby seat was one from a travel system with a Babies R Us buggy which she bought. We had an even bigger problem finding one to fit when we recently moved up to the next seat size. Like you the problem was the extra long buckle straps. She's out at the moment but when she gets in I'll ask her what make her current one is.
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My old collie x whippet would only try for things it thought weren't too far away but my kelpie/collie greyhound didn't stop until the rabbit was either caught or had gone to ground. All the time I owned him, and subsequent pure kelpies, most of my catches have been in cover. I have to say that I was lucky with his first catch in that we'd just entered a field and he saw a rabbit hop into the gorse and brambles on the opposite side, shot over, ploughed in and came out holding the rabbit and retrieved it. As a result he was always confident that if he'd seen it then he was in with a chance
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When I opened the chicken coop this morning I found one of my two bantams (a wyandotte) slumped against the door as stiff as a board. There were no signs of any obvious injury or otherwise and she was fine when I checked on them before going to bed at just after 10 o' clock last night. The only odd thing I can think of is that although it's only her second season she hadn't started laying yet whereas my other bantam, a welsummer, started several weeks ago and was a year older. I did find one soft egg ie shell not fully formed during the week so I'm wondering if this could have anything to
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I bought a pair of Beater trousers last summer and I've been really pleased with them apart from a few points. One thing, as mentioned on previous threads by others on here, is that they snag on brambles which makes them look a tad tatty, however, as I'm using them when I'm out with the dogs their appearance doesn't worry me too much. As for their waterproofing qualities I've found them to be extremely good at keeping me dry. The softer material around the tops seems to let water through a little on the front pockets themselves, though this could just be water dripping in and I'm not
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I agree 100% with Maltenby on this one. You've just got to try one of these to see how amazingly easy it is to use. I've pulled out tics from between toes, inside ears and on eyebrows without the ferrets flinching.
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It would be too long a story for one post on a thread and I wouldn't want to go off topic on this great thread. However, to cut a long story very, very short: my last lurcher had a bit of kelpie in him and I was so pleased by his character and temperament that I bought a pure one over ten years ago and haven't looked back since. I have absolutely nothing against lurchers, far from it, but my character simply gets on better with my kelpies. If you're interested in finding out more about them, there's a very good 21 page thread about kelpie and cattle dog crosses which started last year.
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Apologies in advance for being slightly off topic but I work my dogs like lurchers even though they're pure kelpies. I find that I catch more with my kelpies than I ever did with my previous lurchers(though as I've said on her before it could just be because my lurchers were cr*p). Two of mine are about 19" and the youngest is just over 17" and she's shaping up to be the best allrounder of the three. I just wish she'd hurry up and realise (like her great, great uncle) that rats shouldn't be retrived live to hand.
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In my limited experience, I'd say that a variety of forms of attack (and defence) is best. I get occasional rats in my garden due to my bird feeders and my bantams. Sometimes just moving all the feed into the shed overnight works but at other times they're just too persistent, particularly when they've got young. As an example, I've got a litter of rats being raised somewhere in my garden at the moment and over the last 48 hours we've had: one adult taken by my ten year old kelpie, one kitten/pup or whatever they're called taken by my young kelpie, one kitten shot my me after being c
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When it came to the whippets vs whippet crosses debate, I was always on the side of the whippet crosses. However, since my brother bought a pure whippet a couple of years ago and is constantly regaling me with tales of how fantastic it is I'm starting to think I may have been wrong. He's been so impressed by her that he's just added a Rabbitrunner whippet to his team too.
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I'm in a small town to the north of Portsmouth. It took me ages working out how to use photobucket about a year ago when I added some photos of them to the very long kelpie and ACD x thread that was running at the time. It will probably take me so long to remember how to do it again that it'll be quicker for you to find that thread. Just had a check and my photos are on page 9 though Scout looks a lot less puppyish now.
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Not sure if this is quite the right place for this but as I work my kelpies in a similar way to how I used to work my lurchers I suppose it's as good a place as any. This is kind of following on from the comments made in one of Wild Rover's recent threads with regards to enjoying your time out with the dogs regardless of the outcome (made by me; not Wild Rover). My short morning walk is around my local wood which is a small section of the Forest of Bere in Hampshire. There are no rabbits in this particular wood but plenty of squirrels and the occasional fox and roe. Due to the clay so
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Even within the gene pool in the UK there's a huge variety in kelpie types. I've heard of some which are 24" yet one of mine is only just over 17". Likewise, one of mine is of the chunky variety whereas another looks like a whippet cross. There's also, perhaps more importantly. a big variety in temperament. Some are very work orientated and find it more difficult to switch off while others are far more easy going.
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I have to admit that I am completely biased with kennel blindness in the opposite direction. I prefer rabbiting with my pure kelpies and although I know adding sighthound would add a lot to their potential I think I'll stick with the pure dogs as I'd be worried about what I might loose. I know that probably sounds completely crazy to the vast majority of lurcher owners but I can't help it; I'd rather spend a day in the company of one of my dogs and come home with one rabbit than a day with a lurcher and come home with a dozen. Aah bless; it must be love!
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I know that 3/4 breds have their advocates, and for good reason, but there are lots of occasions when people have had great first crosses which are then mated to pure sighthounds and have produced stock which doesn't have that "certain something" which attracted everybodies attention to the original dog. No offence intended Fielder as I can certainly see why you'd be thinking along those lines. Or to put it another way...I think she looks like she's doing a pretty good job as she is Wild Rover and if it aint broke don't fix it!
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The recently heard the difference between Rugby and Football described as follows: Rugby is a game in which a group of men spend minutes pretending they're not injured when they are whereas football is a game in which a group of men spend 90 minutes pretending they are injured when they're not. Personally, I think France deserved to win the tournament though not the final game. Also, despite being English, and therefore supporting England, I'm one of those people who's also proud to be British so also support my other "home" sides. ...Shane Williams; now that would be a good name for
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It's good to see people still working their older dogs. People often forget that although they may loose something in terms of speed, they often make up for it in guile. Incidentally, on the subject of heelers: there's a series on channel 4 at the moment called "One Born Every Minute" about a maternity ward in Southampton and in this weeks episode one of the women had a few heelers which you see in a clip at the beginning.
