Neal
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Everything posted by Neal
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Some kelpies, though not all, take longer to mature than some collies (sorry if that sounds a bit sitting-on-the-fence-and-vague-in-the-extreme). As a result, you may find she takes a while to realize her real character. As an example, my oldest was a typical easy going pup until roughly eighteen months when he suddenly thought he was cock of the rock. He also completely ignored other people until about four years old when he suddenly became very amenable and gregarious to all and sundry; human and canine. Similarly, my bitch was friendly until about eighteen months when she became, and still
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I agree with the bulldog spade; they're great!
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I've only ever seen a merlin once and that, as in your case, was chasing a lark. It was near the Giant's Castle on St Mary's in The Scilly Isles about twenty years ago and, ironically, I saw my first and only hobby hovering right next to the castle within five minutes of it.
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I'm so glad that, although my kelpies are intelligent, they can't read as I'd hate them to stop catching rats, rabbits, squirrel, pigeons etc just because they weren't physically attractive or fast. I'm certainly not expecting anybody to like my dogs but the main point for me is that I like them and they catch enough to keep me happy.
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I had a 3/4 beardie/border 1/4 greyhound from Hancock's third litter of Richard x Linnet. I bought him as an adult and he'd already done some lamping (I think) and caught daytime rabbits as well as a neighbour's peafowl which were all retrieved live to hand. As mentioned above, they're not particularly fast, but then again, most collies can still catch the occasional rabbit. I really liked him but have to admit that this was more down to his character than his hunting prowess. He was a great, fun dog with endless stamina and amazing feet and skin but not up to the rabbiting potential of a
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Hi Finn; the name Cottonwood Matt rang a bell but I wasn't certain so I've done a little reasearching and found out the following: Semen from two dogs, Cottonwood Matt and Boanong Tommy from the Avenpart Stud was imported by John Brown, Balbuthie Farms, Fife. Matt's semen produced two litters of seven and Tommy's produced a litter of eleven then a litter of seven to one of Matt's daughters. If you put "John Brown one man and his kelpie" into google you'll find an article about it. Is Adam Henson's dog from one of these litters and is it the cream one seen on Countryfile?
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You're lucky Kay, I've not put out any fat balls (no, I'm being serious; no pun intended) for ages as the bloody rats keep getting them.
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The first two dogs I can remember when I was growing up were a smooth fox terrier and a fox terrier x sheltie. If I remember correctly, both were fairly game and lived to a ripe old age but hated each other on site so spent their whole lives apart.
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I quite like those days when there's not much about as I tend to try that little bit harder rather than sticking to the tried and tested and by the look of the photos I can't imagine many places more amenable to wandering about trying to find something. Happy hunting!
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I can understand what some are saying about previous marches in London having no effect but I personally feel we should remember the positives eg it showed us in a good light for being so well behaved, orderly and law abiding. Count me in, and my toddler too. Would we be better off waiting until we know the date of the election?
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Magyar Agar, I can name a few films with pure dogs but no field sports ones with the crosses other than the ones you've named. Eg: kelpies in "Dusty" and "The Sundowners" and heelers in "Mad Max 2" and "Razorback."
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Thanks Mike and Vim. I like the look of the dog Vim; he's certainly got the substance of Max.
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I agree with Bob: male grey wagtails have a black throat in summer and white in winter. Yellow wagtail is yellow and greenish-brown and the pied wagtail is...well...pied.
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Two of my kelpies are fairly friendly with people and dogs but one is the most extreme one man dog I've ever known. Despite this it tends to be the friendlier two who are the better guards. Rust will stand in front of my son's buggy when we're approached by strange dogs and try to pretend he's not on his last legs.
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Finn, I'm pretty certain the dog you're referring to is Cottonwood Matt. If it's any interest, a UK kelpie stud is importing a bitch in utero next year with pups sired by his grandson. I can give you some more information if you need it.
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The best, and most prolific, working dog I've ever had is my current oldest kelpie, that's the old fart to the left in my avatar. However, if I had to pick my favourite lurcher it would either be my last one, kelpie/collie x greyhound or a 3/4 collie 1/4 greyhound I owned in the early 90s.
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Have recently heard from the girlfriend of a guy in Holland who uses patterdales among other things for hunting boar, fox and badger. She herself has a kelpie sired by Okara Max (ie same sire as your dog Vim) which accompanies them on hunting days as well as following various other disciplines. I'll be emailing him this weekend and will try to find out more. Vim, Your kelpie sounds very similar in temperament to my two year old, Scout. Whereas Amber is more collie-like (for want of a much more appropriate phrase) Scout is very full on. She reminds me more of what I'd expect from a terrier
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does ferret poop deter rats?
Neal replied to jdconstruction's topic in Snaring, Trapping & Pest Control
I've heard this too, a bit like using lion poo to ward off foxes. I've tried it in my garden to keep the rats away from my bantams but either my ferrets don't do scarey poo or my rats aint for scaring. -
Wow Stevemac; amazing memories of interesting times! Endgame, I started buying the Shooting News when I was at Art College in Falmouth. It reached the stage where if I was looking for a particular article it would take hours sifting through them all so I spent hours instead going through the whole lot and cutting out the articles I wanted and putting them in a ring-binder. Needless to say I rarely need to save any nowadays whereas I always keep the whole of EDRD. I don't know whether or not Hancock still keeps that bloodline, I think he has some pedigrees on his website so you may g
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Yes, that's the one! I have some old ring-binder files full of old articles from Shooting News and there were a couple about Moss by Daergi. If my memory serves me well they were written in response to a Plummer article about Rufus. You know, the usual thing; an article by Plummer followed by an answering letter or article along the lines of, "actually, I think you'll find you're wrong because..." Dave Sleight was particularly good at these.
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Re Nik Bs earlier post: I remember when I was at secondary school, way back in the early 80s, one of my science teachers telling us that we're still in the ice age. He claimed that the ice age has peaks and troughs and it's just that we're currently on a peak.
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That's a pretty impressive list of names, though I have to admit I only recognized one: David Bellamy. I've heard several times over the last few years that things like CO2 (are those the right letters?) emissions by the world's oceans are far greater than those by man and that many pieces of evidence fed to us by the world's press simply don't add up. I still turn off the light whenever I leave the room but simply because I want to make the situation better rather than because all of us doing it will be able to stop the south coast being underwater in x years time.
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I occasionaly see adverts for kelpie lurchers advertised in both EDRD (look at that: I can use caps lock after all )and Countryman's Weekly. Some are mentioned as being in the Rotherham area but not sure if any or all are bred by Dave Sleight. There's also the added problem of whether or not they have any other blood ie in most of Dave Sleight's articles for EDRD he refers to Gem etc as kelpie x racing whippets so anybody using a dog of similar breeding may not realise they also have collie blood. Incidentally, the collie blood used in the original few litters of Dave's was descended from Bar
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MagyarAgar, I think you're right about the Australian Shepherd. I've heard that it's actually an American breed descended from Iberian dogs. Apparently the name Australian Shepherd simply comes from the fact that it has a bobbed tail like the Australian Stumpy tailed Cattle dog (like a heeler but with no tail) and the Smithfield (which is now also used in Australia).
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Thanks Mike, I was fairly certain that Dave Sleight's "Wizard of Oz" was from a different line but wasn't certain. I completely agree with your comment re kelpies and collies, and also the same with regards to heelers. ie I prefer kelpies after owning several different collie crosses (beardie and border) as well as a kelpie/collie x greyhound but I definitely wouldn't say they're better; just different. I've always been a big fan of collies and collie crosses but I simply found that I gelled better with kelpies. In a similar vein, I've always liked heelers since reading an article abo
