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Neal

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Everything posted by Neal

  1. Neal
    As with most things there are pros and cons. I've always waited until a couple of weeks after the second jab before taking them out. However, my middle bitch is a bit touchy with people and other dogs and since getting her I heard that somebody (I think it's Guide Dogs for the Blind) recommend getting them out as soon as possible. Then I read in an Australian Kelpie book the recommendation to do the same based on the opinion that the possible health dangers from taking them out earlier are outweighed by the socialisation benefits. As a result I took my current pup out straight away and althoug
  2. Neal
    Apart from some physical features and elements of their temperament, I always think of Airedales as being terriers in name only. I tend to consider them more as an old fashioned waterdog.
  3. Neal
    I live on the north side of a small town and my permission's on the south side. As I don't drive I have to walk through the middle of the pedestrianised high street on my way there and back. I don't get any comments about my attire but I get the usual astonished stares when I return with any rabbits; it's a good job we don't get many. My son's baby buggy is one of those extreme off-road ones, made in New Zealand, and I've been able to carry them back in the basket underneath. He wasn't old enough to sit still long enough for a morning's ferreting last season (nearly nine months now) but I'm h
  4. Neal
    The Purdey's Progress DVD is especially good for tips on retrieving.
  5. Neal
    I'm a leg man myself, no I'm not refering to the "dogging" I mean that I don't drive. However, whenever the wife and I are in Devon I notice that most of the farm vehicles we see are Land Rover 90 pick-ups with an Ifor on the back. Is this because the Ifor provides a more even temperature for the dogs during the summer ie not overheating as they would in a conventional car, does anyone know?
  6. Neal
    I've heard that frequent use of text-talk can actually lower your I.Q. In a school where I used to work, the headteacher's spelling and grammar were so bad I had to go round behind her on a Monday morning and change all the diary notes on the staffroom whiteboard. I kept making the occasional comment about it but as it never improved I reached the stage where I just used to circle them in red pen. That's probably why they don't give me any more supply work. I know we can't all be perfect but I find text-talk just plain lazy.
  7. Neal
    22" is above average height. My two kelpie bitches are about 19 1/2" and 17 1/2".
  8. Neal
    I use all three of my pure kelpies for rabbiting so I don't think that mating one to a whippet would produce anything too heavy. In fact, I'm often asked of my cream bitch what lurcher cross she is. My other bitch is tiny at only just over 17" and looks more like a terrier x whippet in build so would probably be ideal for crossing. And in case anybody thinks I'm hinting...the cream bitch was spayed two years ago and I'm intending to have the pup done soon. I have to admit though that all their catches are in cover rather than in the open.
  9. Neal
    I'd tend to agree with Keano. I've previously picked pups based on different things until over nine years ago when I bought my current top dog. The breeder opened the run door and most of the litter raced off past me and around the corner to the paddock; however one pup came straight up to me, put his front paws up on my knees, wagged his tail like mad and seemed to be saying, "I'm your new dog." Since then I'd always look for that kind of honesty and je ne sais quoi in a pup.
  10. Neal
    Also, the South West section of the Sheep Association are holding an event near Okehampton in Devon on the 9th of June which includes a kelpie demonstration including yard work and backing.
  11. Neal
    Mikeyboy: Fieldfare PO Box 2 Llandeilo Carmarthenshire SA19 6EW
  12. Neal
    Here's a link for the Newspaper article: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/farming-north-w...55578-23562613/ I hope that works as it's the first time I've copied and pasted a web address.
  13. Neal
    Mike, could that be down to the size of the two kelpies used as I know there's a lot of disparity? My pup, nearly 22 months old now, is a fraction over 17" at the shoulder but I've heard of and seen a few which are around the 24" mark. Also, have you heard that there's a group of farmers in North Wales trying to promote the use of kelpies?
  14. Neal
    I've been feeding raw bones etc for about ten years now and every time I go to the vet, which isn't very often, my vet always says he wishes all the other dogs he saw were in as good condition as mine. Also, as someone stated above, several thousand wolves can't be wrong. When I started feeding this way I read in one of the Billinghurst books that it also reduces the risk of fleas. I must admit I thought this was going a claim too far but since then I've only had two very minor bouts of fleas (touch wood) and one was after moving into a house previously owned by a "mad-cat-woman" (somebody els
  15. Neal
    I must be working at different schools to the ones all your kids go to. I live in a city with a huge Bangladeshi community and we never get any problems over joining in with Christmas plays etc; I even regularly get Christmas cards from some. Having said that, in one year's Nativity play with farmyard animals we had to ensure none of the Muslims were given the role of the pig!
  16. Neal
    Heard today about a six hundred page book (actually a compilation of three books) called "The complete book of great working dog stories." It's 100% kelpies and heelers. I think I might treat myself to a late 40th birthday present.
  17. Neal
    Agree 100% Maxhardcore! I'm not saying that if you added together all the empty houses in the British Isles it would necessarily come to the total of new housing apparently needed but it would certainly make a dent in it. It would also provide work in the urban areas where unemployment may be higher and re-generate those areas. The farms where I have permission are ear-marked to have housing etc built on a section of them, yet I'm only about ten miles from a major city, full of empty buildings.
  18. Neal
    I had something similar happen to one of my bitches just over two years ago. It was literally on the final day of her season so she'd not been out anywhere to sustain an injury. One moment she was fine and the next there was blood pouring from her nose. At the time the vet found nothing wrong, despite me asking them to check for several things via blood tests which they didn't do: I thought they'd have been grateful to bump the cost up even more. I've recently found out that apparently unexplained haemorraghing is a possible symptom of lung worm which is on the increase.
  19. Neal
    I thought Muirhead came from The Pentland Hills near Dunsyre.
  20. Neal
    I remember years ago when Plummer was going through one of his, "what-shall-I-do-next" phases that he wrote an article in which he said he was going to produce a line of merle coloured beardies. He went into great detail about how little border blood the line would need before they could legitimately be still called beardies. Lo and behold, a few years later, another article in which it is claimed that there have always been merle beardies and the only reason we never see them at Crufts is because the original stock, which produced the show lines, didn't use the merle ones. What an amazing coi
  21. Neal
    Matty, no worries mate; I didn't take your comment as being in any way sarcastic and in fact I completely agreed with your post. I was more worried about my comments being taken by others as pro-Hancock and starting another one of those threads. Jack; there are some photos of Remus in Hancock's, "My Life With Lurchers," and a particularly good one in Plummer's, "Practical Lurcher Breeding." To be honest, it's the only reason I still have the book as I love that photo. From the photos I've seen of working and show beardies, there doesn't always appear to be a great difference in the leng
  22. Neal
    Matty, mine was from the kennels you're referring to. Her sire was Hancock's first beardie, Remus. I really liked Remus' character when I met him all those years ago and also that of Fiona, though I can't remember if she was his sister or daughter. As I said before, I gather the line he uses now is different but I'm not certain. If my memory serves me well, Remus (and Fiona too) were not typical beardies in appearance as they were quite small and looked more "mongrelly" for want of a better word.
  23. Neal
    I think a lot of it is simply down to misinformation; we tend to believe what we're told by the media, especially when we're young and impressionable. I'm ashamed to admit that although being brought up in a pro-hunting household I went through an anti-hunting phase during my late teens simply because I believed all the rubbish I was fed while at Art College (bloody students! ) I believed I was green as in Environmentally conscious but I later realised I was green as in innocent. My wife was anti-hunting when we met but thanks to some education I've actually heard her swearing at the rad
  24. Neal
    From my experience of owning a beardie/greyhound first cross I'd say that one of the main points is to allow it to use its intelligence for your mutual benefit rather than dominating it into 100% obedience. I had mine about eighteen years ago though so the line yours is from may have a completely different temperament.
  25. Neal
    Thanks Finn. I'll try to get some more information from my brother about his dog's breeding too. I know what you mean about simply watching them; they just seem to think about what they're doing in a way that's different to other dogs. On that recent Countryfile with Adam Henson's dogs he made a comment to his father about the pup working naturally but not yet following its direction signals. That's what I find with mine, to a certain extent, they can follow instructions but they tend to work off their own initiative. Sometimes I'll ask them to do something and they'll look at me as if the
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