Dan Parker

Just bringing my 1st pup on now, she's a whippet and now 15 weeks. From what I've heard it can spoil a good dog to start them much under a year, so thats what I'm aiming for. Like the point about taking the dog along when ferreting being a help and was about to get a couple anyway. I'd agree for a dog to be worth working you should put a good few monhs of training in.

Only tip I'd give is to check the area in daylight, just before sunset on nights when your going out. My biggest fear with running my pup at night is a high speed collision with a piece of farm machinery or similar heavy object. When my dogs ready for rabbiting thats one rule I'm sticking to like a religion.

Yh sure, theres some great countryside in Beds I was driving out near ampthill / flitwick this morning for work thats another area I mean to try when my pups reasy for working. No didn't get her local had to travel to near Newport, Wales. Even in my limited experience I'd advise shopping round a bit. Tia is of Laguna lineage so not big by modern Whippet standards but you can see she'll be a strong runner.

Really like I said me and mrs have just got this house in beds. Until we moved in my Mrs was down your way in Melbourn nr Royston. good countryside around there, its just I wouldn't have had time to bring n a dog with commuting up this way and back everyday.

14 Weeks mate. Shes doing ok, took to house training and walking on the lead really well. I'm sure it'll come together she likes playing fetch so just rewarding the good retrieves. ive got till next rabbiting season so plenty of time.

Hi there, same thing with my Whippet pup at the minute. Keeping it in short sessions, a couple of times each day. The main problem i'm having is she has her spots where she likes to play with her toys and she always returns there with the retrieve. for instance if I sit in the middle of the living room and throw the toy / ball she'll rush to reteive it even negotiating some pretty complex obstacles and will retrieve right back to me, however if I move to another part of the room she'll still return it to that exact same spot in the middle of the rug. Its the same in other areas as well she tak

hi there, I have just joined having spent a few weeks looking round websites related to field sports, primarily those related to running dogs. Having just moved to an ideal rabbiting spot in rural Bedfordshire I have, as has long been an ambition acquired a Whippet (bitch) pup and plan to follow with a couple of ferrets in a month or two. Tia (my puppy) is presently at 14 weeks so a long way to go. I plan on starting her working late 2013, at the moment on basic commands and retrieve training. Whippets not being the easiest dogs to train I expect I'll be posting regularly to ask for advice w