salukis

[Guest Daks]

some fair comments on this thread both for and against, the horses for courses statement defo comes into play here, i have been out with loads of lads in the 12yr i've owned running dogs every dog is differant so is its handler what you think is great the next man thinks is shite thats just the way of the world.

from my point of view of being in the game before and since the stupid ban!! i can see why people have saluki's they are beutiful to watch course a hare round and round till its lungs pop or it gets sick and takes it pre ban, but since the ban you cant do this obviously and require a dog that nails it if the case should arise asap no fecking about,

i think though why would you want a dog that can do hare when its illegal to do so at the min?? personally i rather like watching a good coursewether it would be on bunnies hare etc etc etc, where the dog misses than a 20 second dash when your looking at getting your dog lamp car taken and maybe time inside. if i wanted to eat hare then yeah id want a dog to nail it and be on the next same with bunnies but i give all my kills to friends with ferrets well nearly all, i dont see the excitement in killing something just for killing its sake it baffles the hell out of me why people do it??

i own a pure saluki but am hoping that by the time he is old enough to start coursing hare the ban might just be lifted and itl be legal again otherwise i will become one of those breaking the law as i got him to work and really wanna see what he's like behind long ears no body is going to stop me doing what i love in my own country if the politicians have a problem tough shit, yeah we live in a democracy but if thats true why dont we get a say insted of the do gooders??

i for one didnt vote for gorden dick face brown to take over when blair couldnt hack it anymore did you?? no offence to the scotish guys with the next comment but if he wanted to prime minister he should feckoff to scotland and be it!! england should be run by english, scotland by scotish but we are just the scumbags, yet they rape us for our taxes to pay for their lunches fancy cars, houses.....bring in the bnp is all i can say the muslims wouldnt be telling us they are going to march through wooten basset then!!! imo if they wanna march then fine go to afgan and do it they are in britain if they dont like it f**k right off back to whatever shit hole they came from if they were born here then goto france with the other immigrants..... dont get me wrong i am not racist but fucksakes it takes the piss!!!

<big sigh> right rant over about that atb everyone..daks

[mighty celt 996]

hi to all the saluki men out there

just a quick question for you in a minute ------ ive had lurchers

for over 15 yrs and been of mixed variety but all have the same

coursing techniques ie run down beam or straight to rab or hare

pre ban of course)and try to catch it as quick as poss so you get a good

long /short hard working dog snapping at their heels which the thrill

for me is far greater than a dog which runs its quarry till its on it

last legs like the saluki , yes they have great stamina but

in my eyes it gets me why peope enjoy the running of these dogs

as they hardly ever snap and take their quarry in full flight

on the dvd s or vids you see the hares is about fucxxx

i know a long course is good to see but when its working

it like a shepherd dog ,rounding it up between hedges etc till it

drops is not for me

put a light on this job please or your preferences to any

of you out there with longdogs / lurchers

not for an arguement please cheers gibbo

not all salukis run there quarry like this mate i have a saulki/whippet which is as fast of the mark as any dog i ave ever seen she has only run 3 hares the most turns any of them got out of her is 9 and thats in small fields.as for lamping she is so keen on geting them as fast as she can she over shoots them alot makes for some exsiting courses thou she is starting 2 get the hang of the lamping now thou and is hanging back waiting for the write time 2 strike.i have a whippet also who cant touch dis dog for speed and my mates have all difrent type of lurchers and none of them could match her for speed.im not bosting bout my dog just saying dont think salukis r 1 trick ponys cause your so wrong.

[bird 10,014]

Had mate had [salukixgrey xcolliexgrey] in the 's , it was 27in 70lb. It was great on all game[hares,foxes,rabbits,deer,] A real good dog,it was quite biddable,rabbits always brought back to hand,good on fox . This is a x i would get in the future

[coursing mad 5]

if you want a snappy dog on the hedgelines people genraly dont get a saluki, i think its all about the turning hares ect that make it exitefull if it just went and picked it out of its seat then what good is that, its not hare coursing thats for sure.

 

tom !!

[Guest Mass_G3nocide]

I like a dog to run a far distance i also like to see the hare flying across a field i do not like the quick run as its boring and seems unsportive i like to give a nice slip not kick it up and slip straight away,I like to see the hare get away when my dog fuckes up.And i like to see a dog made to look stupid.I like the hare For another Day!

[Meerihunter 7]

Some interesting comments, some clearly based on very little first hand experience.

 

I started out with lurcher's but was disheartened by the constant stream of injuries they incurred in the line of their work and quickly came to conclusion that Salukis suited my needs better than lurcher's despite never running them on the fens, they are much more robust and durable than the average lurcher, the difference in speed if there is any is negligible IMO, personally I've not found my Salukis to be slower than any of my lurcher's. They actually consistently take more game out mooching than my lurcher's. I ferret with them, lamp and generally mooch about with them, more often than not in woods and along hedgerows rather than open fields. Mine will rattle through any cover in pursuit of quarry and such is there prey drive. In short I do a lurcher's work with Salukis but they very different animals to typical lurcher's and as such you have to let them have there own head or you'll get nothing from them.

 

Also to dispel another myth about Salukis they are not only found and working in desert regions, they are the hunting dog of choice in numerous mountain ranges, in woodland and scrub land and in fields no different to anything found in the UK ranging from Eastern Europe to China, from Russia to India and North Africa they are kept in every country between these furtherest reaches and have heavily influenced the native sight hounds breeds of pretty much every other country outside of there naturally occurring ranges. There is also hardly any quarry species that they have not been used to hunt, truly as versatile a hunting dog as you could ever find.

 

Enough said I think.

[leethomas 3]

Very well put meerihunter

[Guest Daks]

meerihunter thats a spot on post mate and as you have BOTH i totaly respect what you have put

[Guest bluemink]

hi to all the saluki men out there

just a quick question for you in a minute ------ ive had lurchers

for over 15 yrs and been of mixed variety but all have the same

coursing techniques ie run down beam or straight to rab or hare

pre ban of course)and try to catch it as quick as poss so you get a good

long /short hard working dog snapping at their heels which the thrill

for me is far greater than a dog which runs its quarry till its on it

last legs like the saluki , yes they have great stamina but

in my eyes it gets me why peope enjoy the running of these dogs

as they hardly ever snap and take their quarry in full flight

on the dvd s or vids you see the hares is about fucxxx

i know a long course is good to see but when its working

it like a shepherd dog ,rounding it up between hedges etc till it

drops is not for me

put a light on this job please or your preferences to any

of you out there with longdogs / lurchers

not for an arguement please cheers gibbo

for me it is the thrill of the chase, not always the kill.

[boyo 1,398]

depending how their bred or crossed they can be fast up bang trying all the time merchants or stickers staying behind the hare waiting for the right moment and then you have the fast up that will try and kill straight away and if miss settle in to work the hare untill the right moment to put salukis and saluki crosses in a box as slow dull wont listen and so on is totally wrong ive seen loads of differant crosses or types and differant types of runners the secret is to try and pick the cross or type of runner you like . mind you that in itself aint easy as they dont always end up like you hope or thought they would .

[Annmarie09 5]

Salukis were bred to stun small prey and retrieve it live to their handler, and therefore some of these dogs are probably waiting for the right moment to do so. Of course once you cross any breed with another it may lose some of that instinct. I don't believe you will find a better dog if you want one to be a companion as well as a worker, but if you only see your dog as a tool to work with then maybe a bull cross is a better choice.

[Guest TERRIERCENTRAL]

found it , i know its coursing but you have to enjoy it surely

also im not on about flying up and tare arsing about i just

think putting its quarry under pressure to make a mistake then

striking it is far more a test for quarry than running it to its

last breathe

 

 

well i have a saluki greyhound and a pure saluki and the first cross bitch can take a rabbit /hare just like any other running dog she puts preasure on the quarry i have had her take hares after 30 seconds of running and also hares after 4 or 5 mins of running

 

and the pure saluki bitch had her first run the other day and put prasure on her quarry ran it very well and picked it up after about 40 seconds i see were you comeing from on the dvds but have you had the breed and ran thenm yourself?

[tanit1 3]

some very intresting comments and im pleased to hear that not all fork think ill about salukis. im fetching a young saluki cross on at the moment.its the first saluki tipe iv had. im gona do my utmost best with her. shes a dream sofar.iv had her since she was 8wks and im very happy i bought her.time will tel.atb :)the funs allways in the chace. Edited January 13, 2010 by tanit1

[wurzelbert 9]

good coursing dogs switch styles for the land there running, just because some

dogs look steady running fen land doesn't mean they use the same style to run smaller land

[skycat 6,174]

Good Salukis and Saluki lurchers are superb in every way, and whilst they do have the stamina to go the distance on a strong fen hare, the best are also capable of picking up in a short time and adapting their running/hunting style to the terrian and prey they are running.

 

I think that a lot of the dogs (certainly not all of them) you see on the DVDs have been turned into plodders by over running: seen it myself: some owners run and run and run their dogs when they should have left the field. The dog, through experience and sometimes fatigue learns that it doesn't have to run flat out to catch a hare as the hare is unlikely to go to ground: some of these dogs really come unstuck when run on heavily coursed ground where the hares are likely to pipe up in a drain or fox earth. So then you get the marathon runs where neither the hare nor the dog is running as fast as it could: a hare will only run as fast as it has to to escape.

 

Plus I think that a lot of the so called fen dogs were never given the opportunity to do anything other than be run off the end of a slip: not condemning them as no good at anything else at all, just that their owners didn't do anything else with them.

 

My Saluki lurchers have all been ferreting, mouching and even lamping: some have done everything any lurcher could do and do it well: so much depends on what sort of upbringing and education you give a dog and my present Saluki lurcher is one of the few in my pack who can disappear into cover on his own, no terriers, and hunt up, catch and bring back a rabbit, and that is from woodland, thick brambles, reeds etc where a fast dog wouldn't catch a thing:

 

What I really like about the Saluki types is the fact that they are thinking ALL THE TIME they are running, unlike some crazy speed merchants who kill themselves early on in their lives. The good Saluki type has one of the highest prey drives I've seen, but it is tempered with common sense and self preservation: a rare combination IMO.

 

Now if you can live with their desire to be self employed, their relentless hunting drive and their need to be working every day of the week then I'd say they just have to be some of the most amazing animals on earth.