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Border terrier books


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  • 3 weeks later...

Is there any books out there solely about working border terriers, there seems to be ones for jrt bedlingtons, fells, lakelands etc?

 

I have read and bought a good number of Border Books over the years.

There are no Working Border terrier books to speak of.

Most of the better books (and they are not great) use a standard boring formula.

The first chapter is a bad copy of Border terrier history. A lot of made up history about the "Border Hunt" "Cheviot Hills" etc..

Second chapter deals with the Show history since the early 1900's. lots of photo's of early champion's.

Third Chapter deals with showing the dog, it may involve instructions about stripping the coat.

if there is a chapter on working the Border. It will involve a very 1950's era idea that you should

hang around a foxhunt on hunting day and maybe get a chance to enter your dog.

This is the dumbest advice anyone could give to a young terrierman.

The remaining chapters could be copied for any dog book. i.e.

Bring the pup home, early training, breeding, whelping, .... these are book fillers.

 

The reason IMO that there are no working Border terrier books is not that there are no working Borders.

If you read the posts on the earthdog section you will see that there are people working Borders.

But the number of Working Borders is so small that there is no market for them.

 

Even in the 1900's, when Bowman, Porter etc and fell country Fox-hunting was at its peak.

There were never more than 100 working Borders (at a very optimistic guess).

These fell packs and followers also had Smooth Fox, Wire Fox, Fell, Lakeland, Russell, Patterdale, Bedlington,

Dinmont crosses etc. to select from.

 

Today there are over 8,000 Borders registered with the KC in the UK each year.

The lifespan of the average Border is about 15 years.

That makes about 120,000 Borders alive in the UK today.

Even if they were 120 working Borders of various standards at the moment. (The owners of other working breeds would dispute this).

Thats about 0.001%, not much of a market!

 

My advice is to avoid Border terrier books.

If you really need to get one;

J. Gardners "Border terrier breed history" is probably the "Original History" from which the others are copied.

Rawden B. Lees "Dogs of the British Isles" contains a chapter on Borders. (This is free to download from the internet)

 

Read a couple of the better working terrier books.

A copy of J. Lucas's "Working terriers" is available cheaply from Amazon.

D. Harcombe"s "Work them Hard treat them like heros" is a good read. He had working Borders for a while.

 

Not trying to put you off with what I've said above.

i have 2 Borders at the moment, But just trying to help you avoid wasting your time.

ATB. :thumbs:

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http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=4893934278&searchurl=bt.x%3D43%26bt.y%3D9%26sortby%3D1%26tn%3DBorder%2BTales

 

Paid £20 for my copy of this book 30 years ago. Thought it was expensive then.

Interesting book mind.

 

Thats some price Herdwick!

Is it a good read, any photographs pre 1900's of Border's working in it.

I would buy a copy but not at that price.

ATB

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I have 2 copies of the above Border tales book , it's a fantastic old book,i bought a copy and i was given one from my dear old border friend years ago just before she died........loads about working borders in it

Edited by vixen
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I have 2 copies of the above Border tales book , it's a fantastic old book,i bought a copy and i was given one from my dear old border friend years ago just before she died........loads about working borders in it

 

Hi Vixen,

Are you willing to part with one copy of the book, I would be interested in buying.

P3D.

 

Edited to add;

Jumped in too quickly, maybe obi2 would want a copy, its his post.

:thumbs:

But if he does not, I am still interested.

Edited by p3d
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I have 2 copies of the above Border tales book , it's a fantastic old book,i bought a copy and i was given one from my dear old border friend years ago just before she died........loads about working borders in it

 

Hi Vixen,

Are you willing to part with one copy of the book, I would be interested in buying.

P3D.

 

Edited to add;

Jumped in too quickly, maybe obi2 would wants a copy, its his post.

:thumbs:

But if he does not, I am still interested.

you asked first p3d so you are welcome mate. thatks for the posts about the books, iv got 3 borders and i love reading books about working dogs, makes it a better read if you own the type your reading about. atb

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