Whippets, is their prey drive a detriment to their working ability?

[Guest Manitoba]

sabre toothed muntjac running around hunting down and slaying whippets ffs what next ?

[asanley 1,009]

I have had whippets and wjippetxs a long time ,they have all been as keen and driven as anything , I have run them on all sorts of land , some land it was probably stupid to do so ,apart from the usual rips , tears , knocks , sprains etc they have all been remarkably resiliant to injury in fact in 20 odd years I havent had an injury that required a vet .

 

I guess that you don't have muntjac where you are. Two of my friends have had whippets killed by muntjac bucks in the last couple of years and another mate who is a keeper is under standing orders to kill every muntjac seen on the estate because of the damage done to the landowners whippets by them.

 

 

No mate , I confess I,v never even seen a muntjac ,but back in the day I did have some experience of roe and fallow , I,d also say that although I have worked my dogs steadily over the years , I don,t work them as hard or on the amount of game that a lot of people on here seem to do , so maybe that has a bearing , but we can only comment on what we have experienced ourselves , ATB

[inan 841]

I can't speak of all whippets as i have not worked one before, and don't know that many folk that do. However, i can speak of mine.

 

My whippet Finn is just over 2 years old, he is about 21.5 / 22 inches to the shoulder and weighs about 18/19 kilos. I have now worked him for two seasons, his first at 6-12 months and his second at 18-24 months. His first season was spent learning the ferreting game, and lots and lots of day time mooching / bushing, his second season, a heavy dose of the same, and the introduction of lamping.

 

He has been a difficult and brilliant dog to bring on, he certainly has a high prey drive and a stupidly high 'hunting drive' as well. I would divide the two, into, the former, a desire to catch and kill his quarry, to get his teeth into it when he has put it up and sighted it. And the latter, is his desire to find that quarry in his first place, from searching for a scent, to following that scent through cover and over distance, through the air or ground, until he rises his quarry. I'm not sure at which point, the hunting drive, becomes prey drive? I have thought of this a lot, because when he is on a scent, and the quarry is relitivly close, and he knows he now has a good enough scent to find it, his body language, and actions are the same as when a dog is sighted to its quarry and giving chase.

 

This has been very difficult in training, as the high prey drive, made him want to get stuck into everything, including ferrets and sheep, and the hunting drive, made him go deaf as soon as he filled his nostrils. He still does this now, to some extent, he becomes totally consumed by the scent he is hunting, and sometimes i'm not sure if he even hears me? He certainly ignores me unless i really raise my voice. However, in the situations where i can let him do his thing, he will nearly always find and push out the quarry, no matter how far he has to go away from me, and once raised he will either catch and kill / retrieve it, or if he loses it, return. If it goes to ground, he will mark it, until i get within range and then come to me and go back. This means often, he hunts out of sight, and returns to check where i am every so often. If he goes awol and doesnt come in to a whistle, i head in the direction he went and usually find him with his quarry, or find him on his way back to me with it or marking it.

 

To be honest, he's not that fast. He's obviously faster than a lot of dogs, but for a whippet he just isnt a speed machine! He is solid, and strong, and has bags of stamina, and over a short distance has very quick reactions. His acceleration is good. He is well built, but of course, is a whippet and so is slight and does have thinner skin than any terrier or herding x. However, for a whippet it isnt bad, and its no worse than most other heavily sight hound blooded dogs. But, i do think, that his blind dedication, and like you said 'terrier like tenacity' when behind quarry, leads him to be blind to most other things, at times, and that leads to the odd bang.

 

Over the last two seasons he has had three serious knocks. The first, he hit a piece of tin sheet hidden in grass at full speed after a rabbit, leading to a serious gash in his back leg. The other two were front end impacts into barbed wire, both after rabbits, both times the barbed wire was hidden in cover and both times he had some serious cuts to his legs. The first would have fecked most dogs, the second two, a thicker skinned dog would probably have walked away from with out needing vet treatment. Most dogs probably would have hit them, if on that rabbit.

 

So three bad cuts in two seasons isn't great, and the one was almost game over, but i do work the dog pretty much every day (every day in the season), as he doesnt understand the idea of 'just a walk', and i do work him on a huge range of terrains, from the yorkshire dales to the sussex downs, and plenty more inbetween. I mostly run him across mountainsides / moorland and through woodland, so probably in theory, the worst possible ground to work a whippet on. He picks up plenty of small scratches and cuts, but he hunts like feck. I would put him against pretty much any and every dog at daytime hunting, and know i wouldnt walk away looking silly (unless i tried to call him back to me when on or near game haha).

 

Now finally, to the prey drive and killing bit. It's interesting, since day one of having him, he's liked to shake the hell into things. He doesn't play with balls, or chew toys, but he does on occaision like to 'kill' a pillow or two, shaking it like mad. When it comes to rabbits he mostly retrieves alive and to hand if we are out a lone, apart from the first rabbit of the night lamping, which he likes to parade for a bit. If you give him a dead rabbit to play with though he usually end up shaking it about. He will face anything you let him, no matter the odds, and throughout two seasons of daytime ratching about (i usually carry a gun as well, as you never know what you might put up, especially on the shoot i work on), he has had plenty of tree rats, a few rats and flushed and retrieved a couple of charlie, and a mink all of which he has shaken to feck, killed quickly where needed, and really looked like he has enjoyed himself. He goes wild to get at the tree rats and on the scent of a charlie, hunting the latter harder than anything. He also tracked an injured roe well, the only one he has encountered properly.

 

So, in conclusion i certainly wouldnt say he was laid back or sensible, and he does have a very high prey and hunting drive and that brings some problems, but the benefits out weigh them. And although i always expect him to smash himself up, he doesnt do too badly considering how much and where he works. Maybe the key is he is strongly built, and just not that fast. Although i say that and maybe i just mean he has gears, some of which he very rarely needs to use. I say that because one time i saw him chase and catch something moving very very fast, starting from a long way out and i have never seen him run so fast in his life.

 

Just my thoughts on my dog, like i said, i cant speak for them all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good thoughtful , honest post ,and a grand looking little dog.

[inan 841]

sabre toothed muntjac running around hunting down and slaying whippets ffs what next ?

A dog may take 50 Munties wiithout injury , [preban of course ], but there is always a danger of it being ripped open by one . I've seen a few nasty gashes in big dogs one severing the femoral artery, another ripping open a dogs side down to the ribs.. It's not always cake taking them.

[Moll. 1,792]

Ive never had whippets before Boo, nor have i been out with any others to compare him with. So i can only speak as i find.

 

To me he is no different to any other lurcher.

 

His prey drive is normal, slightly less when compared to the bull x's i have had, but more or less the same as other folk's lurchers i have been out with. But for some reason which is strange for a whippet from what i have read, he is not really bothered at all by rats, he does not get as excited for them as he does rabbits or hares, and never has done, even before he was bitten by one

 

He does have to kill his rabbits, but that is not a problem for me, i prefer it, the rabbits are mainly for dog/ferret food anyway, and is probably due to what Mally said about entering when not 100% ready. I think he got sick of them running off again and having to keep re-catching when he was younger I have however noticed on long nights out catching big numbers he starts to retrieve live the more tired he gets. I think i made the mistake of trying him too early, because they are small dogs we tend to think they mature fast...their bodies might but their brains certainly dont. If i ever get another whippet, and i certainly plan on doing so one day, i will enter it much later, 10 months at the VERY earliest...even longer tbh.

 

His skin is better than most, never had a tear in 4 years, even though he has had injuries which may have created a tear in thin skinned dogs, and the same as aStanley, has never needed vet treatment, although has required the bone man to click him back into place. Prior to this treatment his prey drive had dropped, after, went back to normal.

 

Temperament wise he is eager to please, and was a joy to train but can have a small stubborn streak when he wants.

 

Never yapped in his life.

 

Boo was my little indulgence, got him because i always wanted a whippet, not cos i needed one. And i would certainly love to have another one from my experience of owning this little dog.

 

[Peter4190 98]

The dog is bound to be hard mouthed if u give him squirrels, nice looking dog though mon

[Guest Manitoba]

sabre toothed muntjac running around hunting down and slaying whippets ffs what next ?

A dog may take 50 Munties wiithout injury , [preban of course ], but there is always a danger of it being ripped open by one . I've seen a few nasty gashes in big dogs one severing the femoral artery, another ripping open a dogs side down to the ribs.. It's not always cake taking them.

theres allways a danger to any dog not just whippets

[woodland 6]

Beautiful testimonies and nice photos. Someone used (pre ban) the whippet for hares, fox, mink and deer?

And someone hunting these quarry today with a gun and a whippet? Thank you

[Ideation 8,216]

I wish we had munty here, it would be interesting.

[woodland 6]

I wish we had munty here, it would be interesting.

 

Is there your cracker whippet on whippet archive?

[Ideation 8,216]

?

[Moll. 1,792]

?

 

I think he means is your dog on whippet archives

 

Although it does not seem to be working at the mo?

 

http://thewhippetarchives.net/newest.php

[Ideation 8,216]

I don't think he is, no.

[Moll. 1,792]

I'm lost then

[Ideation 8,216]

Me to.