A big thank you to Deep Earth, mooching on the dales

[Tyla 3,179]

I posted on here for someone to take me and the mutts out on Monday morning, I had travelled up to Yorkshire for a funeral and had a spare couple of hours before hand.

 

Deep Earth kindly offered to take me out and I picked him and his friend up first thing in the morning. The plan was to wander round some permission letting the dogs, Willow and Ollie, hunt up and then use the ferrets to bolt anything that was put to ground.

 

We were a long way from home and the dogs were a bit put out by the different terrain, they had never seen the dales, the stone walls, the reed beds etc and were far from their best. We had a few runs although the wet ground cant have been very appealing for the rabbits to lay up in. The first kill was for one of the ferrets, a rabbit that was flushed, missed, bolted, missed, bolted and missed again before deciding to try its chances with the ferret

 

After another few runs, all of which made their escape through the walls much to the dogs disgust, Willow marked a reed bed. The rabbits sit far tighter than my dogs were used to but eventually bolted with Willow right on it, she ran it in a circle turning it away from the wall but it made it back to the same reeds without her connecting. It turned out there was a little bury in the reeds and the ferret was entered to turf the rabbit out again. This time Willow connected and followed up with a nice retrieve.

 

We covered a bit more ground and have another few runs. One was put to ground in a stone wall, something i have read about but never seen. Ollie was giving a definate mark but the rabbit was nowhere to be seen between the stones and evaded the ferret to start with until a second ferret was entered. Typically it bolted from the opposite side to Willow but it was good to see from my point of view.

 

The scenery and company were great, the rabbits werent particularly co operative and the dogs struggled a bit to adapt their working style to the different terrain. I had a really enjoyable couple of hours and met too very keen young lads who were kind enough to take a complete stranger onto their permission and made me very welcome.

 

Thank you very much lads and if you are ever down south dont hestitate to come for a day or night out!

[johnny boy68 11,725]

Great write up mate and you're right Joe is a top lad, great company in a beautiful part of the country. Great stuff.

[moxy 617]

Nice one DE for your hospitality. Glad you lads had a good do.

[Ideation 8,216]

Two of my favourite folk on THL, glad you guys got to meet each other! We should all get together one day!

[The one 8,402]

Nice its what this site should be about

[Sirius 1,358]

Good stuff :yes:

[NEWKID 26,376]

Nice one lads, as said what the site should be about, like minded lads meeting for a mooch....

[patterdalejoel 669]

aye he's a good lad, its Carol thats the brains behind the operation though

[my hounds 307]

Tyla another good post and pleased you had a good few hours up here in yorkshire,ATB.

[Brimmer 220]

Glad you got to see the dales Tyla. Hard on dogs, Hard on stock! They can be a bit harsh at times, but its part of what makes it!

[ferretville 69]

Its what its all about good stuff lads

[DeepEarth 104]

Sorry for the slow reply. It was a great morning, good company and a couple of bunnies.

 

We carried on in the afternoon and had another 4.

 

Hope to see you again some time mate.

 

Joe

[lapin2008 1,587]

I posted on here for someone to take me and the mutts out on Monday morning, I had travelled up to Yorkshire for a funeral and had a spare couple of hours before hand.

 

Deep Earth kindly offered to take me out and I picked him and his friend up first thing in the morning. The plan was to wander round some permission letting the dogs, Willow and Ollie, hunt up and then use the ferrets to bolt anything that was put to ground.

 

We were a long way from home and the dogs were a bit put out by the different terrain, they had never seen the dales, the stone walls, the reed beds etc and were far from their best. We had a few runs although the wet ground cant have been very appealing for the rabbits to lay up in. The first kill was for one of the ferrets, a rabbit that was flushed, missed, bolted, missed, bolted and missed again before deciding to try its chances with the ferret

 

After another few runs, all of which made their escape through the walls much to the dogs disgust, Willow marked a reed bed. The rabbits sit far tighter than my dogs were used to but eventually bolted with Willow right on it, she ran it in a circle turning it away from the wall but it made it back to the same reeds without her connecting. It turned out there was a little bury in the reeds and the ferret was entered to turf the rabbit out again. This time Willow connected and followed up with a nice retrieve.

 

We covered a bit more ground and have another few runs. One was put to ground in a stone wall, something i have read about but never seen. Ollie was giving a definate mark but the rabbit was nowhere to be seen between the stones and evaded the ferret to start with until a second ferret was entered. Typically it bolted from the opposite side to Willow but it was good to see from my point of view.

 

The scenery and company were great, the rabbits werent particularly co operative and the dogs struggled a bit to adapt their working style to the different terrain. I had a really enjoyable couple of hours and met too very keen young lads who were kind enough to take a complete stranger onto their permission and made me very welcome.

 

Thank you very much lads and if you are ever down south dont hestitate to come for a day or night out!

 

Very good write up and honest account and sounds like you had a good day.

Nice to see someone acknowledging that running on this sort of terrain in the dales offers its own unique set of challenges for dogs and is not just a shooting fish in a barrel type exercise that some think it is.