Working Collie

[Country Joe 1,411]

Had a collie from a pup from a farm in preston 1970 my childhood companion were i went the dog followed. when i got into lurchers in the early eighties all the lurchers i ever had had collie in them plus a few with saluki. now iam nearly 50 my attitude has changed the big hopefully numbers dont matter anymore. lamping has lost its appeal. i get a lot of pleasure from ferreting and just going on a mooch.Before my time is up i would like to try a full collie for the ferreting game .going to lack pace for bolters but were i go there are no nice fields its all woodland scrub indusrial waste land. if a couple get away from a net as sometimes it happens to everyone im not to fussed.a good marking biddable dog good coat and feet working on crap ground. catch the odd one in cover may pick up a bird or two.will suit me. sounds like just the job for a good half cross but a collie it will be in the future.

I knew a ferreting Lad who worked a pure Collie, brilliant marker, good around the nets, and usually positioned himself to catch any that slipped the net.

And as above would take Pheasant, a really good ferreting companion he was.

[darbo 4,774]

 

Had a collie from a pup from a farm in preston 1970 my childhood companion were i went the dog followed. when i got into lurchers in the early eighties all the lurchers i ever had had collie in them plus a few with saluki. now iam nearly 50 my attitude has changed the big hopefully numbers dont matter anymore. lamping has lost its appeal. i get a lot of pleasure from ferreting and just going on a mooch.Before my time is up i would like to try a full collie for the ferreting game .going to lack pace for bolters but were i go there are no nice fields its all woodland scrub indusrial waste land. if a couple get away from a net as sometimes it happens to everyone im not to fussed.a good marking biddable dog good coat and feet working on crap ground. catch the odd one in cover may pick up a bird or two.will suit me. sounds like just the job for a good half cross but a collie it will be in the future.

I knew a ferreting Lad who worked a pure Collie, brilliant marker, good around the nets, and usually positioned himself to catch any that slipped the net.

And as above would take Pheasant, a really good ferreting companion he was.

 

Something to think about for the future laurie.

[C Hall 552]

There is a lad with a pure in the local town he uses it for ratting ferreting and a bit of lamping, its forte is rats the lad is always round the back of fast food shops, in parks, basically anywhere there is waste food or rats. That collie accounts for a lot of rats. The lad and this collie often tour round the fast food vans you see in lay bye's looking for rats out the back of them. The lad and the collie are obsessed with ratting

[whippet 99 2,613]

judge them how you like but the lurcher world owes the collie a lot...........what ever it hunted..........a cur for me any day

[Guest vin]

i know a lad who uses a border bitch for Ferreting..one of the best markers I've seen work,

[tjones3862 3,423]

i know a lad who uses a border bitch for Ferreting..one of the best markers I've seen work,

WUD YOU SAY VIN IT AT TOO COME OFF FULL WORKING PARENTS TO DO IT, HAS IVE SAID ROUNDING SHEEP UP ON A HILL HIS TOTALLY DIFFRENT TO HUNTING BUNNYS,,,

[Phil Lloyd 10,736]

Personaly,..

 

I think you ether get on with herding dogs,.or you don't...

Edited June 15, 2013 by Phil Lloyd

[BORDERSCOT 3,816]

 

i know a lad who uses a border bitch for Ferreting..one of the best markers I've seen work,

WUD YOU SAY VIN IT AT TOO COME OFF FULL WORKING PARENTS TO DO IT, HAS IVE SAID ROUNDING SHEEP UP ON A HILL HIS TOTALLY DIFFRENT TO HUNTING BUNNYS,,,

 

 

Rounding up sheep is still hunting though...I would rather use a good rangy hill collie that's grafting than a collie that's having a few days ferreting every season...my thinking there is that the herding cur is tested to the extreme...heart, lungs, sinew, bone and psyche put through it every day...some of these hill dogs may run 30, 40 or maybe 50 miles on a big gathering day...while hunting sheep constantly and be on the go from first light til last thing and will have had a full day in at the buchts too...when I was a young lad 'rough time' would see me walking (before quads were commonplace) 6 miles at first light and the same in the evening hefting sheep from the tops to the bottoms and vice versa...so, that's walking 12 miles a day, now I reckoned the dogs always did twice that when they were driving sheep...so that's 24 miles every day...seen them do that without a tongue hanging out...they were certainly robust...

[Phil Lloyd 10,736]

True words BorderScot...

Edited June 15, 2013 by Phil Lloyd

[Big bald beautiful 1,231]

putting the graft in..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdrBX3cqF6U

[BORDERSCOT 3,816]

True words BorderScot...

We had scores of sheepdogs on the farm back in Wales,..and I shudder to think the mileage they did, working across those Valleys.

Facts are, the dogs sometimes got burnt out, and hill worn...When this happened, we would sell them on, to graziers who worked the flat lands of Kent and suchlike. Indeed, when we moved to the South, I was struck with the fast, sleek varieties of collie on the Romney Marshes,..

I've seen similar types herding on Dartmoor and the Somerset Levels,..

 

So, so varied, in both shape and size,..but all honest workers, eh

 

Phil...same here dogs just like the sheep they herded eventually got too old for the hill (often as young as 5 or 6 years old...)...but not too old to be of use on a more forgiving and sedate landscape...I have passed dogs onto lads who worked flat grassland and the dogs have given several more useful years of service...often still doing a bit handy work in their dotage...the sheep too...hard old life for a high up Blackie...so, we'd have 5 crops of lambs and draft them to lowland pastures where they would often produce another 3 or 4 crops and live past 10 years old...

[bird 9,626]

 

 

i know a lad who uses a border bitch for Ferreting..one of the best markers I've seen work,

WUD YOU SAY VIN IT AT TOO COME OFF FULL WORKING PARENTS TO DO IT, HAS IVE SAID ROUNDING SHEEP UP ON A HILL HIS TOTALLY DIFFRENT TO HUNTING BUNNYS,,,

 

 

Rounding up sheep is still hunting though...I would rather use a good rangy hill collie that's grafting than a collie that's having a few days ferreting every season...my thinking there is that the herding cur is tested to the extreme...heart, lungs, sinew, bone and psyche put through it every day...some of these hill dogs may run 30, 40 or maybe 50 miles on a big gathering day...while hunting sheep constantly and be on the go from first light til last thing and will have had a full day in at the buchts too...when I was a young lad 'rough time' would see me walking (before quads were commonplace) 6 miles at first light and the same in the evening hefting sheep from the tops to the bottoms and vice versa...so, that's walking 12 miles a day, now I reckoned the dogs always did twice that when they were driving sheep...so that's 24 miles every day...seen them do that without a tongue hanging out...they were certainly robust...

 

good thread colin, yeh no dout about it proper working farm collies are tough dogs with great stamina.But its the same with any breed, once you x them to a greyhound you loose that great stamina what the pure had, just one of those things.But there no dout the hunting deff comes comes from the collie (drive,nose,) my dog Bryn very racey for a 1x collie x grey, he very fast for this x, thats the greyhound in him, but his nose which is brill in the day ferrting or mooching, and his stamina 40 odd runs in the lamp thats the collie, and his feckin brain lol

[paulsmithy83 567]

....... Bird I'll pm you instead I think maybe not fair puttin it up on forum

[C Hall 552]

Nice to read a topic with so much input from people who have obviously done a bit and know there dogs

 

Even better that there is no mention of that sacred critter that is only to be ran in the daytime by a certain cross

Edited June 15, 2013 by C Hall

[BORDERSCOT 3,816]

....... Bird I'll pm you instead I think maybe not fair puttin it up on forum

 

Maybe best eh??? You just totally rubbished this man's dog on an open forum...

 

No need for that...knew the positive and thought provoking input wouldn't last...nothing changes...