Old Timers

[Rabbit Hunter 6,608]

I think thanks to current technology (bellmans etc) that the working terrier scene has never been in such a good position. Like has been said a lot of shite will have been spoken in pubs after a morning out and multiplied by every pint that was sunk. Whereas today everyone knows someone who knows someone and word travels fast. Its all single-dog work now and that is whats bred from and whats strived for.

The listening to the ground technique must have been a nightmare as sound travels through tubes a lot better than it travels through the ground. We had a dig last week and my mate said 'he's here, I can hear him clear as day!' and when i put the box where he said the dog was over 8 metres away! We dug the dog at 4 foot about half an hour later, if we'd not had the box we'd have been digging in totally the wrong area.

[nans pat 2,575]

there was that many block ends yrs ago after a sett was done a few times.lol.we used to dig 3n 4 holes sometimes not all the time thar was 70s that was true about somebody says not hearing a dog for an hour or 2.

[Lenmcharristar 9,172]

there was that many block ends yrs ago after a sett was done a few times.lol.we used to dig 3n 4 holes sometimes not all the time thar was 70s that was true about somebody says not hearing a dog for an hour or 2.

was always good opening up an old drop to a dog, easiest digging going

[nans pat 2,575]

 

there was that many block ends yrs ago after a sett was done a few times.lol.we used to dig 3n 4 holes sometimes not all the time thar was 70s that was true about somebody says not hearing a dog for an hour or 2.

was always good opening up an old drop to a dog, easiest digging going

 

ha,haa some of them were left like cheddar,lol//mackies used to make us the best stainless sounding bars you were considered a snob if you had 1.lol

[jiggy 3,207]

 

 

Theres good and bad in every era. One thing the old boys could teach todays men is how to locate their terrier if there batteries went dead in their locater or collar at a 4 foot deep earth which if happened to 90% of todays lads they would fall to pieces clueless about how to find the dog with no plan B. I bet most lads now would send for help collar up a second dog to find the first without even trying to find it and then still claim they dont ever double up.

That's my main argument.

Most folk agree that one thing we don't have to do nowadays is lie on the ground listening.

It's not rocket science.

You hoped there was no wind and you lay on the ground listening. The spot where the terrier was loudest was where you started.

Am I wrong ?

Unless a previous dig at the same place had told you that sound travels then you went in where you could hear the terrier was loudest.

As you went down you made adjustments using the bar or your hearing.

The lads of yesteryear tell us that it might take hours before you even got a mark.

I have my own opinion on that theory.

Nowadays we still have to let a terrier find, settle, hopefully get it where it wants to be and then have a successful dig.

The box ,if read properly , tells us when a terrier is stuck, digging, working or messing around. That was one luxury we have nowadays that they didn't in the past.

of course the box is invaluable but its know harm to know how to get by without it and its surprising how many would struggle without it i was halfway down to dog one day and a lad asked me why i was digging there when he could hear dog barking under his feet. I said thats because your standing on the entrance dummy and the sound was coming up the tube ,he still couldnt figure out what i meant ha ha. Sometimes you could be lying against a tree and the slightest vibration would travel up it and the dog would be dug underneath the butt of roots.

[low plains drifter 9,459]

 

Sometimes I think there does be confusion as what eras where considered those of the old timer and the modern era.

There's young lads keeping terriers now that would consider you and I, Dillydog, as old fellahs whereas you and I would be talking about lads in their 60s and 70s as the generation before us.

IMO the tightening up of bloodlines and the art of good single handed terrierwork started in the 70s into the 80s and IMO the late 80s into the 90s was a golden age of terrierwork.

In those years it was possible to go where you wanted without much fear of someone questioning your activities and there was a great standard of terrier and terrierman emerging. I also think it was those years when lads started considering terrierwork as more of a sporting activity than pure pest control where it didn't matter how you got your quarry as long as you got it.

I started digging in the mid 80s and those who were showing me the ropes had learned their methods in the late 60s, early 70s.

Strongdogs (the more the merrier) and tongs were essential pieces of kit and I don't think I ever seen a firearm on a dig 'till I went out on my own.

I will say one thing about those lads though, I never seen them work one above the sod, it was a big NO NO, and most quarry was released.

But it wasn't uncommon to bag one, bring it home and try a pup or two in a shore. It would be brought back to it's home that evening.

But since those rough and ready days I've seen terrierwork graduate into a much more polished art and in the last few years some of the best terriermen I've ever seen are what I'd call young lads.

It's great to see it and IMO it shows a good healthy future for terrierwork.

I'd hav classed you as an old timer Neil lol

Neil was old school before old school was invented

[marshman 7,756]

Maybe one day in the terrier men of the future (whatever hunting with terriers takes in the future) might think the way we graft our dogs today is wrong .

[leethedog 3,071]

I'm 41 my dad is 64 he used to dig with his uncle who died last year in his late `s they used bullrussells that my dad's uncle bred and me dad said he or his uncle Bill never used more than one dog at a time to ground and to do so was frowned upon in their time

Edited March 1, 2016 by leethedog

[steve t 809]

best tool ive seen for finding when collars pack up is a long drill bit from a quarry, they are hollow and when sunk in ground you can hear everything up them by listening to hole at top, found a good few dogs using these in past

[Glyn..... 5,199]

i think in the past there where plenty of good terriermen and with out them we would have nothing , this game has never suffered because of good terriermen, only from the fool wrongly classed as terriermen, and the fools are far easier to find look at it over the past 20 years on the internet seen some right 5 min wonders turn up post photo no one needed or wanted to see , years ago i seen the same things at shows smashed dogs on display as a young kid knowing no better i wanted one of these super hard dogs i'd read the working terrier by plummer got it for my 13th birthday and only a patterdale of this rock hard line would do, it wasn't until i got to know old school terriermen and there dogs i worked out plummer was talking out of his ass, and of course actually getting the dogs under the sod !!!! in my early 20's meet Mr Gripton at taxidermist friends house, now that was a education, met Mr Nuttall at the same time again all you had to do was listen he was breeding some very good steady digging dogs at the time ,same met Mr Wade and Mr Park the list goes on and on to say that the old school where lesser terriermen is a great disservice to the great gentlemen Terriermen and lets face it terrier breeders ... the fools the 5 min wonders i've got a litter of pups out of the greatest dogs ever have always been easy to find now as then...mags and internet with bloody photo's will kill the game off

Edited March 1, 2016 by Glyn.....

[Blaise 2,253]

Maybe one day in the terrier men of the future (whatever hunting with terriers takes in the future) might think the way we graft our dogs today is wrong .

 

Exactly, except very scientific facts, each opinion depends on period and location. Concerning terriermen, the good and the bad aren't scientific matter but cultural.

[sounder79 80]

Of course they'd be turning in their graves Sounder, most of them made themselves out to be legends.

They all had the best dogs, they all had a terrier that pulled out a badger after 20 other dogs came away and they all dug trenches 200 foot long and 15 foot deep on their own.

And we'll never be able to prove otherwise.

 

It kills me to say this, but because lads will travel far for sport now and with the inter-net and mobile phones it's harder now to tell lies and get away with it than it was even 20 years ago.

In those days tales of legendary terriers and terriermen fooled everyone, nowadays the only person fooled by lies is the one telling them.

Weather they did or they didnt , you must agree we wouldnt have a pot to piss in without the old boys today neil, thats why this generation is as good as what you say, and fair play to them ,things usualy get better not worse after time.

As someone said ,theres good and bad in every generation,theres always messers . Not all the old lads were flutes ,some of them knew a bit.

With the trials , a badger was let loose out of a bag in the middle of cork city one night ,that was the begining of the end of the trials.

I dont agree with ya on the old boys makin legends of themselves though , the good ones dont talk much ,if you want to believe someone talkin rubbish in the pub thats up to yourself. look at gorman , i doubt he was on the buy and sell , i dont think todays generation would tell him much about wheatens.

[Onlyworkmatters 1,584]

Always believed pubs weren't the place to talk about terriers or listen to people chat shit about them

[turkish 285]

great read and enjoyable. good to hear all different opinions

[francolin 449]

Always believed pubs weren't the place to talk about terriers or listen to people chat shit about them

the best place to talk terriers, was the miners after terrier show, late afternoon, by we dug some game in there , lol