What started it for me

[poachers apprentice 134]

Was looking back at some old pics earlier and reminded me what started it all for me ….. my old man had had coursing dogs but given up in the early 90,s 
Remember my late uncle pulling up one Sunday morning in his old Peugeot estate with a Saluki cross in the back and him telling my mam he was going coursing , I wasn’t even interested in tagging along and my mam sent me with him , I think I would have been about 12 .

I’ll always remember that first run I witnessed as he slipped that little bitch and watched it turn the hare then nail it !! I was sold on running dogs after that and have always returned to owning one although it’s just little lamping dogs now . 

what sold you on running dogs ? 

 

[terryd 8,045]

I remember being about eight making a bow and arrow and trying to shoot a pheasant. Then around 11 where we moved to there was an old chap across the road who kept ferrets. He did some snaring rabbits and fox and sold fox fur to cobbledick. I started doing the same. Things progressed from there 

[tatsblisters 7,953]

Think it was the tales from my grandmother of her father and brothers poaching pre ww2 and after that she must have listened to as a young girl that stoked the fire in a nine year olds mind wile learning me how to skin rabbits. Most of the old poachers of that generation never had a running dog and the first time i saw a running dog was watching two whippets an old miner had coursing a big old hare who we bumped into wile me and a few mates were knocking about on some land a mile and half away from Rotherham town centre . I was hooked streight away even at 11 years old.

[jukel123 6,570]

I was brought up in a city so I had never seen a running dog . The closest I got to a running dog was a borzoi I used to walk for an old lady. But my mother used to say out of eight boys, I was the only one who could entertain myself. I did this by pursuing flies, butterflies, beetles..anything that moved as soon as I could walk. A lot of lads recall being cruel to insects and frogs etc but I never pulled the legs of flies or blew up frogs. Horrible thing to do.

I didn't see a running dog until I moved away from the smoke when I was about 21. A bloke at work took me out with his lurcher. It jumped a fence , coursed a hare and caught it. Even now I can remember how hooked I was. He told me it was for sale for twelve quid so I said I would take it. However he'd already agreed a sale with another bloke and when he found out I wanted the dog he suddenly came up with the money and  I missed out.

[bird 9,594]

mine bit like jukel123 , as ive said on here lot of times , when a kid in w-ton  was brought up with heinz 57s= mongrels  , and bull breed = working line staffs, and later bullmastiffs . when going back 37 years , i was walking my bullmastiff bitch  by a golf course , had her on the lead she could be funny with other dogs, when what thought what was greyhound , ran flat out  on the edge  green, go right over a gate after tree rat. i thought fook me never seen a greyhound do that, the bloke got his dog back, then started to walk by me with it on a lead. i said never see greyhound  do that, he said it not, it a lurcher, it x salukix grey  x collie x grey, it was tall 27in  string build brindle smooth coat, so thats why i thought was greyhound . we got chatting said he take me out early morning , said the dog  a male get few rabbits and the odd fox if any about, well a thought got to see this for me self. so went next morning , no fox but couple rabbits, thought great, when had slow big bullmastiffs, or dog aggressive staffs types , be nice change. and then i got my 1st lurcher beddy x whippet x grey , was ok never really got on with it,  then had few colliexs and lurcher xlurchers, bullxs, and my old dog now 1x gsd x grey Buck, and i still have another even when he gone , i think lurchers get in you , and never really leave you, they great dogs workers/ pets  deff    Ray

[Penda 3,219]

My old man was into the running terriers etc so I more or less grew up listening to the stories he used to tell me as a grass hoper and finding rabbits hung up in my dad's shed after his nights out my grandad and my nans family were all poachers and running dog men so I just fell in line with my heritage but my brothers were never really interested like I was I was hooked before I'd even had my 1st proper outing and have been ever since even wagging school just to go and have a mooch with the dogs and ferrets funny times if it wasn't dogs I was mooching with I was in my pigeon pen another pastime handed down from my dad wouldn't change any of it for the world 

[BEARINATOR 2,825]

Brought up around whippets with my uncle joe Johnson a old racer at the time, then seen my cousins lurcher on the lamp and got me hooked from about 13 

[Black neck 15,168]

Was forced into it from a very young age started off following beagles at primary school age but I kep on getting good hidings for fecking about ,the old man inviting all and sundry 2 clip.us a fecker I preferd going out wi his terrier and little lurcher as he didn't fill me in as much on them days ,so settled on a life of penury from then on 

[Black neck 15,168]

3 hours ago, Penda said:

My old man was into the running terriers etc so I more or less grew up listening to the stories he used to tell me as a grass hoper and finding rabbits hung up in my dad's shed after his nights out my grandad and my nans family were all poachers and running dog men so I just fell in line with my heritage but my brothers were never really interested like I was I was hooked before I'd even had my 1st proper outing and have been ever since even wagging school just to go and have a mooch with the dogs and ferrets funny times if it wasn't dogs I was mooching with I was in my pigeon pen another pastime handed down from my dad wouldn't change any of it for the world 

General dosser then pal

[shaaark 10,137]

1 hour ago, Black neck said:

Was forced into it from a very young age started off following beagles at primary school age but I kep on getting good hidings for fecking about ,the old man inviting all and sundry 2 clip.us a fecker I preferd going out wi his terrier and little lurcher as he didn't fill me in as much on them days ,so settled on a life of penury from then on 

Wtaf

[Councilestatekid 1,644]

Mi old man used to say I was worse than his dogs for hearing the leads rattle said he couldn't walk his dogs without me booing at back door wanting to go with him when about 3 so he said he'd say get your wellies on he said by 4/5 I'd walk miles with him he lost a dog just [BANNED TEXT] my 4th birthday and told ur not getting another so for my 4th birthday I got a lurcher pup said worst mistake he made as I had to go out with him all the time then as it was my dog haha but spent hours together him showing me how to train the dog etc

[Bobtheferret 1,224]

Always had ferrets in the house since birth but my mum wasn’t big on runners and we always had terriers, didn’t know anyone with a runner either. Didn’t really think about having a runner until I started really reading books. Phil Drabble, Plummer etc and then I was desperate for my own. Years of nagging eventually mum let me have a beddy whippet and the rest is history. That dog was a legend in my eyes a true character and good little worker. Always had lurchers and whippets since and always will….and my mum now loves them! They get under your skin do running dogs, once you own one another dog just isn’t right in my opinion. 

[low plains drifter 9,467]

15 hours ago, Black neck said:

Was forced into it from a very young age started off following beagles at primary school age but I kep on getting good hidings for fecking about ,the old man inviting all and sundry 2 clip.us a fecker I preferd going out wi his terrier and little lurcher as he didn't fill me in as much on them days ,so settled on a life of penury from then on 

We could only dream of good hiding

[Penda 3,219]

20 hours ago, Black neck said:

Was forced into it from a very young age started off following beagles at primary school age but I kep on getting good hidings for fecking about ,the old man inviting all and sundry 2 clip.us a fecker I preferd going out wi his terrier and little lurcher as he didn't fill me in as much on them days ,so settled on a life of penury from then on 

Did you wear shoes

[Councilestatekid 1,644]

11 minutes ago, Penda said:

Did you wear shoes

It was the dresses he got a hiding for