Size for smaller game!?

[Kye 77]

I honestly DONT think the size of a dog matters for smaller game like rats and rabbits, but do for bigger game.

 

Most of the game i hunt these days can hurt your dog with teeth and claws and other means...its feck all to brag about, its just over here, summat is always trying to eat summat, so i guess thats how the animals have evolved!..lol..i wish i could go at the hares and rabbits like i used to, but they just 'aint here for me.

 

Out the other night with FR and two Staghounds (big sighthound blooded Lurchers bred mainly for coyote) it was a full moon, no lamp, just out mooching about....we wasnt hunting.

We was in a field with stubble about 12" long, and surrounded buy heavy woodland, no wind, nothing, when the male dog (Blister) runs outta the heavy cover, flat out, we cant even see what he is chasing, he bends down and picks this rabbit up like he has been doing it regular!...he hasnt caught a rabbit for atleast two seasons, although he caught a few hares last season...he has killed hundreds of rabbits when i lived out west though, and was VERY good on the lamp at them...anyway, he then carryied the rabbit back alive to hand...it was a bit worse for ware, but alive!..lol.

 

Ive lamped rabbits in a friends yard in Wyoming, amoungst junk piles and bard wire fences, and she had three kills outta four runs...the bitch was youngish at the time, but 70lbs and 31"...big buy any standards..

 

The best night ive had with a dog over here, was with Blister, in AZ...the dog killed 12 hares, and 24 rabbits, and a gray fox, single handed...the dog was about 20 months old.

 

I have three Stags and one Saluki hybrid...the smallest Stag being 26" and about 65lbs, and the biggest 31" and 70lbs.

 

I have never had any trouble with them catching small gear, and they will run rabbits on the lamp with the best Beddie X Whippets, ive no doubt...

 

So do you think that size matters for small game?...personally, i think its in the 'mind-set' of the dog...some seem to have that sluggish mind, but others seem like there on the 'edge' almost, almost like there mind is a razor, or a coiled spring...does that make sense?

 

Interested to see what some think...

 

Many thanks..

 

J.