skycat
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Everything posted by skycat
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Have you tried Diatomaceous Earth? It is a very fine powder made from the shells of tiny crustaceans millions of years ago. The sharp edges of the powder granules (you'd need a very powerful microscope to see the grains) work their way between the carapace of all insects, not just fleas. They lose body fluids and die. Just work it into the dog's fur all over: might make it a bit white as it feels and looks just like talcum powder. The good thing is that you can also use it, sprinkled or puffed, into kennels, around the house (skirting board cracks, between floor boards, nooks and crannies in f
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The good ones will always stay with you in memories: that impossible catch the dog pulled off, the missed bolt hole that the dog managed to find at exactly the right moment. I'm sure you have loads of such moments stacked up in your memory bank, but the loss hurts just the same, no matter how many dogs went before, or after. Condolences.
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There have always been, and always will be, people who control others either through a sense of their own inadequacy or simply because they're evil b*****ds, or bitches. Put the quoted scenario into a medieval setting and the guy would probably have been dead a long time before, most likely at the hands of his peers: get rid of the weakling in the pack. Actually, scrub that, he would probably have been a slave, much the same as he was in the hands of that woman. Unfortunately, sticking her in prison won't do anything to stop this kind of thing happening again. We are all properly outraged at w -
Great photos and a humorous write up: I enjoyed that a lot, though not so sure I'd really want to eat boar testicles, though I suppose it's a bit like eating brains: a squeamish, cultural thing.
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Thank you for that: like all good epitaphs it brought tears to my eyes, and reminded me, once again, just how much we learn from each and every dog that comes our way.
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You can buy stripped chicken carcases from pet food suppliers. These are carcases where the breast and legs are taken off for human consumption, so what's left is bone with shreds of meat. I get mine from my local butcher who buys boxes of these to sell to the restaurant trade for making soups and stocks, but with only one dog it probably wouldn't be practical for you to do this. If you have a traditional butcher near you it might be worth asking if you can buy carcases from them, but in smaller quantities. Lamb ribs are a great bone as well, but stay away from weight bearing bones from larger
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That's good, but what is a complete raw meal? Is everything all minced up together, bone and all? If this is the case, being super picky again, the dog is just swallowing mush all the time and doesn't get the physical and mental satisfaction of chewing on carcases, which also keep the teeth tartar free. Might be an idea to add a chicken carcase to the dog's daily feed.
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I can't watch those sort of videos now. When I was young and doing pest control round farms I regularly had to inch along plank walkways high above grain silos with only one rickety hand rail to hold on to. The soles of my feet would tingle a bit, but nothing more. Now, my feet tingle even thinking about it. I guess its something that comes with age: you are more aware of your own mortality when you get old.
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Fitness And Conditioning (Skycat) Running Dog Maintenance
skycat replied to paulus's topic in Lurchers & Running Dogs
You can get it on Amazon or from Melbourne Books: https://www.anglebooks.com/running-dog-maintenance.html -
There is a slightly increased risk of prostate problems in an entire male dog, but you can cross that bridge if you ever come to it. I'm against elective castration if the dog is showing no signs of behavioural problems because the resulting decrease in hormones can affect muscle tone, especially as the dog ages. It's good that you feed a raw diet, but I hope it contains more than just meat: presumably you feed bones/carcases and offal as well? Red meat alone would mean the diet was very deficient in calcium and other vitamins and minerals essential to growth and strong bones.
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Might have to invest in another Airedale: happiest when working neck deep in water; how I miss that dog!
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Trying again: https://www.(!64.56:886/beanosballpark/posts/934324656774687
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Found this on FB, worth reading: damn, don't know how to attach the link for FB post: anyone?
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Reading between the lines it sounds as though this dog is the man's first lurcher. There might be any number of reasons as to why he hasn't entered it before. Strange how a late start is slagged off by some when starting a pup early is not. Better to do things when you, the owner, are properly ready, as well as the dog, rather than going in all gung-ho and messing things up. Sounds as though the lad has had some sound instruction from a friend and is only just now coming to grips with the whole lamping hunting thing.
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You say he's running behind the quad for 4 or 5 miles a day: but is that loose, tearing back and forth as he wants? A dog may cover many more miles than you do, on bike or quad, if it's loose. One bloke I knew years ago regularly did 10 miles a day beside a bike with his Saluki lurchers. They weren't quite skin and bone, but he ran them very light. They were one paced dogs in the field, though ran forever. He coursed at least twice a week and ran the dogs beside the bike on the days they weren't coursing. Then he changed their routine: less biking, more top quality grub, put a bit of weight on
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Is that being over possessive, or territorial, as you put it? Without knowing the dog I'd put it down to being unsure, worried that the other dogs might steal her catch, so maybe a lack of confidence in her own status? Just wondering. My super dominant, confident lurchers have always retrieved right to hand even when there's other dogs about, whereas the less assertive ones hang back, not wanting to confront their superiors when there is a risk of having their catch taken away from them.
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It's not just the weight difference, though that does play a part. A heavily-muscled lump of a dog with a lot of Greyhound in it generates a lot more heat when it runs, and must take correspondingly longer to cool down afterwards, whereas a light Whippety type cools down much faster. Add to that the extra amount of work the big dog has to do to run fast: big engines take more torque to move from standing to flat out, and that goes some way to explaining why the big dog takes longer to recover. And there's stamina to consider as well. Greyhounds were never bred to run the distances that W
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It would be very unusual for a lurcher to be undershot: far more likely in terriers, and one of the main reasons undershot terriers lose teeth engaging their quarry. Slightly overshot in a lurcher isn't a problem, but if its more than a few millimetres it could affect the way they bite and by doubling up on the problem you could end up with the pups being much more overshot than the parents. Be interesting to see photos of both dog and bitch: their mouths, that is, in profile. Note: sighthound and lurcher pups often appear very overshot as they are growing, because the top jaw grows more
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My terriers, Collie lurchers, mongrelly lurchers, even my old Deer/Grey, would swim for the love of it, but anything that looked remotely Salukified would never go in above their knees no matter how hot the weather. Guess it has to do with their heritage, coming from the desert and all that. Oh, tell a lie, I did have one, but he was batshit crazy anyway.
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The biggest problem, apart from infection which is almost a given in a wound full of mud, is that if the muscle isn't stitched and just allowed to heal on its own, more scar tissue will form than if there were stitches, which could well hamper the dog's running once it's healed. Fine to staple skin tears on a relatively clean wound, but I've always used the vet if the muscle has been damaged.
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I have been fortunate to use lurchers containing a fair amount of Saluki in their make up and they are at their best when allowed to hunt as their instincts dictate. Unfortunately, as Caravan Monster states, that type of hunting doesn't go hand in hand with our current laws and our overcrowded countryside. To me, Saluki adds more hunting drive, the ability to figure out how to hunt different game in different situations, in a way that my less charged lurchers never could. My best dogs have always had around a third Saluki in them. It is that very independence that makes them such amazing anima
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Have you checked his anal glands? If they're blocked the dog will stink. Some dogs are more prone to it than others, no matter what their diet.
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Thanks very much for that detailed run through, but I have actually done all that and I still get notifications. It seems impossible to turn off some notifications without losing the personal message option as well.
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Tried all that. Guess I'll just have to live with clicking on the damn things to get rid of them.
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Since the site has changed I keep getting a notification every time someone either likes or posts on a topic I've commented on, despite having 'turned off' this option in my settings menu. How can I get rid of these, apart from never posting or 'liking' anything?
