proven workers

[moddey-dhoo 39]

At what age do people start to class there terriers as proven workers, for me I discount most first seasons so most of mine would be classed as proven workers at about 5 years or 3 full seasons, there are exceptions, but not many ….I know it isn’t until there career has ended hopefully at a ripe old age you know for sure…any other views?

[toby1066 413]

sounds about right to me pal given them plenty of work over a few seasons you soon see if theres any faults there

[tearem 31]

If they're from the right stamp the more work they get, the better they get, and they keep learning, or the smart ones do...some just train their owner, I once knew a terrier man who put his dog into a dangerous deep difficult earth I had warned him for before, I don't know what he wanted to prove. He told us all to walk away, that was the way his dog would come out, there was badger in instead of fox, and indeed the dog came out after a while and I thought he was good enough for having his master trained so well, later that day the same dog worked well and long enough to badger in another inaccessible earth and I bred to the dog....such a dog can add brains to a line.

I like early starters because they are useful and convenient and so, most of my dogs are early starters and thereafter work all their life, but my best one Semtex was in her first season less than good. Glad I still had patience with her, among all the early starters I had then. She would always howl before brambles and called childishly to be lifted over them, UNTILL the first pigs were in the brambles. After that she stuck to that weird behaviour to lament before or in brambles, but she would get in them anyway. In her second season she was moderate to not special, in her thirs season she enterd, and her first fox meant to encourage her became a badger in an undiggable place and gave her right away, and I thought oh- oooh, but she got better only after it, clever, and slowly and occasionally began to stand out, in evry way of work, and now she is 9 years and my best total allround dog doing fox, badger on command, above ground one of the best to boars and red deer, and she is also used to trail wounded game including big live wounded boars, which she can handle perfectly and with almost human sense. Give a dog time he needs. You may be rewarded.

[chezney 44]

i think all are diffrent some start great and continue that way some start shit and get better by time then thers 3 year old dogs that have had 50-60 digs over them and 5 year old dogs with 20 over them all are not the same

[Mosby 355]

I call a dog proven that is consistently hunting in the way that is required of it. If it only took a season then so be it. An age limit can't be put on it. Though my best dog was a cracker jack his first year and quit every time on the second year. i put him up with no hunting for 5 months, thought he was gonna have to be culled. Took him out after his long break and boom - he was the best I had. He never looked back and got better and better. I tell this story because it is not normal for a dog to show good for a whole year then stop - but it happens. That dog was not proven at 2 seasons but after his fourth he was as proven as one gets. If a dog serves a season or two fully as you want and stops then something is wrong and the problem needs to be assessed. Is it being worked too hard? Am I being too harsh on the dog and making it worried about me rather than the quarry?

I've had pups that never got as good as the one I above mentioned but from 10 months on consistently caught and held game for me. They were proven by their second season in my eyes. There was nothing wishy washy about them at all. I have only seen a hand full of working terriers make it past five years old around my area. To wait til the fifth year is crazy talk this part of the woods. You've got to have the balls to cull a whole line though if a major defect arises in the line of a dog that never got old enough to show bad traits.

[tearem 31]

Another one I had called Acid. She started way too careful for my idea. To boar, she always hung around me and the first years, never parted with the others, let alone by herself. But she was useful in finding those that had stayed. Even if at first she only bayed at them or even just pointed them to me. Het brother Adolf was good from the beginning, her mother Dixie was a jewel to both boar and fox and her sire was a top stud dog from Germany.

But after 4 years, suddenly Acid went to hunt behind the boars. One year later, I came across her and found her when I trailed a wounded boar with another leashed dog. She was fighting out her battle with the boar all alone and a mile from where we started when we found her. She didn't stand a chance but she bravely tried, all alone, not witnessed by anyone and not knowing that we came to help her out. At earth work she became ever better as a fox bolter. I wouldn't say she was very clever but she was quiet, obedient and a steady learner. Eventually, I came to value her for her skills and she hunted untill at 8 years she was killed by a big male boar.

Every dog needs to be given time and patience, the reward they may give you is for many years. A dog jibbing or curring out is not necessarily lost forever but could have been overworked in his early seasons as the man before me said. Some people in their search for the perfect worker end up with sacks full of shot dogs and what are they doing but deceiving themselves, or do they really know what they want? Most of those have many dogs in short order and are only into terriers for a short time, lucky for the terriers.

[Daniele Santoni 6]

Hello, a proven worker is judged at the end of his career. I have personally seen a dog with 110 hunts (fox, porcupine and badger) stop its "action" and demonstrating that is are not a game dog. The breeder have put to "sleep" this dog including puppies that this dog had already generated...

 

For me a dog is 100% reliable and game only at the end of his working life.

 

Best Regards

Edited February 24, 2011 by Daniele Santoni

[fat man 4,741]

DS i think anyone that puts a terrier to sleep after working hard up to old age is a prick.Just cause he came away when he was old he was termed as unreliable.Would you do the same days graft at we will say 80years old as you would when you were 20 i dont think so.If the dog in question was suffering yes,with pains or whatever,but not cause he came of his game.

[artful212 394]

we all have diff opinions on our idea of 'workers' no two prob the same

to me they are workers when they have been hunted for 3 seasons. first season

they are learning and second season there settling themselves third season they have there

own style of things and come into there own.if they last this long.

 

But only you will determine how long they last

Edited February 24, 2011 by artful212

[CarraghsGem 92]

DS i think anyone that puts a terrier to sleep after working hard up to old age is a prick.Just cause he came away when he was old he was termed as unreliable.Would you do the same days graft at we will say 80years old as you would when you were 20 i dont think so.If the dog in question was suffering yes,with pains or whatever,but not cause he came of his game.

 

i agree with that

Edited February 24, 2011 by CarraghsGem

[fat man 4,741]

DS i think anyone that puts a terrier to sleep after working hard up to old age is a prick.Just cause he came away when he was old he was termed as unreliable.Would you do the same days graft at we will say 80years old as you would when you were 20 i dont think so.If the dog in question was suffering yes,with pains or whatever,but not cause he came of his game.

 

i agree with that

THANK YOU CG

[Nick 14]

Hello, a proven worker is judged at the end of his career. I have personally seen a dog with 110 hunts (fox, porcupine and badger) stop its "action" and demonstrating that is are not a game dog. The breeder have put to "sleep" this dog including puppies that this dog had already generated...

 

For me a dog is 100% reliable and game only at the end of his working life.

 

Best Regards

On what did that dog quith? Porcupine accidently?

[Daniele Santoni 6]

Hello friends, the dog was not old, but he was about 4 years old.

 

No one ever put to "sleep" an older worker because it is normal for a dog, getting older, becomes less strong in the work.

 

Yes, the dog stopped is work after several accidently encounters with porcupines.

 

P.S. I apologize if I can not explain well, but English is not my language!

 

Best regards

[lee micheal kennels 12]

DS i think anyone that puts a terrier to sleep after working hard up to old age is a prick.Just cause he came away when he was old he was termed as unreliable.Would you do the same days graft at we will say 80years old as you would when you were 20 i dont think so.If the dog in question was suffering yes,with pains or whatever,but not cause he came of his game.

 

i agree with that

THANK YOU CG

 

well said boss

[fat man 4,741]

At what age do people start to class there terriers as proven workers, for me I discount most first seasons so most of mine would be classed as proven workers at about 5 years or 3 full seasons, there are exceptions, but not many ….I know it isn’t until there career has ended hopefully at a ripe old age you know for sure…any other views?

 

 

I have two terriors both under four....i would put my life on it that they are both proven dogs because i know that they would never come of and every time iv work them the next time i see them is when i brake through. It's about knowing your dog and having faith in them! Let the dogs do the talking instead of people arm-chair hunting!

No offence but you can never say never,at the end of the day a terrier is only as gud as its last dig,and they can come away for several different reasons.