RATTING Vs DIGGING

[cappie49 0]

Look..............I respect everyones sport............A good ratter is the be all & end all to someone who enjoys ratting..............I suppose a good rabbiter the same......A good digging dog is a different ball game totally as the dog is doing what it was originally bred for.............I wouldnt class a rabbiter or even a ratter in the same group as a true digging terrier because like I have said I have watched Labs , curs & even my own lurcher take rats for fun............I know lads with collies , dobermans the list goes on....That will hunt rabbits succesfully..........I'm not for one minute DEGRADING Rabbit/ratting as a quarry for terriers but for me the words "Working Terrier" mean one thing alone...........I dont think that an ABOVE & BELOW section for working terriers would do any harm at all.............

Rabbiting/Ratting terriers come & go but these days a genuine earth dog is like rocking horse shit.........Thta should tell you it all really...........

 

 

Thats what I mean Jack............The problem with digging terrier world is that it is full of rosette hunting berks who breed for money & people advertising thier bushing dogs as "100% working terriers"........It is just a bone of contention for alot of digging lads.............Without sounding too dramatic the true working terrier is an endangered species & alot of the problem is from lads who dont dig polluting the gene pools with thier "working terriers....."..............Again I'd like to point out that I enjoy a bit of bushing or ratting as much as anyone & as long as everyone is honest & upfront about their own dogs & quarry its not a problem..........

 

 

I agree 110%

If anyone has read my other posts they will know i am after a pup off good hard digging parents,which is proving extremly difficult (although I maybe sorted in the not to distant future).I have a13mth pup at present who has been catching rabbits and flushing game quite well for around 5mths.The first time she was out on our land she caught 2 rabbits and marked another 11 in dry stone walls infront of 2 other lads.one offered me £180 there and then and has done so on a few occasions since then.At 13mth I know she is young but I dont feel she will make the grade digging wise,might change and in 8mths I may post and tell you she is coming on great,but I feel not.

I have been asked if I am breeding from her and the answer is always the same,NOT UNTIL SHE PROVES HERSELF.

Anyway if I sold her to this lad I know she will be in pup and they will be sold as workers-above and below-before next season.

I am not knocking rabbits or rats,love both and 70% of my perrmission is rabbits,but first and foremost they have to be digging dogs or we will lose them.

Edited January 30, 2007 by cappie49

[cappie49 0]

I can understand why earth dog owners get up in arms about the slating that goes on when they post a pic of a terrier a bit 'peppered' from its encounters. It IS b**dy stupid that the ratters can show the results of several hours ratting, gore and all and nobody bats an eyelid. I can only assume that this is because rats are small, live in dirty places, spread disease etc, etc. They are also very numerous, and all but the most ardent anti just doesn't want them around: so everyone applauds a night or day of carnage out ratting.

Foxes, on the other hand, are bigger, cute and cuddly looking (to joe public at any rate, or at least until one really does kill someone's baby!)

I must admit I am very wary of putting up pics of my terriers after a bit of graft: its as though other folks think we're cruel letting them go to ground: or that's what it seems like. I just wish all these slaggers could see the dogs when they have done their job well: they may be tired, a bit battered and bruised, but by God, they are happy. I've just had to clean up my nearly 10 year old Russell bitch and her daughter who dissapeared to ground during a mooch round one of our local shoots: they accounted for the fox below ground, and were very reluctant to leave their prize: tails wagging all the way home! That's no worse than a day's hard ratting, and a long ratting sesssion will see most terriers so stiff and sore they can hardly move: no one complains about that, do they??

 

 

Same here my old dog worked his last fox at just over 10.He is now 12 1/2 and had to be restrained twice in the last three weeks from going to ground in drains.Went in a large stone slab pile at the start of dec,luckly it bolted seconds after he entered,aound 40yards from a public footpath ignoring my shouts.Have to keep him on the lead now.After most of his foxes he has been sore but happy.

[Guest JDF]

Well I do see a need for seperate sections .....

'Bushing and Ratting' should be a stand alone section , and have it's own Mod' to run it because to be quite frank I find in tiresome trolling through those threads on the one terrier section as things stand .

Even if it's a Sub section within 'Working Terriers' a line needs to be drawn between them .

from what i can see a digging section will only have a handful posting on it.

[fellman 116]

ok i tried to keep out of this but what the hell ill give my tuppence worth

 

i took my bitch ratting sunday killed thirty rats had a good morning out .

i like ratting its fun gets the dog out etc etc etc

BUT its not what i would call terrier work , the real work takes place under ground

the two CAN NOT be compared in ANY way

REAL work .........fun day out ......see the difference?

just my opinion ..........one is done by a terrier with heart and soul(and its life on the line) the other a fun day out!

crack on lads with whatever your sport with your dogs is ......but dont tell me you have a working terrier if its a ratter ..............or rabbiter..................yis fellman

[blackfell 16]

cant beat a good allrounder lads ,stop fecking arguing,stick together,horses for courses and all that.

 

enjoy your sport whatever and wherever it is amen lol

[Guest shay]

Millet you big girl , you need to tell the missus not to throw her toys out of the pram :kiss:

 

Work as in hard single minded graft can only be achieved by a true working terrier, ratting can be achieved by ANY dog, now not any dog can carry out the job underground as a good honest digging dog can and continue to do, its the digging dogs that are the true grafters, ratters and rabbiters lack substance and heart to do a hard job and settle for the easy tasks of killing rodents.

 

 

Rabbiting/Ratting terriers come & go but these days a genuine earth dog is like rocking horse shit.........Thta should tell you it all really...........

 

.......and will become rarer still if not given the correct type of work on a very regular basis so they can prove themselves, which may enable you to perpetuate the line and so keep these great little animals doing what they are bred to do............keep it real......unfortunaley, so few do nowdays.

J

 

And before anyone thinks I am being all self righteous, I will put my hands up now and say that I dont own a working terrier, I have a choccy box russel type that is good fun, but unfortunaley its too late for this type I fear.......as for the dogs Chief speakes of......with guys like him around its not to late.

I would love to own a dog such as the ones Taff & Chief speake of, but the truth is.......I could not look these guys in the face, knowing that I would be wasting all there hard work because I just could not do the animal justice as regards proper work..........I think its called being honest with yourself.

If some things are not kept real......well.......you are then on the slippery slope!

 

 

 

Wether you dig or not mate, we could do with more like you in the job full stop.

[Stabs 2]

ok i tried to keep out of this but what the hell ill give my tuppence worth

 

i took my bitch ratting sunday killed thirty rats had a good morning out .

i like ratting its fun gets the dog out etc etc etc

BUT its not what i would call terrier work , the real work takes place under ground

the two CAN NOT be compared in ANY way

REAL work .........fun day out ......see the difference?

just my opinion ..........one is done by a terrier with heart and soul(and its life on the line) the other a fun day out!

crack on lads with whatever your sport with your dogs is ......but dont tell me you have a working terrier if its a ratter ..............or rabbiter..................yis fellman

 

[IanB 0]

Poxy terriers there all crap

[Guest Eamon.Mc]

Right guys I think we're drifting from why I posted this thread, I was'nt knocking anyone for ratting, just using that as a comparison.It's the f**king armchair hunters that slate terriermen for posting post dig photos and making comments and slagging someone just because their dog is bloodied. I lost a terrier to ground today K.I.A doing what she was bred for, now are you's gonna slate me for putting my dog to ground? Was it my fault? Did I make her do it? NO. She was doing a job she was bred for you can't take that instinct out of a dog and if yous f**king twats that sit and slate good digging lads for sharing their day with the rest of us could get that through your thick heads and stop knocking us then this would be a happier site. PUT UP OR SHUT UP. I DON'T SEE MANY DECENT READABLE THREADS FROM THOSE THAT POST NEGATIVELY. JMHO.HAPPY F***ING HUNTING.

[Guest MOLLY]

Eamon.Mc........Now that i agree with

MOLL.

[fellman 116]

Right guys I think we're drifting from why I posted this thread, I was'nt knocking anyone for ratting, just using that as a comparison.It's the f**king armchair hunters that slate terriermen for posting post dig photos and making comments and slagging someone just because their dog is bloodied. I lost a terrier to ground today K.I.A doing what she was bred for, now are you's gonna slate me for putting my dog to ground? Was it my fault? Did I make her do it? NO. She was doing a job she was bred for you can't take that instinct out of a dog and if yous f**king twats that sit and slate good digging lads for sharing their day with the rest of us could get that through your thick heads and stop knocking us then this would be a happier site. PUT UP OR SHUT UP. I DON'T SEE MANY DECENT READABLE THREADS FROM THOSE THAT POST NEGATIVELY. JMHO.HAPPY F***ING HUNTING.

Eamon i know a lot of good digging lads off here who dig a lot of game a season who just wont post their days out on here anymore because of all the shite that is posted

any of you guys want to know what it used to be like take a look back in the archives and read some of the posts made by taffy, chief, timmy w ,etc etc

top class posts with pics..........how it should be but how its never going to be again .....yis fellman

[Guest JOEB]

any of you guys want to know what it used to be like take a look back in the archives and read some of the posts made by taffy, chief, timmy w ,etc etc

top class posts with pics..........how it should be but how its never going to be again .....yis fellman

 

Yis........CM

[thurso jack 3]

im sure everyone taffy would love to see more pics and reports of some digging but its just not feasable for most in this times.

Edited January 31, 2007 by thurso jack

[Guest JDF]

QUALITY no pressure there then

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

To move off thread like everyone else has ,it appears that those of you doing the slating now dont appear to have really tested a dog ratting .Go on laugh ,but I tell you many a digging dog will not see out a day on LARGE NUMBERS of rats.When the mouth is sore and the energy is sapping ,thats when all but the best of TERRIERS are still slaying rats as they did the first .I'm a digging lad as well and value the worth of a terrier that stays but I also hunt rats in numbers and know that phisically,for the terrier, there is a difference between a day of ratting to a long dig .Its the mental state of the terrier that keeps it below ground at its work ,combined with fitness but its the desire to kill the next rat that drives the good ratter and that desire does not finish when the dog is exhausted .Theres nothing to say a digging dog cant rat too and thats exactly what mine do .Ratting is work but must not be bred for formost in the creation of a terrier.Proven lines of stayer to stayer ,the only way .Keep the pics coming lads and let the individual decide to read it or not!