Quick shine last night with Old Real Tree.

[Ideation 8,216]

Got a call last night, last minute, from Oldrealtree off here, asking if i fancied a quick walk for an hour (as we both had work today). We decided to visit one of my bits of land which is a a short drive for both of us and fairly small.

 

We met up at 10, ORT bringing his saluki/grey x whippet bitch Milly and me taking a long my whippet Finn. I mainly took Finn for the walk, as he is a ferreting/mooching dog and has never really been on the lamp, i think he's had 3 runs in his life but i thought i would give him a run if the right rabbit came up, just to see how he did.

 

Anyway, typical, raining and windy on the drive there, and then no wind and only light rain when we arrived, but at least it was cloudy. I had spoken to the farms owner earlier and she said mixy had been about and there was not much there, but we thought we would stretch our legs anyway.

 

First field had a few, but very lamp shy (blatantly having other night time visitors over summer), second field, gave Milly her 1st slip, a long one, and she did well, turning it off the fence and catching it quick, with a nice retrieve.

 

We carried on walking around, avoiding the young cattle who were insistent on getting in the way. The rabbits were few and far between, and what was there was taking to it's heels quickly, no squatters tonight!

 

We gave Milly maybe 10/11 decent runs and she caught 7 of them, and those she lost were more down to bad luck, than any mistake on her part. I've watched the bitch come on over the last couple of seasons and she is a cracking dog, with good heart and drive, and is really starting to use her brain when running, cutting rabbits off to turn them away from the hedge.

 

The two stand out runs of the night were one stupidly long 'slip', where milly was off the slip and ORT lit up a rabbit running a long the hedge in the far distance, just out of interest, and she decided to go for it, bouncing it away from the hedge, and catching it, and another where she ran a rabbit into a ditch full of cover, a long the ditch for a fair way, forced it out, went pretty much under a cow and nailed it on a straight run.

 

Eventually on the walk back, we saw one in a previously lamped field, and as Finn had been spotting well all night and pulling, decided to slip him as it saw us and took off, he was up on it very quickly, all over it, turned it a couple of times tightly, but miss timed his strike, it went under a gate, where he followed at full tilt, and unfortunately lost it to ground, but came back (a minor miracle for a dog that thinks he needs to hunt by scent all the time!). I know it's hardly that impressive for most on here, but for a dog that has never really experienced night work i was happy with his performance, and think i might start lamping him a bit to see how he fares. Also considering end of last season he injured himself extremely badly almost taking his back leg off, and i was told by many that he was not going to live, let a lone run again, it was really nice to see him properly stretch out.

 

All in all a decent hour out and a good bit of banter.

 

 

 

[long dogs 580]

well done dog its been decent weather for it

[collie/grey 238]

Enjoyed that write up jai, thanks for taking the time to post and it sounds like both dogs did well Hopefully your dog does you proud some more.

[Bogger 243]

good doo lads hopefully many more to go

[Ideation 8,216]

Cheers folks, ORT bitch is a real pleasure to watch, and i thought it worth a post.

 

CG - Aye i was happy with him, but to be honest, i'm not sure if he will ever make a true 'lamp dog' as that just isn't his main occupation, he;s worked pretty much 7 days a week in the season, day time. But if i can have the odd night out with him, for a laugh and a bit of fitness, i'll be happy. Only problem, is if the quarry isn't caught and doesn't go to ground but hits cover, or goes into a wood, he will stick his nose down and plough on and on, as that's what is usually expected of him. He also has no brakes, and hits cover/hedges/fences at full tilt, and i can't afford to have my ferreting dog laid up from a lamping bang.

[rocky1 942]

good read jai ,and well done 2 finn for fighting he corner and you for helping with he recovery

[theferreter 311]

good write up as always mate well done

[trigger2 3,170]

well done lads. good read that jai.

 

its good to see milly is running well. if you take finn out a couple of times on the lamp i reckon he will suprise you.

[carp man 1 219]

well done that dog

[johnny boy68 11,726]

Well done lads.........Finn will come with a bit more time mate I'm sure.

[blackstaff 488]

Nice write up, well done lads. ATB for the coming season

[malc1 544]

well done ort and ideation ive watched milly come on over the seasons ive konwed you and she has come on realy great murph loves going out with her we will have to meet up soon and meet up with jia and johnyboy bring them over we will have som fun ferreting as well this year well done boys and fin and my milly ps did you get my text last night atb malc

[old real tree 92]

Cheers for the comments lads, Millie is running well due to the fact she is running with some awsome dogs murph, trigger and blue,

Let's keep up the good work and enjoy many many more nights lamping

 

Old real tree.

[lamping crazy 1]

nice bitch that ort alright jai your whippet will stop hunting up if you switch lamp straight off after run imediatley and call him they soon get the picture mate.

[Ideation 8,216]

Glad everyone enjoyed the read!

 

As for Finn, i don't think he will ever stop hunting up totally if he doesn't know where the rabbit has gone, but if it's gone to ground, then i think he will learn to give it up, the issue is when it gets into cover and he knows it's still in there, i.e woodland, as far as he is concerned, light or no light the hunt is still on, his nose is phenomenal, so he doesn't really need to be able to see. You shut the lamp off and he just keeps going, but runs into more stuff haha.

 

Malc - i'd be well up for a trip up with the ferrets, anytime, just give us a shout.