the best terrier you have ownd

[fellpack 7]

the best dog you will ever own is the first one you owened

[drifter 1 50]

the best dog you will ever own is the first one you owened

Not the case for me fellpack I try not to think too much about the effort time etc I wasted with that first one and the next and the next lol how lang have you got

[reynard 3]

I have had maybe three what you would call noted dogs, all related, the first, Scout was probably the best all-round terrier I've had who didn't have a good start. As a pup as most of you do I started her on rats and we were getting plenty at the time but by the time she was seven months, she was dropping them (jibbing is the term I think) and so I lifted from ratting. At the time we had gained a few farms for ferreting so I took her with us and she proved a worthwhile member of the team and her best catch of any outing was seven rabbits, caught in either cover or out of the stone walls. She learned to mark and got into the whole ferreting game, after a few trips I started to take her on her own while my mates ferreted the sets and I relied on her to find in the dry stone walls or she would often than not catch deep in the patchees of nettles and bramble, I feel she did me proud on those ferreting days. When she was over a year I took her back to ratting to the maggot farms we had permisssion on and she took to it like there was never a problem, at about eighteen to twenty months she worked her first fox in a rock pile, not ideal I know but she did well mixing it up a little bit but baying also and the fox bolted after maybe 40 minutes, from then on she went from strength to strength up untill her tenth year. I was walking her with her son and his daughter on a muck stack local near where I lived and where I had walked them everyday for about four years. They hunted up along a bank with a few trees that held the odd rabbit hole, I wasn't concerned as this sort of walk went this way. Anyway they all disappeared but I didn't see any of them for about twenty minutes, Twig the young bitch appeared first and I waited for the other two, no sign but Twig was hanging round a small rabbit warren. I listened and could hear faint bumping and thought maybe they were digging in after a rabbit, blocking the holes off best I could, I walked the short distance back to my house to get a spade and fetch some help. When we got back none of the holes had been opened so because we couldn't tell where the two dogs were decided to trench the warren, an hour or so passed and Scout appeared looking in real trouble and seamed as though she could'nt breathe, I had a look and found out why underneath, she died before I got her back home!!!!! My wife put her in a towel and I am not scared to admit I had tears running down as I went back for Todd the other dog, he was a bit of a brawler and I was sure he would be a gonna, we trenched that warren as quick as we could about four foot into the bank and found him fastened to the cheek of his quarry, getting him off and he didn't have much more than a few small bites around his face, we took him back and as soon I saw Scout in the the towel, it all flooded out again, RIP old girl,

Edited October 1, 2011 by reynard

[MOO 730]

Any working pics of him ...or pics at an actual dig?

That will be a no then

[felltool 5]

wee bud was dynamite seen loads of his digs a real cracker, will be missed big time rip bud

[craigyboy 1,274]

chin up mate by far the best terrier ive ever owned was a nuttall bitch called taffy,she never once let me down,she was dug to god knows how many times and she never once came out before being dug to,she always saw the job out everytime she was asked and no matter how long it took

[kernow oli 28]

best bitch i owned was the red bitch in my avatar, Millie, she was a great finder and would tackle anything in front of her even though she was only about 11-12" tts, the heart of a lion, she was a reliable bitch to have out when with the hounds. Her only problem was if she got back in the earth aftre a dig she wouldnt come out for love nor money going round and round, only thing would be to fire the pistol into the ground and catch her as she came out to investigate!!

i had some good digs over her and her blood still lives on in my kennel in her Grand Daughter, who is shaping up nicely at 15 months and is raring to go?!

RIP Millers

[nuggett 58]

ive seen a few good dogs in my time and have 1 or 2 handy at the moment butt compare to 2 dogs a mate of mine owned they just dont compare i think if lucky you hit on 1 in your life time this lucky b*****d hit on 2 and i aint seen the likes of them since still digging to them at 9 year old and i mean out every week if fit twice a week sadly they gone now butt thet were something else

[drifter 1 50]

ive seen a few good dogs in my time and have 1 or 2 handy at the moment butt compare to 2 dogs a mate of mine owned they just dont compare i think if lucky you hit on 1 in your life time this lucky b*****d hit on 2 and i aint seen the likes of them since still digging to them at 9 year old and i mean out every week if fit twice a week sadly they gone now butt thet were something else

Think I know the pair you are on about nuggett!

[Zerky 133]

ive seen a few good dogs in my time and have 1 or 2 handy at the moment butt compare to 2 dogs a mate of mine owned they just dont compare i think if lucky you hit on 1 in your life time this lucky b*****d hit on 2 and i aint seen the likes of them since still digging to them at 9 year old and i mean out every week if fit twice a week sadly they gone now butt thet were something else

Think I know the pair you are on about nuggett!

And me.

[RossM 8,119]

RIP wee bud

 

saw and dug to this dog on more than a few occasions, and so did a few others, sure he wasnt a hard terrier, but he wouldnt let the quarry boss him about and very rarely had to be shouted out which sometimes was handy! the sort of terrier that could be dug to monday to sunday without having to be layed off, not everyones cup of tea in a terrier but i feel privelidged to have seen the old boy work,

 

RIP all the dogs who worked well but went unheard off

[Bosun11 537]

Had a Lakey dog back in the early 80's that I hold in high regard. He was out of a Tyson bitch to a Cowan Dog, so for type, well bred enough. To leggy for most, he was just about spannable and with a Beddy top knot if not stripped. Didn't have the best of starts after getting hit by a car and breaking his front leg at around 9 months, when the plaster came off he just about whent everywhere with me and it's that, which I think made the difference.

I've owned a few digging dogs that were just as good as him down a hole but the fact that he could work with ferrets, was a cracking ratter (killing both brown and black) and cracking busher, agile as a cat and could fight like a b*****d if provoked, but just had a knack of being both solid, sound and reliable when working to every quarry I put him on.

 

I'd agree with some of the posts about dogs past and to use a Plummer quote I once read, 'Time dims memory and old dogs can look better' but though I cursed him enough for the gassy, whining little shite he was, he was so reliable back then he was only ever left behind because he was laid up. Hard as fecking nails he was never much of a sounder unless pushing on, and I broke through enough to find him taking 'enough' stick without a murmour, looking up seeing me and the light and erupting into blind fury.

 

i once had him out with a mate, bushing foxes near an old railway line, after a long morning he put one up and it was ran across a small field by the lurchers only to disappear down a break in a railway drain. We got over there and he pushed past the lurchers and flew in. I stuck my head in and he was back peddling, fast..! 'Fecking shithouse', I said out loud, only to see his arse stop as it came out and he was heaving like mad, I grabbed at his back legs and hauled him and a dog fox, held by its top jaw out. The lurchers grabbed it but right away he'd flew back down. I first made sure it was going to be an 'ex fox' and then ran along the drain to hear him banging right into another. We cleared away the stone and he was locked on to the throat but though we couldn't get the drain slabs up, we watched through the gaps knowing it was gonna be another dead fox. It didn't last that long, a good strangle hold on a small vixen, egged on by me from above and when he let go, instead of coming out he went past? Again I followed, then smack! Right into another dog fox, we again cleared stones but again struggled with the drain slab. This time it was a dog, and it was that nasty teeth on teeth crunch until he wrestled it over and got on top and on its throat. We pulled for all our might on that slab and eventually got it up, the fox was just on dead and he was just about to drop. The fox was dispached and brought it out for the whining lurchers, he still had hold but I knew once another dog had it he'd never join in on a rag (never did!).

He lasted the distance too, finally living to 14 with my parents, after seeing off my new neighbours cats and making a hell of a mess of the window cleaners leg, I had to choke him off up the ladder, where he'd climbed to get him!!

Oh yer, his name was Todd.

[nuggett 58]

yes drifter and rhys them are the 2 and he had a real good bitch no wonder he drinking so much haveing lost them

[hellyer189 93]

Why is it dogs become heros once they are dead?

Not a dig at you bud I have no reason to doubt your dog was a goodun. Just a general observation.

 

You never hear of these wonderdogs when they are living. But once there dead they want to name streets after them etc.

FTB

that old saying you dont realise what you got untill its gone

[sounder79 80]

Had a Lakey dog back in the early 80's that I hold in high regard. He was out of a Tyson bitch to a Cowan Dog, so for type, well bred enough. To leggy for most, he was just about spannable and with a Beddy top knot if not stripped. Didn't have the best of starts after getting hit by a car and breaking his front leg at around 9 months, when the plaster came off he just about whent everywhere with me and it's that, which I think made the difference.

I've owned a few digging dogs that were just as good as him down a hole but the fact that he could work with ferrets, was a cracking ratter (killing both brown and black) and cracking busher, agile as a cat and could fight like a b*****d if provoked, but just had a knack of being both solid, sound and reliable when working to every quarry I put him on.

 

I'd agree with some of the posts about dogs past and to use a Plummer quote I once read, 'Time dims memory and old dogs can look better' but though I cursed him enough for the gassy, whining little shite he was, he was so reliable back then he was only ever left behind because he was laid up. Hard as fecking nails he was never much of a sounder unless pushing on, and I broke through enough to find him taking 'enough' stick without a murmour, looking up seeing me and the light and erupting into blind fury.

 

i once had him out with a mate, bushing foxes near an old railway line, after a long morning he put one up and it was ran across a small field by the lurchers only to disappear down a break in a railway drain. We got over there and he pushed past the lurchers and flew in. I stuck my head in and he was back peddling, fast..! 'Fecking shithouse', I said out loud, only to see his arse stop as it came out and he was heaving like mad, I grabbed at his back legs and hauled him and a dog fox, held by its top jaw out. The lurchers grabbed it but right away he'd flew back down. I first made sure it was going to be an 'ex fox' and then ran along the drain to hear him banging right into another. We cleared away the stone and he was locked on to the throat but though we couldn't get the drain slabs up, we watched through the gaps knowing it was gonna be another dead fox. It didn't last that long, a good strangle hold on a small vixen, egged on by me from above and when he let go, instead of coming out he went past? Again I followed, then smack! Right into another dog fox, we again cleared stones but again struggled with the drain slab. This time it was a dog, and it was that nasty teeth on teeth crunch until he wrestled it over and got on top and on its throat. We pulled for all our might on that slab and eventually got it up, the fox was just on dead and he was just about to drop. The fox was dispached and brought it out for the whining lurchers, he still had hold but I knew once another dog had it he'd never join in on a rag (never did!).

He lasted the distance too, finally living to 14 with my parents, after seeing off my new neighbours cats and making a hell of a mess of the window cleaners leg, I had to choke him off up the ladder, where he'd climbed to get him!!

Oh yer, his name was Todd.

good post,i enjoyed that