Unstuck finally came today.

[Brimmer 220]

Hi guys, ventured out again today, same as usual, me the old feller, the two runners Jed and Robbie, and the same two 5 yr old albino hobs as last week, Billy Bob and his brother hitting the slopes.

 

One of us came off the slopes today never to be the same.

 

Started off well, dogs marking under an old tin sheet at the side of an old barn saw them get one, before I'd even got the ferrets collared up. By the time I got there, one of the dogs had returned to the same tin sheet and marked it up again. Ferret entered saw a bolter that ended up in the barn to safety, but one rabbit within 30 seconds of starting cannot be bad.

 

Hit the slopes, and got a mark sharpish, resulting in a dig shortly after, but dont care when 3 rabbits come out of the same dig!

 

 

Pretty much the same over the next couple of hours, netting up, sometimes getting 1, sometimes getting 4 out of the holes, with more than enough digs fom the stoney shaley ground. Billy bob and his brother working one at a time showed 'True Grit' like they always do. Faultless again. Shifting some larger than average bunnies, I'll come back to that.

 

Jed pictured here at close to 7 yrs old has for the last couple of weeks shaped up.

 

 

We carried on over the top of the slopes onto some of the easy flat ground to see the rest of day out, the running here is easier for the two dogs, the digging is quite easy also, and standing up is not a challenge.

We started clocking up the tally a bit, with the odd 5 warren, a few singles, and few seat catches from the dogs. hitting what was to be the last area of the day for us.

All was going great, the two ferrets just bolting to the two runners, one bolter had me on edge, thinking it was going to get away, but to be honest, I could have caught it!

It was that fat it could hardly run, like a big football rolling off, had more than a handfull of these lumps today, no wonder my ferrets have to graft for the bolt. (I will come back to that later.)

 

Anyhow, it was hitting near 3pm, and my old feller was legging the last of the catch, I was picking up the ferrets, when I saw the two dogs pick the pace up and dissappear over the hill to a tricky spot, I tried calling them off, but no chance.

 

This is a gripe with me and the old feller. He always wants to take both dogs out and work them. For 20 yrs plus myself and him have known, that working 1 dog at once is the only way, I argue with him untill I'm blue in the face several times a year to just work one dog at a time, but he wants to take both of them out.

It makes them push each other over the ground too fast, buggers up a dog trying to retrieve, trying to mark, trying to run and catch. trying to cover the holes, but still both dogs end up loose at the end of the day, pushing each other and competing.

 

Today Jed finally came unstuck.

Its been on the cards for more than enough years, he's dodged the bullet time and time again, a desperate dog, run in a tricky area, competing with his slicker brother resulted in a constant yelping from out of sight.

Robbie came back over the horizon with a rabbit, at that point I knew which dog was yelping, it was Jed, it was serious because he does not yelp for nothing, and constant yelping from him is unheard of.

 

It took me shouting at the old feller to make him realize what was going on, and he wandered off to find the dog as I picked the ferrets up.

 

As suspected, Jed was injured, he has a broken front leg, he has knocked the back part of his front left elbow off. Could not be worse.

 

My old feller set off with dog down the hill, on three legs the hard b*****d limped his way down on a lead.

 

I got everything else down as fast as I could, but the kit and 36 big rabbits all at once took some moving.

 

Still with guts in they were thrown in the truck, and we set off to the vets and phoned the emergency line.

 

He's in there now, sedated, xrays are bloody ugly, he wont work again, and tbh should have been put PTS, but think the fixing up of a cripple is on the cards, probs to the tune of £1100 quid.

 

Whilst in the vets, on the computer screen, they had the history of all the dogs we have owned over the last 20 yrs. The names lined up on the left hand side of the screen. Some I have forgot, some I want to forget, but then one name you just look at and almost break down reading.

 

The father of Jed, a dog called Roy. (Best rabbit dog I have ever, and probably will see.)

One of the many vet records under Roys name as I pointed out to the vet was in 1997, He also broke his front left leg, I remember carrying him off the hill, and holding him upright and supporting him all the way back to the vets in the back of the truck, him yelping as we hit every bump in the road.

That was a bargain price of £250 quid to get his leg plated and pinned due to the vet liking the running dog at the time. a year later saw the dog back to full strength and clock up 2 consecutive century days.

He carried on until 13 yrs old, at which point on his last legs he lined a bitch which spawned Jed.

 

Anyhow. 37 was the total for today, gutted at my house due to the urgency of the day.

 

 

A running dog sets its first foot into the dales, and the clock starts to tick. Its on borrowed time, the more you go, the faster the clock ticks, the harsher the land gets, the faster the clock ticks, the more it runs, the faster the clock ticks.

Hope Jeds clock has not stopped.

[Buster321c 1,010]

fingers crossed buddy

[darbo 4,776]

sorry to hear about the dog. a lurchers life can be a hard one and in some cases a short one. hope everything goes ok fingers crossed.

[patterdalejoel 669]

unlucky mate, but a good bag. but i know that id rather take my little bitch out at every possibility than have to sit her at home, after all thats the reason she is here and the reason i keep her. how tall and heavy is jed? ive wondered for a while if bigger larger dogs are more prone to injury on this terrain due to the weight they have to carry, as my tiny bitch has run over some shit that makes me wince, but she just bounces off it and flies over it. hope he makes a good recovery, but at least he did it doing something he enjoys and what he was bred for. atb

[bigfatskinheadterrierman 10]

sorry for your predicament brimmer hope the dog makes a full recovery

[Brimmer 220]

Hi PJ. Jed and his brother is 25 inch, his father was 25 inch. They are not large dogs, but not little either.

As you well know, the land we hunt can change over the space of a few 100 yrds. Its not down to the size of the dog feller, its down to the brain of the dog.

I dont know it all mate, but know a good bit about our sort of ground, and takes a dog with a bit of size and build to see the day and season and numbers out.

Your little bitch will be fine, she seems to have all i want in a working/marking dog, and catches a few as well! A dog for life.

The build on Jed and Robbie does not see them fail at all, just able to see more than there fair share of knocks and bangs, then maybee 60 plus runs a day out aside hunting up.

Only the dogs sense holds them back, Jed has less than Robbie, hence todays misfortune.

[storm323 191]

Hope the dog is ok I've ferreted some ground up the dales and it can be a death trap I think a terrier kind of lurcher would be a better option somthing under 20 and not a out and out running dog I took my 3/4 greyhound 1/4 collie when I went and she's very racey and hadn't she been such a clever or (jibber) then she would of been hurt I'm sure but she jogged after some which really annoyed me but but around the burrys she's a cracking dog .again hope everything's ok with the dog and I agree I much rather take one dog.

[Magwitch 687]

Looks a nice robust dog that Brimmer, I bet he's earned his corn in the past...........................Hope things work out for the old fella.

[bouncer 51]

hope things turn out well for you brimmer its not nice seeing your dogs injured and in pain.it happened to me a few years ago 2 of my hounds fell off a quarry while fox hunting,but that is another story.good luck.

[fitchet 788]

Allways horrible having to take an injured hound home. Some dogs seem to have a knack of not getting injured other do. Ive a dog here that at a year old had had 2 different operations. Then i have a dog that despite running some real nasty ground has never been hurt bad. Atb with the dog hope it makes a full recovery.

[TOMO 26,309]

A good day there brimmed,, marred at the end. It's the game we play as you know well enough, love your little quote there at the end of your post,, and very apt it was.

 

 

All the best with his recovery

[The one 8,483]

Hope it all works out well mate

[Country Joe 1,411]

Hope the Dog does okay, the British Countryside can be a dangerous place, have to agree I have always worked the one dog.

[troter58 1,711]

sorry about your dog hope it recovers well for you good bag atb

[Sirius 1,391]

Sorry to hear this bloody terrible, as others have said its a hard old game on the dog rabbiting a lot. I often get the feeling many Lurcher folk who dont do much rabbiting forget how many knocks and bloody hard shifts a rabbit dog goes though in its lifetime.

 

All the same mate a great bag and I hope your trusty hound makes a good recovery, he looks a cracker ;-)