Terriers V Spaniels

[shovel leaner 7,650]

 

Is it just me , but i cant see that you can compare a spaniel to a good terrier for bushing !! I am not knocking spaniels , ive got two . But to put a well trained gun dog in to a large area of gorse , bracken or bramble to run riot seems daft . In my experience spaniels soon get sick of the battering when they face very dence cover . Also terriers nail a lot of stuff in the bushes . In "pre ban " days i used to get a big pack of mates dogs together to go through the pheasent pens before i sealed them up and put the poults in , we had deer , foxes , rabbits , it was always the terriers and lurchers that stole the show the spaniels never got a look in , and before anyone says your spaniels are shit , The most of em are good working and field trial lines .

 

Soft spaniels then? I agree with everything else you've said by the way, terriers will catch things whereas spaniels won't but I've never come across a spaniel that gets sickened off by cover?

 

 

 

 

Is it just me , but i cant see that you can compare a spaniel to a good terrier for bushing !! I am not knocking spaniels , ive got two . But to put a well trained gun dog in to a large area of gorse , bracken or bramble to run riot seems daft . In my experience spaniels soon get sick of the battering when they face very dence cover . Also terriers nail a lot of stuff in the bushes . In "pre ban " days i used to get a big pack of mates dogs together to go through the pheasent pens before i sealed them up and put the poults in , we had deer , foxes , rabbits , it was always the terriers and lurchers that stole the show the spaniels never got a look in , and before anyone says your spaniels are shit , The most of em are good working and field trial lines .

 

Soft spaniels then? I agree with everything else you've said by the way, terriers will catch things whereas spaniels won't but I've never come across a spaniel that gets sickened off by cover?

 

If you have got some very dense bramble that is say spread over an acre or so it saps the strength if the dogs trying to push through . Terriers are smaller and can get about easily by comparison .

Also spaniels tend to quest with their nose , if you have an isolated bramble bush , does your dog circle it trying to wind game , and if it cant smell anything move on to the next patch or does it blindly crash through it anyway ? If it crashes through anyway you are going to have a tired dog on your hands sooner than the one who uses his nose . When i have been bushing very dense patches of cover for a morning the spaniels are the first to jack it in .

Field trial dogs are trained for very short intence periods of hunting , smashing through cover like it aint there . After half an hour those dogs are fit to drop !

Proper work with a spaniel is different and the dogs learn to pace themselves , and for the most part that means avoiding cover unless they think somethings in there !!!

[RubyTex 1,957]

Mine always hit every bit of cover regardless of what's in there and work all day without falter. Granted they're shattered come home time but that's to be expected...

[RubyTex 1,957]

P.s i'm not having a go, I've just never come across a spaniel that gets sickened by cover. Even with eyes puffy, rips and cuts they still want more. In my experience like.

[Lab 10,979]

My bushing dog is a bullxwhippet and would

Put some terrier an spaniels to shame

It's silly the amount of offers I've had

For the bitch.

How's that thin coated dog do in the brambles??

[Born Hunter 17,816]

Got to admit, I've never seen a spaniel work bramble and thorns like a decent terrier. But a terrier will struggle with thick ditches and what I would call heavy set-a-side where a bit of leg and power is needed.

[Lab 10,979]

I've seen terriers flush birds well. But in control no. Not saying there's none out there that is but they are certainly few and far between.

Plenty useless spaniels out there as well I'll just add.

 

My next door neighbour used to have a wee jack russell( Cleo)....she would come with me when there was a few rabbits about and she was a good we dog. She would walk to heel, listen to my commands but once that rifle was fired she was off. If there was 2/3 rabbits then you were only getting a shot at one. Not the first time she has grabbed a rabbit making it's way to a hole though. She was a cracking wee dog and that was with no training what so ever.

[Born Hunter 17,816]

I've seen terriers flush birds well. But in control no. Not saying there's none out there that is but they are certainly few and far between.

Plenty useless spaniels out there as well I'll just add.

 

My next door neighbour used to have a wee jack russell( Cleo)....she would come with me when there was a few rabbits about and she was a good we dog. She would walk to heel, listen to my commands but once that rifle was fired she was off. If there was 2/3 rabbits then you were only getting a shot at one. Not the first time she has grabbed a rabbit making it's way to a hole though. She was a cracking wee dog and that was with no training what so ever.

 

Lab, I'm not professing to have anything special but my little tyke is a steady thing, she'll not sit to flush or owt like that but she'll not put anything up out of gun shot and she'll walk to heel through and past game, albeit begrudgingly. She swims like a f***ing otter after ducks and hunts fur better than any gundog I've seen. She used to have a cracking retrieve on her but I think I f****d that up bollocking her for stealing the lurchers catches when out bushing, now she will just find shot game and fetch it out of cover. It's something I shoud rectify really and not just put up with. She really is a cracking little all rounder, in the beating line, rough shooting, bushing, vermin work and just accompanying me feeding/pen building in the summer. To be honest I wouldn't ask any more from even a spaniel in terms of training other than a better retrieve, I'm really not bothered about sitting to flush etc as long as the dog ain't f***ing your day up running riot.

 

I'm not sure pure spaniels are for me but I really do think as an alrounder for what I want a spanielxterrier would be about bang on.

 

Fox run into brambles by that law obiding lurcher and then flushed by the little'un to gun;

 

 

A day after vermin a while ago;

 

[Born Hunter 17,816]

Beating, waiting for the main line to bring a few fields in;

 

Caged up;

 

Waiting again;

 

End result of a August evening flushing rabbits to the gun;

 

Shot 8 that day, cracking bit of pre season sport!

No pics of rough shooting days really as I'm usually enjoying the shooting too much, LOL.

 

Like I said, nothing special but does me for what I want as an allrounder.

[alimac 882]

Sounds like you've only ever been out with poor terriers, my plummers/russells have as much brain and are every bit as controllable as any spaniel I've been out with, my mate is a professional gun dog trainer and spends half his day sorting out manic spaniels that eat the house up, I bush every day and its not by chance that after working dogs for over 45yrs that I keep the dogs I do, atb,

 

iv never known any decent gundog trainer that spends half there time sorting dogs that eat the house up. Lol, Sounds like you've only been out with poor spaniels ;-)

[RubyTex 1,957]

Sounds like you've only ever been out with poor terriers, my plummers/russells have as much brain and are every bit as controllable as any spaniel I've been out with, my mate is a professional gun dog trainer and spends half his day sorting out manic spaniels that eat the house up, I bush every day and its not by chance that after working dogs for over 45yrs that I keep the dogs I do, atb,

 

iv never known any decent gundog trainer that spends half there time sorting dogs that eat the house up. Lol, Sounds like you've only been out with poor spaniels ;-)

 

Quite...

[Ideation 8,216]

I do agree that there are some places, such as a few acres of tight bramble etc, where I'd rather work a terrier than a spaniel any day....

 

Mainly because I wouldn't really just send my spaniel off into a load of cover and stand on the outside for ages while it ran the quarry around on the inside, at a fair distance for me. . . .

[wirral countryman 2,110]

Rubytex, Alimac, Believe it or not it is my mate not me that's the gundog and problem dog trainer, as a pro=keeper I did work many types of gundogs and HPR's so I've seen plenty of good spaniels and I was a member of the NW field trials association where my own dogs won, as a Deeside wildfowler I also seen some very good spaniels that faced icy tides and currents to retrieve shot game etc, I think that more than qualifies me to give my opinion on facing rough cover, spaniels have their place in the way of all things but facing rough cover isn't one of them ,my small terriers get hammered every day and even with their tails docked suffer daily damage to them and their ears, if I thought for one moment that a spaniel or a cross thereof would suit my needs then I'd have one, its not like I've never seen them work or their different crosses because that cross has been popular round here for years due to lads poaching trying not to draw attention by walking on the estates with a pure terrier, I'm all for structured debate but you cannot change what I have witnessed with my own eyes just because you may keep or work one , WM

[RubyTex 1,957]

I just didn't understand why you brought up what your mate does. If he as a gun dog trainer spends half his days tending to manic spaniels that eat the house up then clearly they are untrained and under exercised pets...this thread is working spaniels vs working terriers not pets.....It perplexed me a bit why you even mentioned it lol

 

Almost as if you were using it to unfairly bash spaniels with...

[alimac 882]

Wirral I agree with a lot of what you say on this site, but to state "spaniels have there place, but hunting rough cover isn't one of them" is quite simply ni on the biggest load of cock splat Iv read on here, ever !! It even beat the comment that terriers were more handleable than a spaniel, lol lol

Lets be honest cover the size of whats being talked about where terriers have the edge, because of there size, is very rarely hunted with much success when bushing, unless there's a pack of them working it, it's simply too big a area for one or two to put enough pressure on the quarry to make it leave.

[wirral countryman 2,110]

Wirral I agree with a lot of what you say on this site, but to state "spaniels have there place, but hunting rough cover isn't one of them" is quite simply ni on the biggest load of cock splat Iv read on here, ever !! It even beat the comment that terriers were more handleable than a spaniel, lol lol

Lets be honest cover the size of whats being talked about where terriers have the edge, because of there size, is very rarely hunted with much success when bushing, unless there's a pack of them working it, it's simply too big a area for one or two to put enough pressure on the quarry to make it leave.

I'm just back in from whacking a few rats on a local farm thought I'd catch up, Alimac, my terriers are as biddable as any gundog especially at pushing any sort of cover, they do catch more than I like if that's a fault but they spend 7 days a week all year round doing so, I would put my pack up against any other in this country safe in the knowledge that they wouldn't let me down, I hunt up in Scotland on my mates estate who's a headkeeper in Perthshire and then go further north to a mate in Wick before coming back down the west coast to stay in Drumnadrockit, Invernesshire, if your anywhere near these I'll be glad to show you how they do, oh and by the way I ran 1 terrier for 10 years and caught plenty with him so you don't need a pack for successful bushing, WM