Rock Dogs

[bunny tickler 876]

i started all my pups off on long walks on rocks of easy scrambling mainly up the small streams comeing off the moors ,so they got used to the feel of them ,if they struggled behind the bigger rocks i didnt pick them up they worked their own way round them slowly learning to scramble & jump amongst them , entering them into easier piles knowing the safer ones to work ,obviously not entering them into the big piles , yes its a different way of working terriers , in my opinion any dog can work earths but not many earth dogs make excellent rock dogs , dont get me wrong some can & do work both , but theres still plenty of good rock terriers about in the north west , in the old days at the sheepdog trials & sheep sales ,many farmers brought dogs to sell for easy money , some of the hardest dogs i had came from such men , they sometimes looked on them as a problem if they entered & killed foxes , they wanted the fox bolted to shoot so they knew charlie was dead , i got some crackers off the shepherds

[Dunkanon 380]

Not worked the cairns and piles enough myself to say Ive had a good rock dog, but we have worked them and with some success, this area has plenty of them and the hounds run them in on a regular basis, the terriers Ive seen the hunts use are a bit small for my liking altho again they do have some success.... hanging back and letting things settle and hoping for a bolt to the gun is the order of the day. Personally I like a terrier with a bit of leg on it in them places. I used to walk the high hills a lot and make my ascents and descents via huge scree and boulder slopes and the stumpy legged terriers altho getting around struggled a lot more than the taller type, that bit of leg helps a lot in my opinion.

[tank34 2,364]

Been a good topic this was hopping some pups be about from two rock dogs am in no rush will keep looking

[the goat 642]

I once had a Russel that used to move the smaller rocks and stones herself. and she could do a mix and lay a block

[AXUM 255]

Patterdales and pit bull working the rock piles. Caught a few foxes with that patt in last couple years in this area.

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Very good thread .Lads that that work the soil places will have no conception of rocks me included .Tbh would scare the crap out of me entering a dog into any place with rock over the top .Hats off to those doing it .

[genuine 81]

I worked some rock piles regularly with past terriers, the worst that happened was a 3 day stint in a crag hole for a hardish dog. Plenty of bad rock piles about, and crags and cliff holes, we always avoided mines, but we got to know the regular ones well enough to feel fairly confident.

 

Rock holes have been very productive over the years up here DnN remember that day in the quarry. Brock was in there 48 hours. 60% of the holes round here are rock. Over the years they've probably been some of the most productive holes ive worked.

[bunny tickler 876]

i would say with confidence all the fell packs will have good terrier men with good rock dogs , some great welsh packs too & great terriers on them wild places

[dogs-n-natives 1,182]

 

I worked some rock piles regularly with past terriers, the worst that happened was a 3 day stint in a crag hole for a hardish dog. Plenty of bad rock piles about, and crags and cliff holes, we always avoided mines, but we got to know the regular ones well enough to feel fairly confident.

Rock holes have been very productive over the years up here DnN remember that day in the quarry. Brock was in there 48 hours. 60% of the holes round here are rock. Over the years they've probably been some of the most productive holes ive worked.

 

Yep remember that!...Like you say we would see way less foxes if we walked past all the rocky spots.

[waz77 15]

 

Hey socks it may not be a crock of shit... it might have been plummer who told him. Lol.

pernod

That story was one of the more "believable" stories told by a very well respected, on here anyway, terrier man.

I can guess which one :-) Edited February 1, 2015 by waz77

[Rat face 1,655]

Very good thread .Lads that that work the soil places will have no conception of rocks me included .Tbh would scare the crap out of me entering a dog into any place with rock over the top .Hats off to those doing it .

its just what your used to really, i bet just as many dogs have been smothered in sand earths than have been lost in rock, most good dog lads know there land and know what is safe and what is not, there is a spot near me that my old man showed me that the fox pings out with no problem but yet not 200 yards on the moor there is a real bad spot that has claimed the life of a few dogs over time, and for the times things do go wrong get on the phone to your local fell and moorland rep lol

[bunny tickler 876]

a few years ago a keeper up crowden had a dog stuck , you may remember a big group of us went up to try a rescue , one fella wanted to start a dig at the last known mark , i wanted to wait a while to be quiet & have a good listen , anyhow we nearly had a big fallout over to dig or not to dig , i went around the area on my own listening down every crevice & gap in the rock , i marked the dog over 10 yds away i could here him whimpering so called the lads over they heard him too , dug and barred the rocks apart & got him out , a good do if we had dug to the last mark we would have had to move a hell of a lot of big rock ,sometimes patience works , one more thing this dog was a big dog a good finder & killer of foxes but it was allways getting stuck .....leave them big lads out the rock in my opinion, others will differ im sure

[Rat face 1,655]

yeah them big dogs are not the best you want a dog with a nice thin chest and shoulders on them i have a bitch here thats no wider than 5 inch in the chest im always a fan of trying to wait for the dog to show and start to dig as a last resort, you only need a small rock to slip down when trying to get down and block the dog in forever

[neil cooney 10,416]

That's interesting regarding size because when the Fell types started coming into Ireland in the late 70s, early 80s most lads considered them too big and that included for badger digging.

Yet these terriers coming in were from dogs worked in rock.

But I have to agree with what I've seen of terriers working rock is that a fine, medium size is best.

A friend has a bitch that came from a Welsh pack who was bred to work in flint and IMO she's quiet small.

[morton 5,368]

That's interesting regarding size because when the Fell types started coming into Ireland in the late 70s, early 80s most lads considered them too big and that included for badger digging.

Yet these terriers coming in were from dogs worked in rock.

But I have to agree with what I've seen of terriers working rock is that a fine, medium size is best.

A friend has a bitch that came from a Welsh pack who was bred to work in flint and IMO she's quiet small.

The Fell types that were bred for rocks would have been useless at work,if they were that big.Around that time the biggest influence on Fells/Lakeys was the decline into breeding for the shows and the financial reward,they went from being leggy,wiry grafters,to heavy cobby show winners,on the whole.