Easy Enter Info

[Oldandknackered 48]

Hi lads, just after picking your brains really, have you noticed a correlation between easy to enter pups and good performing dogs ie have you noticed that the best dogs you have owned/seen were very easy to enter/self entered or would you say no correlation?? Myself I have not seen enough to accurately draw a conclusion ??

[neil cooney 10,416]

I can only answer for myself because nearly all the terriers I've seen entered in the last 25 years or so have been of the same bloodline so I can only speak for this line, but YES, IMO the ones that self enter with good results usually go on to make above average workers for several seasons.

I hear of these terriers that don't look interested and then one day when they're 2 or 3 years old ,BANG ,they fly to ground, kill a big dog fox, draw him out and never look back.

Like I say I only hear of them, not see them. For obvious reasons.

The couple of times I have ran a pup on for a second season because I hope it will improve I have, with no exceptions, regretted it.

[MOLE265 792]

Best ones is the ones that hear and see plenty of end of digs.

[Pick and bar 381]

For me the best have all showed that drive very early on, self entering at a young age, I now recognise it and hold em up once I see that glint in the eye. All of em have had that extra gear, in their work and all have showed strong finding and staying abilities. This is not tobe confused with pushing a pup to early or expecting miracles from babies.

[steve t 929]

My best ones were all early starters, its a trait I like and like a stud dog that's done it early aswell, that being said I was never really that patient with slower ones so some probobally would have come good. We were spoiled when we had the old nuttal stuff round here, take it to a burrow and in it would go.

[MickyB 327]

Just question what age would you say is young, I expect different from different lines but a round about number 10, 14 or 18 months ?

[hjckcff 1,738]

i find the best to be early starters in the hands of folk that can read a dog. and isnt fooled into thinking youthfull enthusiasm means they are mature enough to enter. ive seen terriers entered at around the year mark. and the same dogs at two years have almost doubled in bulk. and are much more capable physically and mentally . i often wonder what the benefit of entering a dog before its mature is. (anybody?). i also wonder if the cull rate would drop dramatically if more terriers where entered with a little more care and patience. there is also the timing to consider as certain times of year can cause a young terrier to stutter. the method of entering can also make or break a good terrier.

 

i reckon there are more owners that are culls than there are terriers. just my thoughts.

[MickyB 327]

Was wondering because i was told my pup (my first terrier) would be good to go at around 11 month but hes 11 month now and I'm not keen on giving him the opportunity at this time of year, he will have to wait until later on in the year I think.

[shaneg 2,578]

Forget about him for this year and enter him when the season starts next year. I personally think entering a dog at 11 months is far to young. I'd try wait till they are atleast 14/15 months

[neil cooney 10,416]

Was wondering because i was told my pup (my first terrier) would be good to go at around 11 month but hes 11 month now and I'm not keen on giving him the opportunity at this time of year, he will have to wait until later on in the year I think.

Who told you 11 months Micky ?

[dytkos 17,784]

i find the best to be early starters in the hands of folk that can read a dog. and isnt fooled into thinking youthfull enthusiasm means they are mature enough to enter. ive seen terriers entered at around the year mark. and the same dogs at two years have almost doubled in bulk. and are much more capable physically and mentally . i often wonder what the benefit of entering a dog before its mature is. (anybody?). i also wonder if the cull rate would drop dramatically if more terriers where entered with a little more care and patience. there is also the timing to consider as certain times of year can cause a young terrier to stutter. the method of entering can also make or break a good terrier.

 

i reckon there are more owners that are culls than there are terriers. just my thoughts.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing as is experience. There's no one out there that can't learn something new about terriers.

Its good that the forum can be a place to experience other peoples opinions, rather than just act on impulse, impatience or ignorance.

 

Cheers, D.

[derekbrown 176]

In my limited experience the best dogs have to often be held back from a young age,the dogs that are nursed along may or may not be ok but are never the best,lurchers,terriers or hounds.

[marshman 7,757]

For me , and I'm sure if other men on here If they think about the good uns they've had , that there's something about them from the start !! And I don't just mean an early starter I mean from when it's starts to graft at .

A good man can make a average terrier better . but a good un shows from the start and will get even better with graft !

And it doesn't matter how good a terrier man is or patient he is he'll never make a shitehouse a good un lol

Edited February 27, 2016 by marshman

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Self entering should ,in my humble opinion ,be a trait you breed to .

[fat man 4,741]

If a terrier is bred right its easy enough to get them started but its even easier to finish them.I remember myself and a mate traveling over to derbyshire in the early 90s for a wknds digging and also to collect a bitch of year old from parents i had seen dug to a few times and rated them.We were supposed to go by ferry but when we reached Dublin the weather was so rough that the ferriers were not sailing so it was a rush to the airport and a stand by flight into birmingham followed by a train journey to Derby where we then were met eventually met by a mate.We had a good wknd digging and then started our journey back home on the sunday eve with a train journey right up to hollyhead where we had to wait 3 hours as the ferry could not leave dock as sea was so rough but eventually we got out and then on the far side a taxi to the airport to pick up the van and having to drag the terrier about most of the day.I took her out 1 saturday morn about 3 wks later and we found a new earth which an older terrier gave a good mark.The young bitch was straining to go even though she had never been in a field up until this.She was a strong type,red in colour,smooth coat with a head on her like a bucket and the earth looked a piece of piss,how wrong we were,we opened to her about 2half hours later in under an ash stump at around 7ft in ground like concrete and she was with a different animal than we though was at home.She had taken a lot of grief and was literaly on her last breath,not fit but she had stayed until the end.I took her home and to a vet where he done what he could for her and i laid her up then for about 2 months.I decided i would give her another look just before the season ended but although she entered like a rocket after about 20 min she came away and that was that would not re-enter.We let another terrier in to confirm something was at home and dug to it in the same place we had marked the young bitch with its quarry.I personally thing she would have been a usefull bitch if i was not so eager to enter her and had held her back a bit,to this day i blame myself.