Spaniel/ Gundog Lurchers

[krawnden 1,036]

 

I've never seen a gundog based lurcher of any sort but have always liked the idea in principle, though I suspect a first cross would be lacking in speed. I'd love to see a 3/4 bred.

 

I wanted to breed some 3/4's from my bitch this year, she came in season a few weeks ago but was never interested in standing for the dog, when she should have been bang ready she went out? She might come back in i think, her body clocks been a bit haywire the last couple of years, a litter would probably sort her out a bit imo?

 

If i did breed or get the chance of a 3/4 i would still pick a pup with more spaniel influence, if any came out that way? I don't want or need really fast dogs for what i do, water any base blood down to much or breed to far away from the base and you'd lose the magic maybe?

 

 

Watering down with too much speed is always the gamble, isn't it. I think if there's a specific base breed you've chosen and want to work with, 3/4 bred is as far as I'd want to go with it.

[wuyang 513]

I remember about 9 months after I got my bitch there was a local advert that caught my eye, it was for a litter of saluki/greyhounds x working sprocker.

 

Personally I would like to keep half springer in the mix for what I do. I was lucky in that the sire was a good size dog.

 

Arcticgun......uncanny how similar they look.

Edited April 2, 2016 by wuyang

[Truther 1,579]

 

 

 

 

I've never seen a gundog based lurcher of any sort but have always liked the idea in principle, though I suspect a first cross would be lacking in speed. I'd love to see a 3/4 bred.

 

I wanted to breed some 3/4's from my bitch this year, she came in season a few weeks ago but was never interested in standing for the dog, when she should have been bang ready she went out? She might come back in i think, her body clocks been a bit haywire the last couple of years, a litter would probably sort her out a bit imo?

 

If i did breed or get the chance of a 3/4 i would still pick a pup with more spaniel influence, if any came out that way? I don't want or need really fast dogs for what i do, water any base blood down to much or breed to far away from the base and you'd lose the magic maybe?

 

 

I think the 3/4 cross would be real interesting

 

 

 

I agree mate, i'm happy with my little bitch, general purpose busher/scrounger, but i'd like to add another dose of runner and see what happened? The real problem is their size, mines 16" tts, and the lads is 18" tts, so i doubt they'd make anything but rabbiting dogs, probably ideal for a bit of mooching/ferreting, even a few runs in the lamp? But to see what spaniel really offered to lurchers you'd need a bit more height i reckon.

 

My lads talking about breeding another litter of first x's, but using a bigger grew, we know all the breeding behind both dogs for a long time, its solid stuff, these pups would be bigger, and very likely handy enough in their own right, and one more x to runner would be a fair prospect imo.........one things for certain, after trying the spaniel x's we both want to take it further, have to see what happens?

 

I tink id go more for a lighter coursing dog than a grew cant see the grew adding much but speed and youd get enough of that from a coursing dog plus better hunting instinct, stamina and feet, just my opinion, one of the best lurchers ive seen was Pointer of heres old bitch Tess she was casper saluki lurcher x gwp bitch she is a ral one off recovered from broken neck too go onto a great career day and night, lads only regret is not getting a pup off her to another cousign dog again 3/4 cross would of just been that bit handier, but she was unreal on lamp and great daytime in the land she was hunted on,

 

Id take any of these sort of crosses well above any collie x or beddy x type lurchers

 

 

I know what you're saying about using a coursing bred dog, but the problem is you'd be adding different ingredients, and different traits, i'd like to know what spaniel base offered on its own in a big enough package tbh mate? You'd know that at 3/4 bred, and if they were worth breeding on a bit more you wouldn't have much choice but to add something else imo, but i'd take it to 3/4 first.

[gamerooster 1,179]

Brother sister mating, obviously both animals need to be sound but should produce fairly level pups

[Mustelid 143]

This is a really interesting thread, with some cracking pictures.

 

As someone who has kept spaniels longer than lurchers, it's worth pointing out that there are spaniels and then there are spaniels! The more lightly built trialling type would a lurcher programme in my opinion.

 

Truther and Arcticgun have both bred some decent pups, I must say they sound like my type of animal.

[wuyang 513]

I think I was quite lucky regarding the spaniel dam to my bitch. It was the keepers bitch at Hackness Hall North Yorkshire, looked a big shoot......

 

It was hard to get a pic of her

 

Old lad that got lucky!

[pointer 543]

I do regret spaying my bitch and I would have used Nuttalls Jack on her if I hadn't but theres no guarantee the extra running dog would have worked out for me. When she was younger and some stuff got away from her I thought more speed was the answer but I've seen stuff get away from all kinds of crosses. My quarry was and always will be mainly rats and rabbits with the odd fox chucked in. My bitch couldn't catch hares like a faster type can and maybe a 3/4 cross would have caught some of the hare, fox and deer she missed but if I ever want another lurcher I'll be more than happy to get another half cross. She was a tough bitch and had to be working on the often rocky ground and ratting around all sorts of stuff day and night. Looking back I was always banging on about wanting a 3/4 pointer cross but now that she's old and retired I think about all the hunting we did together and I'd be happy with another half cross.

 

It might be different with spaniels but pointers crossed with greyhounds can end up massive. Until Britain has a widespread Wild Boar population I'll stick to rats and rabbits and a 23/24 inch lurcher does me lol.

[Hamish.J.Cronan 13]

Very interesting thread with some real interesting options and knowledge shared - nice one, hope it keeps coming!

 

There's been a lot of good talk about gun dog crosses, most certainly versatile X's which would fit in with what we're looking for - anyone seriously thinking of a litter?

 

You got any pics of your X you could share Pointer?

[pointer 543]

All my pics are on memory sticks and I have nothing on this laptop but if you do a search on pointer/ spaniel crosses I'm sure she will be on them somewhere.

I have a few hours video of her ferreting but that doesn't show her doing what gundog crosses are quite good at which is ranging out on hilly/ moorland areas and hunting up. A lot of dogs will do that the difference can come when your hunting an area that doesn't hold much quarry and you need a dog that won't sicken from hunting with no reward for severel hours.

[TOMO 26,193]

Heres one I had 25 year ago,,, dame was a lurcher,,sire a spaniel

 

 

[TOMO 26,193]

[TOMO 26,193]

[mackay 3,364]

I genuinely am baffled as to why gundog lurchers are so rare in comparison to other types.

The only reason I can think of is that most owners now do genuinely consider a point and slip dog to be a lurcher.

[Mustelid 143]

What was that dog like Tomo?

[wuz 40]

There was an artical in the edrd about coarsing and one of the lees had a first cross spanial greyhound that could nail day time hares in the 70is a local man used to have a spanial whippet that used to catch hares on the sides of the local pit stacks by hunting the sents then getting faster the nearer and the stronger the sent got so hitting the squatting hare at a good pace filling the pot again