New member to the team

[sidney567 0]

Due to this being pre-ban I've removed names of people and dogs.

 

 

For being relatively young and forward thinking in most of my views/opinions, I’m rather old fashioned when it comes to what I like in my dogs. With this current trend of heavy muscular bully greyhounds I found it hard to find the dog I was after.

 

That was until my best friend rang me up and said he had been contacted by a close friend, who had a deerhound x greyhound available. Two year old and taking all British quarry. Likely story I thought! Who gets rid of a dog like that? The stories got even better. “Fifty fox in six month!†“The fastest dog he’s ever owned!â€

 

It couldn’t hurt to take a look could it? So off I set. Eventually I met up with the owner and this incredible beast. It definitely looked the part, large, twenty eight inches at the shoulder, racy and a clearly a powerful animal with a quiet disposition (as all lurchers seem to have). After a quick chat I was told me that he was getting rid of the dog as his collie x greyhound was giving the dog a hiding at every opportunity and it was a case of ‘last in, first out’. This seemed to be confirmed with a bite on his front left leg. Price tag of £100 with a “if you’re not happy I’ll take him back, guaranteedâ€. It all seemed too good to be true.

 

Well, I bought him. My friend assuring me that I wouldn’t have been sold rubbish. Couldn’t help thinking that there was something I was missing.

 

After giving the dog a settling in period I was relatively impressed with his general personality. He tolerated my terrier and young lurcher who were certainly pushing his tolerance to the limit. With his cut now healed I thought it was time to see what he was like!

 

I had arranged to go digging with some close friends. After arriving we quickly found an occupied set and a terrier was dropped. The dog disappeared and it wasn’t long before we had a mark. 8 foot deep in sand, Glorious. My friend who we have called ‘the mole’ (due to his love of digging) set off. After an hour or so we broke through to the dog, which had a large dog fox bottled up in a pipe end.

 

In stepped GUS! Without asking he quickly pulled that dog fox from the hole and dispatched him even before we had the opportunity to assist. Clearly he had done this before!

 

Next test. I went out lamping with another friend of mine and his rifle. We put my dog in the truck ‘just in case’ we ran a few rabbits with him and he caught them like a professional, although he wasn’t to keen on bringing them to hand. One area we needed to work on. Phil spotted a bright white light sitting in a bracken bed. A\clean shot and seconds later Charlie was lying in the dirt and he would need more than a paracetamol to sort him out in the morning. I walked the dog up to where Charlie had been sitting and was now lying. The dog quickly found where the fox was lying. He picked him up and started to shake him with a temper and ferocity that had to be seen to be believed. I had a funny feeling that this dog and I were going to get along just fine.

 

We called it a day and I stopped at his, with the arrangements for an early start in the morning.

 

Another day, another task. It wasn’t long before I saw a large Brown Hare sitting in a grass field tight to a fence at the top of a steep hill. From being an early child I was always told that the biggest test of a running dog was THE HARE! A real test for ‘the fastest dog he’d ever owned’ as I saw the hare, so it saw us and puss was off. I slipped the dog and he made his run up, with law of 30 yards it wasn’t long before he was on old puss. He sat tight behind puss as I counted the turns, eight, nine, ten then he struck only to miss and pick up a face full of grass. But old puss was running out of luck. As quick as he went down, the dog picked himself up and was back at him. Eleven, twelve, thirteen, and then STRIKE. He had his prize. Was I impressed!

 

It wasn’t long before he had his tongue in and we all set off again. Another field with a very noticeable incline. The hare was sitting tight to an old stone wall three quarters of the way up this large arable field, it sat even tighter as we walked into the field through the open gate. Slowly we walked towards the Hare until it got up and ran! Another slip and off he went head down with clear determination. Five, six, seven turns then a truly classic strike and hare number two was in the bag. Best £100 I’ve ever spent.

 

We ran one more hare. He took this one as well. Three from three, and unfortunately it was time to set off for home as the yellow sun began to rise into the baby blue sky. Leaving the horizon of a large forestry that must contain some critters that we would have been happy chasing. Maybe next time!

 

 

Many thanks to the people I hunted/hunt with, you know who you are.

 

 

Yours in the countryside

[suluki 2]

sounds like a good dog mate and a steel at £100!