Pointer and whippet buddies.

[tatsblisters 8,414]

My first springer bought as a six week old pup from a lad on the estate I live about 1986 not long after I had to sell the first house I bought due to being on strike for a year and moving into the council house I am in now. She was the last one left and being the smallest in the litter he let me have her for 25 notes she turned out to be the best 25 pound I have ever spent in my life and she also bred some good small type springers that a few mates had off me. 

[jukel123 7,035]

2 hours ago, tatsblisters said:

Reading your comments I honestly think you would gel with a gundog breed. I remember when I got my first springer after failing with a few terriers to work along my lurchers daytime I know lads have had great success with terrier lurcher combinations but I just couldn't gel with the couple of terriers I had and as I got a terrier after the lurchers all they were more interested in was following the lurchers about knowing they could get their teeth into something like a rabbit or an hare. It was totally different with my first springer she just wanted to hunt and was not that concerned what the lurchers were up to though she would grab stuff in cover and as a pup I just wanted her to hunt even though she was obiediant but nothing like a well trained spaniel for the gun. One memorable day was when I went down south to have a crack at muntjac flushing them from cover to say she had never seen or scented one before she worked like a demon on them all morning before one flushed out of a bramble hedge and ran across a field to some other cover to be taken by a lurcher she worked alongside. 

I have had springers in the past. My first, Bonny, taught my kids to walk. They would hold on to her ears and totter along with her. Like all springers she loved to hunt and I could just about keep her in range of the gun on most game except hares. As soon as she scented hares she would follow the scent like a bloodhound. Worst of all she would open up in excitement .  You could hear her a dozen fields away and just make out her ears flapping over the tops of the barley stalks. I was only in my early twenties and rather than see the funny side I used to get stupidly angry with her and punish her when she returned which was counter productive. It was my naivity anyway,  I knew zero about trying gundogs at the time and expected her to teach herself the game. It doesn't work like that.

I never worked her with a lurcher because of her opening up, but she would definitely have been useful if I had....if I could have gagged her. Back then I am sure springers were hard in temperament and pretty much hunted for themselves and sod the consequences. Modern day springers seem really sensitive and biddable. I would love to buy a pup tomorrow but my head and my age says no. I'll content myself by offering annoying advice to my son who has just bought  a wire haired pointer. Its parents are the real deal and do what they supposed to and more....should be fun.

 

Edited May 27 by jukel123

[Bush Rummager 3,954]

I used to run this pair together. partners in crime lol. They soon worked things out. GSP here. Handy for sending into plantations whilst you wait on the other side for a bolt or sending out quartering into big fields and if you know the land well you'll know which way the hares will run and get in a decent spot for a slip, as in the bottom pic. Pointer is out of shot there just to the right. She layed a lot of game on for the lurcher over the year's. I wouldn't mind a lurcher with a good dose of pointer blood at some point!

 

[jukel123 7,035]

1 hour ago, tatsblisters said:

My first springer bought as a six week old pup from a lad on the estate I live about 1986 not long after I had to sell the first house I bought due to being on strike for a year and moving into the council house I am in now. She was the last one left and being the smallest in the litter he let me have her for 25 notes she turned out to be the best 25 pound I have ever spent in my life and she also bred some good small type springers that a few mates had off me. 

Wow that is a small bitch. You and your Mrs were a good looking couple. Do you still both have your looks and in your case, your hair? My hair was shoulder length in my teens and twenties. Bald as a billiard ball now..and ugly with it.lol

[tatsblisters 8,414]

1 minute ago, jukel123 said:

Wow that is a small bitch. You and your Mrs were a good looking couple. Do you still both have your looks and in your case, your hair? My hair was shoulder length in my teens and twenties. Bald as a billiard ball now..and ugly with it.lol

No mate we have both aged what with hard work though I still have my hair though it's grey and thin now. Lol

[Bobtheferret 1,226]

Surprising really that pointer blooded lurchers aren’t more popular, they are already quite athletic and obviously have phenomenal sense of smell and very biddable in the right hands. Can’t say I have ever seen one. Due to the size of them probably have fairly low wasteage in a litter also. 

[fred90 3,119]

4 hours ago, tatsblisters said:

My first springer bought as a six week old pup from a lad on the estate I live about 1986 not long after I had to sell the first house I bought due to being on strike for a year and moving into the council house I am in now. She was the last one left and being the smallest in the litter he let me have her for 25 notes she turned out to be the best 25 pound I have ever spent in my life and she also bred some good small type springers that a few mates had off me. 

love the pic of the white hares, brings back memories, they are still there but it's red hot in those parts now

[tatsblisters 8,414]

7 hours ago, fred90 said:

love the pic of the white hares, brings back memories, they are still there but it's red hot in those parts now

I used to love it up there mate were you could walk for miles and not been seen from roads or farmhouses. The only time it came on top was when 4 mates came up from London for a day out on the white hares. The little black and white springer was a pup out of my first springer in the other pic and she turned out a cracking little bitch and lived to a good age and my mate said he would never have another as it creased him that much when she died as he really got attached to her more than any of the lurchers he had owned . Though I never took my springer on the moors after white hares as they were easy enough to spot when they were white without a bushing dog to find them. 

 

[fred90 3,119]

3 hours ago, tatsblisters said:

I used to love it up there mate were you could walk for miles and not been seen from roads or farmhouses. The only time it came on top was when 4 mates came up from London for a day out on the white hares. The little black and white springer was a pup out of my first springer in the other pic and she turned out a cracking little bitch and lived to a good age and my mate said he would never have another as it creased him that much when she died as he really got attached to her more than any of the lurchers he had owned . Though I never took my springer on the moors after white hares as they were easy enough to spot when they were white without a bushing dog to find them. 

 

happy days, trouble is now there is a lot of volunteer rangers and local hikers who all have a mobile on speed dial to plod. 

[tatsblisters 8,414]

35 minutes ago, fred90 said:

happy days, trouble is now there is a lot of volunteer rangers and local hikers who all have a mobile on speed dial to plod. 

I know mate it was years since I last went up but I can imagine. 

[Neal 1,847]

12 hours ago, Bobtheferret said:

Surprising really that pointer blooded lurchers aren’t more popular, they are already quite athletic and obviously have phenomenal sense of smell and very biddable in the right hands. Can’t say I have ever seen one. Due to the size of them probably have fairly low wasteage in a litter also. 

I've read somewhere (I think it was in one of Adam Henson's books) that Vizsla's are one of the fastest dog breeds, only a bit behind greyhounds.

Edited to add that I've checked online and it claims 45 mph for greyhounds and 40 mph for Vizsla. Not that speed is everything I hasten to add.

Edited May 28 by Neal

[Bush Rummager 3,954]

Hoovering that scent up!!

Got one on the move..

Get the slip..

The G.S.P could actually gallop a bit to be fair but had a bigger turning circle than Harry Maguire!

Up in the Lakes out with the Blencathera.

[tatsblisters 8,414]

11 hours ago, Bush Rummager said:

Hoovering that scent up!!

Got one on the move..

Get the slip..

The G.S.P could actually gallop a bit to be fair but had a bigger turning circle than Harry Maguire!

Up in the Lakes out with the Blencathera.

Brilliant pics mate. I have only seen the pointer breeds working with BOP and the one that stuck in my memory was a small racey Vizla bitch that worked alongside a goshawk and as I watched it I kept imagining what lurchers could be produced with a decent grew bred to her especially with the good feet and bone structure of these breeds an hardy injury biddable lurcher could have quite possibly been produced in hindsight. 

[Bush Rummager 3,954]

27 minutes ago, tatsblisters said:

Brilliant pics mate. I have only seen the pointer breeds working with BOP and the one that stuck in my memory was a small racey Vizla bitch that worked alongside a goshawk and as I watched it I kept imagining what lurchers could be produced with a decent grew bred to her especially with the good feet and bone structure of these breeds an hardy injury biddable lurcher could have quite possibly been produced in hindsight. 

Cheers mate! Definitely a lot to offer in a lurcher. I enjoyed having mine.  I bumped into a fella in Scotland with a belter. Could see straight away it was a GWP cross. A dog, good 27" with a nice broken coat on it. He said there's was only a small packet of people breeding these.. just for fox. Got his from some lad's in the Lakes. Definitely looked the part for sure!!

[toolebox 1,460]

On 26/05/2024 at 08:35, chartpolski said:

Seen it, but never owned them …..

Cheers.

Wow, that spaniel got a decent set of dusters, looks like they have had the bracken fern treatment!