Whippets, thickets and working dog classes

[Luckee legs 464]

These days I just do a bit of ferreting and while our collie x largely avoids trouble apart from the odd foot injury or wire cut , our whippet is always marked after ferreting. Yesterday giving my two oldest ferrets a quick outing, our whippet picked up several nasty cuts on bramble, no wire anywhere. This is not unusual for him as he's very game to the point of reckless / stupidity but it made me think that a working whippet must have scars. and yet at the few shows I go to , most other whippets seem pretty clean. Is my dog just a skin injury magnet or are many working whippets not getting much action? 

[forest of dean redneck 11,539]

Because the other whippets are not worked same as the unmarked terriers that get shown.

[WataWalloper 337]

Most are pets an don’t work 

[lurchers 2,763]

That’s because they aren’t getting worked mate or if they are there’s no hedge rows for them to get smashed into mate.

[iworkwhippets 12,513]

worked my Nell practically 7 days a week ,,  some of the places she marked, were horendous for me to get to, hands n knees job, but i always did my best to honour her, cos she wouldnt budge and waited for me to get to her, she worked well for me, i couldnt have asked more of her, yes she got ripped many a time, nowt serious i took care of her, i had loads of pics on this comp of her working, boy can i find the buggers

[OldPhil 5,674]

Facts are,....If you seriously work a genuine hunting/mouching style whippet,...it will inevitably hit a few, bits and pieces.... 

Back in the day,...I was privileged to own, breed and work,.. quite a few of these diminutive Rabbiters,.,.. 

I also Judged hundreds at the various country shows that were so much in vogue, at that time.

Some of them were so scarred up , that their svelte, silky coats resembled a road map of the British Isles....

Disregarding the obvious attributes of physique and correct conformation,....I never took ANY notice of marks gained through their employment,...for me,.. they were completely invisible, and of scant importance....

Fabulous wee hunters,...great fun, and honest providers of good sporting days 

[Moochersways 84]

Any working lurcher will get knocked if there worked regularly my whippet took her fair share as does my lurcher.....anyone that says they've been "lucky" and there dogs escaped any sort of injury is just plain bullshitting about working there dog.....speed and obstacles aren't a good mix and it's never a case of "if" it's "when"......most people at working dog shows are pretenders you won't see them our ferreting on a cold morning or out lamping on a rough night

[gnipper 6,426]

Not many fences or hedges round here but my old whippet from Mike Brown never ripped her skin running through the woods etc and she used to bush quite well too. Just lucky or decent skin?

[fred90 3,208]

we didn't have a great start, this was just mooching at 6 months, she gets her share of knocks but is highly committed and is catching well. 

[WataWalloper 337]

51 minutes ago, gnipper said:

Not many fences or hedges round here but my old whippet from Mike Brown never ripped her skin running through the woods etc and she used to bush quite well too. Just lucky or decent skin?

Dogs definitely have skin that ranges from paper thin to thick as a rhino hide, iv saw it even between litter mates, had a mile brown whippet at mine for a season an half when between lurchers a good few years ago an she was ace, took everything an had decent skin, but still looks battle hard an only ever met fox a couple a time

[green lurchers 16,590]

1 hour ago, fred90 said:

we didn't have a great start, this was just mooching at 6 months, she gets her share of knocks but is highly committed and is catching well. 

Ouch 

[green lurchers 16,590]

Scars have no bearing on a dogs ability in a working environment  , no scars on some don’t mean they don’t see action , they might  have toes off tendons out or tied back muscle dramas broken shoulders legs broken along with backs n necks but  don’t show scars even dead . But that owner you see holding the lead might be out more than the working dogs in the show flying around on a cold frosty morning you never know 

Edited October 6 by green lurchers

[Aussie Whip 4,092]

Mine would usually get the bad knocks and rips when young but most would lose a bit of blood every time out. They weren't pure whippets either. I really think the small, fine skinned pure whippets are a bit fragile for work in scrubby country unless you like stitching or stapling. An unmarked whippet doesn't work.

[Penda 3,341]

Out dad's old man owned some good non ped whippets he did more racing than anything with them the storey goes the original bitch was from an old miner and when he went to pick her up she was running round the street think this is the reason why bloke got rid but my dad said they were game dogs but would get bust up when they took them ferreting normally barbed wire was the perp,I had 1 whippet years ago rimrock the breeding was nice bitch but was too timid unfortunately she'd have a knock at anything thing but car door slammed 1 day and she bolted like a race horse I got her back but after that she was really wherry of bangs and stuff 

[Luckee legs 464]

Some fair points made.

I should add that the although he's apparently made of paper the whippets skin heals incredibly quickly and even the one injury that needed professional stitching, it's barely visible a season on. 

The niggles from working I've seen over the years in our other lurchers, all primarily greyhound bloodlines, like feet and wrist injuries are much less in comparison