genuine working deerhounds

[jigsaw 11,863]

Last weekend I took off to the wilds and joined up with a good friend of mine,he is an avid deerhound supporter.I arrived after a 2 hour drive into his lavish home in a quaint little village near the coast.After the catch up chat and tour around the grounds of his home and kennels,he showed me to my room.I put my bags away and we loaded up the dogs and headed for oblivion,literally.We drove half an hour and came to our destination.Before us was a long flat plain of marshland and then the hillside that was a good heart tester.The dogs let loose and off we went.With us we had Jill the deerhound bitch,she is 3 years old now and has shown to be a very honest bitch in the last season,accounting for a decent bag of hare and a few fox,but not too many of the latter as her main quarry is the hare and coursing the surrounding land.With us also was 8 year old Jack,the deerhound dog,he has nothing left to prove now.He has taken all quarry put before him,but alas now hes loosing pace and wind due to old age.Sean reckons he will get another decent season out of him but then its retirement after that.A place by the fire.Its a great place to test the feet and stamina of any breed of dog.On the flat lands a course can go on for a decent lenght of time,SEAN keeps the deerhounds on slips on this terrain as he likes to give the hare a head start so to prolong the run and see how the dogs do trying to come to terms with their quarry.Before i go any further i have to state that Sean keeps the deerhounds because he is passionate about the breed,he openly admits that most types of well bred lurchers would burn the arse off of the deerhound when running up to the quarry and probably for the first minute or two into the course,but the ground is rushes and bogland and very uneven in places and a surefooted dog is essential here.The reason i mention this is for you to see he doesnt boast about his dogs,he knows theres lurchers that are faster and more agile than the deerhound but for beauty and grace and a gutsy performance ending many times in sucess these are his prefered choice.When the bottom of the hill is reached Sean then lets loose the dogs to hunt up for themselves,for here the hares get up and within a few yards they can dissapear over the brow of the hill without being sited.Both dogs arevery well equiped with good scenting ability,I have witnessed this myself.We headed off for the first level and right in front of us a fox headed up the rock face,unsighted the dogs were put into the gap he left and jill put nose to the grass and off she went.We ran as much as we could and when we reached the top Jill was well out on the hill and working very hard to locate her quarry,unfortunately with all the gorse the fox dissapeared no problem.A few photos might help to visualise the moment

This is where the fox ran below

we also had with us a Dalmation,Seans wifes pet.Niki was her name and a fairly unsavoury charachter,not one for making friends I might add.At one stage during the stay I forgot myself and went to give her a pat on the head,to say she was not pleased was an understatement This Dalmation bitch,believe it or not is a great dog to rise a hare,she was accompanied by her best friend MAX,a Springer/setter cross who is now 12 years old,deaf a little feeble but one hell of a dog still to hunt up.This is where Niki learnt it from.

During our rambel we came upon 3 hares also,but unbelievably all unsighted by the dogs,but again they went nose down and tracked the line as long as they could.I was told that in the winter the sport is much more exciting as the hares are all up on the hill early in the morning and the scent is obviously better.There is an abundance of hares in the region but some days for whatever reason its hard to find them.when we reached the top it was getting just a tad dull in sunlight so we headed down a different path with the dogs all hunting about hard.Next September,Sean hopes to put Jill and Jack together and produce a litter of pure deerhound coursing pups,keeping 2 back for himself and a few promised to genuine deerhound people.These dogs have been used lamping big quarry a few time in the past and have more than proven their worth on many an occasion.A few lurcher men came over the last season to course the hill with SEAN and a few of their dogs went home with damaged feet and found it hard to come to terms with the terrain,where as the deerhounds aquitted themselves well enough to go back out the next morning to repeat the whole procedure again.Anyway I'll shut the hell up now and hope you enjoy the pics as much as I enjoyed the 2 days of rambling and alcohol abuse.

Below is Jill,28 inches to the shoulder and no trace of show breeding in her last 8 generations.

this is Jack and Jill(no bloody jokes about going up the hill please

Niki,the hunting Dalmation and extreme guard dog

Both hounds keeping a watchfull eye on the gorse

Both dogs watching for the break as the Dalmation and the Springer hunt the cover

SEAN and JILL all puffed out from the climb,lol

Well if you didnt enjoy it you got to admit its something different.

GOOD HUNTING,JIGSAW

[Simoman 110]

Good read Jigsaw.

[Guest ripstop]

Spot on Jigsaw mate, lovely scenery And some good looking deerhounds as well, not to forget the dalmation.

[poacher2225 2]

Good read mate i like deerhound's but i will have to stick with the deerhound x's for the type of ground i run nice dogs

[timjim 43]

nice write up and good pictures,

really enjoyed reading and looking at the pictures

nice dogs too

 

thank you

Tim

[Giro 2,648]

good read fella i would love to seen a genuine deerhound work...

[Malt 379]

Good read mate! Cheers for sharing.

[rabitin girl 16]

Brilliant read , I like the look of those Deerhounds

[DIGZY 4]

good read jigsaw always wanted to see a pure bred deerhound working .

[Jack NUFC 1]

cracking read mate!!

[jigsaw 11,863]

People I just got a phone call from SEAN and he asked to put this up on site,tommorow hes bringing a daughter of JACK,the deerhound on the topic that was put to a coursing bitch.The end result being MOLLY,1st cross deerhound/greyhound.She is being covered by a coursing greyhound from the HILLTOWN line of coursing dogs.He asked to say that MOLLY is a real fast mover,up to her hare in seconds and has plenty of wind,she is not the best fox dog in the world but this is due to an accidental mauling she got when under 12 months when her father caught a fox and was terminating it,she rushed in and felt the sharp end too early on.She has taken BIG quarry and her litter mates have taken ALL put in front of them with gusto.SEAN is keeping 1 pup from this mating and some are pre booked as it is all going well(never count your chickens,comes to mind)If anyone is interested in a 3/4 deerhound1/4 greyhound please contact me and i will pass on the number for SEAN as soon as the plan comes together.good hunting,JIGSAW

[killemall 1]

spot on jig great read there ... them deerhounds ar top class i had only last season a first cross deerhound greyhound she was 6 when i got her still well able for a hare and used eat foxes literaly up through the chest demented she was mighty to draw aswel but the travlers have her now up by you ya might have seen her around up that way brindly type bitch long hair 4 white paws ... as i had no other choice but to give her back to the Bo**ox that i used hunt with who then sold her on..

 

They ar great dogs jig heart of lions im chancing this bull/hound pup and if he dont work out il be going geting a deerhound...

 

All the best jig

 

Terrier man

[Kay 3,709]

enjoyed that great read & i can see the pictures this morning

[Corkonian 44]

Pics aren't showing for me Kay and we were looking at this at the same time?! I'll keep refreshing the page.

[bess 9]

good post and good read.

thanks for sharing

best wishes

bess