Dog

[young_london_hunter 9]

Hiya im new here

was looking for some advice, my mum sais we could get a dog although i live in london, i do a lot of shooting and have a house in the country. I have an air rifle (but might upgrade to a shotty) and do plenty of shooting but i was wondering what was the best dog to get for my purposes which are :

Able to retrieve,

Something which can hunt rabbits if i cant be assed with the gun or if i dont have permission to shoot,

something clever and which is obidient,loyal gd companion.

something fit and fast due to the fact i do a hell of a lot of sport and athletics which means i run 10ks for training which it would join me on

is friendly due tot he fact i want to take it out when i go to see all my friends

something which wouldnt be useless in a violent situation i.e mugging,theft

 

dont care about pedigree or cross

 

thanks in advance

 

t

[tonza 0]

"something clever and which is obidient,loyal gd companion." they all are if you are willing to put in the time and effort

[young_london_hunter 9]

yer fair point but wat kind of crosses or breeds shall i be looking at ?

[skycat 6,173]

Bearing in mind that mine is only a pup still, and I haven't had personal experience of the working adults in the USA, I suggest an Airedale! A working bred Airedale from American working lines. Better still, and Airedale x Greyhound: I doubt the straight Airedales would be quite fast enough for rabbits, though mine is trying hard LOL However, as yet, no one has yet bred the Airedale cross in this country, and I'm not talking about the KC registered ones here: a friend of mine knows of 2 KC Airedales which he says are as thick as two short planks, and totally divvy with it: the working lines are a completely different ball game altogether.

 

Seriously though: you want a mate, a hunter, a retreiver, a personal and property guard, a fun dog to be out with, as well as one that is intelligent enough to adapt itself to a lot of varying situations and environments. So far my Airedale pup has ticked all these boxes and she's only 7 months old.

 

Though I'm sure a well bred Collie/Grey with the right temperament would do the job just as well! Or a GSD/Grey.

[young_london_hunter 9]

looked at them, thanks any other suggestions,

foxhounds ?

anything else?

[gnipper 6,405]

The only box a foxhound would tick is hunting rabbits. Get a colliexgrey or better still get a dog you like, if you don't like it it won't like you.

[Calli 93]

you want a retriever or a rabbiter?

 

Totally different and not a multitask option - even with a bitch

[young_london_hunter 9]

is it impossible to do both ?

i shoot a lot with my airrifle at the moment but am going on a couple of shoots this season and may be invest in a shotgun im guessing dogs still retrieve air rifle shot quarry as well ?

[young_london_hunter 9]

? anyone help please

[Meerihunter 7]

Ten years back I was keepering and had the usual springer, lab, cocker, all did there gundog work just fine I also had a SalukiXSaluki/lurcher bred for singlehanded hare coursing. The dog was brought up around all aspect of my gamekeeping work and was an absolute asset to me and was my dog of choice what ever the task he was with 24/7. Whether it was flushing to gun, picking up dogging back poult, blanking woods through, retriving from water in pitch black on flight ponds, killing foxes, tracking shot deer and of corse he could kill hare aswell.

 

People that saw him work would say to me that thinks like a human and thats exactly what he was like, he was'nt what you would call obedient, however he knew his work and performed it all very well indeed. I'm not taking credit for being some hot shot training I actually did no formal training with him, the dog was just exposed to tasks and he had the brains and got on with it.

 

Here he is in his prime, he's 10 year now bless him.

 

I think if you get out there enough and give an intelligent dog the experience and the chance to work, there are no limits to what they can acomplish.

 

If you have the time to spend these salukiXlurcher can real handy as can pures Salukis but I won't recommend these to you.

[young_london_hunter 9]

okay so choices are :

airedale terrier ?

salukixgrey?

anything else ?

[Terrier man 38]

3/4grey 1/4bull is as good as any cross has the gears and will retrive if it is trained to retrive... if you get it into them from an early age they can do alot ..... and in a violent situation a bull x would be handy to have about... they ar loyal etc.... just IMHO tho ...

[MarcusOvDarlo 0]

prob a colliexgrey or a nice whippetxgrey

 

but then that would take the cleverness away... i HIGHLY recommened the american bulldog x bull mastiff

 

Nah on a serious note... the collie x grey is the best option for your needs... But he/she would need GOOD training...

[MarcusOvDarlo 0]

3/4grey 1/4bull is as good as any cross has the gears and will retrive if it is trained to retrive... if you get it into them from an early age they can do alot ..... and in a violent situation a bull x would be handy to have about... they ar loyal etc.... just IMHO tho ...

 

that would take alot more than what you could put into a basic collie cross..

[MarcusOvDarlo 0]

Then again a full border collie could catch rabbits couldnt it?