lurchercraft-past - present-and future

[Paul in North Lincs 15]

I was just reading an old dog book of my late grandfather dating back to the 1950's, and having a good old think - as one does from time to time

 

In it, was a section about the Besenji - a dog I had heard nothing about. After reading about it I was intrigued, what a cracking little dog......dosn't bark...has excelent sight, nose speed and prey drive......

 

Would be great to throw into a lurcher, I thought......

 

Anyway, there are not many of these dogs about nowadays, but it got me into thinking what crosses were used, or were fashionable back in the day..... nowadays its either the bull x or the something with saluki in it.....but what about way back then???.....were folks even that bothered?.....

 

What was tried and tested?......what was fashionable?.........what crosses simply didnt last the test of time and disapeared as the lurcherman changed his requirement in a dog.

 

Like everything - the art of lurchercraft has evolved and continues to do so...... the 'young guns' in the sport seem more interested in bigger...stonger.....gamer dogs....that will kill a bear single handed, and that needs a ships anchor chain to walk it down the street.......due partially to being blinded by the materialistic world we live in, along with the social inadequacies of our times

 

In years gone by any humble little dog that filled the pot was worth its weight in gold..............how sad it is that things have changed.

 

Lets hear some old stories of the old breed, and lurcher related exploits, from some of the old hands, and give these young uns an insight of what it was all about........

 

Also where do you think we'll be in lets say another 30 year time (god willing that we dont get banned from owning working dogs altogether!!) ...........what will the lurcherman look like then?.....what animal will he be running.....

 

....................lets get the imagination flowing, and get up a plethora of different generations views on past and present, and future

[Paul in North Lincs 15]

ar well............every must be too busy talling about rotti -doggo- pitbul- boxer -doberman-mastiff etb crosses instead......

 

 

awsome

[TIMMAY 6]

thought i'd reply to keep you happy! Used to work in a petshop with some waste ground ou the back, and a bloke used to walk a basenji there, i had a chat with him once, said it was a great pet. Looked real useful little dog, ideal sort of size for ferreting without crossing to anything else? but i doubt you'd find any working strain though.

 

Sorry got no old stories about lurchers, but as for the future, i reckon its bleak. We'll all be eating lentils that have died of natural causes, or meat that is intensively reared and processed underground so no-one has to face the fact that meat comes from animals in a few years the way things are going!

[forest of dean redneck 11,771]

basenji ? they were the dogs the african tribesmen used to drive game in to nets and they put bells or gourds on their necks so they could hear where they were to in the long grass,they make a yodelling noise instead of barking,nice looking dog,probably rare in uk though.

[shinyspade 2]

hi paul i go far enough bach to remember 30 years ago. i was in lancashire back then and to be honest i dont see a massive difference in the lurcher scene. from then to now apart from the bull cross popularity. back then the main dogs used where beddy grews/ deerhound crosses and collie crosses. a lot of them where bought and sold in the exchange and mart. some of the best fox dogs i heard of was collie and dearhound based or a mix of the two also beddie crosses had a good name as alrounders. bull crosses were a lot rarer mainly staffy but english bull was also used. the working dog world was full of the same dog dealers/thieves bull shitters as it is today. and as is the case today the older hands seemed to have more gumption than the young ens. good post . as for the next thirty years. i'll be long gone by then

[Paul in North Lincs 15]

hi paul i go far enough bach to remember 30 years ago. i was in lancashire back then and to be honest i dont see a massive difference in the lurcher scene. from then to now apart from the bull cross popularity. back then the main dogs used where beddy grews/ deerhound crosses and collie crosses. a lot of them where bought and sold in the exchange and mart. some of the best fox dogs i heard of was collie and dearhound based or a mix of the two also beddie crosses had a good name as alrounders. bull crosses were a lot rarer mainly staffy but english bull was also used. the working dog world was full of the same dog dealers/thieves bull shitters as it is today. and as is the case today the older hands seemed to have more gumption than the young ens. good post . as for the next thirty years. i'll be long gone by then

 

 

thats the sort of answer i was looking for....good man

[Guest longslip]

30 years from now..... I hope there's some farmland left to run a dog on the speed the towns/citys are expanding and grassland shrinking

[undisputed 1,664]

I remember as a kid one or two folk having lurchers but these were functional dog's and by that I mean they were basically pot fillers and highly valued by their owners. There were basically two types the beddy/whippet and the collie grey. Rabbit was the main quarry and provided a source of income as the local butcher would take any surplus rabbits from these guys. These dogs worked to ferret and the lamp. When there was a demand for fox fur bigger dogs began to appear like deerhound/grey x's....my mates dad had a wee beddy x that was adept at catching partridge...changed days!

[brookie 1,193]

i think theres been a huge change in dogs over the last 40 yrs . 30 to 40 yrs ago there was if i can explain it correctly but i will try then there was a type which had evolved it was very rare a pure bred was used in lurcher breeding it was lurcher to lurcher . and types had evolved according to what part of the country you lived in . they mostly belonged to travellers and a few working class families from town to town and kids did things differently in them days we found our own things to do the same as the adults did. so what ever we did was always out doors around the country side weather it was bird nesting shooting squirrels with catapults rabbiting or ratting the dogs were always with us from puppies to the end of theyre days as had the parents to these pups done with theyre owners for generations before them they were never chopped and changed like they are today . and come rain or shine as kids we were always out with the dogs all day walking miles and anything that ran was fair game and on the menu so theorectically these dogs had been worked to the hilt for generations . and bred from worker to worker. you just took it for granted that dogs would mark hedges and holes and find out in the grass mark ducks nests in willow and find pheasants on or off nests because its all they ever did all the time there was never the hassle you get from owning lurcher when you was out with it like people get to day in those days it would usually be 4 or 5 kids out with 3 or 4 dogs if a farmer came on to you he would run you across a couple of fields then be on his way he had more important things to do but most of the time you was left alone with your dogs the other incentive to work your dog around the clock was the pocket money from the rabbits and hares which you could sell any where then you could actually walk down the road then with 20 rabbits on your back and people would stop you to buy a couple . local markets were the best places to sell em and that was one of the usual ways of meeting other lurcher owners and comparing types and starting of life time friend ships walk down the road with a couple of dead rabbits on your back now and three or four dogs trailing behind you there would be helicopters police cars farmers the lot down your neck how times have changed . when there was a demand for fox skins we would wire em . thats where the money was we could get between 20 and 25 pound for wired foxes . dogged foxes werent a lot of good because of the damage to the pelts the more damage the less money in some instances the skin would be sent back it couldnt even be used for patching . the mass breeding and the increased popularity of the lurcher came about in the early to mid 80s with the shooting news magazine and the huge increase in popularity of the show scene brian plummer wrote a few comics and all of a sudden every one had a lurcher i think then a lot of types lost theyre identities and the pure bred breeds were used more and more in the make up of todays modern lurcher in some ibstances to the detriment of the type and other instances to the benefit of the type

[Guest longslip]

Could make an interesting post this paul especially the 30 years past.Coal miners and whippets in the North/East anyone??????

[Paul in North Lincs 15]

i think theres been a huge change in dogs over the last 40 yrs . 30 to 40 yrs ago there was if i can explain it correctly but i will try then there was a type which had evolved it was very rare a pure bred was used in lurcher breeding it was lurcher to lurcher . and types had evolved according to what part of the country you lived in . they mostly belonged to travellers and a few working class families from town to town and kids did things differently in them days we found our own things to do the same as the adults did. so what ever we did was always out doors around the country side weather it was bird nesting shooting squirrels with catapults rabbiting or ratting the dogs were always with us from puppies to the end of theyre days as had the parents to these pups done with theyre owners for generations before them they were never chopped and changed like they are today . and come rain or shine as kids we were always out with the dogs all day walking miles and anything that ran was fair game and on the menu so theorectically these dogs had been worked to the hilt for generations . and bred from worker to worker. you just took it for granted that dogs would mark hedges and holes and find out in the grass mark ducks nests in willow and find pheasants on or off nests because its all they ever did all the time there was never the hassle you get from owning lurcher when you was out with it like people get to day in those days it would usually be 4 or 5 kids out with 3 or 4 dogs if a farmer came on to you he would run you across a couple of fields then be on his way he had more important things to do but most of the time you was left alone with your dogs the other incentive to work your dog around the clock was the pocket money from the rabbits and hares which you could sell any where then you could actually walk down the road then with 20 rabbits on your back and people would stop you to buy a couple . local markets were the best places to sell em and that was one of the usual ways of meeting other lurcher owners and comparing types and starting of life time friend ships walk down the road with a couple of dead rabbits on your back now and three or four dogs trailing behind you there would be helicopters police cars farmers the lot down your neck how times have changed . when there was a demand for fox skins we would wire em . thats where the money was we could get between 20 and 25 pound for wired foxes . dogged foxes werent a lot of good because of the damage to the pelts the more damage the less money in some instances the skin would be sent back it couldnt even be used for patching . the mass breeding and the increased popularity of the lurcher came about in the early to mid 80s with the shooting news magazine and the huge increase in popularity of the show scene brian plummer wrote a few comics and all of a sudden every one had a lurcher i think then a lot of types lost theyre identities and the pure bred breeds were used more and more in the make up of todays modern lurcher in some ibstances to the detriment of the type and other instances to the benefit of the type

 

 

 

 

crackin read...................... what happy days they would have been