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Fell Terriers.


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Fell Terriers.

Fell terriers are a mixed bunch.In fact the term is usually appliedto any Lakeland Terrier that is not immidiatley recognizableas a pure-bred Lakeland.Many are blackwith silky top-knots which indicate that the bedlington or allied bloodhas been used in there creation.Quite a fewof these terriers are very tall.one blue-black dog in Monmouthshire measured 17 inches at the shoulder, but was so narrow-chested it could struggle through a 9 inch pipe.these dogs are a very variable type, but all have as common denominator a great deal of courage.It seems likely that this type of dog was the progenirator of the present day Lakeland terrier.Many photographs of early Lakeland terriers prior to the Kennel Club recognition would be instantly labelled as fell terriers today.

Though i have only trained one of these terriers, i have worked with several both in Wales,where they are reasonably popular,and in Northern Lancashire,where some very usefull strains are bred.few are used in the midlands, for reasons i shall explain later.Most enter to fox at a fairly early age,and many are extremely good at working foxes in tight places,for most are very narrow chested.On the debit side,some of them are very hard and most have a tendency toward being mute.Furthermore, the very narrow-chested terrier usually has a weak head with very poor jaws in proportion to the overall size.Most Lakeland and northern hunters have some heretical views about jaw size.The general opinion is that a dog does not require strong jaws to dispose of a fox,for most of the fox-killing dogs kill by strangling action rather than by simply crunching the fox with strong jaws.As i have stated, i am not entirely happy about this theory since i tend to favour terriers with strong jaws, even if they gain a little in chest width. i have judgeda great number of fell-type terriers with jaws that have sometimes been broken by foxes.Nevertheless the average fell-type terrier is usually not so aggresive as the lakeland and is certainly less fiery than the so-called patterdale.

 

Summary

 

This is the ideal type of dog to work and kill foxes in rock piles and tight-roof earths. Their value in bolting foxes,which is what most hunts need them for,is a bit limited on account of the fact that they tend to be hard.They are usually usefull dogs to introduce into jack russel terrier stock which has become too chesty.Some very nice northern Jack Russel terriers owe their present shape to a liberal dose of Fell-terrier blood, and one noted winning Jack Russel terrier was a white-bodied puppy from a mating of two black terriers that had bred relatively true for generations.

 

Is this still what the Fell terrier is as they seem to be an interesting mix.

Edited by sniper
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I always say that a fell terrier is the rough coated dogs, like plummer said, that cant be classed as the pure lakies. Mines a black fell...so is her mother and her father is a red fell.

 

Gets me goat when so called experts at the shows tell me i have a patterdale....or as some silly old git called her the other day a 'pistashio' terrier (as in the type of nut!!!

have you got any pictures mate

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nice looking dog mate.see where Brian was coming from with them having lakie blood?nbig dog aswel mate

 

Can deffinatly see the lakie influence in the liiter my bitch was from, not so much in my bitch but ddefinatly in some of her brothers and sisters. The sire was a red fell that looked very much like a lakie just without the black and tan colour. Head on him like a brick but still not an overly muscly dog and very narrow

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nice looking dog mate.see where Brian was coming from with them having lakie blood?nbig dog aswel mate

 

cheers mate!

has been on the rats for the last few months only seen one red boy and i had to prize his jaws open for him to let go an he's got a set o nashers on him a pit bull would be proud of! all my mates call him teeth :victory:

Edited by weekye
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nice looking dog mate.see where Brian was coming from with them having lakie blood?nbig dog aswel mate

 

cheers mate!

has been on the rats for the last few months only seen one red boy and i had to prize his jaws open for him to let go an he's got a set o nashers on him a pit bull would be proud of! all my mates call him teeth :victory:

 

mines only been on rats aswell but is going to ground good as gold, and has seen a few live ones aboce ground then had a good old chew on them, but not had the best of starts really but all down to my own doings. I dont know anyone locally with dogs to go out with some im doing it alone down my way and last time she went to ground i suspect she was false marking becuase nout was around when i dug down!! took her out this morning because it was freezing cold and she were intrested in going down any holes and none of them looked run so i just trusted her nose and left them.

 

Will go out with a mate on the forum who has been good enough to invite me out over the winter though which is great!!

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this is my young pup, out of black parents, he is from a father/daughter mating. 1lakie5months.jpg you can sure see the lakeland influence in him

that dogs a cracker mate.looks like a mates one that he recently lost in a kennel fight, that was father/daughter mating.good luck with him anyway. :clapper:

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