Brucey

Brucey was the first of the collie cross lurchers I've owned after previously owning bedlington crosses. I used him for ferreting, lamping, coursing, ratting, foxing, retrieving to a friends gun and general mooching. He caught rabbits, rats, blue hares, brown hares, foxes, squirrels, pheasants, moorhens, duck and once even caught and retrieved an injured greylag goose. He stood 24" to the shoulder and weighed around 50lbs.
He severed the tendons in two places in one of his hind legs whilst still in his prime. My vet managed to rejoin them and he spent three months in plaster and then another 3 months not being able to go off the lead. Fortunately he came back to run again and continued his hunting career. He was retired at 11 years of age but still came on the odd fox hunt.
When he was 13 he came out of retirement to work as a marking dog on ferreting expeditions when his daughter Tawny was badly injured.
His speed had gone but not his accurate ability to point to occupied warrens or crash through cover to flush game. He was also good at marking foxes to ground to and hunting them up as he had a remarkable nose. I had to take him for his final walk when he was 14 1/2 years old when his kidneys started to fail. He was active right up to the end and still caught occasional rabbits when on morning exercise but by using his brain rather than his speed.

Sage in her younger days was started off on rats before moving on to bigger quarry. There's nothing like a good rat hunt for excitement. You are also of course getting rid of an unwanted, disease ridden pest. I discouraged her from a young age from hunting rabbits as most of our local foxes live in rabbity places. Once she knew what her intended quarry was she's never looked at a rabbit. In fact I've dug to her many times now over the years and found her at a fox in earths with rabbits in them too. I've often found and pulled out rabbits she'd completely ignored on our way down to her and the fox.
She is seven years old now and still going strong.

No-one at home

Sage my Jack Russell terrier emerging from a fox earth.
All of the entrances are covered with nets to catch any fox which decides to bolt. Alternatively you can use lurchers or guns to stop a bolting fox. This earth is in heavy cover so nets are the safest option. A well known terrierman once advised me ''Always let someone else set your fox nets so you can blame them when the fox escapes''
It was a reference to the fact that foxes often do manage to slip out of badly set nets. I prefer double ended nets with a peg at each end for this job as I've found they catch much better.

High up in the hills in the far north of Scotland.....

Two gamekeepers hike across a lonely grouse moor in Sutherland armed with guns and shovels. Two pairs of hard bitten terriers eagerly pull each other along in front whilst a lurcher leads the way.
Somewhere out there is a vixen dug in a sand hole or maybe a peat crack with her cubs. Her mate the dog fox will be laid up nearby and carrying food to her each night. There are no rabbits this far out on the moor. There are odd mountain hares but it's mainly just grouse and sheep with their lambs. This is what the keepers must protect by controlling the fox population.

Tawny

Tawny was the best lamping dog I've had. Her main night time prey was the rabbit though she did take the odd hare and fox in the beam {prior to the silly ban}. She's about 23" tall and around 48lbs. Here's me taking a rabbit off her which she has retrieved live to me, on a wild and windy night in North Wales. The lamp is still on for the photographer only. Normally when a lamped rabbit has been captured the lamp is immediately turned off so as not to disturb any other rabbits still sat out. Tawny never went on a lead when lamping but just walked to heel and only ran down the beam when told.

Tawny suffered a near crippling injury when she was six. The vet didn't think she'd ever run again but she did. She also went on to produce a litter of pups for me and is now semi retired. She still catches the odd rabbit and gamebird but takes it easy now after a great hunting career.

So there you are!

My hob ferret blinks in the daylight as we break into the tunnel in which he lay with a rabbit. The ferret locator collar enabled us to pinpoint his position in the large sandy warren. The rabbits had stopped bolting but he hadn't appeared for sometime so we knew he had caught one of his prey below ground. Once the rabbit and ferret are retrieved, the excavation is back filled and made good to how it was before. In the past I've dug down to ferrets like this and found as many as five rabbits all backed up in one dead end tunnel. I've also dug down and found ferrets trapped because they've killed a rabbit which then blocks their exit out. Without the electronic locator such unfortunate ferrets may never be found. I'd never work my ferrets without their transmitter collars.

All the players.....almost!

I like this picture as it captures all of the players involved......except for the judge. In the background are the beaters who have marched across the stubble fields in a line driving the hares onward. Then there is the slipper who, after deeming that the hare is a good fit specimen, gives it sufficient law before releasing the dogs. It's all between natures finest athletes then as the hare leads the dogs in a merry dance of twists and turns as she heads toward the sanctuary of a wood. This hare {like most in a coursing match} escaped unscathed. The judge awards the result to the dog which did the most work.

Moss

My current lurcher bitch Moss is a 3rd generation collie / greyhound type bred by myself. I still have her mother Tawny, who is pictured further on. She is nine now and semi retired. I also bred Tawny myself and owned both of her parents too. They've both gone to the great hunting grounds in the sky.

Moss is about 24" tall and around the 50lb mark. She is used mainly for ferreting, lamping and daytime bushing.

Modern day rat hunting.

The 'smoker' seems to be the preferred method for bolting rats these days rather than the ferret. This one at my friends feet is an old petrol strimmer which he converted. A hose is attached to the exhaust outlet and the fumes are pumped down the rat holes. Certain fuel mixers produce more smokey products.

We all know that sometimes a rat will stand and face a ferret and make a fight out of it. Rat hunting ferrets do get bitten and can eventually quit. Not all hunters have terriers which are steady to ferrets either. It's easy to see why smokers are becoming so popular.

Hoi, hoi, hoi, hoi!!!!!!!

Hoi, hoi, hoi, hoi, cry the hunters as a bolted rat takes to the water. Rats are good swimmers and not all dogs master the knack of taking them in the water. Rats lay very low in the water and a swimming terriers eyes are not far off the same level. This makes it difficult for the dog to get 'sighted' on its prey once swimming. Of course the rat will also dive once the dog gets too close for comfort. Once the rat has dived a couple of times it will begin to tire and seek refuge in the banks. This is the easiest time for a terrier to make a kill. Some rat hunters use a fishermans landing net to scoop out swimming rats. It is an effective method {I've done it myself} but it doesn't do much for teaching the dog to take its prey in the water unaided.

Happy Memories

Single handed hare coursing. I liked nothing better than to see the hare escape after an exciting run. The strongest, fittest hares survived to breed and further enhance the species. The weaker specimens maybe wouldn't.
To my mind this makes coursing preferable to shooting which is unselective. I could never bring myself to shoot a hare for this amazing mammal was born to run. This picture was taken at Altcar in Lancashire shortly before the labour governments ridiculous hunt ban.

Smile Please!

The end of a dig and a good break in. Sage the terrier is right up close to her quarry holding it there with her voice. She seldom gets bitten by her quarry now but will happily bay away all day or rather until she is dug to or her quarry bolts.

The gamekeeper & farmer / landowner were particularly pleased to see this predator accounted for as she had killed both poultry and gamebirds.

This was our last fox of the 2006/07 season. The den is a traditional breeding earth with about seven or eight entrances but not running to more than three feet in depth. The digging was fairly easy with only a few roots to hinder us.

Ferreting with nets & lurcher up in the wilds of Sutherland. The ferret has killed a rabbit below ground here and my hunting partner is trying to find it with the locater box. This was quite an extensive warren and you can just make out the lurcher {top right} guarding the nets at the far end of it. Note the white coloured nets with the bright red draw cords; very hard to lose or miss when picking up. No the rabbits dont see them either so dont worry about that. 

I'd never go ferreting without a lurcher to help. This bitch loves to get into an excavation and pull out any dead rabbits. The ferret has killed one underground here and Duncan my keeper friend is struggling to reach it or even find it. This is where a keen lurcher can assist. There was a junction of tunnels in this excavation. The lurcher marked the one in which the rabbit lay. The ferret had pulled it a lttle deeper as we dug above her ! 

Highland keepers game larder with a good haul of bunnies in. During the course of the season this larder will hold grouse, rabbits, hares, red deer, roe deer, occasionally sika deer, woodcock, duck, geese, etc. The game dealer will call in once or twice a week in his refridgerated wagon and take everything. By the way all of these rabbits were hanging up. We just laid them down to get a better picture.After capture all of the rabbits are immediately paunched and hung. Hares are hung with their guts still in for some strange gastronomical reason. These rabbits were mostly ferreted into nets, or lamped by lurchers. At the time they were fetching less than 50 pence each off the game dealer. Many were getting shipped to China which seems crazy to me. Rabbit is good healthy, lean meat. I cannot understand why it isn't more popular in this country? 

Tawny about to connect.

Tawny regains herself after a jink from her prey which she went on to snaffle up. This was taken about an hour before dusk as the rabbits were starting to venture out for the night. This one ventured out a little too far too soon.

There's plenty of rabbits about at the moment now that all of the crops are getting cut. They were sitting out in good numbers the other evening as I had a walk out with my lurcher bitch just before dusk. Her's a picture of her, belly to the ground, stalking right up to one. 

Fox Denning up in the highlands from about 1992. The end of the day. Young Paul, Rob, Dave and Johnny head back to the pick up after a successful dig to a vixen on the north coast of Sutherland. We sat out that night and got the dog fox too. He came in about 2.00am. 

Brucey my old collie x greyhound aged approx 13 and still up for a hunt. His speed had long gone but he'd still pick up the odd bird, such as this moorhen, when out on exercise. He sadly left for those great hunting grounds in the sky in June of this year aged 14. 

Fox Denning in Scotland. Happy gamekeepers up in the Highlands. We sat out at a den site through the night to get these foxes. The den had been worked with a terrier during the day but the vixen wasn't at home. The vixen came in around 11.00pm and the dog fox turned up a couple of hours later. It was a very bleak night out on those Sutherland moors but well worth it. 

The all round lurcher must take feathered game as well as fur. Here's Max my old bedlington lurcher retrieving a moorhen which he caught in our local brook. 

Two dogs neck and neck behind a strong winter hare. This picture was taken on the Lancashire Mosses. 

Denning in the Highlands

My old lurcher Brucey looks on as the keepers get stuck in digging down to the terrier. It was a warm spring morning and a fair old hike to this den site but we got our quarry.

End of a successful dig to a poultry killing fox.  

An excellent photo by Phil Lloyd of one of his lurchers stalking down the beam of the lamp to a squatting rabbit. 

Squatter! Term given to rabbits by lampers which choose to squat down rather than run for home. This is not done because the lamp dazzles or blinds them but because the rabbit believes by staying motionless it will be overlooked. Their shining red eyes often give away their presence. A good lamping lurcher must be able to pick up squatters. Many inexperienced dogs will only run a moving rabbit. 

Brown Hare at full stretch. 

Sage, Jack Russell Terrier. Daughter of the bitch pictured below. Rat hunting terriers must be rock steady with ferrets. 

Bonnie, veteran Jack Russell bitch from the Egremont Blazers hunt. Drawing a dead fox out of a drain after its despatch by the humane killer. 

An old photo of Max first cross Bedlington terrier / whippet out ratting. Many small lurchers make good rat hunters. Max stood just 20" tall and was mainly used as a ferreting dog. He also caught a lot of feathered game. 

A good lurcher must carry back its catch to you. This rabbit was caught by Tawny in some dense beds of rushes, from which she is emerging. 

The Cool, Calm Fox.

The fox pictured below was, luckily for it, captured on camera only! We had bushed this particular fox from some bramble beds several times this last season. It nearly always ran the same route to escape through the grounds of an old lodge house. On this day I positioned myself with the camera in the path I presumed it would take. My young son was hunting the dogs through the bramble beds and out he came, almost walking right into me. Despite what the opponents of hunting may say this fox was unconcerned and was actually calmly stopping to look back at the dogs as I took the picture. The flash of the camera startled him and off he went again, on a slightly different route and lived to run another day.

Surely the most beautiful British mammal ? The fox can be a great pest if numbers aren't sensibly controlled and managed. The lurcher and terrier play an important role in fox control. 

Guarding the nets! This first cross collie / greyhound is right on the tail of a bunny bolted by the ferret which slipped the net. This photo was taken in Cheshire at a lurcher field trial. 

Crafty collie lurcher stalking a daytime rabbit. This bitch is a second generation collie x greyhound type. Many collie lurchers develop this stalking technique which can be very effective. 

A superb night time action shot of one of Phil Lloyds cattle dog x greyhounds striking at a lamped rabbit. 

Single handed coursing. The true test of a good hare catching lurcher. This photo was taken on the Lancashire Mosses. 

COVER JACKET PICTURE ~ By the author. 

BOOK REVIEW ~ Stormy Nights And Frosty Mornings

This is the first book by countrysports enthusiast & 'Earth Dog Running Dog' contributor Paul Dooley. It is not a 'how to do it' type manual book but rather a book of hunting tales and adventures from the authors youth right up to the present day. There's ferreting for both rabbits and rats, lamping rabbits and foxes with lurchers, coursing blue and brown hares, hunting foxes both above and below ground with terriers, hawking and even a bit of stalking thrown in. Amongst the tales and anecdotes are a host of useful tips and bits of training advice picked up by the author in the thirty odd years he's been involved in hunting. The book comprises of 200 pages and 120 b/w pictures many of which are action shots of lurchers and terriers at their work. It is a quality hardback publication limited to a first edition of 1500 copies. It comes in an eye catching dust jacket as featured above. The book is priced at £25.99 including postage & packing for all UK destinations. Copies signed by the author are available on request.
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