Working Terriers, Badgers and Badger Digging (History of Hunting Series)

H. H. King

Description

This title was first published in 1931 and is now an extremely rare and sought after item in its first edition. It is now available again to all true terrier men in a revised edition published by Read Country Books. This new edition incorporates the original format plus 20 extra pages containing articles and vintage photos on the same subject. Its 130 pages of historical content contain much detailed information on the working terrier and its use in what was once an acceptable and legal field sport. The first section of the book is devoted to the Working Terrier. The author discusses the qualities and physical attributes that constitute a first class worker. He writes sensibly and with a confidence born from years of practical experience. This section then leads into a chapter of advice on the early training of terriers with much emphasis on the natural progression of their learning curve. This training period also entails the hunting of, and entering to, the rat, fox, and otter. A short chapter deals with the natural history and habits of the badger, then continues at some length with the methods and equipment used in the actual dig. The author points out that the terms "badger-digging" and "badger-baiting" should not be considered synonymous. In his opinion, "If properly conducted, badger-digging is no more cruel a sport than shooting or ratting" The final chapter is a comprehensive discourse on the care and handling of the Working Terrier. Following that are two rare articles, never before reprinted - "HUNTING BROCK THE BADGER" by J.C. Bristow-Noble (author of Working Terriers) and "THE BADGERS OF BADGWORTHY". They both contain much interesting information and many original, vintage photographs. The book is a fascinating look back at a vanished time and an excellent manual on the working terrier, with much information that is still of practical use today.

Sujets

• Breeds
• Pets
• Dogs

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 23 mars 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781446545027
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Working Terriers, Badgers and Badger-Digging
by H. H. King
Vintage Dog Books Home Farm 44 Evesham Road Cookhill, Alcester Warwickshire B49 5LJ
vintagedogbooks.com
© Read Books 2005 This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
ISBN No. 1-905124-20-1
Published by Vintage Dog Books 2005 Vintage Dog books is an imprint of Read Books
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Vintage Dog Books Home Farm 44 Evesham Road Cookhill, Alcester Warwickshire B49 5LJ
WORKING TERRIERS BADGERS AND BADGER-DIGGING
BY H. H. KING
Published by
THE FIELD
THE FIELD HOUSE, BREAM’S BUILDINGS, LONDON, E.C.4


HIGHDOWN PETER, M.F.H. Certificate and winner of many prizes in working terrier classes. His sire was UPPER CROFT WIREBOY, also a worker and bench winner
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I. WORKING TERRIERS
II. THE EARLY TRAINING OF A WORKING TERRIER
III. THE BADGER
IV. BADGER-DIGGING
V. THE CARE AND HANDLING OF WORKING TERRIERS
INTRODUCTION
While yet a boy I was given a young terrier bitch which, having taken to self-hunting and proved unusually headstrong and difficult to control, was considered unsaleable. With Nell as my inseparable companion I scoured the countryside for rats, stoats and such “small deer,” and then one day with no other terrier to help her I dug my first badger. Never shall I forget the joys of that day. In due course the Fates decreed that I should go abroad, but I did not part with my dogs; I could not contemplate a leave without them. Throughout my service abroad there have always been game little working terriers awaiting my return, and to them I am indebted for many a happy hour.
Looking back I feel that often while young I was, quite unwittingly, unkind if not actually cruel both to terriers and to badgers, for except from experience I had no means of learning how terriers should be made and worked and badgers dug. Many of the younger generation care less, I fear, for the various forms of hunting than for other delights, for this is a mechanical age; but there are, and I trust always will be, some who have inherited that keen love of sport which characterised our forefathers, and who can enjoy a day spent in ratting or badger-digging as much as if not more than a day in town. To such I offer this book in the hope that it will fill a want I myself felt when I was young.
H. H. K ING .
The Parsonage,
Ospringe.
Working Terriers, Badgers and Badger-digging

C HAPTER I
WORKING TERRIERS
The work of a terrier is, or was, the destruction of vermin—rats, weasels, stoats, hedgehogs, foxes, otters and badgers—and the word terrier originally implied a small dog used for this purpose. With the coming of dog-shows owners were provided with another object for which such dogs might be bred and used—the winning of prizes to be awarded for make and shape and general appearance—and at the present time far more terriers are bred for show than for work. There are in the British Isles many distinct breeds most, if not all, of which originated in working strains. It is difficult to believe that an Airedale or a Kerry Blue of the size of modern representatives of those breeds could have been used to bolt a fox, but the Skye, the Scottish or Aberdeen, the Dandie Dinmont, the Border, the Yorkshire, the Bedlington, the Irish, the Welsh, the Wire and Smooth Foxterriers, the Sealyham and others are undoubtedly the descendants of hard-bitten little dogs employed in the keeping down of vermin.
There are those who believe that the annual hound show held at Peterborough has done infinite harm to the foxhound, in that it has caused masters of hounds to breed for looks rather than for work. While not necessarily supporting that view, I think none will deny that there must be a temptation to use as a stallion hound one which has taken a coveted first at Peterborough, even if his capabilities in the field are only mediocre, rather than the hound which though he can drag up to and unkennel his fox when no other hound in the pack can own the line, and moreover is a tireless worker with a beautiful voice, yet lacks certain of those points of conformation which the show-bench requires. The rule that no hound may be exhibited unless it belongs to a recognised pack, and the natural desire of all masters of hounds to show sport and kill foxes, ensures that the working capabilities of the hounds selected for breeding are not entirely lost sight of, but the same cannot be said of terriers. Very few of those who breed terriers for show use their dogs for work, in fact not many have the opportunity, consequently the present-day studbook terrier is, generally speaking, a dog which even with careful training will not make a first-class working terrier. This remark applies more particularly to those breeds which have been bred for show for generations.
It must be borne in mind that the fact that a terrier will kill a rat does not entitle it to be classed as a “working terrier”; this term is usually applied to one which has been entered to fox, otter or badger. A terrier may be “of a working strain” but it is not, strictly speaking, a “working terrier” until it has been to ground and faced fox, otter or badger in the dark, and it is not a really good working terrier until it can and will do very much more than that. A dog which has earned the title may be likened to a man in the days of our forefathers who won his spurs on the field of battle; it is an honour not to be inherited but to be fought for.
It might be assumed from the foregoing that I am strongly opposed to the breeding of dogs for show and that I consider the winner on the show-bench a useless animal, but such is very far from being the case. Many a man who possesses that keen love for dogs which I like to think is a characteristic of the Englishman, and who has no opportunity of working them, derives an enormous amount of pleasure from the breeding of dogs for show. It enables him to demonstrate his skill as a breeder of animals and provides him with an interest outside his work; it is in fact one of the healthiest and best hobbies a man can devote himself to, and I freely admit that a terrier that has won on the show-bench is, generally speaking, whatever its breed, an extremely handsome and attractive animal. Actually, when the various terrier clubs decided on the characteristics of make and shape to be bred for in the different breeds, their object was, I believe, to produce terriers which would be well fitted for work, but even if these characteristics had been in every case well chosen, it was scarcely to be expected that the characteristics other than of make and shape, so essential in the working terrier, would be perpetuated without any effort being made to breed for them. Just as it is necessary for the man who wishes to breed winners on the show-bench to use as sires and dams dogs which have won or could win, so must the man who wishes to produce good working terriers breed from dogs which excel at work. There is no reason why a working terrier should not be good-looking, but I do not think that the man who, starting with the best pedigree stock available, bred only from those which showed real aptitude for work could reasonably hope to win on the show-bench against men who bred for make and shape alone.
What constitutes a first-class working terrier? I should define it as one which is quiet with all domestic livestock, may be relied upon to mark a rat whether in its hole or in the roof of a shed and to kill it when it bolts, will hunt rat, stoat or rabbit in the densest hedgerow or bramble thicket steadily and with determination, yet is under such control that a lead is not required when its owner takes it through a well-stocked game covert, has no fear of water, will bolt fox or otter with its tongue rather than with its teeth and, finally, may be trusted to draw a really large badger-earth and if the badger is at home, find it and stay with it for two or three hours, or longer if not relieved, ceaselessly baying and preventing the badger from digging.
Although the appearance of a dog required only for work is not the first consideration, yet obviously a working terrier should conform to certain standards; for example, a terrier weighing 30 lbs. cannot be used to bolt a fox from a nine-inch pipe, nor can one with very short and crooked legs be expected to show that agility and staying power which the hunting of a rat or stoat in a thick hedgerow calls for. There is a considerable difference of opinion as to what is the ideal size, conformation and colour for a working terrier, and many good judges may disagree with the views I am about to express.
I should define the appearance of the ideal working terrier as follows:
Weight from 12 to 14 lbs. or at the most 16 lbs.; head of only moderate length and not too narrow or shallow, set on a good neck and shoulders; back moderately short; ribs fairly well sprung, but the chest not too wide or deep; legs straight and of fair length; coat either rough or smooth, but if the former, without any trace of silkiness or woolliness and not dense or long on the face and legs; colour mostly white; action when galloping free and smooth.
A terrier of 12 lbs. weight is quite small enough, while a dog weighing more than 14 lbs., or at the most 16 lbs., will often have great difficulty in getting to a fox or otter. In the Scottish Highlands larger terriers (18 to 25 lbs.) are used to kill foxes in their earths, but, where foxes are hunted, terriers are neither required nor desired to kill them. Some employ terriers of similar weight for badger digging, but in my opinion the smaller terriers are preferable in that they can move in the earth with far greater freedom and back away quickly should the badger charge. The head of the show-bred fox-terrier is of