Please meet H, J and Boris.
We’ve discovered what fantastic dogs Lurchers are, they are such gentle characters and so enjoy human company and contact, they’ve really brought so much joy and fun to our lives. We’d have several more but they’ve already dragged me down the road on my stomach a couple of times (not cat friendly!) so it’s not a good idea.
In the 4 years or so spent looking for our place we often talked about having a dog, what we’d do together, what he’d be called and at some point (thought I can’t now remember why, possibly after meeting a few) we decided we’d rescue a hairy Deerhound x Greyhound. After 6 months at Church Bank we decide the time was right and we picked one off the internet from a rescue site – the long and short of it was we ended up with H (an alledged Deerhound x Greyhound! we think not!!).
Even though he wasn’t what we imagined we couldn’t say no, so he graced our lives from Feb 2007 and what a loony he is, great fun, talkative (apparently unusual for a lurcher) such a soft nature, wouldn’t harm a fly (only a cat!) adores children and playing but still manages to sleep for 6 hours at a stretch!
H was quite excitable and a friend finally convinced us (after 12 months) that having another one would be a good thing and help calm him down, we were slightly dubious about this but decided to give it a go. We rescued J from the Retired greyhound trust, they have a kennels locally, it’s not easy to go and pick just one but I fell for J, it’s the Saluki in him that gives him his slightly longer nose, curly tail and bigger ears…..booodiful!
He’s very quiet and quite the opposite of H, thank god and they loved each other from the off, J graced our lives from 29 Dec 2007 and has been changing ever since, we don’t know how old he is, about 3-4 when we rescued him possibly, no history was known as he was a stray. Its taken him about 12 months to learn to play and his character is changing in small ways all the time as he becomes more settled…………..and the good news………………..it worked, best bit of advice we’ve had, getting a second dog made such a difference to H, he’s calmed down, learnt respect and J may be the calm one but he’s the boss make no mistake, in quiet little ways he puts H in his place……….cool!!
2010/11 UPDATE
One of Ian’s favorite pastimes when he’s surfing the net is to always check the homing pages of the Retire Greyhound Trust and show me some of the gorgeous lurchers looking for homes saying….what about this one, or…oh just look at him, you get the picture and it’s always me who says….’2’s enough, they’ve pulled me over twice already!’ etc etc but when Ian showed me this guys my heart softened (I’m a push over for anything with Saluki in him),
so when one Sunday in November we were driving passed the kennels we decided to pay him a visit (fatal), after 3-4 visits to take him out and meet H & J he moved in.
So………meet Boris (a name inherited from the kennels to which he was responding so we kept)
We don’t have any history for Boris, he was picked up abandoned by the dog warden, got some very nasty scars and a terror of humans, we think he’s just under 12 months old and boy is he a challenge, it’s a whole new ball game with such a nervous dog, but we are getting there very slowly, it’s Jan 11th as we write this and he will just about come to you for some fuss but only in one room in the house, he’s too nervous in the other rooms to come to you, you can’t make any fast move around him, throw anything or raise your arms, no direct attentions or it just sends him scuttling to the safety of his bed, he does get excited now when it’s walk time and then he becomes a different animal, usually hanging of H’s neck and leaping around which is lovely to see, so…… nearly all heading in the right direction apart from one major set back.
For the first 3 weeks or so when he first came home I use to let him loose in the field (very well fenced) for a quick run with the other 2 then put them on leads and take them for a walk, after the first time which took about 5 mins of coaxing to get him to come to me, he’s been fine coming back to go on the lead (was sometimes nervous when Ian was there as he’s not so use to him), then about the week before xmas he had a spell over the weekend when Ian was home that he took about 20 mins to catch him and as the week went on it got worse and worse until xmas day we had a 3 hour session in the freezing snow, ice and dark (absolute nightmare) were we couldn’t catch him. Needless to says I’ve only tried him loose about twice since then and each time it’s taken about an hour to get him ( all obviously very gentle coaxing with no stress or tension or anger etc etc, also food doesn’t work as an incentive) so I’ve been working on building a much stronger bond with him in the house, been reading as much as poss and today I’m going to start my first 10 min training session on a training lead to see if we can find a way to get over this hurdle, but I realise this is going to be a long and slow process and I bring to mind often the quote from Jackie Drakeford’s book The House Lurcher – ‘ lurchers will teacher you joy and despair, often in the same 10 minutes’, o boy………..is that true!
Though you can’t help but love them………………………BUT DEFINITELY NO MORE THAN THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2015 UPDATE RE BORIS AND LIFE WITH THESE 3
Well apart from the fact that life revolves around them….always…..life is good!!
H is h and all our vets bills are down to him, he currently has his inner eyelid stitched shut as he has an ulcer which wont heal………its always him who runs into things, cuts his feet open, nearly dies eating jelly fish, loses teeth after running into concrete blocks, eating undigestible things eventually to be sicked up days later……the list is endless!!!
J is the most placid steady healthy constant opposite to H, thank god, couldnt cope with 2 like H, he’s his dads boy (were the other 2 are mummies boys) very loving and takes everything and anything in his stride, nothing upsets him but he does have killer breath…….OMG you would not believe it, knocks you off your feet if he licks himself while your in the other room!! Maybe i exaggerate slightly 🙂
Boris…….well what can i say, a new challenge every day i think…….still can be a nightmare to catch, or escapes but i just ignore him now and play with the others and he comes back quick enough. Still scared of most things but he copes with them a lot better now, there are still rooms in the house he is nervous in and runs off with the tiniest of noises, still petrified of children and still pretty bad with food, scared of titbits, bolts if you go to him with food, will only take titbits from behind my legs or if you are the otherside of something like a table. Only just in the last few months put a bit of weight on but i think he will always be skinny as he just stresses it off. He is so beautiful thought and everyone loves him (his worst nightmare!) and he loves to be fussed by people he knows very well (not many get to fuss him!) but we do get friends to pet him who he doesnt know too well and this is helping, he definitely prefers woman too, but bless him, wouldnt be without now…so all in all i can recommend 3 but a holiday would be nice!!!!!!!!
2016 UPDATE
So do I remember someone saying 3 was enough??
Well meet Frankie…………
He was rescued from Spain by a lovely lady in the UK whom we adopted him from, this is a pic of him in the kill pen in Spain with 4 days left to go 😦
Oh yes did I mention Ian found him on pistonheads!!
Well Frank arrived in March and is a real little character, he mucks in with the others, loves nothing better than spending his time hunting (and killing if he gets the chance!), mice and rabbits are favourites, though he is partial to a pheasant.
He races around our fields with his ears sailing in the breeze being chased by Boris convinced he’s the fastest thing on 4 legs while Boris casually hops around him pretending to be flat out, a joy to behold!!
Oh forgot to say he’s a wire haired dachsund apparently a miniature cross standard and is so cute, he has got very attached to me and does have some of Boris’s nervous traits, wary of men and children also busy places but he is doing very well bless him.
Everyone who meets him falls in love with him, we’ve had people searching the internet for Frankie clones!!
Having 4 dogs was a bit of a handful though sadly it wasn’t to last as H was diagnosed with bone cancer in June and we lost him on 17 August, 3 days before my birthday, it’s still pretty raw and we miss him so much as he was an amazing character. The place isn’t the same without him, though Frankie manages to regularly put a smile on our faces so that helps.
RIP H, love you to bits xx
So it’s now October 2016 and I think we’ll stick with 3 thank you 😊
Hi, its paul’s daughter, Lovely dogs, i am in the middle of convincing him and gina for a dog ! 🙂
Nice meeting you on the 27th. 😀
Imy x
Hi Imy,
It was great to meet you too, you’ll have to get Paul and Gina to bring you over to meet the dogs, maybe it’ll help convince them!!!
Hopefully see you soon
Maria
Good Idea! The Barn looks lovely. Bee’s are cool, although i’d hate to get stung by one!! Looks like a really nice place!!
Xx Imy x
Ah, the joy of owning TWO dogs!!!!!! Our black labs are a constant joy (well, most of the time). Got any photos of H & J covered in mud, sheep poo, fox poo or anything else found on the farm! Great blogsite and good luck with the bees. xxxx Si
Oh yes, no photo’s but J’s favorite eau d toilette is defenitely fox poo!! And don’t you just love the way the smell wont wash off and lingers for days! Thanks for the comments Simon
Have just lost our lovely rescued dog, Cara. She was a whippet x terrier and gave us 5 years of love.
We are hoping to visit the barn this year, seeing your lovely dogs has clinched the deal!!!
Hi Sue,
Great to hear from you, so glad the boys convinced you to come and visit the Barn, I’m sure you’ll love it. Very sad to hear about Cara, never an easy time.
H & J are social butterflies so I’m sure they’ll give you a big welcome too!
Looking forward to meeting you soon.
Best wishes
Maria, Ian, H & J
Hi I am a proud owner of a collie lurcher called Kyp. I think they are the best dogs in the world. Although I think you need to have a lot of love in your heart and patience to get the most out of them. Your dogs sound fantastic characters.
Macca.
Hi Macca
I couldn’t agree more, there have been so many times when we’ve been so close to rescueing another one but H & J are big dogs and you have to be responsible don’t you!! But we’d have as many as the house would hold if we could.
I see there are now three in the family, time for an update after seeing PH?
Yes, I am whowfully behind and you have now prompted me to set aside several days for a complete catch up! Boris has already earnt himself a page of his own being very nervous and hard to catch.
Mmmm, you won’t stop at three dogs I bet! Binks is a good looking dog! Now, if you get a fourth dog you can do dog sledding around the smallholding.
I did the same with beehives, decided three was enough, now I have four!
xx Simon S
Oh no, three is IT! My arms couldn’t take any more, also Binks is quite a challenge but if Ian had his way the more the merrier………..so stop giving him ideas!! We’re currently back and forth with vets visits as H ran into a stack of concrete breeze block flat out 10 days ago……… he tore his cheek open, smashed his back tooth and had a big shoulder injury……..they’re such a liability when running and playing as they just dont look where they’re going!
Anyway 4 beehives, hopefully you expecting lots of honey this season? Had many swarms? Been sting much???!! I’m staying at three, though I have got a bait hive out…….why have I done that?!