KENNEL TERRIERS

CHAPTER XIX

IN the old days, and even until comparatively recent times, the professional earth-stopper was a regular member of the Hunt staff. Most hunting people are familiar with the picture by W. Cooper, depicting an old-time earth-stopper, seated on his pony, with his spade, pick, and lantern over his shoulder, and two varminty-looking terriers trotting alongside. As the earth-stopper’s duties were mainly carried out at night during the winter months, he was often supplied with—in addition to his tools—a drop of gin to keep the cold out.

When each Hunt had its professional earth-stopper, the work was properly done and very few foxes got to ground. Such a man took his business seriously, and familiarised himself with all the earths and possible hiding places for foxes in his country. To-day the work is relegated to the keepers, and though many of them do their best doubtless to stop the earths carefully, the business is often slurred over and a good many foxes consequently get to ground. In addition to the regular earths there are many drains which afford refuge for foxes, and sooner or later the time comes when a terrier is requisitioned to eject Reynard from his underground retreat. A couple or two of good working terriers are worth their weight in gold to the huntsman, particularly in the wilder provincial countries.

Most Hunts have their own kennel terriers, which are led in the field by the terrier-man or the Hunt runner or are carried in a bag slung on the back of a mounted man. These kennel terriers are of course tried and trusted performers, any other sort being useless to a huntsman. There are plenty of terriers to be picked up throughout the country, but real good workers are by no means easy to get hold of. People who breed terriers solely for work are not very keen on parting with them, while the majority of the highly advertised show dogs are absolutely worthless for underground work. The latter are generally far too big to follow a fox into a narrow passage or crevice in the rock and having been bred for show like their parents before them, they have lost the inherited instinct for work. There are of course exceptions here and there, but taking the show type as a whole, they make no appeal to the man who wants something that will bolt a fox or otter, or lie up to a badger.

The prospective purchaser of a working terrier will be well advised to beware of high flown advertisements extolling the many supposed virtues of other people’s dogs. Before buying, always see the terrier or terriers at work first, then you can judge for yourself of their actual capabilities under ground. People have very different ideas as to the qualifications of a working terrier. If a dog barely gets out of sight in an earth and barks, some owners seem to think he is a “worker,” and no end of such useless brutes get palmed off on the unsuspecting public.

The make and shape of a terrier have everything to do with the dog being able to perform his work properly. His conformation may vary a good deal, particularly as regards length of leg and width of chest, so that type varies with the nature of the surroundings in which the work is done. For instance, a small, short-legged terrier can easily run a drain or an average earth, but put him in a big rock earth, where there are high ledges underground, and he will be severely handicapped when attempting to go up to his fox, which invariably holds the upper position. Again, ask such a terrier to follow the huntsman of a fell pack over twenty or thirty miles of rough going on the mountains, and the dog will be beat before the end of the day, particularly if there is much snow on the ground. Such a terrier may be quite useful where he is carried on horseback, and so reaches his destination in a fresh condition, but for all round work a terrier is better for a bit of leg as long as he is fairly narrow. The Sealyham terriers nowadays so much advertised, are too short-legged and broad-chested to properly negotiate rock crevices or surmount ledges underground. They are game enough where they can get, such as in badger earths, but for general purposes they are wrongly built. We do not wish for a moment to disparage the courage of Sealyhams or small terriers in general, for many of them are undeniable workers, but in many situations their build prevents them doing their best work. A biggish made terrier is at times very useful, for he can force a fox to bolt or take punishment without getting too much mauled in return, but it is seldom that such a dog can reach a fox in the average earth, owing to his size. What is wanted is an all round type, capable of doing good work under a variety of conditions. If we were asked to give a specification of such a terrier it would be as follows: Weight, 15lb. to 16lb.; coat, thick and wet-resisting; chest, narrow, but not so much so as to impede the free action of heart and lungs, legs sufficiently long to enable the dog to travel above ground with ease to himself; teeth level, and jaw powerful but not too long; ears, small and dropped close to the head, so that they are less likely to be torn by foxes. Breed, preferably with a dash of Bedlington blood, courage and gameness of course undeniable. It doesn’t matter a jot really what breed a terrier is, so long as he is dead game and will go up to his fox whenever or wherever he is sent in. In the case of a badger, the terrier’s job is to lie up close to Mr. Brock, and throw his tongue steadily so that the workers know in which direction to dig. The dog that goes in recklessly to a badger generally learns a severe lesson, and may be lucky to escape with his life. The same thing may happen in a rock earth in the case of a small terrier attempting to reach a fox on a ledge. Every time the dog tries to climb up, the fox chops down on him, and in the end the terrier gets unmercifully punished.

Again, too, a short-legged dog may slide down sloping rocks underground, but be quite unable to make the return journey, whereas a longer legged terrier can surmount such obstacles. Some people appear to imagine that a terrier creeps into an earth on his chest, whereas he always lies on his side if the passage is low, and works himself in with his legs. For this reason a broad-chested dog cannot get into such a small place as a terrier with a narrow chest, even though he may be shorter in the leg. In the same way with an upright crack or crevice the narrow-chested dog has a decided advantage. Sound, level teeth, and a strong jaw are essential to a terrier, because he may corner his fox and have to do battle. The average fox is a determined fighter under such circumstances, and it is hardly fair to ask a small terrier to tackle him alone. A hill-fox of 17lb. or 18lb. not only has the advantage in weight, but has chosen the superior position beforehand, and is thus able to deal out punishment to some tune. Where two little ’uns can get at him they can generally force him to get “out of that,” or make an end of him on the spot. Cross-bred terriers seem to stand wet and cold better than fox-terriers, though some of the latter are capital workers if they have been bred from purely working parents. In the North, many people are averse to white terriers, considering them inferior to coloured ones. This is probably because the majority of working terriers in the fell country and elsewhere are coloured; but good terriers come in all colours, like horses, and there are plenty of dead game white ones to be found. Many show terriers are really too long in the jaw. An over long jaw, is like a lengthy pair of scissors, difficult to cut with at the points owing to loss of leverage. The fox has a comparatively short jaw, and so has the otter, yet both are capable of inflicting a very severe bite.

Some of the best all-round working terriers to-day are to be found with the fell foxhound packs in the Lake District. They are practically all cross-bred, with Bedlington, Border, etc., blood in them. Joe Bowman, the well known huntsman of the Ullswater, has had some famous terriers in his time, and it may be of interest to review some of these game little dogs and their doings. Probably one of the best known terriers was Corby, by Lord Decies’ Sweep out of a Patterdale bitch. Corby on one occasion killed three foxes underground single-handed, the combined weights of the three totalling 62lb. Then there was Turk, a brown, wire-haired dog, weighing 16lb., whose sire Frisk died through continual maulings from foxes. Turk once killed a fox weighing a good deal more than himself. A half-sister of Frisk’s once bit the leg off a fox, Reynard bolting on the remaining three. Blondin was a dwarf, pedigree Bedlington, famous for hunting a line as well as any fox-hound. A little bitch, named Jenny, met her death in a drain, being found there fast locked to an otter. Corby’s sister Brandy, was another remarkable worker, and so was Nancy, who killed a 20lb. fox below ground single-handed. Piper was an exception to the rule that terriers bark and pull when coupled up and other terriers are working. Piper’s manners were perfect in this respect, but, once let go, no terrier was harder underground. There are to-day in the fell country many terriers repeating the good work of those enumerated above, for in the land of the dales and the mountains the only criterion of a terrier is working ability, first, last and all the time.