PS
can we have a story including a dog next please!
Yes, I’ll tell you a dog story. (I love an excuse to tell dog stories)
About 25 years ago I was living in and around Barnsley. One day, a good friend of mine happened to mention that he wanted a good hunting terrier.
Now if you want a good hunting terrier, Barnsley is the place to go. If you know the right people, you can benefit from generations of terrier breeding experience, some of the best terriers I have ever seen were bred in Barnsley.
I took my friend to see one or two of these great dog men, but as it happened no one had a litter or a pup for sale at that particular time. Then one of them asked us if we would consider an older dog. My friend said he would, and so we were told about a litter of Lakeland x Patterdale that someone had been running on with a view to using them for Badger hunting. Apparently they were now about 9 months old and ready for a trail run. “They will be tryin, em out soon” We were told, “If there are any that don’t shape up, you might be able to buy one” He gave us an address and we thanked him. “One more thing” He said, as we prepared to leave, “These lads are nasty buggers, don’t mess them about, and don’t upset them”.
So we went to see these blokes, we knew we had the right place when we knocked on the door and the yard behind the big wooden gate exploded into a cacophony of snarling and barking. A big bruiser of a bloke opened the door, “Yes?” I told him that so and so had sent us, and that we were interested in buying a pup. “Oh right, come on in” He said, standing aside and waving us through. Inside, sitting at a kitchen table drinking tea and smoking roll-ups were two more men, equally big and tough looking. The first man explained what we were about and we were made welcome. They gave us tea and passed the tobacco around. Then they took us outside to see the dogs.
Once we got outside it was immediately obvious that these boys really knew their onions. There were four or five dogs running lose in the yard and several more in clean spacious purpose-built pens. The dogs all started barking at once, but one of the men raised his hand and said “It’s OK, be quiet” and they all shut up. I was impressed.
I looked the dogs over and immediately noticed that most of them had a good number of scars and healed over wounds, it was a bit disconcerting, but they all looked happy and healthy. I had never been badger hunting (You can’t eat badgers) and I had no idea what it entailed
To cut a long story short, all the dogs were used for badger hunting, or for breeding dogs to be used for badger hunting. None were for sale. There was indeed three youngsters as we had been told, but after all the time and effort spent breeding them, and then 10 months running them on, they had no intention of selling.
“What if one of them doesn’t make the grade?” I asked, “would you sell it then?”
“They will make the grade,” We were told, “We have very few failures, and we don’t sell our mistakes, we bury them”
They went on to tell us about Ranter. Ranter was, apparently, one of the few that didn’t make the grade. “Nice looking dog he was too” Said Nev, (The bloke who answered the door) “We gave him every chance, more chances than most in fact, ran him on for an extra 6 months, but he is just an out and out coward”
“Did you have him put down?” I asked. “No, but he will be put down soon” He replied. I asked if I could see him. “We’re going to give these youngsters a trial next Sunday, He said. “Come along if you want, you can see him then”.
I probably shouldn’t have agreed to go, but I was young, I was intrigued, and I suppose I was a bit naive. We agreed to meet them back here at 4am the following Sunday morning.
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