I did have to laugh at that colliemad as my GSD bitch does the same thing, while frantically digging the hole that it went down

Here's the official DEFRA site which states that it isn't illegal to hunt rats, rabbits and the retrieval of hares that have been shot, it's about half way down the page

Hunting with dogs

Which one caught the rabbit or was it a joint effort? Keena and Takoda hunt as a team alot of the time which is quite interesting to watch. I bet Luca 'kicked herself' as the pheasant flew off just as she got the mouse lol. Keena was startled by a pheasent when she was a pup it flew up right beside her as she had disturbed it, she launched into the air to try to catch it back out of the sky and ended up with it's tail feathers in her mouth - it got away but very disgruntled having lost it's fancy butt feathers lol.

I went ferreting with a lurcher for the first time last month (I have been ferreting for years but always use nets or a gun). It was fantastic to see the dog working, just the speed that she got to was amazing to watch.

Helen

while my 2 are frantically searching in the bushes and long grass for the rabbit they can smell, it usually hops out the other side, past me and away to freedom, my 2 are still looking meanwhile.......doh....

Kain pulled a cat by the tail from a tree the other night, and has the scratch to prove it.

Hi.

My dogs are worked regularly, and live for the hunt! We catch around 5-6 rabbits weekly. Although this is obviously distateful to some people, its preferable to some of the methods used to rid an area of rabbits.

We live in a rural area, and our local farmer pays us a small amount to work the dogs on his land. Before this arrangement the farmer regularly put down myxamatosis (sp?) infected fleas in rabbit holes on his land. Mixie is an awful disease, and an infected rabbit will suffer a painful, lingering death.

IMO hunting is far more humane.

I hope you rewarded your dogs for their success!

Moly has recently presented me (very proudly I might add ) with a rabbit on two occasions-I suspect the rabbits were already dying when she got to them as I dont think she is fast enough (yet) to catch them. The funny thing is she showed absolutely no interest in eating them-just wanted to give them to me. She has had no gun/retriever official training so maybe it just comes naturally I don't know but I have noticed there are lots of sick rabbits around.

I always believe that my dogs getting the odd one now and again wasn't out of line because of mixy etc but I never knew it could be spread to them like that or that it was still purposely spread. It makes me even more firm in the belief that it isn't wrong for my dogs to catch them sometimes.

I'm not into hunting at all but I do kind of think it's a natural thing for a dog to want to catch rabbits etc. I've seen Loki pouncing in the grass etc. and if he gets something, good luck to him. I just don't want him getting my neighbour's cats .

Takoda loaves cats and isn't interested in them in the hunting sense but in wanting to get his own back sense - he is actually terrified of them since the incident with one when he was a pup - regardless of catching the odd rabbit he would act the same to cats, he has never shown tendancies to want to harm them but he will hurtle at warp speed to them if he can and bark like crazy (he would also run tail between the legs as soon as the hiss and lash out!). The thing with both my two is that an ' i mean it' shout from me stops them in their tracks so if I want them to not chase something I can stop them, same is if they are told drop it / leave they will.

Are the neighbours cats brave enough to venture anywhere near your backyard -I haven't seen a cat anywhere near ours since Kody was a pup lol. Keena's best mate was a ginger cat who she played and wrestled with everyday till she was 9 months! Bless him he loved it till she got bigger. I dunno if you can make it out as Keena looks like a little white ghost in this but here she is playing with 'ginge'...



Trust me he liked it - he always wanted to play with the other cats but was to rough for them so he loved Keena! and he came to play with her everyday. There they are chillin together when she was older (@15wks)...

It's a shame Kody hates cats.