NATURE Canine capers

COMFY SPOT?Tigger, gracefully flattening the contents of a flower pot.

Dogs, hares and graces


Country sights and sounds
John Shelley

I would love to own a good hunting dog. Not just a hunter though, and not especially for hunting, but an obedient and servile beast trained to walk to heel, to point, bold beneath the gun, quick and agile, soft of mouth, with the qualities of a well-bred retriever but without the overpowering odour emanated by the same. It must have the courage of the cocker spaniel but lack the propensity, so typical of that otherwise admirable breed, to break the leg bones of others, the intelligence of the collie without the delicacy of humour that collies have (one cross word means a 20-minute sulk), and the strength of the mastiff without the appetite.
The best dog I ever had was a Huntaway from New Zealand. Even this one was only part good; its shepherding skills were second to none, and it would drive cattle or sheep with guile and craft while taking delight in its work. The other part was an itinerant, self-employed tracking machine given to taking off on the trail of man or beast at a moment’s notice.
It had one other failing in that it barked incessantly, doing so by night and by day, whether there was or there wasn’t anything to bark at.
I only kept it for 12 months and sold it, part trained, to a hard of hearing hill farmer, for whom it performed a valuable service for many years.
At the other end of the scale was Tracy, an affectionate layabout that slept her life away. Out of a decent collie bitch, she was fathered by next door’s Springer spaniel, a disobedient reprobate of a dog given to raiding bins and defecating on doorsteps. Tracy was the sole survivor of a litter of six and, saved only by her pretty ginger eyebrows (which later assumed the colour of boiled liver), definitely the wrong choice.
The dog we have now is Tigger, a half-bred rough collie with a pleasing personality and boundless enthusiasm for chasing woodland hares, while possessing none of the desirable qualities mentioned in the first paragraph.
The hares, of course, cannot be caught, especially by Tigger, who fondly imagines herself loping gracefully at their heels over country miles before bringing them captive to my appreciative hand. In reality she has the gait of a farrowing sow and I have no appetite for hare meat, much preferring to see these creatures alive and at peace.
The scent of hare has a strange effect on dogs, and this one in particular, in that it appears to nullify any inclination to heed the most basic of commands. Tigger occasionally accompanies me on my treks in search of our local deer or when I go to look for badgers. Together we stalk through the trees at dawn or at dusk, working carefully upwind toward the call of another fallow buck.
There are 50 meters to go and so far we are undetected. I have the camera ready - twenty meters off and we must move carefully through the last few trees, and then we ought to see him…
We cross the track of a hare. With a delighted woof, Tigger takes of, clattering over the remains of an old stone wall and crashing through brambles and wild shrubs, leaving a train of excited yelps in her wake.
The deer, of course, are instantly gone and another opportunity is missed.
When the dog gets back she has a light in her eyes as if to say ‘Oh, I nearly got him for you that time!’ When I scold her she skulks and won’t follow. More and more I venture out alone.
There are other days when the company of Tigger is an asset. When I go to search for the caterpillars of the cinnabar moth on the few stems of ragwort left in existence, she lets me know of grasshoppers, common lizards and shrews that I would otherwise miss and instinctively knows not to harm them. She finds the nests of birds where I have looked and found none. Her eyes, ears and nose combine to form an efficient wildlife radar.
When it comes to choosing a decent all-round dog I think it is hard to beat a collie, and when it comes to loyalty and faithfulness they are unsurpassed.
Other people have their own favourites and for their own reasons. What are yours?