December; our darkest month. Short days, long dark nights and mostly wet, grim weather rather than enchanting white Christmas’s. Mind you things could have been even darker this year had ‘Comrade Corbyn and the Keystone Commie’s’ won the election! Thank goodness they didn’t and we still have what’s left of our working dogs. There is of course nothing like a bit of dog work to keep your spirits up at this time of year! The great thing about workers is all they care about is being in the field and doing
what they do. The weather doesn’t matter to them, nor the time of year. As I often find out to my cost, nor does the time available either. I was having a quick, late December afternoon walk on the stubble at the back here in the last of the daylight. It’s not been ploughed or sown yet which is good news for the birds, other wildlife and of course us. Stubble is much more preferable to mooch about on than plough. I had about an hour before dark and I had to be somewhere else soon too, so I had no time to get side
tracked. ‘Don’t be long’ were my wife’s parting words to me. It was to be a short walk only. The dogs would get their longer walk in the dark when I got back in the evening. Nothing however escapes the nose of the workers who care little for the appointments of their master! This is why bonus hunts and surprises often occur on such innocent walks! Today was no exception……
I’ve had many an innocent walk that’s turned into a surprise dig, full scale hunt or provided some unexpected game for the table. {More about another one later}. Nothing quite so exciting today, though it was very interesting. Piper the younger of my two terriers suddenly disappeared and didn’t show to my recall whistle. I back tracked and found her digging at a rat hole in the hawthorn hedge bottom.
Nothing unusual there. We often dig out odd hedgerow rats. Sometimes we catch them sometimes we don’t. It’s getting a bit easier now as the cover is right down. I could tell this hole was only shallow by the body language and mannerisms of the dogs. I spotted another nearby hole and was about to direct Bela to cover it when the rat suddenly bolted from it. I gave my rat huntsman rebel cry, needlessly as they knew it had bolted and had already took off in instant pursuit!
Usually these rats will run the hedge bottom to the next nearest hole and take refuge in it. This one quickly vanished but despite the dogs checking all the adjacent holes no trace could be found of it? I cast them back and too in the direction it had gone but without luck. The dogs were still very keen around one particular area of hedge but couldn’t make anything of it. Then Hazel the lurcher, who was air scenting, solved the puzzle! The rat had climbed up the hawthorn hedge and was sat quietly above our heads. It was about nine foot up. Again nothing too unusual here. I’ve seen plenty of rats up in bushes or overgrown hedges. They are normally persuaded to come down quite easily often making spectacular leaps.
This one was different…..
It stayed amongst the upper most branches of the hedge. It was using its tail for balance and stability, wrapping it around a branch at one point. So far only Hazel, with her height advantage, had spotted it.
She’s accustomed to looking upwards for quarry as she is well versed in the ways of squirrels. I picked Bela up and held her above my head and she too cottoned on. Piper meanwhile had gone back to the hole she’d been digging at and was retracing her steps. The rat was now heading in the opposite direction and still staying as high as possible. I was surprised at the speed and dexterity with which it moved through the overgrown hedge top. As the leaves had mostly now all gone it was all in my view. It couldn’t be ‘persuaded’ to come down by the dogs. Hazel was bouncing up and down but coming nowhere near the rat. It was clearly quite comfortable in this above ground environment. We reached a small break in the hedge which I thought would cause it to come down. It didn’t. It simply turned around
and the hunt continued back in the direction it started from. Fascinated by the antics of this rat, I was keeping well back now and allowing the dogs to work things out for themselves as much as possible.
There was another break in the hedge in the direction it was now taking. Once it reached this it simply turned around and headed back again.
After fifteen minutes or so of hedge top hide and seek we lost sight of our quarry completely. I wasn’t overly disappointed as I was going to be late now for my appointment if I didn’t get going. Working dogs making me late again! The little devil on my shoulder was telling me they’d worked well so it would be good to see them get their reward…… I like to see perseverance rewarded. I let them cast back and two one final time and just as I was about to move on Piper found again. She was marking positively and strongly at a very tight ball like cluster of thorns and branches which were much lower down, right in the centre of the hedge. It looked an impenetrable tangle. I certainly couldn’t see the rat but the dogs were now all marking keenly in the same spot. Piper was gamely trying to get her snout in despite the thorns.
I intervened and prodded a stick in and out leapt the rat, now finally heading for the ground. Bela who had probably done the least work was in the right place and snapped it up. Perseverance had paid off.
Now if I got a really fast walk on I might just catch up my lost time.
As I was quickly walking back home, with the dogs now all at heel, I recalled another unexpected hunt from about 15 years ago. It was December again but different dogs back then of course. I’d only just moved here and was still exploring what was on my doorstep. Sage, my terrier at this time, had put a fox out of some brambles where a bank formed a boundary between the horse field I was on and a yard where some lorries and farm vehicles where parked. At the top of the bank was a tall metal security fence. Sage had hunted the fox through the brambles and I got a brief glimpse of it as it slipped out and dived into another lighter bramble bed. This bramble bed ran along a fence line dividing two adjacent paddocks and it was now moving away from the denser cover of the bank. My two lurchers of this time, Tawny and Moss were bouncing along, one on either side, keeping up with the fox. It bolted on the opposite side to me where Moss, who was then just a youngster was covering. She coursed it across the paddock, right on its brush but not quite knowing how to deal with it. It may have even been the first one she’d ever chased? It escaped amongst some farm buildings.
A few days later I tried the same spot hoping our quarry would be in residence again. This day, like on the afternoon of the hedge climbing rat, I was going out and was supposed to be just giving the dogs a very quick run. My parting words had been ‘I won’t be long, I’m only going over there’. Again I had about an hour or less of daylight left, it being around 3.00pm. The dogs shot straight over to the brambles on the banking and Sage the terrier disappeared into them once more which was a good sign. Thinking the fox would most likely run the same line I got the lurchers in better positions in readiness. The minutes ticked by with no sign of anything happening. It was one of those do I move and risk the fox slipping out where I’d been covering situations? Or do I hold my nerve and stay in place? Big as this bramble bed was the fox surely would have slipped out by now I reasoned. I tried to get the lurchers to stay but they weren’t having any of it. I was soon to find out why.
Tawny was interested in a certain spot in the brambles and started to try and push her way in. I bashed a pathway in and could see the source of her interest: a hole in the bank. I knew straight away where the terrier was and was quickly sizing the situation up. When I finally reached the hole my heart sank. It seemed to go straight ahead which was under the concrete yard making it pretty much undiggable.
Certainly at this stage anyway. I could just about hear Sage baying away and she sounded quite deep.
Needless to say it was a late night! I only had a fleece on and the cold soon bit into me. I recall it being around 11pm when the fox finally bolted……and escaped. Not a long time by terrier man standards but I was just relieved my terrier was out from under the concrete yard. I remember thinking back then that the words ‘I won’t be long’ simply invite trouble or temptation where working dogs are concerned. Not much has changed either.
Enjoy your hunting.
