Thread: Article

In no way I would think of downgrading the NZ spaniels, as I don't know them at all. In the past I tried to find more info on the Ballyblack spaniels, but there isn't much about them on the internet.
I do know the modern English white grass dogs and can fully understand these are very easy to train, but not easy to get them hunt if you don't have the amount of game seen in the UK. I do neither want to convince anybody to use the e-collar, but I know it's a usefull tool when properly used. I have , on paper , the method Joe Greatorex used on the O'Vara spaniels. He put them in the rabbit pen for hours or days (without he being there) . The moment they started to kill to much rabbits he stopped putting them in. I think you will agree that the moment you train this dog, he just doesn't stop chasing a rabbit when you blow the stop whistle for the first,second or third time.
When you read Erlandson's first book about his 17 Champions, you will see that a good few where non hunters that took time to get going. I don't like this type of dog. It's fine when you have plenty of game, but not if the dog only gets 1 find every hour in the hardest of cover.

Originally Posted by Hales Smut

I think you will agree that the moment you train this dog, he just doesn't stop chasing a rabbit when you blow the stop whistle for the first,second or third time.
When you read Erlandson's first book about his 17 Champions, you will see that a good few where non hunters that took time to get going. I don't like this type of dog. It's fine when you have plenty of game, but not if the dog only gets 1 find every hour in the hardest of cover.

No I won;t agree... yes he will, if he's been trained to stop properly in the first place, yes he is harder to stop than a white grass dog, all the more reason your stop whistle training has to be that much sharper for the tougher type of dog.....

On preserves we have a ton of game, but one pheasant an hour would be a good days hunting here in our public forests... our dogs are up to it... and I can tell, at a trial, the difference between a dog capable of that type of work and one that lives and works on preserves only. (Preserves = Pheasant Estates).

Ballyblack's, you won;t find much online, Jim Clarke (Mr Ballyblack) is in his Eighties and doesn't spend much time online. I think our spaniels could go the same road. I am breeding back to Ballyblack lines to try and keep them, others are looking to imports... be interesting to see how that all works out.

I believe by the time you have the skill to use an e-collar properly, you don;t need one

Originally Posted by Ruff

I believe by the time you have the skill to use an e-collar properly, you don;t need one

Have a dog hard headed enough and you do.