Plummer on the Rise of Mute Dogs

A repost from 2005

Forty Years Onwards, By D. Brian Plummer

I believe I have mentioned this before, but in the mid 1960's, Britain experienced 'Fell Fever' a time when a host of Lake District terrier men came south to judge Terrier Shows, They were treated like gods and many southern terrier buffs who had a reputation for being of sound mind suddenly began speaking in a Cumbrian accent. At that time Jack Russell terriers won most of the shows, though from time to time a rather spectacular Border terrier was selected as BIS (Best in show). Quite suddenly all the major prizes went to fell terriers, quite attractive dogs with excellent coats but sometimes over fourteen inches at the shoulder. In 1964 most winning terriers seemed to be twelve inches at the shoulder, but within ten years the winners seemed to be over fourteen inches at the withers. I'm losing the point of my article, so two points to the starboard to correct my drift.

Some of the elderly terrier men who came south as savants to judge the shows had a good knowledge of working terriers others, - 'were not good enough to be allowed to carry my ferret box'. Many owned terriers which were devils to worry sheep and were totally uncontrollable in the field, and hence it became fashionable to allow a totally wild terrier to be hunted and stone daft comments such as, 'If he came out when I called him, I'll shoot him'. The reputation of the terrier man suffered greatly and those who owned working terriers were regarded as buffoons by the rest of the field sport fraternity.

In the 1960's most terrier men expected their wards to behave while hunting, some terriers even dropped to shot when worked with the gun. Others retrieved to hand -'mine still do', yet the appeal of the self-entering easy to start fell terrier was such that tractability was sacrificed providing the terrier raced to ground and grabbed the fox.

Prior to the 1960's hard terriers, those who would go to ground and grapple without giving tongue were not considered worthwhile. Indeed such dogs were sold for a song or given away. Game, but mute terriers which simply engaged the fox in silence were undesirable. Not only was such a dog virtually useless as a bolter of foxes, but it was difficult in the extreme to dig to such a terrier. In the 18th Century Iron-Hard ultra game terriers were mated to beagles, to give the hybrid 'voice' (Memories of The Old Charlton Hunt)

Foxes rarely bolt if they are faced with a very hard dog in a natural earth, though a fox encountered in a smooth sided glazed drain will vacate the den quite quickly if faced with a hard dog. In a natural earth, particularly in a den interlaced with tree roots, matters are very different!

A 'gentle' dog, one that bays at its fox rather than tackles it will, by dint of its barking, annoy a fox so much that it seeks to leave an earth for the sound of baying is multiplied ten fold in a deep earth.

A harder dog races to ground and seizes its fox, foxes quite often adopt the practice of playing dead when attacked or frightened, though in point of fact the condition is closer to catatonia rather than a cleverly thought out plot. Hence the hard dog seizes its fox, which goes into a death like trance, only to find itself in a life and death encounter, when it recovers from its 'fit'. Such a fox cannot bolt and must fight to the death- though most terriers find it surprisingly difficult to kill a large fox in a subterranean struggle.

Hence the terrier man of the 1960's did not require a very hard mute dog. Indeed such a dog was a liability where foxes were required to be bolted, yet changes in the way terriers would work foxes were at hand.

In the 1960's moves were afoot to develop detectors, which would locate a terrier below ground. Hither to the barking of the terrier guided the digger to the fox (hence the mute terrier was a liability) now even mute terriers could be used providing the terrier was fitted out with a locator collar or the terrier had not engaged with the fox out of range of the locator.

Absurd statements such as 'this terrier had never been known to make a sound below ground and I intended to found my strain on the dog' began to appear in the sporting press. Old timers shook their heads at such nonsense, but youngsters not old enough to know better, delighted in such rubbish and sought to buy dogs with similar attributes.

The locator also changed the face of ferreting - once the sport of the patient and the silent now became the sport of those eager to catch a rabbit quickly with little regard to damaging the rabbit burrows. Ferrets were simply fitted with locators, put to ground and on encountering their rabbits were dug to in double quick time. If left to its own devices the rabbit would have bolted and hit the nets - with little or no damage to the burrow.

Likewise the use of locators in the hunting of foxes. Many fresh foxes - not foxes chased to ground by hounds - will bolt when a terrier goes to ground and engages them. Most will bolt if the terrier engages them for long enough and noisily enough. Now by dent of using locators an amateur terrier man, and a crass amateur at that, is able to locate a fox with almost pinpoint accuracy and puts spade to sod instantly destroying age old earths which have housed a thousand or so foxes. Dan Russell. A savant of the 'old school' once wrote of the dangers of premature digging and not allowing the terrier to work its fox- and possibly bolt it. Sadly no one heeded his advice. Ronald Jones of West Wales, regarded by some as the greatest expert on the management of gun packs, once stated that he has yet to have encountered a terrier, which was too small for bolting foxes. These days a visit to a hunt terrier show will see huge sixteen-inch dogs winning classes - terriers far too large to work the majority of fox earths. Hideously scarred terriers are prized by terrier owners, most of whom seem unable to get a terrier to return to hand and well-trained terriers are noticeable by their absence.

This is a study of the evolution of the terrier and its owner over nearly half a century, I confess that its not a pretty picture that has been painted , but never the less a true one.

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