A Brief History of the Modern Lurcher & Longdog Types.

published in four parts in Earth Dog Running Dog
from Oct 2004 - Jan 2005

Part One

In the light of Warrener's article in Vol. 143, June 04 E.D.R.D.; in order to avoid confusion with our own efforts to nurture the remnants of the genuine bloodlines, I would like to clarify what so called strains of Norfolk type are what.

Firstly, when myxy struck the rabbit population down from millions to virtually none in the early 1950's, thousands of lurchers became redundant - because the only justification for tolerating the stigma associated with keeping a poacher's dog was the meat and therefore income they provided. Nobody kept them other than for work. The old-fashioned bloodlines had already been decimated by two world wars- when they were used as messenger carriers, being the only breed clever enough to get the message through to those they trusted whilst avoiding strangers (the enemy) just as they avoided gamekeepers in civy-street.

So, in the 1950's, the old type sagacious rabbitting lurcher neared extinction along with its quarry, the rabbit. Those who did retain running dogs at this time converted their stock from rabbitting to hare-coursing type by outcrossing to deerhound/greyhound erroneously referred to as "staghound".

Fortunately, some relatives however were astute enough to realize that by continually outcrossing to "the gentleman's sighthound" blood the sagacity, hardiness, good feet, trainability, scenting and gamefinding ability with the retrieving instinct would all end up being lost forever. (REMEMBER THIS POINT FOR LATER WHEN I DISCUSS MODERN BREEDERS ACTIVITIES.).

Also fortunately, they knew there was an already tried and tested alternative way of up sizing the old rabbitting lurcher strains for hare-coursing, which would retain the genuine old-fashioned stealth poaching dogs qualities. But first I need to explain a little about anatomical specialities or differences in structure between the ideal specialist rabbit dog and the ideal specialist hare dog.

What I am going to explain now, I ask you to run past your own Judge (i.e. Commonsense) and discard any prejudices you have acquired from reading too many comic books on lurchers. If it does not make sense then dismiss me as just another "charlatan", but please if it makes sense but had never occurred to you before give me some credit for knowing what I'm talking about.

To catch a rabbit, you'll agree, the dog needs to be quick into its stride, early paced, quick off the mark- call it what you like. It also needs to be exceedingly agile and have a sharp mouth. This is especially so in small paddocks with thick hedges and bramble bushes everywhere; what I call " one strike and your out territory".

However, to catch a hare, on say the fens for example, now you need high speed ground covering cruising speed, rather than just blistering early pace. You can afford to wait your opportunity to strike - and the rash dog that fails to grasp his hare is in for a real gruelling if he persists in running in the style you would a rabbit in a small field.

Now for the bit that perhaps hasn't occurred to you before, whilst a dog is sailing through the air in long ground covering strides; can he accelerate (i.e. increase speed) or change direction? My contention is that he can only increase speed by exerting pressure to the ground and the same applies to changing direction, so he can do neither in mid flight. So logically the more often the foot touches the ground - the more agile and early paced the dog.

The old genuine Norfolk stamp lurcher was a specialist rabbitting dog built with a long muscular back and relatively shortish quick striding legs -touching the ground often (as per famous photo of warrener Reeves). It was not a ground covering, hare coursing type, in its original form. (REMEMBER THIS WHEN "CHARLATANS" CALL BEARDIExGREYHOUNDS "NORFOLK-TYPE").

However, the Smithfield drovers dog created by an import of Belgian cattle dog (a cousin of the Bouvoir De Flanders) was a tall leggy breed as was required to look across the backs of huge flocks of sheep to see where they were needed and the leg it round to be in the right place in time. (A Beardy is too short for such work).

Incidentally, our lurchers today will often stand on their back legs in the lane like circus dogs for several minutes to get a view of what game is afoot the other side of a low hedge or stone wall. I put this inherited trait down to their Smithfield drover ancestors.

So, when about 180 years ago the old timers out crossed their short-legged rabbitting dogs to the leggy Smithfield drovers dog as well as increasing the pastoral brain they were after they inadvertently adapted the anatomy from pure rabbitter to more versatile - capable of catching fen hares as well. So, it was the Smithfield type lurcher that brought the reputation for hare catching, being more up on the leg and the term Norfolk type should only apply to the pure rabbiting stamp with relatively shorter legs.

The Tumbler was a smaller much lighter, exceedingly agile, early paced rabbitting stamp developed for use in small paddocks of the one strike and your out variety as opposed to the more spacious open sandy heath and soft soil fens where the massive Norfolk-type operated.

With minimum but judicious use of sighthound blood, by blending these (Norfolk, Smithfield and Tumbler) and a few other distinctive old strains that unfortunately never boasted a distinctive name (particularly the old harsh coated black&tan strains and the flat red coated (derived from the old Welsh Hillman Shepherd/Drover dogs) strains our relatives adapted the best qualities of these old-fashioned (horses for courses) bloodlines into a more versatile strain capable of catching any game on any ground. They did this at a time when others were allowing them to die out, or breeding them into pure sighthounds by excessive outcrossing.

It is too complex to explain here exactly how they achieved this so you'll have to wait for my book, if I ever get it finished. But, briefly they focused on brain, stealth, agility and striking ability and feet that could run over flintstone/chalk, believing these qualities could help conserve the athleticism necessary. In other words they bred catch dogs to fill the cooking-pot when everybody else was breeding sporting dogs.

A traveller, who loved his sporting hare coursing with a passion and was one of the best raconteurs I've ever encountered would describe with such enthusiasm a heroic, gigantic course where the hare takes the dog for a six minute tour of the countryside - describing every twist and turn, ditch, gate, hedge, and fence only to finish with the immortal words -it got away into the game crop, but oh what a course, did everything bar kill it. At which point I would interject, " but I CAN'T EAT THAT". For some reason he took to ripping his shirt off and wanting to fight whenever he saw me coming. I did recommend friends to buy pups from some breeding he did, when they where going into match dogs, but advised them to choose for striking ability. I even used a descendant as an outcross since it killed over 50 hares before it was 16months old.