Just read back on a old thread about lurchers,there's not any new ones so I'll add one! I don't think you can be picky about the crosses,ie sight hounds long hounds etc,lurchers where bred for a purpose..to hunt.when my dad was young,in the ww2 days, he went off hunting with his lurchers and ferrets to put food on the table. You'd cross the greyhound or whippet to meet the needs,do you want it to work, or be smaller or agile etc.ie collie greyhound would be good at running and at turning,generally the favorite in the lurcher department.BUT to be fair..a lurcher on its own is no good without a terrier to knock the game out.unless your lamping or something across those lines.lurchers are these days turning into a little bit of a trophy dog.so many dog shows etc.dont mean to go on..just think lurchers have lost there true meaning
I have the vaguest of recollections of the lurcher my father had when I was very small. His name was Gyp - all my father's dogs were called Gyp! There are no photos of him so I couldn't hazard a guess at his breeding. Though I was brought up with the idea that a lurcher was a cross between a greyhound and a collie, so I assume that is what ours was. The lurcher I lost a couple of years ago when she was about 16 had obviously been used for work by her previous owners. She had been abandoned, but I imagine accidentally - they had to make a quick getaway when they were spotted by Poacher Watch and somehow she was left behind. She was spotted by several people over the course of a few days, until some children caught her and took her to my friend, asking if she was her dog. (This was rather insulting bearing in mind the state of her - skeletal and covered in mange!). However, my friend took her in, then we saw her and that was it! The vets estimated her to be about 2 and we had her for the next fourteen years.
This is my late Mia, who was picked up when she collapsed on the A520 in January, in freezing conditions. She was unable to stand, and was too weak to go to the dogs home, I was told that she weighed 9 lbs! I got her a fortnight later when she was up to 13 lbs. We couldn't tell how old she was, but she was fully adult and had many healed cut scars on her face. She had no hunting instincts at all (except for cats). We had her for 12 years, she was loving but never really flourished. We lost her in 2008 with a tumour of the heart muscle. Sleep well Mimi.
What a beautiful dog,thank goodness you found her Carole. Again another happy ending! Yes,some of these dogs don't get looked after,which is terrible,considering when they are worked they should be treated like the athletes they are. Janet, my whippets called gyp(sy), after the poem Old meg she was a gypsy She lived upon the moor Her house was of the brown earth turf Her house was out of doors No breakfast had she many a morn No dinner many a noon Instead of supper she'd sit and stare full hard against the moon I also had a a dog called meg
We took on a lurcher last year from local greyhound rescue, he is whippet x saluki, quite small bit bigger than a whippet but has saluki face and stubborness but he is a really quiet dog and reacts to your voice but has very high prey drive but I use a head collar while walking him and he has improved no end on lead , we have just taken on a ex racer greyhound and they are getting on fine.
That's great loz, it breaks my heart that lurchers are often abandoned through no fault of there own,I love a happy ending!
I looked up the definition of lurcher and it said a cross between a retriever, collie, or sheepdog and greyhound. That would make my dog, Copper, a lurcher. He is lab/greyhound. The people we got him from as a pup said he is a husky/lab but the vet said try lab/greyhound. I have thought of doing a DNA test but it really doesn't matter because he is what he is, and he is such a good dog! That is a picture of him on my avatar. Let me see if I can find a better one...That is a pic of him running in the snow.
You never know what you might get with a mix, but I have to say he certainly looks to have greyhound not the husky.
