CHAPTER X

THE HUNT TERRIER

By Charles McNeill, o.b.e.

MASTER OF THE GRAFTON (SEVEN SEASONS) AND THE NORTH COTSWOLD (FIVE SEASONS)

A PACK of fox-hounds, if they are to discharge their primary duty, occasionally need the assistance of terriers either (a) to move the fox from an earth or drain so that they may do battle with him in the open; or (b) to enable them to kill him there and then, should the necessity exist, such as a mangy one. The propriety or otherwise of digging out foxes has always been the subject of controversy and it is not proposed here to revive all the arguments on either side. The average fox-hunter hates digging. He does not, and quite rightly so, regard it as sport and he objects to be kept standing about on a winter’s day while spades and terriers are brought into use. A Master of Hounds, however, is in a very different position. A decision that pleases his field, who are merely concerned with their own amusement, may be viewed in a very different light by the poultry-keeper or farmer who has been impatiently awaiting a visit from the pack in order to avenge the fox’s depredations. Time and again he (the Master) is face to face with the fact that if he does not kill his fox, someone else will and he is aware, moreover, that his failure to do so will jeopardise his chances of finding foxes another year. Incidentally it may be mentioned that should he desire to spare a fox which has gone to ground it is best to take his hounds away at once, keeping the whereabouts of the hunted one strictly to himself if possible. To “mark” a fox with the usual ceremony and blow a horn until all the loafers in the neighbourhood have collected on the spot with their dogs, commits him to action, for reasons which are all too obvious.

In deciding the momentous problem “To dig or not to dig,” the following considerations deserve to be well weighed by the Master of Hounds:

(1) Is there a reasonable likelihood of completing the job quickly? Unless this can be answered in the affirmative it is better not to make the attempt at all.

(2) Do local conditions, such as a surplus of foxes and resulting complaints, call for drastic measures on his part?

(3) Are there indications that it is a good scenting day? If so, he will be blamed for wasting time (as it will be termed) which should be put to better use.

Of one thing we can be certain. Every Master of Hounds will require to use a terrier at some time or other. With this fact in mind let us seek the best dog for the purpose, and having found him we must show how to employ him to the best advantage.

My experience with terriers has been extremely varied, but I have always tried to combine the show terrier and the working terrier.

In old days I had as many as eighty terriers in my kennels at Carlton Curlieu, Leicestershire, and such noted winners as Champion Oronsay Marvel, Champion Match Maker, Meersbrook Magpie, and All Bristles. Both the latter, by Meersbrook Bristles, were undefeated at fox or badger. Also the bitch Champion Oronsay Marvel, which I bred, was as good as her name on the Show bench or under ground.

I did not show much during my tenure of the North Cotswold Hounds and not at all during my Grafton Mastership. I found that the show terrier and the huntsman’s terrier were getting too far apart. The former is too tall and in fact too big to carry.

Lord Lonsdale had a wonderful lot of terriers when he was Master of the Quorn, and Harry Houghton, the runner, was a marvel the way he turned up at the psychological moment. Having said that the Quorn terriers were good, perhaps I ought not to say that Lord Lonsdale bought eight from me at one go, with the understanding that he could return any which were no good—none came back. All these terriers were wire-haired. Later on, the Duchess of Newcastle very kindly sent me several rare sorts of huntsmen’s terriers, too small to show or I should never have had them, but beautifully bred. The last really niced-sized huntsman’s terrier I remember on the benches, winning all before him, was Chunkey of Notts, bred and shown by the Duchess. All these again were wire-haired.

I never had smooth terriers but have seen some very game ones. The late Mr. Francis Redmond, who had perhaps the best kennel of smooth show terriers, had a very game breed and he used to work them regularly at fox or badger. Perhaps I should not have said the best kennel, because Mr. R. Vicary of Newton Abbot and Mr. J. C. Tinne of the New Forest, all shared about equally in the honours of the show ring.

The highest price in my show day that was given for a wire-haired fox-terrier was £500 given for Champion Go Bang, by Meersbrook Bristles. I sold Champion Match Maker at fourteen months old, a champion then, for 250 guineas, and I know Mr. Vicary also refused 500 guineas for his noted smooth dog champion Valuator, by Champion Venio. Personally, I liked Mr. Vicary’s type much the best of the three smooth kennels I have mentioned.

Meersbrook Magpie, a winner of eighty first prizes before he was two years old, was an exceptionally game terrier. I sold him to R. Clayton Swann and many are the stories of his great gameness afterwards. I have mentioned these few instances as there is always rather an inclination to crab the show terrier as far as work is concerned. And I must say, it does disgust one rather to walk round the shows nowadays and see this hardy little customer rugged up on the bench like a greyhound, when he can stand all weathers without coming to the least harm. As all terrier men know, a good way to get a real, hard, wiry, weather-resisting coat is to cross a wire with a smooth. I don’t say they all come wire-haired. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t, and, as the Irishman says, more times there are a few of each sort in the litter.

A nice little short-legged terrier is best, he is not too heavy to carry, but he must not be wide in front. A tall terrier with good shoulders and narrow front will get to ground better than a small cobby one, but a small dog, with narrow front and good shoulders, with a long lean head, is the ideal huntsman’s terrier. The terrier should not be too “hard” but have plenty of tongue, for in this way he is more likely to bolt the fox, and if he does not, you may be sure, at least, that the fox is uninjured. Further, you have the advantage of knowing where he is, if you have to start digging.

I am not going into the question of Sealyhams, but in my opinion (which the owners of Sealyhams will say isn’t worth a damn) they are too heavy to carry, too cloddy to run, and too thick to be any use as a hunt terrier. The old Jack Russell breed was best of all the lot; they were rare sorts, and we used to hear a lot about them forty years ago, but alas all too rarely now.

I am strongly in favour of sticking to the fox-terrier for fox-hunting jobs. Once, many years ago, in Norton Gorse in the late Mr. Fernie’s country, unfortunately a terrier (a show one) got locked with a badger, in each other’s jaws. The terrier got the upper hold, consequently his lower jaw was in the badger’s mouth and when we got down to him the badger had broken the poor brute’s jaw. Even so, he was dead game and trying hard to have a go and presumably not knowing why he was so useless.

I am not going to join issue with either side and say which I consider best, the smooth- or the wire-haired fox-terrier, both are extremely game when properly entered. I am a very great believer in that. Why should a dog be game when he has never seen anything and does not know what is wanted of him.

It will pay well to take the greatest trouble to avoid getting a young dog badly punished too early in his career. So don’t forget to enter your terriers. You take a lot of trouble to enter a hound and bear the greatest patience if he does not take to it at once. Do the same with a terrier. Shake foxes’ masks at him and make him keen and enter him first at a cub to ground early, and if you do this you will find 90 per cent game.

For the terrier to be carried by a Hunt servant is in my opinion the most useful method, because he arrives quickly and full of fire and go, and fresh. Another method is of course for the terrier to be taken by the Hunt runner, who is seldom there, except on a ringing sort of day or a cub-hunting morning: and a third method is to allow a terrier or two to run with the pack. This I never allowed; it makes hounds flashy and wild and the terrier is blown and probably useless, or gets into a drain or a stick heap and it takes half a day to get him out. It is nice to have the choice as to whether a terrier shall be put to ground or not; with a loose terrier you have no choice.

By the way, don’t let your terriers be in the lodging-rooms with the pack. They often start a quarrel.

After regular hunting starts, a terrier can be carried either by a second-horse man, or a mounted terrier man solely out for that purpose. A small leather bag with a stiff bottom to give the dog comfort is best, with a hole for his head. Slung from the rider’s shoulders and resting on the front of the saddle, if the bag is suspended from the shoulder strap by strong pieces of india-rubber as thick as your middle finger, it is more comfortable for the terrier and for the terrier man.

During my North Cotswold Mastership, I made Butler, the terrier man, carry a huge white buck ferret on his bicycle, and very useful he proved to be. The North Cotswold country is full of large “badger stops,” particularly in the Stanway Woods, and there is very little lying under the trees. There were always foxes there, but still I sometimes drew them blank. I then made Butler slip up to the main earth, remove the faggot stopping, and slip in the line ferret. If you do this not a word must be spoken and the greatest care taken to avoid noise. This method is wonderfully successful to shift a fresh fox, but never put a ferret in to a hunted fox. He is almost sure to sulk, show fight, and kill the ferret.

It is a golden rule, after the cub-hunting season is over, never to put a terrier to ground at all, unless there is every chance of bolting the fox.

The field objects to be kept waiting, and rightly so, for the Master simply to add one more snout to his kennel door. If a mangy fox is put to ground, the best thing to do is to leave the second whipper-in and the terriers to get him out, but never keep the field standing about after regular hunting begins.

I once found a vixen and four dog-foxes in one drain. It was early in the New Year and the four were no doubt all after the vixen. Never be disheartened by a blank draw. More foxes lie to ground than above ground, and the more you kill the more you will have, as other people will not bolt and kill them, if they feel the Hunt is efficient. A fresh fox is easy to bolt. A tired, hunted fox will endure any amount of punishment if end on, or if face to the dog, will more often than not fight to the death, rather than face the seventeen and a half couple outside.

As a general rule, there is far too much talk and chatter outside a drain before the terrier is put in. Hounds should be taken well away and no one allowed near, except the man in charge of the terrier at the other end of the drain. The whipper-in is far too often “in evidence,” and this makes a fox hang and sulk and refuse to bolt. Above all, avoid stamping about on the top of the ground. A fox is the most nervous, highly strung of all wild animals and loves to conceal all his movements. Therefore keep away, and you will be rewarded by not having to wait.

A stick heap is one of the hardest places to bolt a hunted fox from, but if fresh foxes are known to be in one, let someone slip up with a terrier and then get right away and you will certainly bolt a fox, provided there is no hole in the ground. That is fatal. Mr. R. L. Pike in County Carlow had a wonderfully successful stick heap made on purpose for a fox covert, but it was on hard ground and if a fox was there, a terrier was sure to bolt him.

Digging.

Winter days are short and time is valuable, therefore digging operations, if embarked upon, must be carried out smartly and methodically, without the waste of a moment. Two men working at a time are quite sufficient, with the Master or huntsman to direct them. If there are others willing to take a hand they can relieve the first couple when these have earned a rest. Two methods can be employed. The first, which may be the longer but often proves the safer in the end, is to start at the entrance to the hole and open it up as if it were a drain. The alternative way is to put a terrier in, leave him to find the fox, and then having located the spot by ear as accurately as possible, dig down direct. When adopting this plan it is most important that this vertical hole should be dug two “spits” wide, that is to say, eighteen inches each way, and that it should on no account be allowed to get narrower as it gets deeper. Frequently in the excitement of the moment, this rule is disregarded just when the operation is nearing completion, with the result that one is cramped for room and hounds are denied a chance to draw their fox.

Unless one is sure that the terrier has engaged the fox and their whereabouts can be located with tolerable certainty it is better not to employ this method at all, but to stick to the other plan and open up the earth from the entrance.

Whatever views may be held on the subject of digging during the regular hunting season, it should be an invariable rule never to dig or put a terrier to ground after the 1st February.

Entering Puppies to Fox.

It is not advisable to enter terrier puppies to fox before they are a year old, and many people consider that eighteen months is quite young enough. However, this does not mean that puppies should not be taken out with the older dogs from the age of six months and onwards. They should be allowed to watch older terriers go to earth and when a kill has been made they should be encouraged to worry the dead fox. When the puppy is twelve months old he should be released at the mouth of an earth in which an older dog is working. He should be allowed to nose around and listen, and though at first he may take no interest in the proceedings, and may indeed show fright, don’t be discouraged by this. Leave him where he is and eventually, if he is ever going to be any use at all, his curiosity will overcome his fear and he will go a little way into the earth. This is quite enough for one day. Next time he is out he will probably go straight in after the older dog, but he should be handled quietly and should not be shoved in the hole to the accompaniment of yells and notes of the horn. Put him down quite quietly at the mouth of the earth. Do not urge him in again; let him investigate in his own way, but be very careful that there is no chance of him being badly nipped, for if he is he will probably be of no further use for your purpose.

When he has had some experience it is a good idea after you have dug up to a fox to remove the old terrier and to let the youngster have a go by himself. He can be taken out again quickly if he gets into any real trouble.

If possible, during the summer months, puppies should be allowed to run disused fox earths, as it gets them used to going down in the dark. For this purpose also coverts under gateways and roads may also be used.

Remember that hounds should never be left at the earth while digging operations are going on as they often frighten and distract puppies and in any case they get in the way of the diggers.

It is advisable never to put two dogs of the same sex into an earth, if it is necessary to put in a second terrier. A dog and a bitch will always work much better together than two dogs or two bitches, for however well the terriers know each other you always run a grave risk of a fight starting between them if they are of the same sex. In any case, I strongly object to two terriers being used in the same hole at the same time. The last one put in tends to stop a great deal of ventilation getting up to the first terrier in. It should on no account be allowed. Sometimes in digging badgers, it is a good thing to use a second terrier, but always put him in at another entrance.