{"id":145,"date":"2015-09-01T12:15:01","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T12:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=145"},"modified":"2022-10-05T20:51:01","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T20:51:01","slug":"lurchers-for-beginners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/lurchers-for-beginners\/","title":{"rendered":"Lurchers for Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"

or Dog Herding the Hard Way<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have recently discovered that some people do not know what a lurcher is. Such people are not well, and must be helped. Therefore the entire greydogtales<\/em> workforce has abandoned its occult writing duties in order to produce a brief introduction to these noble dogs.<\/p>\n

\"lurchers<\/a>
two of our heroes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

THE BASICS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most common question asked about lurchers is: Where has my dinner gone? The second most common question is: What is a lurcher, anyway? You cannot answer either of these, because your dog has mysteriously disappeared over the horizon.<\/p>\n

Greydogtales<\/em> is here to help. Put simply, a lurcher is a cross between:<\/p>\n

i) a dog which runs too fast for you and chases everything (a sighthound), and<\/em>
\nii) a dog which runs slightly more slowly but still chases everything (a working dog).<\/em><\/p>\n

A longdog is a cross between two sighthounds, which means you don’t have a chance. The lurcher combination produces healthy, lively dogs, and healthy, exhausted owners. The name is derived from two words:<\/p>\n

Lurch<\/strong> \u2013 as in to leave someone in the lurch, ie. far behind and helpless, and<\/em>
\nEr<\/strong> \u2013 as in where’s that bloody dog gone now?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"heel\"<\/a>Two lurchers close at heel<\/em><\/p>\n

GENERAL NATURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lurchers have two phases to their lives, the puppy and the adult. These are mostly indistinguishable, but we can note the key characteristics here:<\/p>\n

Puppies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Very fast and quite mad, except when asleep<\/em>
\nIf you exercise them too much they will fall apart<\/em>
\nIf you exercise them too little your home will fall apart<\/em><\/p>\n

Adults<\/strong><\/p>\n

See puppies above, but stronger, faster and more determined<\/em><\/p>\n

Lurchers are very sociable with each other, and will soon form a pack, which exacerbates every aspect of the above. On the up side, after all this running, they do sleep a lot. Their preferred sleeping arrangements are:<\/p>\n