# Ratting with Terriers



## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

I could spend all day doing this!


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Now those are some large rats. They have been feeding well for some time. Rat fur gloves.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

No thanks they can rot in the dead pit!


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

Looks like another fun time !! My labs would love it.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

You'd let a soft mouthed gundog kill something!?







I'd shoot a gundog that killed anything!

To big and slow for a start! You need a JADE!


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Better yet...feed em to the owls and hawks


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Perfect Brian!


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

On a call said:


> Now those are some large rats. They have been feeding well for some time. Rat fur gloves.


Run down by the river when the corn and bean trucks are off loading in the fall Brian, about 10:30 or so after traffic dies off and watch the curb. You'll see rats.... big f'n rats.
just a couple will make good hat material if you can talk Skip into it.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

So do any of you hunt rats with terriers in the states?


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

I've never heard of anyone actually doing it, but I haven't been involved with any terrior groups.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

I have a terrier book that has a bit on hunting woodchuck's in New Jersey with terriers.


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

I crossed paths with an old boy, three or four years ago that said he had taught his Jack Russell terrier to chase down quail that he had shot. I never witnessed it, but we were both hunting the same ranch and he had the dog with him.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

I've taken Jade beating and picking up before when Sika was still with me and she will flush game, find shot birds but is not interested in anything when its dead. You wouldn't want to eat anything once its been JADED!


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

Mattuk said:


> You'd let a soft mouthed gundog kill something!?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 My dogs kill mice in the horse barn all the time. They all actually just crush them with their big paws. I only let them on command. Never had an issue with them killing or tearing up birds. That's a sharp looking terrier you have there Matt.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Thank you Tom. She's 13 now and a miserable little sod sometimes! She's to big in the chest and leg for fox work underground but boy was she quick above ground on rats and rabbits. If I let her she'd make a mess of a fox!


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Mattuk said:


> I've taken Jade beating and picking up before when Sika was still with me and she will flush game, find shot birds but is not interested in anything when its dead. You wouldn't want to eat anything once its been JADED!


Yes she is a good looking dog...I have always liked the tight bodies of some terriers, little mussle packages. Crunch crunch shake shake and one more shake for good measure. Yeah I have seen dogs that were not interested in dead game. Just kinda look at it and say...hey its dead I cannot kill it. They really love the chase and catch.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Thanks Brian. I've watched dozens of terriers stand over a dead fox or rat and carry on trying to kill it, Jade will just sniff it and then walk on by. 'my work is done here!'


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Exactly...no sense in beating an empty bush. Tends to tell you how smart or stuborn a dog is.

I used to hunt rabbits with friends who had beagles. I really hated it when I would shoot a rabbit and the beagle would grab it and I had to fight it for the rabbit...then others were like Jade..look at the rabbit and go on to find another.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Oh I also trained her like a gundog so my word is final! I can call her off if she's chasing a rabbit.


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Well training a dog takes time...and time and time...and then more time. I learned twice a day for short segments worked the best...but I do not have that time anymore. Maybe when I retire.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

To train a gundog I would say takes a good 2 years, a terrier every day of its life!


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Really..wow.

well my hat is off to you Matt.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Terriers test you all the time they like to think they are bigger and harder than you are!


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

I've heard they can be rather a handful, but are very smart, usually.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

They just test you! I say come here, jade would look back and almost say make me!














They mellow with age or maybe I have!?


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

I'll bet it's you. Jade just throws you a bone more often now. LOL


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

It could well be.


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

Yea, she probably feels sorry for ya since you're getting on and all..... LOL just kidding Matt


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Tom my dear boy you can always take the piss just don't cry when it comes back!


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## bones44 (Jan 7, 2011)

I got my big boy pants on I can take it .....


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

I know you can! Tom what small rodents do you have to hunt, ground hog, wood chuck, squirrel?


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## HowlinRed (Feb 3, 2011)

I have never seen anything like that in my life. It was throughly entertaining. Some guys around here use terriers to hunt squirrel.


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

Get yourself a terrier HR they are mans best friend!


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## HowlinRed (Feb 3, 2011)

Were those dogs trained on rats or does it come natural.


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

I am guessing it comes natural ! They just love to do what they are bred to do. Pointers point, flushers flush, retreavers retreave, hound trail and terriers attact ! I have seen them in action. They are sort of have A.D.D. .


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Mattuk said:


> I know you can! Tom what small rodents do you have to hunt, ground hog, wood chuck, squirrel?


FYI....ground hogs and wood chucks are one in the same.


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Land beavers!!


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

That is right Don. Mom and dad have fruit trees in thier yard. They also have a visitor a family of wood chucks. The mom is huge I am guessing weighing in at about 20 pounds. But she still manages to climb the trees to get her fresh apples if there are not enough on the ground for her.

I remember the first time I saw one in a tree...thought I saw a climbing beaver !


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

HowlinRed said:


> Were those dogs trained on rats or does it come natural.


Natural born killers HR. The training is just basic come, stay, sit and let go getting them to kill quickly and to drop the rat so they are then ready for the next one. Hate seeing a dog still shaking a dead rat as other rats run by it!


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## Mattuk (Oct 16, 2010)

On a call said:


> FYI....ground hogs and wood chucks are one in the same.


Thanks Brian. I guess from state to state they get called different names!


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Yes I guess, I hear people everywhere calling them by either name...I will often ask them the differance and I hear lots of differant answers. Like ...wood chucks eat wood and ground hogs live underground.


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Thought you might enjoy this....


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## Antlerz22 (Apr 18, 2011)

On a call said:


> FYI....ground hogs and wood chucks are one in the same.


 No, wood chucks -chuck wood like in the geico commercial, and ground hogs root the ground. Are you trying to confuse everyone?


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## Antlerz22 (Apr 18, 2011)

..........


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

Wood chucks are good eating while ground hogs taste like dirt.


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## Antlerz22 (Apr 18, 2011)

On a call said:


> Wood chucks are good eating while ground hogs taste like dirt.


 Exactly! Connoisseurs know this-but just have an ample supply of tooth picks.


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## On a call (Mar 3, 2010)

We use tooth picks for bait.


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