Ask nicely, and I'll consider it!

Slender, athletic... and complex! Lurchers make great hunting dogs and loyal companions, but approach training as you would a gundog and you won’t get far, says Jackie Drakeford

- Jackie Drakeford

Each month, Sporting Shooter’s regular gundog training columns show just how far training has progressed since the old ‘kick and stick’ days which caused so much ‘wastage’. More enlightened methods may take a little longer, but they do bring the best out of each dog, whether it is hard-going or underconfident.

What about the lurcher, though? Often thought to be simply a point-and-fire type, they are extremely trainable using modern ways, though if ever there was a dog that epitomised the horse training phrase of ‘leave your ego at the gate’, it’s the lurcher!

Whereas most retrievers are willing to learn how to be ‘practically perfect in every way’, a small amount of subversion must be accepted from the lurcher. They have no inbuilt desire to please or stay with you, and don’t give a rat’s bum for praise. As hounds, their job is to work away from you and solve their own problems, unlike herding and retrieving breeds which are programmed to take direction outbound and then work back towards you.

I’m not saying that gundogs are easy or don’t present training hiccups, but they are a different kind of difficult. Many lurchers have herding types put into the breeding to make them more biddable, but sighthound blood can override this, and pure sighthound crosses need a lot of convincing that it’s worth their while to do what they have been asked.

Understanding the lurcher mindset