What is my lurcher ???

[Dominika]

A picture of his teeth as well as one where he's a bit bonier.

And YAY! Boyfriend just bought me a book about lurchers by Jackie Drakeford. Know her?

[Nettle]

Hmmm lovely teeth!

Is the book The House Lurcher? You should find it very helpful if so.

[Dominika]

Hmmm lovely teeth!

Is the book The House Lurcher? You should find it very helpful if so.

It is that indeed, I'm looking forward to reading it! An obvious obsession is starting since Fly's my first lurcher

[Lauram]

Be very careful with lurchers!!!!! They are highly addictive and likely to mulitply

Yours is lovely, I'm sure you will have lots of fun

[Wicket]

Is it lurcher British for stray or rescue? Forgive me, I've seen this term around here a lot, but I'm not sure what it means.

Dominika, your dog is gorgeous (not matter what kind of dog he is)!

[Lauram]

Hi wicket. A lurcher is a type not a specific breed. It can be defined as a sighthound (Greyhound, whippet, deerhound saluki etc) crossed with any other breed of dog. Generally working types like the Collie were preferred. If two sight hound breeds are mixed then technically the result is called a 'longdog' but they are pretty much lumped together.

They come in all shapes and sizes from pocket rockets resulting from whippet based crosses with something like a bedlington, to great hairy monsters (my favourites) when a deerhound is used.

[Nettle]

To go on from LauraM - these dogs are bred deliberately and very carefully even though they are mixed breeds. Some of them have "pedigrees" reaching back for decades.

They are working dogs bred for catching game (filling the larder for poor people) and pest control. They are great predators, but when not predating, they bring a whole new take to the term "chilled out". These dogs know how to relax! A friend of mine who has 10 says "they are either flat out or flat out". (in case that term doesn't cross the pond, she means running as fast as possible or lying down fast asleep)

They are wonderful, and highly addictive

[wvvdiup1]

I've heard the term "lurcher" used around here (in the US, specifically Pennsylvania) referring to dogs (usually hunting/working/herding dogs but not to specific breeds) and I've heard the term "lurcher" referred to people who just hangs around certain places or people. Of course, a slight variation in the term "lurch" or "lurching." Good to know what our British friends mean by "lurcher!" Thanks for clearing the definition of the term "lurcher"!

[Leigha]

I googled it the first time I saw it on the forum. I had no clue what it was 'til then. Never heard it before either.

[Dominika]

I am from Slovakia and I had never heard of lurchers until I came to the UK or shall I say until I started looking around for a dog to adopt. My boyfriend who is English didn't quite realise what a lurcher was until we looked it up on the internet. He thought lurchers were big thin fluffy-type dogs like deerhounds Even his dad who used to hunt rabbits and hares with his dogs didn't know lurcher was a 'crossbreed'. He thought it was a complete purebred like other pedigrees and he even used to have a saluki cross => lurcher. Later on he also kept one dog from her litter so he had two lurchers withouth 'knowing'

I'm starting to think (while reading The House Lurcher) that I'm not gonna leave it at just one.....Although I do want to have a Malamute again one day as well (They are very wise, too. And keen hunters ).

Nettle, I was reading the colour descriptions in the boook and she talks about all kinds as well as white with red ears but she doesn't mention anything like Fly. Which is white with red, but a red mark instead of red ears. Do you have any idea where the colour could come from or is it just a colour variation that occurs in greyhounds or whippets?

So far I should assume that Fly would be greyhound/border colie/whippet/saluki + God knows what else. Greyhound because of his fairly hight knuckles.
He has long legs, the long-ish ears and a bit of a fluffy tail. There is definitely a shepherd dog in him, because he does that - lie down and watching thing that they do. Although I didn't realize at first because I wouldn't think that he could've been crossed with a colie at some point. I just thought he was lazy (which he is, sometimes...but he lies on his side then )

[Nettle]

The proper term for his colour is "pied" which is predominantly white with any other colour It comes from greyhound or whippet.

[emmabeth]

I am going to retract my 'bull & terrier' influence guess now having seen further photos. That face says there is some saluki in there and I think hes probably not quite as old as you think and/or has more growing to do (sometimes when bad things happen to young dogs their growth pauses and then when they are happy and well fed again they will have a big growth spurt), so over the next few to 12 months you should see him become more angular and 'dryer' in shape rather than the slightly 'soft' puppyish shape he is now.

So im going with a mix of whippet, saluki, greyhound and collie, and his colouring could dcome from any of those except the saluki, as the three others all carry the genes for 'pied' and of course all four breeds there carry the gene for a red coloured dog. (White isnt a colour... white is a LACK of colour, so if your dog didnt have the pied gene, he would be red all over as the pied gene creates patches without colour, though it wont determine WHERE thsoe patches are very precisely).

[Dominika]

So im going with a mix of whippet, saluki, greyhound and collie, and his colouring could dcome from any of those except the saluki, as the three others all carry the genes for 'pied' and of course all four breeds there carry the gene for a red coloured dog. (White isnt a colour... white is a LACK of colour, so if your dog didnt have the pied gene, he would be red all over as the pied gene creates patches without colour, though it wont determine WHERE thsoe patches are very precisely).

Oooooooooh, I seeee. I didn't know that about the colour/lack of colour But I love the fact that he's lacking the colour . So beautifully white
He is getting skinnier....I've been doubting my feeding regime and quantity, but I'm calming myself down hoping it's the saluki in him and that I'm not starving him I would also like if he got bigger. I like tall dogs

[Linfrench]

He looks lovely, who cares what he's made of, he's yours.
His tail is almost the same as my lurcher's, curled round with a few feathers. We believe that that comes from his Saluki blood. Who knows ?
With Long Dogs/Sight Hounds, unless you breed them yourself, it's very difficult to know what their mix is.

[laceygraves1995]

i would say he looks like a whippit which is a type of grey hound but he has odd coloring for a whippit so he has to be part something else, possibly beagle, jack russel terrior, im not sure, but if you have money you should buy a blood testing kit that shows what breed he is, by the way he is a beautiful dog