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 KNOWING AND UNDERSTANDING TERRIERS
By David Hancock

  "It's not enough to know your soldiers - you have to understand them!" That crucial piece of advice was given to me, when as a young officer in the Paras I was lucky enough to have, as my platoon sergeant, a wise experienced platoon sergeant who had won an MM at Arnhem. I learned, and relearned, the value of those few words of advice throughout the next twenty years. Much more recently I have come across enthusiasts in the world of sporting dogs who know their dogs but just don't understand them - and they don't appreciate the difference! But some older sportsmen did! Thirty or so years ago, I used to have long conversations with that fascinating old terrierman Bert Gripton. Bert could give the word 'curmudgeonly' a bad name! He was once so outrageously rude to a fellow terrier fancier that those of us present just burst out laughing. But he was still worth listening to; he was rightly famous throughout the international terrier world.

  The son of a gamekeeper, he had been a groom at Badminton, a trumpeter in the Royal Horse Artillery, a pest controller for the Ministry of Agriculture and finally worked for a footwear firm, which allowed him to keep his big van on retirement for his terrier-transport. Bert said that his terrier knowledge came from an old gypsy, a Mr Baker, terrierman to the Albrighton. Bert believed that no two terriers worked the same. He claimed that a real terrierman should be able to identify his underground quarry from the baying of his dogs, as it differs when faced with rabbit, fox or badger. He had a long connection with otter-hunting, beginning with the Hawkstone and then moving to the Border Counties. He once said that the irresponsible and boastful terrier owners do more harm than any opponent of field sports.

 How I wish I had had the chance to meet other revered terriermen: Ralph Hodgson of Durham, Lewsyn Blucher of the Bwllfa pack, Arthur Heinemann of Devon and OT Price. Ralph Hodgson began to follow the Braes of Derwent at the age of ten in 1909, purchasing his first terrier, a Sealyham/Wire-haired Fox Terrier cross in 1916. In time his unique skills at terrier rescue paved the way for some memorable terrier rescues in the Durham area. Lewsyn Blucher, as W Lewis Williams was better known, died in 1940, after a life spent hunting and fox catching by way of hound, terrier, trap, gun and snare. He was expert in the use of the 'Gist' trap. He favoured short-legged rough-coated terriers, presumably now lost to us.

 We are lucky that Fred Goss, the renowned stag harbourer, gave us his "Memoirs of a Stag Harbourer", published by Witherby in 1931 and more recently by Halsgrove. His description of tracking deer reminds me so much of how Iban trackers interpreted human tracks in the Malayan and Borneo jungles. Goss wrote: "The weight of a heavy stag coming on the ground also opens out the heel to an extent not seen in young stags. Thus the slot of a big heavy stag should be practically square. Each claw of a good warrantable stag should be at least an inch wide, but the measurement of the slot as a whole will, as previously indicated, depend to some extent on the soil in which it is planted." 

             I was lucky enough to serve in a West Country regiment in the Malayan Emergency, where infantry patrolling was described by one wit as 'rough shooting supported by artillery.' The West Country soldiers were mainly from a rural background, with admirable attributes for the jungle like patience, knowledge of fieldcraft, being used to carrying a weapon and an ability to move silently. Even the reinforcing Geordies and Tykes came from pit-villages and a background of whippet-racing, poaching and terrier-digs. I learned how to track from the Ibans, headhunters from Borneo, attached to each platoon. When you came across human tracks, the Iban tracker was asked two questions: brapa orang (how many men?) and brapa hari (how many days?) These knowledgeable men could tell you the size of the enemy party and how recently they had used this route. I learned too from an ex-deer stalker when training the battalion snipers on Dartmoor and from an elderly forstmeisster when learning to operate in coniferous woods in Germany. Old skills can of course be passed on or even relearned. But sometimes knowledgeable old countrymen can be hard to get on with.     

In the early days of Game Fairs I used to give a lift to them to a retired gamekeeper who lived nearby.  He was quite the rudest man I have ever met - but he really did understand sporting dogs. His pet hate appeared to be books on spaniel training; I had worries over whole stalls being demolished. "Nothing new said in 'undred years" he would bawl. He may well have a point. But he had a wonderful 'eye' for a dog, even puppies. He seemed to be able to spot a potential winner whilst the rest of us truly just guessed. He understood the need to match anatomical soundness with the 'look in the eye' of the dog. Knowledge without understanding is incomplete.