IF YOU think of lurcher dogs at all, you may, like most of us, have a mental picture of a small slinking creature, perhaps a cross between a whippet and an Irish terrier, and associated solely with poaching. But the lurcher has come up in the world in the past few decades.
A book recently issued shows on the cover the head of a fine hefty, yet elegant dog. And the author tells us that breeding lurchers is now, in England, a quite above board occupation. Dammit, they even hold lurcher shows. And there is a photograph of men, jackets off, reclining in a field or park, their huge shaggy dogs beside them, while a few yards away another batch of the dogs is being paraded for judging. The dogs seem to be, one and all, big, hairy, perhaps like a smaller version of the Irish Wolfhound.
rank hear down, the author, tells us that, in England, the lurcher probably emerged when the Saxon peasants needed all their native cunning to survive the oppression of their Norman rulers.
Startlingly, he goes on to say that even between the two World Wars, i.e. from 1918 to 1939, game still belonged to the wealthy landowners, and cases were far from rare of farm tenants receiving their marching orders for owning a running dog i.e. a lurcher.
The author defines a lurcher as "a crossbred between any longdog and a breed other than a longdog - the expression longdog including the purebred Greyhound, Whippet, Deerhound, Wolfhound, Borzoi, Saluki, Afghan hound or any cross between these breeds".
When Meath farmers put up signs such as "No hunting dogs", or Hunting dogs may be shot", they have in mind just such large animals. Are any lurcher shows held in Ireland? Must ask a friend up in Antrim who is well up in all dogs, including lurcher lore. He even paints them, as well as the normal, respectable dogs, of course.
The book is The Lurcher; Training and Hunting by Frank Sheardown (Swan Hill Press). About £22 here.