“That’s not a lurcher!” So say the lurcher police…
Everyone thinks a lurcher is a deerhoundy type of dog. But lurchers are a varied bunch, as you’d expect given they are sighthounds crossed with sheepdogs or terriers. We went looking for a lurcher as we thought the type would suit us. And Jake was in Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home with “lurcher type” on the door to his pen. He was very whippety at that stage – a skinny 18 kilos. He’s now about 21.5 kg, and a bit older and broader.
We know Jake is on the outer reaches of lurcherdom. There’s no denying that the older he gets, the less lurchery he looks. He’s filled out, and has a very collie/terrier head (depending on whether you talk to a terrier or a collie owner). But he still behaves like a sighthound – the way he sprints, that zig-zag coursing action when he’s in full flight, the way only greyhounds can outrun him. That love of sofas. A friend who grew up with whippets (in the family, I’m not talking Romulus and Remus) always sees the sighthound in Jake.
A lurcherman I met in the Meadows with his “classic lurcher” sucked his teeth a little when I said the Dogs Home had Jake pegged as a lurcher. Then pronounced Jake might be a collie-Jack Russell-whippet cross. Sounds good to me.
And aren’t all lurchers mongrels, strictly speaking?
This is such an interesting dog type. We don’t have the concept of “lurcher” in the US, at least not that I have ever heard. In Florida, though, we have a huge population of rescued greyhounds – the dog tracks here do lots of business wagering. Do they still race greyhounds in Britain?
Yes, greyhound racing is still big business in the UK. Lots of dogs are bred (many say farmed) in Ireland for racing on the British mainland. JK Rowling (who lives in Edinburgh) adopted an ex-racing greyhound from a local greyhound rescue. They only realised who she was when she wrote the cheque … follow the Harry Potter link.
He looks like a lurcher so if thats what you want to call him then who is anyone to say otherwiseDepends what mood I am in when people ask what ‘breed’ my two arebut really all dogs have some mutt in there – and wolf too