by
Pam Simmons
First and foremost, Russells are terriers through and through. They
will dig your flower beds and garden for worms, moles and crickets. They can
dig or climb out of a fenced enclosure to chase a squirrel or bird. Keeping
a Terrier such as this cooped up day after day usually results in behavior
abnormalities such as digging up your carpets or eating furniture or base
boards. They need a good bit of supervision and plenty of daily exercise.
On a beautiful day last November, one of the few when my regular hunting buddy was available mid-week and my Welsh huntsman friend was in for a visit. We met for a couple of hours to walk the set of railroad tracks adjacent to my farm. We took Suzie, Sid and Grip, the lurcher along.
Both terriers were hunting fairly well to ground hog but I wanted to put them to raccoon or scare up a fox if I could. We were less than half a mile from the house when the call went out….."Look a fox !!! " We all got a good look at a beautiful large red fox bolting across a hay field. Spirits ran high as it was a perfect day for sport and the dogs were in good form.
We strolled down to were we had spotted the fox clearing the brush in anticipation of finding an earth with his signature on it. Some few yards before we got there, Suzie became agitated, hot on the track of something. She soon located and entered an opening belonging to a very nice 3 hole earthen den.
Before she disappeared she began baying and eased her way beyond the turn about 2' in and was gone. Sid was tied up to watch and the other 2 open holes were located, brush was cleared all in preparation for the dig. While this was going on, Suzie was moving through the tubes baying all the while. I got out the locator box and was trying to locate her position in the tube. I followed the basic directions indicated by the visible holes but couldn't get a reading. We covered an area of about 20', but still no reading on the box.
At this point, my buddies, being men, were taunting me about …checking my collars properly, were my batteries good, all the time laughing and poking fun. Suzie was having a great time underground..
We thought we might have a signal indicated but it was on the other side of the fence and some distance away. Another hole was spied, so over the fence went JC, my American buddy, quickly followed by, Richard, the Welshman. Suzie was promptly located in a blind (dead end) tunnel off the entrance tunnel about 3' down. She had settled and was working nicely. The dig was easy, the soil loose and moist with the recent rainfall. The dig was classic, we broke through between the dog and quarry and carefully cleaned out the hole, while Suzie contained the game. All the while we were clueless as to what she was on. It was a classic groundhog earth but the quarry did not exhibit classic hog behavior.
Soon it became evident it was a nice sized raccoon. We enlarged and cleaned out the hole preparing to school Sid, as he had not seen coon. That chore done, we removed Suzie and entered Sid to have a go.
After his session, we removed Sid, snared the coon and released him in the brush several feet away. Instantly Suzie, slipping her lead, was back in the hole baying her fool head off. We captured and released the second coon and while we had our backs turned, Grip my lurcher nearly up-ended me lunging for the hole, I managed to keep hold of him and right myself, while a third coon ambled carefully up the side of the dig and then made a dash for the fence. It isn't often that you get a "triple dip" of any kind. We cleaned up the sight and called it a day, as the storm clouds had moved in.
It was a great day…good friends, great weather, 3 dogs introduced to new quarry and a story to tell. Happy Hunting!!!
Writer's Note* My hunting experience goes back some 20 years or more. I have hunted in Great
Britain, Wales, Canada and most of the US. My partners and mentors have been the English huntsmen such as Eddie
Chapman, Greg Mousley and David Jones. My American mentors include JC and Kenny Chambers as well as Charlie Sauter.
https://www.thedogplace.org/Breeds/Russell-Terrier/Hunting_Simmons-126.asp
