Anna the dog

[Joe 90]

The world record for rat killing by a dog is held by Billy, a bull-and-terrier, who killed 100 rats in 5 minutes and 30 seconds in 1825, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. This translates to an average of one rat every 3.3 seconds. Another record attributed to Billy is the killing of 4000 rats in a 17-hour period.

[Mendip]

just cut and paste them from the online edition.

Many thanks, Tax.

I was gifted a free subscription to the Telegraph by a colleague... I think he held his phone against mine and scanned a QR code or something like that, and I'm not sure how to transfer that subscription to my laptop. I only read the Telegraph on my phone and I hate copying and pasting using a phone as it always seems to go wrong. I'll have to look into it.

The terrier that can kill 300 rats in a single hunt.

The plummer terriers used by Severn Valley Ratters are a favoured breed of rat-catchers due to their rugged determination and hardiness. They were first bred in the 1960s and 1970s by school teacher Brian Plummer who tried to create the perfect ratting dog by mixing a Jack Russell terrier with the beagle, fell terrier, and bull terrier. The result was an exceptionally intelligent breed with a sharp sense of smell, powerful jaw muscles and a narrow chest to manoeuvre into tight spaces. With a high prey drive, a pack of plummer terriers have been known to kill up to 300 rats in a single hunt. Some also hunt foxes and rabbits. The dog is not always recommended as a household pet as they require firm handling and lots of exercise and are not recognised as a pedigree breed by the Kennel Club because of generations of selective breeding.

THE TELEGRAPH

Anyway, this Brian Plummer who created the plummer terriers has also written a few good books. I can recommend all of these as good reads, full of anecdotes.



I often think that Yogi could have made a good ratter, with adequate training. He's quite intelligent and absolutely fearless, but without training he would be hard to handle once his blood was up.


Anyway, four weeks old today!