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Rabbiting in the Dales

Simon Whitehead takes Tawny the lurcher on a trip north for rabbiting in the Dales to watch her working alongside her sire, Dan. Ever since Tawny was born, Torchie has charted her progress closely, watching the ups and downs to maturity, and now she would finally be working the Dales. I had no distractions other than filming, leaving me to concentrate on my charge. Her fitness was good but not what I would call “Dales fit”. This contorted earth, steep inclines and descents, all exercise and build different muscles than that of a pancake racer. I had to be careful. After meeting Torchie at the weekend accommodation, we made the slow and arduous climb to the hilltops. Rabbits all stood to attention, almost saluting us with relief as we drove past. We didn’t see that last year so it was a good sign that myxomatosis hasn’t visited just yet. We pulled up alongside the fields we were to work seeing rabbits bobbing, going about their daily business as if we weren’t there. I hoped we were in for a good day. As we got ready, sheep ambled over the brow out of sight. The ferrets were frantically scratching away at the lid on their well-seasoned wooden box. Dan led the way with his nose, starting to mooch about the warrens, dropping his head to the side, inhaling the scent, giving his characteristic mark. Mesmerised by a hole holding our rabbits, Tawny soon joined him. Straight away her nose began twitching at the sheer strength of the air- and ground-borne scent. She wasn’t daunted or overawed by the occasion. She is fleet of foot on flat soil; what we didn’t know was what she would be like on the uneven ground. These warrens weren’t exactly deep or daunting, but there were so many and they were close together. We were here with two dogs; one learning her craft, the other in the twilight of his career. On a long course, the odds favoured the hunter, but over a few yards, if the dogs weren’t positioned correctly, the odds were definitely on the side of the hunted. One dog was fast, the other experienced. Experience does catch a lot of rabbits but if they gave the bunnies too much headway, they would get the upper hand. Ferreting this way is the most sporting of the rabbiting disciplines. The rabbits know intimately every nook and cranny of their home environment. Their conformation is designed to operate with a low centre of gravity. Their rear legs offer an extraordinary unpredictable change of speed and their instinct to survive ensures that sometimes their avenues of escape defy human logic. We had the canine athletes, which were driven individuals and knew exactly what, where and how the rabbits operated. What levelled the playing field was the ground, jagged and pitted with limestone. The locality of the next warren was close, ensuring that we couldn’t give the rabbits too much of a head start. If Tawny got it right, she would mop up bunnies as if they were treading water, but the question was: would she start to gas and lose energy in doing so?