Terriers going down holes... Freaking me out!

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Alfie disapeared in the woods today, we called and called him, no sign, then we spotted a fox looking at us, We went up to where the fox was and there was a masive den (is that the word??), there must have been 20/30 holes. I figured he must he in one of them. OH shouted him for ages (down the holes
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) and just as we were starting to panic his little head popped up out of one of them *phew*, he was totally filthly!!

It really freaked us out!!! I mean I guess some Terrier do get stuck and never come out?? Or do they always get out?


Also, OH said "Do you think the foxes might have got him??" Which I thought was quite funny, but I guess that can happen??

Another walk off the list.
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Not sure - but the farmer/YO terrriers here are always going off down holes - mainly badgers though. They disappear for hours and then come back filthy - have heard them and or the badgers growling in a sett before but you can't do anything about it or stop them. I guess if they get stuck they have to do a Winnie the Pooh and wait until they loose a bit of weight/dehydrate enough to wriggle free and I would imagine if they get in a fight with a badger or fox they might possibly come off worse depending on age,size etc.
 
Hmm, well Alfie is pretty small but I reckon he could take a fox.. maybe not a badger!! Little sod. I think he quite enjoyed himself though.
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Thats the trouble they do!! Its you that has the heart attack and the worry while they are missing!! The terriers here literally go missing for hours - sod off at sometime in the day and re appear when everyone has gone to bed - and who knows where they have been in the meantime! Still its what they were bred for.....
 
I'm so extremely lucky that none of mine (touch every bit of wood in sight!!) have never ever shown any interest in darting off down holes! That said my friend has one I bred and she buggered off down a badger set the other day, she just popped back out of her own accord.

The only thing that worries me is if the occupent of said hole is "home" that something nasty will happen, I've also heard the can't always turn round to get back and suffocate. There's also the risk of the hole collapsing.

Unfortunatley short of keeing them on the lead all the time, which I don't agree with, there's nothing really you can do about it, unless you can grow "go go gadget" arms and legs to get the dog before it disappears LMAO
 
One of ours did this the other week, but down a rabbit hole!!
She is the smaller of our Patterdales and she came back 4 hours later looking rather pleased with herself and filthy with scratches all down her belly where she had obviously been in quite a tight hole!!

Unfortunately there isn't a lot you can do other than try to keep them away from the areas where the holes are.
A terrier would probably have a good chance against a fox although may be a little maimed by it, but a badger would kill a single terrier easily, they are a lot more aggressive when cornered than foxes!!

All ours are microchipped and we do usually make sure we walk them with collars and tag but that in itself can be a bad thing too as they can get caught by their collar when they are down a hole, so with Bear we now tend to walk her without a collar, but then we are only walking on our own land.... and if they stray off that our neighbours always bring any wandering dogs back to us as they assume they are ours.... we have 9 so I guess its a good guess!!
 
Blummin heck 9 dogs!!! I have my hands full with 2!
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I think we'll just avoid that area or put him on a lead when we get near. It's a worry at my mums house because there are a lot of holes really near to her house where he can go down, A couple of terriers went missing near mums house when I was a kid but they did get them out.. with Terrier Rescue and the Fire Brigade!!!
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As above, I would be more concerned re a badger attack, esp as alf is so tiny, I doubt a fox could do him any harm, u will have to try and avoid the areas, maybe stick to walking round your own back yard
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LOL, I'm sure they would be very impressed with that!!!
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He manages to get up to some kind of mischeif where ever we go!
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Funny because in the house you'd think that butter wouldn't melt.
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It did look more like a Badger set TBH but because we saw the fox we thought it was a foxy home.
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I don't want to Badgers to get him!!
 
The expensive option would be a locator collar!

A lot of the working terriermen use them on their dogs that way they know where they are to dig them and the fox out!!
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But obviously thats no legal anymore so it doesn't happen...
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QR - Yes terrier can/do get stuck down holes, especially if they wear a collar as it can get caught on tree roots etc... A friend and the local fire brigade spent most of Boxing Day digging round a rabbit warren trying to locate her Westie (she was found 2 days later, hungry, dehydrated and filthy).

Foxes will defend their den especially if they have cubs. Badgers are even more vicious than foxes.

My JRT won't go down holes as I taught him not too, trouble is he won't do tunnels in agility now either!!!
 
Tinker dog is always done holes.
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She did once get stuck, left her a day then had to dig the bugger out
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And she did have a fight with a fox or something once as she cam out very mangled and bloody
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My friends patterdale developed a taste for going down rabbit holes and sadly she never got him back the last time which was a month ago. First time he was stuck for 5 days and 5 nights, was alive and a little thin when they located the hole we was down. Second time he was gone for just a day and again they had to dig him out. The third and final time was a month ago, she was up feeding the swans, seen him chasing after a rabbit then he disappeared. She spent 3 weeks looking for him day and night. Had diggers up, thermal heat sensers, underground cameras and an army of helpers but she never got him. She is distraught as he was like a baby. I would never own a small dog for this reason, couldn't bear it.

Terriers and holes is a distaster waiting to happen in my experience.
 
The farm where I go help on a regular basis, the farmers wife breeds JRT. 4 of the 5 are great, but the JRTxBorder terrier is a nightmare, they go for walks up the fields with the wife, happy as larry, if Jackie sees a rabbit or anything, or even just a hole, she is gone!

She also has gone missing for more than 5 days at a time! they have had about 4 occassions of digging her out with a digger cause she was too deep for a spade! but then the concern is what if you hit the dog with the digger?!

she eventually comes home, but there are alot of foxes and badgers around that area, so if she did get a "bad hole" go knows what would happen!!!

Shame as she is such a sweet dog in the house (unless you winde her up!)
 
I have two friends who have recently lost their JRT down fox holes in the woods.
My JRT has rather long legs so I think he may find it difficult to get in the hole. However I found him up the last 2 inches of his long tail in rabbit warrens in the salt flats( soft sandy soil with shallow burrows), but he just reverses out. He seems scared to go in to far and prefers to sit and bark at the hole. Its a worry though.
There was an article in H&H some years ago about JRT saying that most of them came to a sticky end, I think they are a bit accident prone in this way.
Getting run over or lost down a fox hole is fairly common!
 
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