Plummer suggested adding more greyhound to the golden retriever/greyhound lurcher to make it fast enough for hares.
The following text come from Rogues and Running Dogs (1997):
This is a very different account than Plummer’s denunciation of the golden retriever as the “sycophant” of dogs in his Merle: The Start of a Dynasty (2000).
As I noted in my post on the golden lurcher, I felt that it would have been a very good dog to have.
Some greyhounds have actual retrieving instinct, and if one of these greyhounds happened to be used in the cross, these would be good “allaround [sic] dogs.”
I don’t know why he went so far out of his way to attack golden retriever lurchers in Merle, but he seems very appreciative of them here.
But as I have noticed, the more one writes, the more one tends to experience that most human of characteristics– contradiction.
Still, I wish he had used better terms for the friendly and biddable nature of the golden retriever.
Brian Plummer’s books are considered by many, if not most, lurcher people to be simply entertaining rather than truly informative. Many people consider him something of a nut and many of his personal theories on lurchers to be controversial. Personally I have read everything he is written but I still think most of what he says should be taken with a large grain of salt.
The contradictions alone are enough to make one scratch one’s head.
Read his chapter on the merle color in the Merle Book and you’ll be scratching your head.
[…] I don’t know what kind of lurchers these are, but they might be golden retriever/greyhounds, which were once a very common sort of lurcher. […]
[…] I don’t know what kind of lurchers these are, but they might be golden retriever/greyhounds, which were once a very common sort of lurcher. […]
[…] Plummer, as you may already know, was the creator of the Plummer terrier, reconstructed coursing alaunt, and a variant of the Lucas terrier. He was a lurcher breeder, who once wrote a few paragraphs that slagged golden retriever-derived lurchers. Then he later extolled the virtues of golden retriever-derived lurchers. […]
I have a Labrador x collie/whippet and he is showing good potential in both lurcher work and gun work, he isn’t as speedy as what is now considered a proper lurcher but he is a good solid build that can multitask even in his very first steps in training (rescued him last year as an aggressive nervous wreck) he is also training to be a psychological and mobility assistance dog for myself so a real all rounder that has several jobs to keep his clever mind occupied!! If he had come with his knackers I would have loved to cross him with my real lanky (or now considered proper) lurcher bitch once she has grown up to give her pups more Bone and hardiness, yet still retaining the lighter faster breeding.
I do agree with the soft mouthed theory though, he killed his first rabbit yet not a mark was in it, but he is now retrieving live (which I’m told is the right thing to do!?) And this is starting his working training with a cripple that had NEVER even seen a lurcher work until I discovered the wonders of working lurchers a year ago when I got him!!!
I think a bit of retriever is a great thing in s lurcher, but maybe a little less than 50%!!! I also think a little grey could improve the declining health of labs too though, being a little less prone to obesity and better hip joints could make Labradors the magnificent breed they should be once again