I recently got a 2 year old border terrier bitch that I have found to be an excellent rabbiter by pure accident whilst out walking the other day. Being a contry girl and growing up on a farm and knowing the ongoing battle with the overpopulation with teh rabbits and the danage they do, i am really keen to work her as she was in her element. Anyone got any suggestions where I can start to learn more about working her and training her more in this area. Also could someone tell me what bushing is?

Many thanks in advance.

Bushing, is when you send your terrier in to the bushes to flush them out.

Are you wanting to send your terrier to ground or to get her to be a bushing dog?

If you do let her to go ground, be very careful about what holes she goes down as obviously they can be fix or badger holes.
It is illegal for your terrier to work against badgers and foxes, and therefore can only be used for flushing purposes, so be aware if your terrier will fight undergorund of simply bark and flush out the quarry. If your terrier is a little fighter then do not allow her to go down fox or badger holes. If she is a flusher then i would recommend that you get yourself a terrier collar, as standing around waiting for your little un to come back up, worrying where she is is not a good deal Plus it helps you to keep and eye on if she is still in a hole that you ant her to be in.

If she is a bushing dog, and enjoys running through the hedges, then to encourage this behaviour simply put treats in to the bush and use your signal word to send her in to find the treats. Once she is in, keep walking along throwing the treats in to the bush. Im sure after time and after she flushes her first few quarry out then she will get the hang of it

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Becarful with encouraging her to go to ground as she could end up in ceratin places that could get you in a hell of a lot of trouble, like has been said you could use her to flush the rabbits out but then she would struggle to catch them , so would need somone to them them as they bolt from the cover .

I have 3 jack russell terriers who are fantastic workers. They are generally pets but take the 'ratting' and out with the lurchers. They go from pet mode to killing machine within seconds !! They also enjoy bushes/beating if out on a shoot. Perhaps you could try going to a local farm and seeing if they would let you have a go at this..

I have an excellent bushing dog, even though she is a collie. She'll go into any cover from the thickest of brambles and gorse to hedges and anything else in her path. Then it's up to the boys to catch them - Flynn has speed and agility coupled with fast reactions and Jed just likes to position himself where he thinks the rabbits will come out, in the hope one will jump into his mouth. His method does actually work sometimes!

They have slowed down with age now and Flynn has cruciate problems so isnt quite as fast or nimble as he used to be.

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