grehound

A rabbiter's pack, Darling district

from Powerhouse Museum

• Viewoftheworld said:

  Interesting collection of dogs. Is there any information on breeds in the photo?

• Wheelistically said:

  @Viewoftheworld: IMHO, it looks to me like five Greyhounds and five terriers (Possibly Jack Russells although I'll appreciate any further insight on this). 'Hounds would be good for the chase (and strangle/shake their prey as opposed to mauling it, which is of benefit to the "Rabbiter") - no doubt the terriers would be used for digging their way into the mouths of warrens, should the rabbits try to escape underground.

• Alyssa Croucher said:

  @ Wheelistically - I definately agree the terriers would have been used to dig into the warrens but I thought I'd just add that when my dad was young (which I should mention was not really that long ago, late 60's - 70's) he would go 'rabbiting' with ferrets (i.e. stick them down one hole to chase the rabbits out the other end into a wheat bag). I wonder if these rabbiters would do that too? Or if that was the job of the terriers back then?