T Testimonials
Craig and Campbell Fladgate
Keith Gregory
Michael Nickerson
Craig and Campbell Fladgate from Nelson
M Nickerson of Southland shares his experience
‘Noisy
Dogs!’
In October last year I was starting to get a bit
desperate about the pig hunting, or lack of it. I had 3 young dogs at the
time and had recently moved to Southland from the
So
after spending some time perusing the internet I came across Bill Westwood’s
site, and decided he was a man I needed to talk to! And by the time I’d hung
up the phone after talking to the man behind Mainland Boar Hunting, I was on
the way to spending a couple of days over the Christmas period with one of
the most experienced and knowledgeable pig hunters I’ve come across. This
was to be one of my better decisions in my pig hunting career!
Finally the time came for me to get to Bill’s place, and after introductions
was taken down the road to Bill’s future pig dog training facility, (looks
to be bloody promising by the time its finished!!), and also a couple of
‘quiet ones’ while I tried to suck in as much information on everything to
do with pig hunting that my tiny brain could handle! Once this brainstorming
session was over it was back to Bill’s place to see what my hounds were
going to do with Mr Pig…
Apart from the pup I had, the rest of the pack consisted of a 3 year heading
dog type bitch and 2 of her pups who’re about 2 years old, with the pups
father being half mastiff, albeit still on the small side considering. With
the pups one had the bitch’s traits; a little shy on the bite, but the other
one had grabbed the first pig he had seen (80lb sow) and hadn’t looked back
since. The main concern with these dogs at the time was that none of these
dogs had come across anything of size, and I was I bit unsure what would
happen when they did come across something that was much bigger and
stauncher then they are, one more reason to see what would happen on Mr Pig
in a semi-controlled situation where you could watch what they were doing.
First the bitch when in, and after some encouragement, was barking happily
away at the pig, but wasn’t really putting any pressure on him and he was
still moving about a fair bit, but it was a start. Then the first of her
pups was sent in, initially he was more interested in pissing around the
place, typical of him and a bit embarrassing when there’s a bloody big boar
not far away!! So Bill let Cloud out to encourage him a bit, which got him
barking, but again not putting any pressure on Mr Pig and doing as much
barking at Cloud as at the pig! I think it’s important at this stage to
point out the effort Bill has put into training not only his dogs but also
Mr Pig, there were dozens of opportunities for my dog to get wasted by
bouncing around in front of this big boar and not paying attention to him,
due to a lack of respect amongst other things, but Mr Pig seemed to ignore
him and concentrate on Cloud more professional bailing!! So finally the
third dog was put in, the one that grabs pigs ASAP, as per the other hounds
he initially ignored Mr Pig so Bill let wee Breeze out. What happened next
was one of the reasons I wanted to see Bill, due to my dog not having come
across a pig he couldn’t handle by himself as soon as he saw that Breeze was
‘allowed’ to have a go at this really big pig he flew straight in and
grabbed a hold.
That’s when things went wrong for my boy Flip. I wasn’t in the right
position to see exactly what happened but there was a grunt and slight yelp
then Flip came wobbling back to me after loosing, badly, his first scrap
with a pig. Again it’s important to point out that in the wild this boar
would have possibly continued to do the deed on my dog, but Bill straight
away called Mr Pig off, put Breeze away and after a quick check of the wound
was on the phone to the vet and we were away. I have no doubt in my mind
that this exact situation was going to happen sooner rather than later in
the bush, and if that was the case my dog would not have been coming home
that day.
I
realise it is still going to be a lot of work turning a hard holder into a
bailing dog, but if anyone can help me to do this, it’s going to be Bill.
The
next day was an early start, and of to the hills for hunt. For this we took
my 2 able bodied dogs and Cloud. Having done most of my hunting with holding
type dogs and country with moderate pig numbers at best, this was going to
be real eye opener of a day!! Once we had crossed the paddock to the block
we were going to be hunting Cloud was gone, my dogs were still hanging
around casually sniffing, pissing and shitting as they do, not really in
hunting mode yet… within five minutes Cloud had his first pig bailed my dogs
took off to it and ran straight into all the small pigs that Cloud had
ignored! Bugger! So the pig Cloud had bailed broke, probably because he came
off to see what the noise was about, and my dogs had killed their first pig
for the day, not ideal being a small one.
So
after calling my dogs back and carrying on after about 10 minutes this time
Cloud had another one bailed! So my dogs take off then come back because
they can’t here him once they got in the bush, then the dog goes back in and
the bitch runs up the road before going in. the dog, Patch, again grabs
another little pig, kills it then carries on, the bitch ‘Spice’ gets to the
bail in time to give voice before Patch gets there and goes for a hold, pig
breaks, chase bail, chase bail, pig gone! Bugger, again! This happens a
couple more times with pigs running in front of us, behind us, almost
through us, my dog patch killing another couple of young ones, Basically
Cloud (18 months old), spending a couple of hours making a fool out of my
dogs!! The thing was, each time Cloud had pig bailed if spice got there
first she would bail as well but with patch, possibly due to the breeding
(?) with the first couple of pigs he tried to grab straight away, then the
next one there was a couple of barks the one after that more barking then
catching it a couple more times with barking, then there was one with a
proper bail going for a few minutes with all 3 dogs before they lost it.
Finally, after getting Spice back we heard what we thought was a pig about
20 down the hill from us amongst the thick stuff, so I sent her in a couple
of times and each time she came back, so when Patch came back I tried
again-same result. So we waited for Cloud, who came straight up to us from
the bottom of the hill then started bailing right below us! Guessing he had
trailed the pig up the hill, so my dogs thrashed their way to the bail and
joined in, then for whatever reason the pig broke with the dogs giving chase
all the way to the bottom, naturally, then as they get further away we heard
the second pig that was in the same spot sneak away, cunning bugger! So
after smashing our way down to the creek bed all 3 dogs were still bailing
in the same spot, they would have been there for at least 15 minutes too!,
so it seems by this stage that my 2 dogs were slowly but surely progressing
towards becoming bailing dogs! In no small thanks to Cloud the machine…
We
decided to take this pig (82lb) as I was hanging out for some pork and I was
really stoked for the dogs and thought they would appreciate having break
from trying to keep up with Cloud!! Later that day, Bill processed the pig
for me. Over the years I have cut up a number of pigs and quite a few deer
and didn’t consider myself to be a slouch with knife, but, as with the dogs,
I was shit compared to what Bill showed me that day. The speed, proficiency
and the final product were miles better than anything I’ve produced over the
years!!
So
after that little escapade I’ve realised how much both my dogs and myself
have got to learn, and that Bill certainly knows his stuff and is keen to
teach anyone willing to listen, and I have just booked myself for a 5 day
session with Bill, this time without the run to the vets! I couldn’t
recommend Bill strongly enough to anyone wanting to either train their dogs
from scratch or just to give their dogs a ‘touch up’, Also I have his first
couple of DVD’s and even watching these has been a great help and well worth
getting hold of!
Cheers,
Michael Nickerson
Southland
Photos:
Left: Holding a 82lb sow
Right: With a 130lb boar that
we caught
