This was Ben’s first visit, he had driven over from the west coast with two of his dogs. About a week before Ben was due to arrive he gave me a call to say that his young Bitch Misty that he wanted to train was just showing signs of coming on heat. All of my dogs are males so this could have been a problem but because he had let me know early enough I arranged with my Son Bryce to burrow has bitch Dusky for a couple of days.
The last time that I had Dusky up home she performed very well so I was not expecting anything different. Bryce did say to me that on his last few hunts he thought that Dusky was targeting the smaller pigs. On our first run in the small block we put the dogs onto Mr Pig and it took them a wee bit to get into a bail. After this run we took the motor bike up to the top of the hill, we took with us Jeff, Snow and Ben’s dog Taeo.
As soon as Ben let Taeo out of his truck I could see the bond between man and dog. Taeo is an older collie dog that works stock. I could see a dog that idealised his master and was always waiting for Ben to give him a command that he would happily do. The other side of this was of course Ben and the way that he talked to his dog in a nice clam voice is what gets respect and makes good dogs. Being a dog trainer most of the dogs that I get to see are younger dogs that need work so it was nice to see a well-balanced dog that could think. The way that he stayed close to Ben had me wondering how well he would go off looking for a pig. Once we came back down the hill we put both Fog and Taeo into the main block and Fog was quick to take off after Boris while Taeo was just as quick and he took off after Black and White. Both of these boars love to run Boris had made it into the gully and was trying to get away from Fog but having a hard time of it while Taeo was up on the top fence line bailing the black and white boar. Both dogs focused well on their boars until we called them off.
On our second run into the main block with Dusky and Misty we got onto Boris which Dusky bailed well but misty was a wee bite standoffish. It did not help things when Digger came down to check out what all of the noise was, he also had one of the smaller boars with him.
Next morning is normally the time that most dogs want to get right into it but this time both Dusky and Misty were slow to get going. We bailed Mr Pig first and then next took them into the main block and let them run around after the small pigs. Putting a dog onto a smaller pig is not something that I am a fan of but I have been watching these young pigs grow and they are quite cocky little buggers because I have not let a dog bark at them before they think that they can take on a dog.
Because they had safety in numbers the pigs would try and charge the dogs. This looked quite comical especially when my smallest pig Snuffles charged out and sent the dogs running backwards. Any time training dogs on pigs it is about getting the balance right if you have too much dog pressure the dog will try and grab the pig if you have too little pressure the pig will get away. My small pigs would be weighing up to 50 pounds now so in the right situation with a softer dog wearing a muzzle the small pigs can help to build a young dogs confidence. Once the dog starts showing that confidence then I make sure that the dogs go back onto a good boar.