Recently I have put a number of reels up on Facebook which have created some discussion.
One of those topics is around calling a dog or multiple dogs off a pig at the bail. I can understand how a lot of hunters think this is hard or maybe impossible.
Let’s face it pig hunting is a tuff sport, a pig hunter needs to be physically fit to keep up with their dogs and carry those animals off the hill.
People tend to like a dog that suits their personality so when their dogs catch a pig a person will learn what they see. If that dog is grabbing that pig a lot of pig hunters will think that is what happens. If a hunter was to turn up at a pig and his dogs we’re bailing a calm pig then a hunter will think that is what happens.
To think about the interaction between the pig and the dogs. How does the dog act when it first encounters a pig, this will have a very big impact on how things are going to turn out. If we put ourselves in the pigs situation and it was a dog approaching us wagging it’s tail happily we might even give it a pat and talk to the dog. But if a dog comes at you in an aggressive manner that you feel threatened your fight or flight mode will take over.
Because I train dogs I want to have good control over them. This is not done by force but by being the person they trust. I always talk to my dogs and they all understand their own names so I can work with one individual dog at a time.
To be able to call your dogs off a pig you first need your dogs to listen to you and respect your decisions.
I use the Garmin 200i inreach this has 3 buttons one is a vibrate another the electric shock which has a setting from 1 to 18 and the 3rd button is a tone. This gives me 3 options of how to train my dogs. I use the vibrate button when a dog is doing something I don’t want them to do. The electric button is for emergencies, when I try it on myself at one I hardly feel it at three I notice it and at five is enough for me. So when using the electrics on your dog always start low. I start on three if the dog doesn’t react I go up two at a time so five, seven. Each dog will react differently but most dogs once they know what the collar can do they will respond to the sound. The sound button is the one I use mostly. If I want a certain dog to walk over to me I only need to give that dog a tone and the dog will just calmly walk over to stand at my side and ill give the dog a pat in a calm manner this way the dog learns that the tone is not for punishment but a way to communicate between the two of us.
When we are out hunting and one of the dogs is about to track out of the catchment that we are in I just give the dog a tone on the collar and they return to me. This is not seen as a punishment but the boss wants me back.
I filmed a section in my training block today to show hunters that it does not need to be hard to get your dogs off a pig and don’t go and think because you have called the dog off a pig it won’t go as well. Sheep farmers call their dogs off Sheep multiple times a day and their dogs keep on working.
I had twice seen two black wild pigs in my training block that had only turned up in past couple of weeks. They looked to be around the 70 lb mark. Today Bro tracked up to the top of the block and I watched him on the GPS as he went stationary for about one minute before he gave off one calm bark which sent Bruce straight up to him while Bro settled into a nice calm bail. When Bruce arrived they would have had both pigs together but put a bit too much pressure on the bail which had a black sow break down into the gully where I caught up with them to get some footage.
When I started talking to the dogs the sow realized I was there but because I was back four meters from the dogs she knew she could not get me. The dogs bailed her there for about fifteen minutes before she made a break. She only got a short distance into the creek where the dogs had her stopped. I filmed this bail for another ten minutes before calling the dogs off.
As I was heading out Bro tracked back up the creek ninety meters to bail this sow again. This was when I made the video of calling the dogs off. Apologies for calling Bruce, Gus in the commentary.
Also some people will notice that neither of the dogs are wearing a muzzle. The muzzles are used to keep the pressure off the pig and because I was only using two, four year old dogs that I could trust not to grab a pig I could get away without a muzzle this time.