Richard comes from Dunedin and has been hunting for a few years now with very good results. I had acquired my last dog ( Fog ) off Richard who is now ten months old. Richard also has a litter mate of Fog, Keith who he wanted to bring down for some extra training to see how the two dogs where progressing. Also he had another dog of similar age that he had only had for a short time. This dog Snow had only seen three pigs before coming to me. Richard had to do a days work before coming up to see me so he only arrived at eleven PM.
By the time we had had a bit of a catch up yarn and a beer it was three AM so it was not going to be an early start. Luckily the days are not to hot yet. The first two dogs we took up into the block where Keith and Fog. Both dogs where wearing a muzzle for a start but we where able to remove them within the first quarter of an
hour. Even though Keith is only ten months old he has already had a lot of experience on hunting pigs, just last week he caught a 118 pound boar for Richard in rough country. It was great to watch two dogs bail so well together without wanting to go in and try and break a pig. These two dogs had about one hour of bailing practise before we took them out for a rest and swapped them for Breeze and Snow.
By the time we came back into the block the pigs had disappeared right up to the top of the block so we had to hike all the way up there with the two dogs as neither dog was going to track off that far. As we where walking up Richard was telling me a lot about Snow and his breeding and that he had only had him for a short time. On the three pigs that he had seen so far he had done nothing on the first two but the third pig had a charge at him and he started giving a few barks.
As we got up to where the pigs where breeze started bailing and Snow slowly walked up with us as he was being very cautious at first. As we got closer the pigs decided to go somewhere else. Breeze took off after my young ginger boar and Snow went into the pine trees ands gave one bark, so we went over to where he was and there was one of the grey boars. We tried to encourage him in for another bark but the boar took off and he followed for twenty seconds before returning to us. I suggested to Richard that we head down through the couple of rows of pines and we might see the pigs breaking up the opposite face. Just as we cleared the pines Breeze opened up down below us with a good bail. When Snow got down their he was very unsure of what he was meant to do. After a couple of minutes he walked in front of one of the two grey boars that Breeze had bailed and the boar charged him. That was all of the encouragement that he needed as he started bailing. When he proved to me that he was not going to go in and try and attack the pig we took the muzzles off the two dogs and let them carry on bailing for just over an hour. The pigs did break at one point so we only ended up with the one boar at the bail but by the time we did call the dogs off Snow was having a ball and just wanted to keep bailing. It was a huge turn around in such a short time.
For our last run in the block I was confident that both of Richards dogs would be able to stop the pigs on their own so we just took Keith and Snow. Luckily for us this time the pigs where down at the bottom of the hill waiting on me to give them some extra food. As we let the two dogs in the pigs started to scatter in all directions. We could see up through the tall pines that the dogs had singled out the little piglet. We had this covered well as both dogs where wearing muzzles for this very reason and also they where wearing electric dog collars. So with a quick light zap for each dog they straight away lost interest in the piglet and took off after something bigger.
By the time we caught up with them they where one hundred meters up at the top of the pines with the big sow and the ginger boar. These two dogs really impressed me as they did not once try and go in and nip the pigs to break them as a lot of dogs do, they were quite happy to just keep them bailed where they where. In the end we called the dogs off and waited for the pigs to head away and then we targeted the ginger boar with the dog. They bailed him again down by the creek. From here we had a birds eye view if what was going on as we could sit on the opposite side of the creek and watch across. Richard wanted to see a wee bit more action so he snuck around behind the boar and poked him in the back with a stick which got him to break out. He only made about ten meters before the dogs turned him back towards Richard and up the hill a couple of meters before turning back to face the two dogs.I managed to film this whole sequence on the camera, at the time and looking back on the footage I can’t help but being impressed with these two dogs as they stopped that pig so easily while wearing muzzles. It just goes to show that a dog can stop a pig fast if it uses its head more than its mouth.