Scott Bergh with Punga and Fern

Scott is a builder from Oxford who has been a deer stalker for years but in the last couple of years has caught the pig hunting bug. The two dogs that he had brought along to me where Lockley’s ( Greyhound/lab) and about 18 months old, Punga is a dog and Fern is a bitch. Both dogs have started catching pigs but up until now had only ever held every pig that they had caught. One of the main reasons that they have held every thing is because they have only caught small pigs and Scott was worried that when they

do get onto a big pig they might get hurt. Scott’s dogs had a lot of respect for him and he enjoyed their company, he was good with them but he had done one thing different with his dogs that I do not do with mine and that was that he gave his dogs a lot of praise and pats when ever they caught a pig. Now dogs are cleaver animals and if they think that you want them to catch small pigs then that is what they will do. So my job was to try and get these dogs to focus on the bigger pigs and not try and go in for the hold.

For our first run we would take Breeze and Punga as he is the harder of the two dogs. When we rode the 4 wheeler up to where the pigs were Punga did not try and do any thing so I gave the pigs a feed and stood back while they munched through their food. At this stage Punga was wearing an electric/tracking collar and a muzzle and we also put him on a rope. As we where waiting for the pigs to finish eating Fern turned up as she must have escaped out of the kennel that we put her in. So I put her on a rope but did not have a collar or muzzle for her. When I decided that the pigs had enough to eat I put Breeze in with them and got her to bark. For Punga this was like a switch he just started going mad on the and of the rope as he was just charging at the fence trying to get in on the pigs that where on the other side of the wire. Fern was giving a few barks but was not that worked up. After a while the main boar moved down the fence line on his own so I got Breeze to follow him and keep him bailed for us so we could get the other two dogs in with them. Once in the block Punga just got worse so I said to Scott that he needed to sort his dog out by putting him on the ground and stand over him so that he was in a submissive position. Once punga was laying down on his side with Scott on top of him he calmed down and when Scott let him back up he was like a different dog. (This reminded me of a spoilt child throwing a tantrum for not getting their own way.) Once Punga was back on his feet we lead him down to where Breeze had the boar bailed and this time he did not even try and go in on the boar but stopped just short and bailed real well. After a couple of minutes we were able to take the rope off him and he did not even try and go in for a hold. While Scott was watching them bail and holding Fern on the rope I went back to the hut to get another collar and Muzzle for Fern so we could let her off the rope to. Once I got back we sorted Fern out with the muzzle and collar so we could let her off the rope and she performed well. The dogs had a good hour bailing this boar, each time I tried to get to close to him he would move but not get to far as the dogs where doing a real good job of keeping him settled. At the end of this run we went back to the hut for a beer and a yarn. I left the tracking collars on the two dogs just in case they tried to go back up to the block but they behaved well and stayed around. For our next run I took Lightning with the other two dogs. This time the dogs where doing well with all of the pigs together and all we had to do was wait as I knew one pig would try and escape sooner or later and it was the black and white boar who took off so I sent Fog after it. This boar tried to get back up with the other pigs but could not once we got all three dogs on him. Eventually this boar ended up being bailed down in the creek. As we where standing back watching the dogs bail my young pup Thunder turned up and joined in, every time the boar tried to break even wee Thunder at three months old stayed with him on the bail. Eventually we had to call the dogs out due to a lack of light.

Next morning I took Fog again with the dogs and bailed the black and white boar again so I did not give them to long on him as he deserved a break from the dogs. As we lead them away they next got onto two of the grey boars at the same bail where they stayed. Finally they tried to break after 30 minutes in the same place. The dogs stuck with one of them and had a real good bail going so we sat back and gave the dogs a good hour at this bail before calling them off.

 

 

 

 

By this stage Scott’s dogs where doing well enough that I new we would be able to go into the block with just his two dogs. They struck up a good bail with the main boar and were doing so well that I took the muzzles off both dogs and they still did not try and go in but kept a good bail going. When we called the dogs off we went to where all of the pigs were grouped up together and the two dogs bailed the whole mob with out trying to grab one of the small pigs.

At the end of our training session I was very impressed with Scott’s two dogs as they had come to me as dogs that had only held every pig that he had caught so far. But he had not caught any big pigs so the dogs were targeting small pigs that they knew they could beat up. By the end of their training they were keen to look for the bigger pigs and only bail without trying to go in and break the pigs. I am looking forward to hearing some good feedback from Scott in the coming weeks.