Woof turned 23 weeks old yesterday and this was to be his 2nd hunt. After Woof’s 1st hunt I put him in the training block to help him gain some more confidence.
I got to see that his excitement at the bail only lasted about ten minutes before he became bored.
Today’s hunt saw us on the the hill between the Douglas firs and some native. I got to see five wallabies break out below the track while Gus tracked around and above the track.
He was up there for about five minutes before he opened up with a great bail. With me standing on the track below I put a bullet in the rifle and got my camera ready to film. I heard Bro and Bruce join the bail next then as Woof had a bark the pig broke the bail. This pig almost came out on the track in front of me but being as clever as they are he must have detected me and broke back towards the dogs. This had him panicking and breaking as fast as he could back through the scrub and downhill. I had walked a long way to this point and was one km in a straight line from the bike. This boar broke downhill, hoping to shake the dogs and would have gotten away from most dogs. However, these dogs were very experienced and knew exactly what they were doing. In a straight line, this boar ran eight hundred meters to be within one hundred and twenty meters of my motorbike. Woof came back to me and followed me all the way to the bail down by the 4wd track without making a noise.
The dogs had this boar bailed well in a steep gut so I could approach from above. When Woof was right there he gave off a couple of barks. The boar charged the dogs at one point so I took the first chance I had to shoot him.
Even though he was not a big boar he did have a good jaw on him.
This is where I need to mention Woof’s mindset as his breeding is Beardie collie and throwing to the huntaway side he loves to bark. A lot of hunters have problems with trail barking dogs and I know that in the wrong hands Woof would be a trail barker. At the early stages of our hunt Bro tracked off on a pig out to 800 meters and when he was tracking back towards us Gus knew he was coming down and was very focused on what was happening and this was enough for Woof to bark. At the time I was not ready for this as if I was I would have pushed the vibrate button on his collar. Because I was not ready the instant it happened I would not push the vibrate button. I have known for a long time that Woof loves to bark and the worst dog you can have on the hill is a trail barker. This training starts in the dog kennel. When approaching the kennels to let the dogs out if the dog is barking stop where you are and wait until the dog stops barking before you take another step, then approachthe kennels calmly. This teachers a dog to be quite to be let out of their kennels.
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