It has been a very busy time lately with judging the North Canterbury hunting comp.
On stage at the North Canterbury comp
The boars we measured tusks on. The one on the left went 22 inches.
Next day helping hunter4hope bone out deer.
Ben skinning a deer.
Dad’s army cutting up the deer ready to be minced and donated to charities.
Once home I had Hayden come in with his dog King for a hunt. We let our 1st 50lb pig go then took a 112lb pig which was a good hunt.
Hayden about to head home with his pig.
Next day was Tim from Christchurch with his two year old bitch, Dot. Tim said that when Dot was younger she got stired up by a boar and has been scared of pigs ever since. In the training block I used Bruce and Woof with Dot. At the start it was easy to see how afraid of pigs Dot was. With time on our hands we just kept Bruce and Woof bailing. It took about 20 minutes before Dot started getting comfortable enough to have a bark.
A couple of hours after Tim and Dot arrived we had her barking at the pigs and gaining confidence fast.
In the last couple of weeks Woof has gone from only bailing for ten minutes before becoming board to now bailing for up thirty minutes at a time.
Next morning we went for a hunt and Tim had asked if we could take Woof with us. Normally I’m not keen on having a young dog out with other dogs but watching how Dot was I knew he would be ok.
The two main dogs on this hunt were Bro and Gus. It was Gus that found our first pig, a 65lb boar 130 meters up the hill above us. This pig was in some tight bush lawyer and crap so we had to crawl in places. Dot and Woof followed us right to the action.
Our second pig was out in the open. We were watching Bro and Gus tracking up through the matagouri when Tim spotted two pigs. As the two dogs got onto them both dogs bailed a different pig each. I decided to head to Bro’s pig first as he was closer. This was a young boar and it was good to watch how the pig was charging after Bro but he was to quick at getting out of his way. Gus came off his pig and jioned Bro. This pig broke down to the bottom of the hill. While Woof and Dot did show interest in this pig they returned to us and followed us down to the action. This wee boar put on a great workout for the young dogs as it kept breaking the bail. Each time the action moved the young dogs had a chance to have a bark and learn about bailing without any real danger. In the end because this pig kept breaking I called Gus into heal to remove his muzzle. This stopped the pig moving any further so Tim could stick it.
Back at home I skinned and boned the first pig out for Tim to take home with him. While I was doing this Dot was bailing my big boar along with Bruce and Woof. We both enjoyed seeing the difference in Dot going from a two year old bitch being scared of pigs the day before to being keen to bail.
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