Wade and Amber made the 14 hour trip from Levin in the north Island to Te Moana gorge in the south Island to put there three dogs through my training block with me for 48 hours. There bitches consisted of their main bitch Sika who was white with a wee bit of brindle on her face and Isla pronounced with a silent s. Isla is a brindle staffy and at the time she was on heat so luckily I had my bitch Sassy that we could use for training when we took Isla into the training block. The last wee bitch, Dart was brindle and was only nine months old and Wade was not expecting too much from her but was hoping she might show some interest.
For our first run in the block we took Fog, Sika and Dart, Fog found and bailed the sow and when Sika got there I got to see one of her strong points and that is her ability to stick to a pig over the next couple of days a really liked the look of her as she did not want to come off the pigs until she was worn out and we could call her off. Dart had her good moments and also her times when she was just happy walking around while the other dogs were bailing. As I explained to Wade and Amber when Dart came back to us just give her a pat and let her do her own thing. I have seen at times when a dog comes back a hunter trying to encourage the dog back in and sometimes the dog will become confused and do nothing. We got to see Dart gain a lot of confidence with the pigs over the couple of days she got in the block.
When we took Isla into the block with her hunting mates and Sassy she was wearing a muzzle along with Sika. I was expecting her to want to stir the pigs up a bit being a Staffy but she surprised me as she was more than happy to stand back and bail.
On our last run in the block we had all four bitches and we took them right into the centre of the block and waited for about twenty minutes hoping they would track out and find a pig but no luck so we went walking. The black boar must have heard us coming and bolted so we got to see the dogs on the tracker take off and bail in the creek. All four bitches were not wearing any muzzles and not once did they try and hold they just bailed so well. Early on in the bail when I was coming in on them the boar came out through the scrub on the game trail I was on and I was lucky not to get ripped as he knocked me aside. About half an hour later he came at me again and this time I managed to lift my left leg up as he went through it and the whole time I managed to keep the camera going to film him. During this whole run Dart stuck with the bail.
Thank you Wade and Amber for putting your faith in me and my training facilities together we have created some memories to last a life time and meet new friends. I see the comment you left in the visitor’s book, we will be back.
I have plenty of open dates over the next couple of months so now is the time to book in if you want to give your dog some extra training.