Blair has two Lockley bitches out of the same litter that are 18 months old, Ellie and Brandy. Each bitch had a different temperament, Ellie was more the finder bailer type while Brandy preferred to get in and mix it with the pigs. For our first run in the block we took my dog Breeze and Ellie. As we got to the gate all off the pigs where waiting for us hoping for a feed. As we entered the block Breeze took off after the black boar and bailed him up in the scrub. We had Ellie on a lead at this stage as well as wearing a muzzle. Because of where Breeze was bailing I said to Blair to let Ellie go and see what would happen.
We waited at the bottom of the hill half expecting the boar to break down to us but Ellie joined in and kept the boar bailed so we went up and watched for a while. In the end I gave the boar a tap on the arse to get him to break the bail so the two dogs had to stop him again. The black boar headed to the other pigs and the two dogs bailed them all well. After Ellie had been in the block for an hour I suggested that Blair go and swap his dogs over while I wait in the block with Breeze just so the pigs don’t disappear on us.
When Blair returned with Brandy on a rope and wearing a muzzle she stood back from the pigs until I whistled for Breeze to carry on bailing then Brandy was keen as to go in and if it was not for the rope on her she would have broken the pigs straight away. Finally the black boar tried to make a couple of breaks only for Breeze to bring him back down, in the end he did bail just up the creek so we lead Brandy in on this bail. By this time Brandy had been on the pigs for at least 30 minutes so we took the lead off her and called Breeze into heel so that Brandy could bail on her own for a while and she did very well. After Brandy had an hour in the block we came out for a break to have a drink and a yarn about how things had gone so far.
After our break we went back in with all three dogs Ellie, Brandy and Breeze and hit one of the grey boars. Breeze and Ellie where bailing while we had Brandy on a rope again. At the bail Brandy kept on wanting to go in on the boar so Blair had to keep on pulling her back on the rope. After 10 minutes she had settled down a bit so I suggested that she could be let off and we would see what happens.
She tried going in a couple of times before the boar broke down into the creek and by the time we got there she had pulled her muzzle off and was in holding so I grabbed her by the tail and pulled until she let go then I held her on the ground so that she was in a submissive position and held her here until she calmed down. Meanwhile the boar had had enough and was just not going to stop, Breeze went out to 350 meters after him before returning. We wanted to get the dogs onto another pig so we walked up the creek then up to the top left hand side of the block where we ran into the weathers with the big horns. From her we crossed over to come back down the right hand side of the block. It was here the both Breeze and Ellie put up a good bail so once again Blair lead Brandy in on a lead. It turned out to be the same boar we had bailed earlier and he was still a bit worked up but these two dogs had settled him down well enough to stand for the bail.
As Blair let Brandy in a little closer she still wanted to go in for a fight which made the boar break again. When we got down in the creek the dogs where 20 meters above us bailing well so I said to Blair that if he wanted he could let Brandy go as I would have expected the boar to break down towards us if he was going to break. As soon as Brandy arrived a scrap started out moving around in the scrub for about 30 seconds before he broke again. Instead of breaking down towards us he broke around the face above us so we followed the action down the creek below them. As we got 100 meters down the hill I could hear the boar breathing heavily so I knew that Brandy was holding again while the other two where bailing, we tried calling them off for a couple of seconds before the boar broke again. This time Brandy returned to us with a big rip in her chest and not wanting to walk much further. Blair carried her out while I whistled Breeze into heel and we returned to the hut to put a couple of staples into Brandy. I hope this little lesson gets her to show those pigs a bit more respect in the future.