I had all 4 dogs out for an early morning hunt before the day starts heating up. Early in the hunt I had a Wallaby standing in the middle of the track so I stopped and got my phone out to record what was about to happen. Bro was on the back of the bike and the other 3 dogs were in the scrub below the Wallaby which is why it was on the track. As the Wallaby was looking down towards the dogs they must have put up a pig and broken down the hill so the Wallaby turned and ran towards me and Bro which Bro could not sit back and quickly gave chase so I raised my voice so that he would stop and come back to me.
Just because I called Bro off this Wallaby does not mean that he won’t chase another one if he sees one but training is about doing something calmly enough times that the dog has time to think about what you want them to do untill it becomes a habit. Habits can be good or bad depending on what has been learnt along the way.
As soon as I got Bro back on the bike we shot down the hill and pulled up twenty meters from where the dogs had a pig in the creek. Bro only turned 6 months old the day before this hunt but has matured fast, even before I stopped Bro jumped off the bike and went straight in and grabbed this pig by the ear. It took a bit for me to get into a position to grab the pig as I was trying to keep my feet dry. This pig turned out to be the first sow the dogs have caught for quite some time.
With everything sorted and dogs back on the bike we carried on. At one stage Bro tracked out 250 meters with the other dog’s but we did not catch up with any more pigs. On the way home I walked the dogs up a new track on one of my neighbors blocks and came across a possum trap that had killed 4 possums so far. This was good training for Bro at home my dogs know that they are only allowed to eat the plucked possums so when my dogs come across a possum anywhere they leave them alone. It only takes one possum that has been poisoned by 1080 and your dog will end up dead if they eat it. Bro reacted well around these possums as he wanted to sniff them but was not trying to pick them up and I used my voice to let him know that he does not touch dead possums out on the hill.