I don’t normally take a dog for training without the owner but in this case I was making an exception. I had been contacted by John Lockley asking if I would take a one year old Lockley dog, Greyhound/Lab (Bolt) and give him some training.
Most hunters will know John as he has been breeding his line of dogs all of his life.
Bolt is one year old and so far never been on a pig. When I picked him up he seemed a little bit shy but that could be expected with a new person and John said to me that this dog has the X factor as all of his litter mates are already catching pigs but he had kept Bolt around the house as he did not want to start him too early.
At home his first bit of training was not on Pigs but gaining his confidence around me. He was quick to learn my dogs but he did like doing his own thing. I could see that he loved to ground scent. On his first day I spent a couple of hours splitting firewood while the dogs played around and Bolt had a ball looking around through the scrub up above me the whole time. There were no pigs up there but it was good to see how keen he was to look for ground scent. Each time he came up to me I would take the time to bond with him. I am a big believer in giving positive energy, rather than pating him I would calmly rub him giving him calm energy and it did not take long for a bond to be made where he knew he had nothing to fear from me and was happy to come to me when ever called. Bolt would have had a lot of the basic training but with a different person and a different environment I had to explain everything to him right so that he would understand what I wanted him to do. At the dog kennels he first jumped into different kennels until his third day then he realized his own kennel. As for getting up on the back of the truck I used the other dogs to get up and down a couple of times in front of Bolt so he could learn from their actions. By day three he was looking to me for guidance when we were doing things together.
On his fourth day I took him out for his first hunt with Rastus, Bro and Gus. Gus and Bolt got into a couple of piglets making short work of them and as I carried on I watched on the GPS as Bolt got a bit confused he went from where they killed the piglets back to where he had last seen me then backwards and forwards over that 200 meters time and time again looking for me and the dogs. I sat down with the dogs for fifteen minutes watching the GPS to see what Bolt would do. In the end I had to walk back to him. He did not seem to worried about being a little lost and it was good to see he did not start howling like some lost dogs do.
Later on the dogs got keen down by the river below me as all four dogs took off. Then out to my left I saw a sow breaking out with a piglet in behind, the first dog up was Bro and the only pig he could see was the piglet but he knew not to chase that and tracked off after the sow which he bailed in the scrub above me. Rastus arrived next and joined the bail followed be Gus. With three dogs there they grabbed the sow so I crawled into the tight stuff and got to see as Bolt came straight in and also wanted a peice of this pig. While I would have preferred a bail it was good to see that Bolt was keen as he got to see his first pig killed.
I could notice a big difference in Bolts fitness compared to my dogs, up untill now Bolt had been around the house and while he looked fit and could run fast he would puff and pant a lot whereas my dogs after a hard out run would have their breathing back to calm within thirty seconds but they are used to hunting a couple of times a week.
Next day I decided to take these four dogs for a walk through the pig block. At present I only have one boar (Pumba) in there. He’s about 140lb.
The pig block is about 35 acres so it can take sometime to find the pig and finally they bailed Pumba in the tight Matagouri and bush lawyer. The dogs were a bit keen after catching the sow the day before and got too close to Pumba and he managed to give Gus his first poke, two holes in the front shoulder. Gus is only seven months old but already has a lot of pig hunting experience for his age. I was impressed to see that he didn’t let the pokes worry him too much as they kept bailing. Bolt was quick to work out that getting to close could be dangerous but bailed well and was quick to avoid Pumba each time he charged.
I gave the dogs one hour before calling them off the bail.
Four days later I got Bolt out for another hunt and it was Bro that tracked down the gully, across the river up the other side and 200 meters around the face to put up a bail. Bro and Rastus arrived and the bail turned into a hold before Bolt arrived and joined in. It was good to see that Bolt was not holding back and right in there. Even though it was not a big pig I had to be careful carrying it back across the river as it was swift and slippery so I had to make sure I had good footing each step. I did not tie the pig on but just put him over my shoulders just incase I slipped.
I ended up having Bolt for three weeks and enjoyed watching him develop into a confident pig dog in that time. He got to spend a lot of time in the training block balling Pumba who taught him so much. Bolt did not back down each time that he got charged and really enjoyed the bailing. On his last run Bolt spent two and a half hours bailing and would have stayed longer had I not called him out.
I feel privileged that John, a man who has done so much for pig hunting over his lifetime has the confidence in me to trust that I will do the best for his dog.
I’m looking forward to hearing updates from John on how Bolt is getting on.