Gus’s 3rd hunt was just going to be a quick hunt on the face opposite the house.
As I was heading up the track Rastus and Bro tracked up the hill and were heading over the top so I had to give them a tone on the collar as my neighbor that way also likes the odd pig on his place. Once the dogs returned I headed back down the track.
At a similar place to where the dogs tracked off the first time they took off again but this time they were ground scenting from the track. I think the first pig the dogs tracked off on had run a big 2km circuit and crossed the track back up to where it originally started. This time the dogs bailed above the track. Gus was straight up there bailing away. They first bailed about fifty meters above until Tig got there and grabbed what sounded like a medium sized sow. I gave Tig a tone on the collar so that he would let it go which had the desired result of the pig breaking to the edge of the track.
At one point the sow charged the dogs and sent Tig and Bro over the edge down onto the track that I was on.
Four dogs was almost too much pressure for this bail so I called Tig into heal so the other three dogs could settle into a nice steady bail.
The sow bailed well in this spot, so Gus did get a lot of bailing practice. After a good ten minutes and not being able to get any good video footage, I talked to Tig and explained that I wanted him to go back up and help to get this pig down onto the track. It never surprises me just how clever a dog can be if you give them the right encouragement as he had been standing at my side for the past ten minutes listening to his mates bailing away but now new what I wanted him to do. Tig grabbed the pig and dragged it right to the edge and when he thought it was going over the edge he jumped down ready to grab it again however Bro had the pig by the ear holding it up while Rastus and Gus were still bailing away. After a few seconds the sow dropped to the track and Tig was quick to catch it with Rastus not far behind.
As you can see in the video the sow ended up right behind the motorbike. Once I grabbed the sows tail I asked the dogs to get outside, which gave Gus a chance to bail on his own for a couple of minutes.
Once Gus had enough bailing practice, I tipped the sow on her side and held her there to give her time to calm down. A lot of people may not understand what I was doing by calming her down, so I’ll explain this in another way. If I was to pick up a young lamb and hold it so that my palm was under the chest of that lamb, I would be able to feel the lambs’ heartbeat. At first it’s heart will be racing and if I let the lamb go at this time the lamb will definitely run away but if I hold onto that lamb for just a little bit longer I will fell when the lambs heart beat slows down and when this happens I can put the lamb down and it won’t run away but follow me. Now, back to this sow, I had all four dogs sitting down relaxing while the sow was on her side. After about two minutes I noticed her starting to relax so when I thought she was ready I slowly let her up and she seemed a little confused at first seeing the dogs that were now not trying to annoy her and she casually walked off up the hill. Then I called the dogs into heal and headed back home to carry on with my fencing job.