This was to be Gus’s 4th hunt in the past 2 weeks and I was taking all 4 dogs. Sometimes this can be too many dogs on a pig at one time if they all go in but because I have the dogs under good control and I can call the dogs off easily I’ve decided to take all four dogs. Tig is along to keep the possum numbers down and he knows that if a pig squeals unnecessarily then his collar will give a tone and he alway returns to me which takes the pressure off the pig.
Gus’s hunting is coming along fast, already I can see his willingness to want to find a pig as he is already going out to 150 meters with the other dogs and has no trouble tracking back.
Our first animal was a possum up a cabbage tree. It was too high for Tig so I shot it using a sub sonic 44 bullet. The possum did not drop right out of the tree so Tig climbed up and grabbed it out. Good training for Gus to see another dog doing a job that he is not allowed to get involved in.
Our next bit of action was a way up a side gully. We had walked up about 500 meters to junction that split into two gullies. It was here that Rastus and Bro tracked off. These two dogs would have tracked this pig for 2 km as I watched the GPS telling me that they went 200 meters up the left gully then over the left again into another gully 400 meters away before heading up that gully then back across the original gully before cutting over into the gully on the right. It was in this gully that I thought I had a chance of intercepting them as I still had Tig and Gus with me. While I could hear Rastus and Bro tracking down this gully about 50 meters opposite me I could not hear the pig and neither Tig or Gus went across the gully to them. It was another 400 meters away in the 2nd gully that they had been in that the bark indicator went off. It took a bit to get around there but as soon as Gus heard the first bark he took off with Tig. When they arrived I heard a squeal that sounded like a smaller sow so I gave Tig a tone and he returned to me taken some of the pressure off this pig. Once at the pig I let Gus have a bit of bark. There was a couple of times that Gus wanted to grab this pig so I had to tell him off.
When I did call the dogs off and walk away Gus tracked back twice to have another bark at her so it was good to see his keenness.