Baxter is a 14 month old Foxy/collie/ lab cross and has done a bit of hunting already but he tends to be a bit hard so Hamish had booked in to do a session in the pig block with Baxter. For the first run I took Breeze knowing that the pigs would come down to the sound of the motorbike. I first gave the pigs a feed so that Hamish and Henry could see which pigs the dogs where likely to get onto. When I was ready I let Breeze in and she took off after the black boar as he tried to break. She ended up bailing him up the left side of the block so we lead Baxter up on a lead.
As we got closer Baxter wanted to go in for a hold but he was wearing a muzzle and also being held back with the lead however there was enough pressure for the black boar to break and he just did not want to bail again after this as we kept following him Breeze would bail until we got within twenty meters before he would break again. After 15 minutes of this he finally gave Breeze the slip so I decided to go and swap her for Lightning as he is much harder on the bail and commands a bit of respect from the pigs.
As we got as far as the gate there where a couple of the grey boars waiting on us thinking they where going to get some more food so Breeze started bailing them. Baxter was definitely showing more to the holding side of things as he would try and get in close then lung at the pigs trying to get a hold. Because of the way he was working I put another collar around his waist so that he could be held back but would still be facing the pig. In the end the pigs had enough and broke, while Breeze stuck with one of them for the next five minutes it just kept breaking every time we got close so I called her into heal in the end and took her out to swap for Lightning.
As soon as we arrived back with Lightning the black and white boar came out of the scrub so he was going to be our candidate this time. Lightning was wearing a muzzle as he went and bailed this boar but every time we got close with Baxter the boar kept breaking obviously feeling to much pressure so I resorted to letting Lightning go without the muzzle so that this boar could show a bit more respect to the dog. Lightning was quick to let the boar now that if you turn your back on me I will bit you nuts and that done the trick as the boar only tried backing away from him after this. We had been on this boar for quite some time with Baxter more wanting to hold than bail, while we where getting some barks out of him I think it was more out of frustration of not being able to grab the pig.
I decided to try another approach so I left Lightning bailing with Hamish and Henry holding Baxter back while I went and got Breeze again as I was hoping that with two dogs bailing Baxter may want to bark a bit more. While this did work to a degree and Baxter did start barking a wee bit more we still could not let him off the lead as he would still have gone straight in for the hold.
With a dog like Baxter if you wanted him to bail you would have had to get him into bailing at a younger age.
At this late stage he was doing a bit more bailing
For any dog when they start acting in a certain way whether it is bailing or holding then that is what they are also thinking in there heads so when faced with the same situation they will do exactly what they have done before and to change that mind set takes a lot of work and time. To get Baxter to bail would be like getting a long time unemployed person to go and get a job and the only way to do that is with the right support in getting them to change their mind set.