Luke Nickless

Luke Nickless from Christchurch has just been in for 24 hours dog training with two dog. The younger dog Cloud is a Greyhound / Lab ( Lockley) and is nine months old and never been on pigs till now. His other dog Spook is of mixed breeding with Beardie / Airedale / Bully / Smithfield and he is 18 months old.    Our first run in the block was with Cloud  and he was wearing a muzzle so that he could not grab a pig. I was using Breeze and Fog to do the bailing. The first boar that they took off after was the Black boar. We could see the scrub moving and I could hear Both Fog and Breeze bailing but Cloud was not.  Along with the bailing I could hear the boar grunting and puffing so I knew that he was being held So Luke and I got up there quick to find that Cloud had managed to pull the muzzle off and was holding. As soon as I got a hold of Cloud the black boar broke down into the creek where he was bailed again by Breeze and Fog. We managed to refit the muzzle and it never came off again. As Cloud joined the others he again tried to hold so I gave him a light tickle up with the electric collar which had the desired affect of getting him to stand back and bail. Over the next twenty minutes the three dogs kept the black boar bailed in the same place so he did not break again.  One thing that I found was different was

the way that Cloud barked, he had a bark that did not seem to stop. Most dogs when barking would bark and stop before the next bark but not with Cloud as one bark was stopping the next one was starting. Next dog up was Spook and I decided to use Lightning this time as I expected the pigs to be away up in the block after all of the commotion that had been going on, however the pigs where still down the bottom so this made things a lot easier as Lightning and Spook both bailed four boars together. Both dogs where wearing muzzles so they could not put to much pressure on the boars, because of this the boars wanted to stay together. After twenty minutes of bailing I suggested to Luke that he go and get Cloud so that both of his dogs could work together. I thoroughly enjoyed watching these three dogs bailing for the next thirty minutes. When a boar gave a fake charge the dogs would get right in its face and force it back in with the others. By the time we called the dogs out Cloud had suffered a tusk to the top of his head which let out a bit blood but it did not stop him from wanting to bail. Once we where back down at the hut we did some sit and stay commands with the dogs.  This is where I got to see how Luke interacted with his dogs and I could tell straight away that he has obviously been around dogs for

a long time as he has a good understanding of his dogs.

While we where sitting around the hut having a beer we also had sheep right there with us so the dogs were getting to see another animal. With Spook being a bit older he was not showing any interest in them but Cloud thought they looked like a good animal to play with so we had to tell him off a couple of times.

Next morning we decided to just take Luke’s two dogs up through the block. We made it right up to the top corner of the block before we found the pigs all bedded up together. The black boar tried to make a break for it so that was the one the two dogs chased and bailed for the next twenty minutes. When we called the dogs off we came back down to the other pigs and bailed them for a while as well. At one point the small piglet tried to make a break. Luckily for her she was quick enough to get back in with the other pigs before the dogs could get her. Even though both dogs where wearing muzzles they could still hurt a wee pig. Once we finished this run in the block we

took Luke’s dogs and Jeff the possum dog for a run to the top of the hill beside the four wheeler

motor bike. As we where riding the bike the sheep where out on the track running which again Cloud found them very hard to resist so we had to remind him a couple of times to stop. This is a great part of the training and the more times that we could put Cloud into this position the quicker we could teach him not to show an interest in these animals.

On our last run in the block we had Lightning and both of Luke’s dogs and again four of the boars where together at the bottom of the block so the dogs had another good session of bailing. By the time that Luke got to take his dogs home they where ready for a rest.