Roman is 15 years old and just got the bug to get into pig hunting so he had brought his three year old dog Charlie up to see if we could get him to want to chase a pig. So far Charlie has been the family pet and done no hunting. Roman is home schooled and already has a couple of his own business ventures going. I could quickly see that he had learnt that if he wanted to do something it pays to have some knowledge and he is well supported by his parents.
When we first went into the training block I took both Fog and Lightning and they tracked away and bailed up the black boar, at one stage the boar came down towards the creek then shot back up into the tight scrub. When Charlie saw the boar he did not show too much interest in chasing just yet. because this boar keeps on running until he gets tired i decided to call the dogs off him and target one of the other boars. It did not take long before they had the white boar bailed up. As we closed in Charlie stayed with us and over the next five minutes he slowly walked in to see what was happening. Another five minuets and I moved in closer causing the white boar to break. This got Charlie keen and he got to see the dogs stop him again and bail. Over the next hour Charlies confidence started to grow. At one point I called my two dogs into heal so that Charlie got to bail on his own. Roman and Charlie were only in for a couple of hours and they both learnt a lot in that short time. I did get an email back from Roman a week later telling me how Charlie went out and found and bailed a pig for him but it got away before Roman got to them. As long as Roman keeps on getting Charlie out it should not take long before he becomes a pig dog.
