Ned Makim

The APDHA (Australian Pig Doggers and Hunters Association) had its annual general meeting withiun striking range of my place at the weekend and one of my mates (Steve) from had driven 14 hours to the meeting with his daughter and her boyfriend (Cassie and Matt) to attend. They planned to head home direct from the meeting but I convinced them to head instead to my place a bit more than an hour away for a Father's Day hunt this morning. They camped out our place last night ready for a 4am rise this morning to give us plenty of time to be on the ground ready for the earliest possible light this m

Could have been caught, cut and styed for the table before an escape. In past times some landholders would cut a boar and let it free range to be caught or shot later for the table. A barrow (or barra as it's colloquially known) gets big but untainted by the boar smell so makes good pork without adding to the breeding population. It's illegal to let any of them go so impossible to say what's happened here. They can be nightmares to catch too. Big, cunning and nasty.

A quick tale of two pigs... I went out laying poison baits for foxes today on contract for a couple of landholders whose lambs are due. All up it's about 9000 acres so I need to kill a lot of foxes to make an impact. I prefer to trap but trapping just doesn't cut it on that scale. Anyway, the boars in this area often move into near the lambing paddocks to position themselves for the easy pickings living or dead lambs offer. I'd been talking to one of the landholders about pigs in general and what different sign indicated. When I met him at the house yesterday he said he'd seen some sign down

Thanks for the kind words Penny.

Thanks too for the interest in the book. I appreciate the feedback. https://www.(!64.56:886/pages/The-Makim-Method/756989520991925

As stevemac said, the right dogs can handle big boars. They don't need to be meatheads either. The key is the dog having the will to hang on and the hunter having the will to go in on a boar and grab its back legs to get conrol of it. There are all sorts of dogs used in Oz for the purpose and it is more about the will in the dog then pure size. This boars was a rough animal but caught by one crossbred dog with no injuries. Plenty can do it but you have to get there quickly and go in.

The black mouth curs seems to be going well. I haven't seen them hunt but the reports are good so far. The general hunting populace is a bit baulked by the cost but they appear to be finding and stopping pigs and working rough cattle well.

The Butters blood is effectively gone. We've been working within the existing family but I have three other people who breed based on my breeding but do their own thing with crosses. I trust them absolutely when it comes to judgement of a working dog and we get together once a year to look at what's been going on. (One bloke lives 15 hours from me so that's why it's only once a year.) They try other dogs or variations on mine and occassionally breed so our get together involves a few beers, a few barbecues and a few pig hunts to test things out. I have one of my mates dogs here now, Geoff. He'

Now if this breaches forum rules, mods please delete. The book has been rocking along. It's still only in PDF file but I have been sending a few emails overseas with copies thanks to PayPal. It's 13 pounds emailed. If you want to know the details just send me a PM and away we go.

You can't see any pix? Not even the ones on the last page or so? Some if not all pix are missing from the thread prior to my return recently so I will work my way backward and attempt to replace them. But it seemed the most recent ones were intact. Go back a page or two and tell me what you see.

We have wolfhound, English bull, English mastiff, dane and probably more. It's inexact because it's not the breeds that matter so much rather how they express themselves in the dog's performance. If I was starting again from scratch I would use wolfhound, English bully and deerhound. English bully when crossed produces a good nose. Maybe not a pointer nose but a good nose and the will to follow it.

Yep aggression is definitely not wanted. The dogs are like good soldiers. They don't have to be aggressive, just trained, equipped and with a clear understanding of the objective. It's about efficiency and effectiveness not drama. There's enough potential drama dealing with a live boar close up without the dog adding to it.

The other factor is avoiding hunting in the extreme heat. Where I live it can be 40c in the summer and -10c in the winter so it's not all hot, dry work.

Heat tolerance is not a function of hair. It's a function of fitness and genetics so the hairy dogs used here that are bred over time tend to be the ones that handle the heat. If you keep long hair from becoming matted it can act as insulation from direct heat as well. The worst issue here with long haired dogs is matting from grass seeds.

I'd only have one dog that big. Most of mine are around 3o kgs. As for getting them upset...be almost impossible mate. The whole concept of pig dogs is to have them determined but manageable. You can't have dogs in a volatile situation like stopping a pig that get too excited. The standard pig dog in Oz lives with kids, cats, other dogs without an issue. It's one of the things they are slected for in breeding. The vets here love them because they are calm, used to being handled and submit to all sorts of things. The on switch is flicked when dealing with a pig but flicked off again when not.