Ned Makim
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Everything posted by Ned Makim
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That's a lot of dogs on a little pig. One would be plenty wouldn't it? Cheers.
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Hogzilla was a different pig. The pig in this pic might have been in the bush but it wasn't wild. They can get big but a lot of the US pigs in the dramatic picture stories are domestics released. Biggest I have personally had my hands on dressed 175kgs and it was a giant, genuinely wild boar in Oz. They have been field caught in Oz over 200kgs. This pix is a joke. Cheers.
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Congratulations. Patience and persistence paid off. Were the weights entire or dressed? Cheers.
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I've never been bitten by the dogs on pigs but it could happen and has happened to other blokes. I think it has to do with the size of the quarry. You grab the back legs and flip the pig usually and the dog or dogs are on an ear each so they tend to be far enough away to not cause you any dramas. They also hold the ear without changng their grip once on so it's all fairly predictable. I've done more damage to myself than the dogs have. I've stabbed myself twice among other things... Re the roos. There's a market for sure but everyone has to be licensed etc. Pro shooters cull roos under li
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Thanks Effortless. Re the dogs being hard. They are hard when the job's on but I don't want to give the impression they are all strutting around like tough guys. They are super relaxed in the yard. The neighbours chooks (chickens) get into my yard on a regular basis and make it out alive. They are single species dogs and are hard when required but 'off-duty' when not. I can't stand super high prey drive dogs. I just want them switched on when the hunt's on and switched off at all other times. They get a bit toey (keen) if they aren't hunted for a while but if worked on the usual weekly basis
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Big fan. I like no excuses types of things. I have one son who is considering a run at the Ultimate Fighter series. I had a little time as a middleweight and James is better by far than I ever was. Untrained and undefeeated locally against multiples (three at once is his best so far). Very nice bloke but jumps up on matters of principle so you have to be ready... He and his 120kg brother have had some epic wrestles for fun. Cheers.
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The sows can and will breed all year round if there is enough food. Around here the populations are not stable and the pigs are harassed as pests so the mobs (sounders) aren't allowed to settle into routines. However, there are still discernible patterns because you will find the big boars with mobs rather than on their own a couple of times a year. We are heading into a time like that now (our Autumn) and another in August/September (last week of Winter and into Spring). Not always predictable but often fits that overlay. As I said, pigs are harassed out of crops and the landholders want them
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Back into the swing of things after last weekend's disasters... Luke and I went for a look around some local sorghum yesterday afternoon and last night for two. We picked up a 35kg (odd) sow in the crop and a better (maybe) 50kg sow in the timber nearby. Both weights are estimated dressed weights as the pigs were unweighed. We had Barney, MAry and Roger of mine and Luke's Buster. Barney found the little sow but got hot doing it...no breeze in the crop that's for sure. And the bigger sow was found by Mary and Roger after a reasonable find out 500m or 600 metres in a fairly straight
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Funny show. Love those boys. Cheers.
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Anyone who says a good pig can't be without a dash of APBT doesn't know enough about dogs or catching pigs. It's as simple as that. The whole pig catching game in Oz was built on Eng bully boxers and some of them could find like crazy. You could do it from show stock now, might get good workers first cross, second at the latest. These are just the facts based in decades of doing it. Once you stop looking at conformation and colour and start looking at what dog does what, it all falls into place. Anyone can have their own line of workers of any description. To suggest otherwise exposes the theo
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Their nose is shit hot. That's the point of these dogs. They wind scent off the truck up to two kms and that's in rough country. On the flat they will go further. There are a lot of myths about finding ability in dogs perpetuated by 'breed enthusiasts'. All dogs have the same genes it is just a matter of what is dominant and recessive. Further the studies into epigenetics show that even with dominant and recessive genes there is a further chemical switch which determines which genes are 'on or off'. It's a topic on its own but the key to it all is simple selection. If you cross dogs, you see w
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They are Makim dogs, it's all in the thread. Look back about five posts and the base breeding is there. Cheers.
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Re the bloke being hurt by a roo. That makes news elsewhere but here in the bush it's not really considered news. It's just stuff that happens. The story as you suggested sounds authentic. In my youth when I had less control of dogs I have had encounters with bailed or held roos. A big roos arms are as thick and muscular as a big man. They are nice looking and stuff but I had one dog pounce on a resting roo which stood up taller than me (I am 5 foot 10 or so). It lifted the dog (a big stag type) off the ground by the collar, leant back on its tail and kicked with it's legs. The one thick, poin
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I'll lift some stuff from my blog about long lead training as soon as I have another moment. Also slightly off topic...are any of you involved in book publishing. I have a few draft chapters done on things I've seen and done and my family says it should be a book (like all families...ha ha). Don't know how that all happens. Any advice? Cheers.
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It's illegal to chase roos with dogs. But in the old days it was done and yes roos can kill a dog very quickly. If they were chased into a dam they stand up and wait for the dogs to swim to them then hold the dog under the water until it drowns. A big buck roo could also open a dog up with a kick, properly open a dog up. Roo dogs are a remnant from early settlement and look like a smooth stag. But as I said chasing them with dogs is illegal because all Oz native animals are protected by law. Roos can be shot under licence though but it is very strict... Cheers.
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Re sticking the pigs it's either/or... sticking them in the throat is how you do it for the human consumption market and Paul is in that habit. You can stick them in the heart if you are just pest control/dog fooding them. Re fox dogs, most foxes are shot in our area but in Victoria and southern NSW blokes use stags and roo dogs to catch them. Cheers.
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The dogs are very much a part of the family... Tha 'plates' (breastplates) that our family use are commercially made for hunters from shadecloth. About seven layers are stitched together to make a light protective cover that is tough for a boar to penetrate. They are lifted up from under the dog's brisket and straped over the back of the neck and the dog's back. Other plates in Oz are made from lift strap, seatbelt material, some conveyor belt type stuff and leather. It's about stopping tusks but the dog might also have to run a km or two in it to get the pig so they have to be light and q
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I have posted it before but it's back a bit in the thread. They are bred down from Butters dogs which were a line of working pigdogs based on dane, wlfhound, Eng bully and Eng mastiff. There is also deerhound in mine (in some familes of the dogs). They are referred to in Oz as Makim dogs. Bull arabs came from Eng bully, greyhound and GSP with bloodhound and I think Eng pointer added later. I don't have any bull arabs, just our own line, but I have mates with BAs. Cheers. Edit: Actually, as I posted I remembered there is a bull arab bitch in some of the outcrosses and Stan looks a littl
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Re the owed money...it was $12500 and I have it all in my hands thanks. It's not the money, it's the disrespect that was the big motivator. Back to the dogs, on Thursday Bindi goes in for an ultrasound to see if she is in pup and maybe how many. If all's well she is due March 3. Cheers.
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Thanks fellas for the kind words. Yes Hannah and Bob are still batting on. But working pig dogs tend to come to abrupt ends so you can go years without a drama and then lose four or five in a couple of weekends. It is a part of what makes this all real. It is a life and death game but the dogs definitely get to really 'live' a big life. They get to live as a pack, hunt like a wolf, and are loved and respected like no other. Well that's the way it is for us anyway. Thanks again for the support. Cheers.
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We have all had a rough couple of days. Russell, our original Butters blood dog was dead in his cage on Saturday afternoon. Don't know what happened, doesn't really matter, dead is dead. ScottyS, ScottR and I had all just decided to get some straws from the 10 year old in case something happened. I was due at the vet's on Friday but got held up chasing a bloke who owed our business more than $10,000. Planned to go out today but no chance of that now. It gutted me. And Paris died that night on a hunt in South East Queensland. Dropped mid stride while following a scent. She was about fi
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Here's a bit of trail cam footage. It's from our annual northern Oz trip and shows a boar feeding on one of the bulls we shot and used as bait. That's a dingo in the background waiting its turn... And this is the boar after we arrived... Dogs are Ted and Stan.
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Just had a bit of exciting news...a cousin of mine who owns 10,000acres of rough, high country is planning to open it up to hunters to help with feral animal management. There are scrub bulls, wild goats, wild boars, feral rams, occasional fallow deer, a few camels and the usual million rabbits and foxes. The place is a working sheep and cattle property and the feral animals are the remnants of past livestock handling gone wrong. Before my cousin came to the place it had been used for all sorts of livestock projects but when different things didn't work out the stock were just let go and have
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Yeah I take one or two dogs with me every day to work. Good psychological adventure for them even if we don't get to chase a pig... I have 10 dogs at home so it pays to entertain them. I should post some GPS co ordinates of where I get decent boars so you can follow it on Google Earth. There's plenty of farming country around here and plenty of scrub. When you look at Inverell also find Kingstown, Bundarra, Emmaville, Ashford and Lake Copeton. The rivers to look for are the Macintyre, the Gwydir and the Severn. We hunt in all of those areas. Cheers.
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The sow might have been 40 kgs entire but that was probably a stretch... On the dogs...they never know how big they are. If they have the will, they are big in their minds. Alpha status in dogs is an issue with all dogs but with these, if they are allowed to think they are too special they will treat you like their bitch. Bad thing if they feel they are allowed to fight or grab stock etc. They are prepared to die on the pig rather than give in so an undisciplined dog is a serious problem. Having said that though, once they submit, that's it. They stay like that. Cheers.
