Boars in Oz

[air gun ant 1,666]

so glad your back ned!!! ill pm you when ive been paid and sort out a book mate. love the look of geoff lol im sure he'll do you proud

[jack44 187]

Just finished the tread start to end over a few days that is ha. Really enjoyed it keep it coming and safe hunting ned.

[ratkilla 35]

Thanks for your response on the hairy dogs Ned...How did those black mouth curs dogs do that were imported the US??

[Ned Makim 116]

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.

[Ned Makim 116]

Thanks too for the interest in the book. I appreciate the feedback.

https://www.(!64.56:886/pages/The-Makim-Method/756989520991925

[skycat 6,173]

A very interesting read Ned, and praise for having put this together. Whilst your method is not necessarily applicable to many lurchers and the very varied jobs we want them to do, and may even seem at odds to some of the training methods used by lurcher owners, the whole book speaks of long experience in the world of the pig dog, and dogs in general, and most importantly, your ability to read a dog and develop its potential to the best.

I've read it once, and shall read it again, for it is full of useful insights into how a dog's mind works, how it develops and what we should strive for when approaching dog training: patience, consistency, repetition, and more patience. Big thumbs up from me

[Ned Makim 116]

Thanks for the kind words Penny.

[Ned Makim 116]

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 near the creek beside his main lambing paddock. "Based on what you said, I think it will be a boar on his own."
I got most of the baits laid and went for a look myself.
There was plenty of sign but the breeze was going the wrong way. I passed the area and swung around into the breeze to give the dogs a better chance and almost instantly Dave and Mary went. It was only a couple of seconds and they were in the thick bottlebrush on a rough little boar. He was nothing special but tough and with the little bit of dancing around He was on the deck.



While I was feeling happy with myself I got a text message on the phone from a mate of minewho has a couple of young dogs from my yard.
He'd been out the night before and caught a few before his kelpie (a sheepdog) bailed up a big fella. Adam was on his own with a big pig the kelpie was stretched controlling when his 12 month old Jack (out of my Suzie) came screaming out of the dark and smacked onto the pig. Adam told me it was a struggle for the young dog but he held firm and the knife was pushed home.

It was a barra (castrated boar) and weighed on the electronic scales came in at 127.2kg liveweight (279lbs). A good boar for the young dog to hold. (The pig bottomed out the farmers scales (pictured) and was transferred onto the electronic scale to get an accurate reading.)



This is Jack (brown dog) and Jess (grey) with the kelpie.



So two pigs, one small, one big and a long way apart but I like to think I had a hand in both of them. That's what I tell myself anyway...

Edited August 31, 2014 by Ned Makim

[mushroom 12,871]

Mate I love this thread lol

[skycat 6,173]

Mate I love this thread lol

So do I: what we get is a mixture of real hunting, a man with a ton of dog sense ... and humility: a very rare combination methinks. Not to mention the dogs of course!

[budharley 945]

Cracking thread this

[bird 9,864]

brill thread

[air gun ant 1,666]

Why would a wild pig be castrated ned? Or would it be an escapee?

[Ned Makim 116]

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.

[Ned Makim 116]

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 morning.
We did my standard track around a productive quarter of my mountain block, showing the kids their first deer (a couple of red stags) and then their third, fourth, fifth and more deer (various fallow).
Overlooking a particularly productive basin and ridgeline we saw our first pigs. Three grazed apparently unaware about 600 metres as the crow flies, giving rise to hopes that we might be able to cut them off before they made it into the blackberries.
We had the dogs individualised on the truck (ie each dog held separately on a quick release or cage or whatever) so we had the option of getting every possible pig by releasing each dog as required. And it worked like a dream.
We got above the three we'd seen and when they took off across the slope we spotted a bonus bigger boar attempting to make a sneaky escape on his own.
Steve's Tash and my Geoffrey were given that job and Steve and Cassie were dropped on the pig before Matt and I did a quick U turn to get the other dogs as close as we could to the original three. Steve's Wal was let loose after the mob and grabbed a little angry boar and we passed that catch to put Matt's Surge out after the one pig we could still see.
Now this was when Surge surprised me by chasing the smaller pig before peeling off and turning as though he was heading back to Wal's pig.
But the young bloke's dog had spotted the third of the trio spearing off down the ridge and its was another fair sort of a boar. It's a useful dog that picks bigger pigs and this dog had done it.
Matt grabbed Wal's pig and I ended up down the usual rocky slope in a blackberry with a toey boar held by surge.
In about a minute and a half we had three of four pigs sighted and all boars.
We all looked at one another as though were champions. It was quick, it was tidy and it was effective. A great little effort with each dog and handler doing what was required. Doesn't always work out like that but when it does, there is a tremendous sense of satisfaction I can tell you.
A bit further on we picked up another pig, a sow after Geoffrey jumped on a scent down an eastern slope in the sun. Tash went to and probably caught the pig but we don't know. Either way, it was caught and on the outside of the berries so that was another bonus.

Plenty of other wildlife about too, including a clutch of tiny wood ducks we spotted after the parents did the "I'm injured, chase me..." dance.

A happy hunt and a happy start to Father's Day...

Cassie and Matt with the best of the boars.



Steve and the same boar.



Matt and Steve with the boar I got in the berries with Matt's dog.



Cassie and Matt with Wal's little boar.