Dog Styles
DOG STYLES.
All doggers have one thing in common: the pursuit of the ultimate pig dog. Sometimes we find them, buy, or breed them and we sometimes have to settle for what we can get. But, like anything, one hunter’s idea of the ideal pig dog may not be so for another.
I know when I’m looking for a dog I like one that is highly mobile, that moves around well and uses its brain.
Most dogs I have run have been between 27 and 40 kg with a good physical appearance and sound temperament.
A good finder that bails is great in that they use their noses really well and are capable of finding hidden boars. For example my old bailer had greyhound and pit bull terrier breeding and weighed 27 kg.
Brin would find really well and gave me a direction to run to once a boar had been located. Mind you, I had to be patient. When she was younger the greyhound line was predominant and it was quite some time before she could put a good 100 kg boar on the spot up here in northeast
However as a young pup she was always busy looking for fresh scent.
Brin found and bailed pigs for a good 10 years in the far North.
When walking along rivers or creeks with cover a busy finder will often locate good pigs, which are hidden. When the pig is found they bail until other dogs arrive, their job after that is usually over. However some bailers will lend a hand in the lugging department when back arrives those dogs could be classified as a holder/bailer.
Another handy thing about bailers is they tend to instinctively keep out of harm’s way, they pretty much know how to handle their own predicament.
At times when you are hunting a bailer with, let’s say, an all-rounder type, things can become interesting to say the least. I remember one morning in the Gulf Brin and Rebel followed a scent. It led them from a large swamp into the dry scrub further on where they came upon a good boar. Brin bailed and Rebel tried to attach himself to it, but the boar was having no part of that and kept breaking away.
By the time I arrived (which was some time later), only because I heard Brin’s constant bark did I locate them. When I arrived, Rebel was holding but only just, suffering from heat exhaustion as he was. On that occasion it would have been better if Brin had become a lot more aggressive, which probably would have prevented the boar running that far. But if Brin had been busy holding the boar would I have found them? Probably not!
Often while walking along scrubby areas I remember closely watching Rebel and Brin hunting. Brin was content to find and work at an even pace, testing for ground and air scent, where as Rebel (Rottweiler/kelpie cross) at 32 kg an all-rounder really wants to have a good old slug fest with a boar. He was highly strung and tore around everywhere.
Harder dogs go about their business in a different manner compared to a bailer. I have run some of these types; hard dogs that live for the battle.
When hunting the Gulf there are large open areas of swamps and timber, and a good all-rounder will do the job well most times.
All rounders or luggers go about their business as a bailer would looking or testing the air for scent that’s if they have nose for scenting. Some dogs may be hard luggers but are not very good on the nose. These types can be used as a good back up dog or hunted with success in open country mentioned above.
I have had good success with greyhound / Bull types: they have sharp eyesight and see pigs from great distances, especially in relatively flat and open territory.
My old dog Toa ran down and held good-sized boars on may occasions unlike his sister Brin who hunted in a completely different style.
If I look back through the many dogs I have run one of my best all rounders- basically due to his temperament- was Auto: a bandog of 40 kg that was bred out of a pit bull sire and a Neapolitan bitch.
Auto was a top class working dog, he could find and hold boars well in excess of 100 kg. His only problem was he would range dangerously far, and that was his downfall at just four years of age. But thanks to Brin who would bail I was able to secure the boar before Auto expired.
Most hunters will have some sort of variation in their group of dogs when they go off hunting. Whether they have bred them or just picked them up from the pound and provided a good home hardly matters, as long as the dog is getting you results that’s all any of us are looking for.
ROBERT VAN DER VEEN