Uhunt Mag Information

• Posted By : BRISTLE UP
• Posted On : Jul 08, 2019
• Views : 2507
• Likes : 3
• Category : PIG DOGGING » ARTICLES, TIPS & HOW TO GUIDES
• Description : “Training up your pups, watching them grow and seeing them continuously improving is next to none.”

Overview

• By Chloe Mathers

  Starting from scratch with a single pup and getting them started all on your own is not exactly easy but it is very rewarding. The satisfaction from training up your pups, watching them grow and seeing them continuously improving is next to none. From starting off with one pup and then getting a second pup two years later, I’ve learned from my personal experience that it is definitely easier to get a pup started when they already have another going dog to watch and learn from consistently. With both dogs, their training began at home from the get-go. We started with the basic commands sit, stay, up, drop it, come, leave it, wait for their food and lay down. Once they had these 100% down packed and we had gained each other’s respect, loyalty, and trust, we take them on small car trips and then finally on trips up to the farm. These small car trips are necessary due to Shadow, our first pig dog, getting very car sick and every trip she’d end up throwing up. Luckily medication shoved down her throat before every trip settled this and after a few months thankfully she grew out of it. Once they were allowed up at the farm, they learned to ride on the back of the quad bike. 

  
  
  
  Like most pups they were scared to start with but after a few small trips and then slowly increase the length of the trips, they quickly learned to love it. Once they were comfortable with the quad bike and were wanting to jump up on their own, they were taken up the back to the steep mountain country. Then came the pigs, we put a lot of effort into getting them started, walking creeks and mountains. With both dogs, we made a strong effort to show them what animals they were not allowed to chase. We began saying ‘NO!’ when they took an interest in non-target animals. Especially making them familiar with stock, walking them around the herd on a lead ensuring that they knew they were not allowed to touch these animals. These techniques were further enforced after they had been on their first few pigs and knew they were now allowed to chase some animals. After their first few pigs, we made sure to get them to use to driving past roos, emus, and goats and cementing in the fact that these animals are not to be touched. For the first few months they both wore a training collar, this just helped to make sure if the adrenaline got the better of them and they didn’t listen to commands they could be pulled and disciplined if need be. Our first dog, Shadow, took a bit longer to learn the ropes of hunting. 
  
  
  
  She was started around 11 months old and started off grabbing smaller pigs but bailing larger pigs. After about five pigs, she started to gain confidence where she began to hold all pigs. Shadow being our first and only pig dog at the time and hunting the hard traprock mountains, she had a slow start and had to learn almost everything on her own. Now after being on over 100 pigs, she will try to hold everything but isn’t yet consistently finding, although she has caught and found us a few crackers!! Rogue our second pup, saw her first pig at four months old just after her last puppy vaccination. The first few pigs she saw, she was kept on a chain and just watched Shadow catch and hold the pig from a short distance. Then the next trip we let her go with a neck collar on and she lugged straight up. She has never bailed a pig and has hit hard ever since. 
  
  
  
  Rogue learned to grab the ear when lugging all on her own, the first pig she caught solo she smashed rolling both of them and lugged straight up on the ear. With some more numbers and a bit of maturing. Rogue has a lot of potential to become a really great dog. With her insane drive to catch pigs, I have no doubt she’ll end up finding. Rogue is my proof that it is so much easier to train up a pup when they can watch an older dog and learn everything they know. Nothing beats the satisfaction of training up your dogs from scratch, watching them grow and improve where they go out of their way to catch you good pigs. To me, these two girls are irreplaceable, and I wouldn’t trade them in for anything!