Tyson's first "hunt"
I've been back in Atlanta for a few days now, so I figured it was time to get Tyson out in the woods. The weather has been AWFUL for doing anything outdoors: 90-95 degrees and 80% humidity. So all of my pups have been getting limited exercise. Lucy and Joey are old enough that they can deal with a few days of limited walks, but The Tysonator still has energy to spare.
Tyson and I hopped in my truck today and we set off for a nearby (relatively speaking) WMA. I was trying to find the "dog training area", but the map I had was horrendously poor. I ended up going down some pretty gnarly dirt roads. At one point, I hit a dead end and had to back up 1/2 a mile on a tight, steep, muddy, single track. That extra dough for the backup camera in my truck was SOOOOOOOOO worth it today! The annoying part was I just washed my truck yesterday. Now look at it:
The front is a solid sheet of mud.
The first thing Tyson did when we found a good area to "hunt" was crawl around under my muddy truck. He got REALLY dirty.
After I got my boots on and armed myself with my trusty Canon 40D, we set off through the dense brush. Tyson stayed right behind me for the first 25 minutes or so. He would stop to sniff or take a brief breather in the shade and then trot back up to my heels. After about 30 minutes, we found a field. He seemed more comfortable with the open terrain and ventured out a bit to explore.
(I think he looks really handsome in those last two!)
After he ventured off 20 or 30 feet, he would stop and come running back to me for a treat.
On the whole, I'd call the day a success. The only thing Tyson "hunted" was a butterfly in the field. He stalked it, chased it, and came damn close to catching it. Otherwise, I think he was happy to just be outside even though it was a disgustingly hot and humid Georgia summer day.
Despite Tyson not hunting much today, I have high hopes for him. He shows some serious defensive drive which I suspect will play out nicely in the face of a feral hog. It can be a bit of a pain in the ass when meeting new people or dogs though. He has a fantastic high-pitched and loud bark that will carry long distances in the woods. He also has near perfect recall (although he is still a 5 month old puppy so I expect that to get worse at some point). I think I'm most excited about his athleticism and movement. He weighed in at 29 pounds last Friday and he's still a bit uncoordinated, but he jumps and maneuvers really well. His rear end is extremely fluid---one of the best I've seen on a dog in a long time. You can get an idea from this picture here:
On the home front, Joey and Tyson are doing really well. They get along extremely well and seem to have their boundaries pretty well established. Joey did get into it with him a little bit yesterday over a tennis ball he thought I threw and couldn't find. Otherwise, they wrestle and chase and roll around together a lot. Princess Lucy is pretty happy to stay out of it. She likes her peace and quiet, so having Tyson around to entertain Joey's play desires is perfectly alright with the princess. Lucy has had some resource guarding issues with Tyson that we're working on. I didn't expect those at all, but now that I see them the signs were there all along. Luckily Lucy is all bark and no bite and Tyson knows that. He basically ignores her even when she's trying to get in his face about something.
Just was things are settling down, I'm going to go and pull the rug out again. I'll be in Atlanta for a few more days, then I'm moving to North Carolina. My roommate moved out officially yesterday. It's getting real!
Sorry about the poor quality on the photos, I was trying out a new auto focus setting on my camera and it didn't quite do the trick. I also shot a bunch of them holding the camera down by my hip. With the heat and humidity I didn't want to be pouring sweat all over my camera.
Tyson and I hopped in my truck today and we set off for a nearby (relatively speaking) WMA. I was trying to find the "dog training area", but the map I had was horrendously poor. I ended up going down some pretty gnarly dirt roads. At one point, I hit a dead end and had to back up 1/2 a mile on a tight, steep, muddy, single track. That extra dough for the backup camera in my truck was SOOOOOOOOO worth it today! The annoying part was I just washed my truck yesterday. Now look at it:
The front is a solid sheet of mud.
The first thing Tyson did when we found a good area to "hunt" was crawl around under my muddy truck. He got REALLY dirty.
After I got my boots on and armed myself with my trusty Canon 40D, we set off through the dense brush. Tyson stayed right behind me for the first 25 minutes or so. He would stop to sniff or take a brief breather in the shade and then trot back up to my heels. After about 30 minutes, we found a field. He seemed more comfortable with the open terrain and ventured out a bit to explore.
(I think he looks really handsome in those last two!)
After he ventured off 20 or 30 feet, he would stop and come running back to me for a treat.
On the whole, I'd call the day a success. The only thing Tyson "hunted" was a butterfly in the field. He stalked it, chased it, and came damn close to catching it. Otherwise, I think he was happy to just be outside even though it was a disgustingly hot and humid Georgia summer day.
Despite Tyson not hunting much today, I have high hopes for him. He shows some serious defensive drive which I suspect will play out nicely in the face of a feral hog. It can be a bit of a pain in the ass when meeting new people or dogs though. He has a fantastic high-pitched and loud bark that will carry long distances in the woods. He also has near perfect recall (although he is still a 5 month old puppy so I expect that to get worse at some point). I think I'm most excited about his athleticism and movement. He weighed in at 29 pounds last Friday and he's still a bit uncoordinated, but he jumps and maneuvers really well. His rear end is extremely fluid---one of the best I've seen on a dog in a long time. You can get an idea from this picture here:
On the home front, Joey and Tyson are doing really well. They get along extremely well and seem to have their boundaries pretty well established. Joey did get into it with him a little bit yesterday over a tennis ball he thought I threw and couldn't find. Otherwise, they wrestle and chase and roll around together a lot. Princess Lucy is pretty happy to stay out of it. She likes her peace and quiet, so having Tyson around to entertain Joey's play desires is perfectly alright with the princess. Lucy has had some resource guarding issues with Tyson that we're working on. I didn't expect those at all, but now that I see them the signs were there all along. Luckily Lucy is all bark and no bite and Tyson knows that. He basically ignores her even when she's trying to get in his face about something.
Just was things are settling down, I'm going to go and pull the rug out again. I'll be in Atlanta for a few more days, then I'm moving to North Carolina. My roommate moved out officially yesterday. It's getting real!
Sorry about the poor quality on the photos, I was trying out a new auto focus setting on my camera and it didn't quite do the trick. I also shot a bunch of them holding the camera down by my hip. With the heat and humidity I didn't want to be pouring sweat all over my camera.
Comments
Looking forward to more pictures and updates!
Hope all goes well with the move, and best of luck in the new job!
Sounds like he is fitting in rather nicely.
And he has some donkey on that rear end! lol
I took him to the shooting range today to get a feel for how gun shy he is. I went with my neighbor and we had the entire area to ourselves. There was one guy at the rifle range and one guy on the shotgun range a few hundred yards away. I stood about 100 ft away as my neighbor fired off a few rounds and Tyson didn't react much at all! I was very impressed. Lots of treats and praise. A few minutes later my neighbor fired off his 9mm and Tyson decided that wasn't cool. I had him on a 40ft leash and he ran all the way to the end of it. I called him back and he came, but refused treats. I decided that was enough for today and put him back in my truck while we finished up shooting.
I gave Gen a call for some advice and he suggested I get a .22 blank pistol and start firing that occasionally when we're on walks in the woods. So I'll wait a few weeks and start him on that. On the whole, I was very proud of the little man today, just like I am every day. :-)
@Brad: YES! His head is filling out nicely. He's still growing a lot (I decided today he's officially bigger than Joey) and his head is still a bit small for the rest of his body, but it is much more in proportion now than it was.
Your boy looks like he had a great time! He kind of looks like a hyena in that 3rd picture! He also looks similar to a Huskey mix I almost adopted a few months back, but with dark eyes! Sounds like he'll be a great hunting dog when he gets older!
Great pics. man looks like you two are a perfect match!
If I may, I have a few questions for you with regards to your first trip afield & your future plans with Tyson as a hunting dog. Did you take any precautions when you let Tyson run off lead to ensure you didn't lose him?. I mean, if Tyson got on a deer, fox, or coyote, once his prey drive kicked in ,wouldn't he run them into the next county & totally ignore you calling him off? Did you have a radio collar on him ? I'm pretty sure you can use dogs to hunt deer in Ga. but at this time of year ,there are a lot of young fawns in open meadows .I know , even my shibas would run down & kill a fawn in a flash . Do you plan on hunting deer and/or pigs with Tyson?
I'd love to take Koshi out & let her just do her thing , but I really think that if she got on a deer in all likley hood she would never make it back alive.I'd love to hear your and anyone elses insight on this.
I have been drilling recall with Tyson multiple times per day since I got him. At his age, he is not very adventurous yet. He is extremely attached to me and doesn't wander out of sight at all.
He is also very biddable at this age. I practiced with him on squirrels and rabbits before taking him into the WMA and I am able to call him off. I don't expect that to last forever though, he's only 5 months old. I will be getting a Garmin Astro for him to wear when we're in the woods. But at this point he really doesn't range very far at all. I also, in this case, was carrying two water bottles that were filled with ice and sloshing around. Any animals we got near would have heard us and headed for cover. That was intentional.
I do hope to hunt boar with him. I will let him tell me if he is comfortable with it or not. I am planning to make a few inquiries with hunting clubs and private reserves when I get to NC to try to find some piglets I can start him with.
So, basically, yes I am concerned about it. But I also know that if we are going to hunt together, I am going to have to learn to trust him in those situations. So it is a learning process for both of us.
I think you'll love boar hunting with Tyson, I really think the best training in the world is get him hunting with a pack of older experienced dogs . Of course not yet he's still way too young , and they would only intimidate him at this point ,not to mention the danger of the boar itself. That's very exciting I can't wait to follow your hog hunting experiences.
If you know any boar hunters in NC let me know!
Most of the hunters I've met I've been found to be super friendly & more than willing to take you on & teach you. ~
Dave you saw my hog pen with the pigs, thats all you really need to get started. Nice thing is that when you start with small pigs, you dog will grow with the pigs and over time Ty will gradually learn to bay a large pig. Nice thing is you will end up with lots of tasty pork afterwards! Another thing is that you should get a tracking device. You need Ty to venture out and build his confidence to get out. A dog that ranges out only 40 yards will have a hard time triking hogs. You want your dog to range out,imho minimum of 100 yards to beable to find hogs. Trying to get a 100 recall is not going to happen and if you want a good ranging dog, you should really encourage Ty to go out.
As Taro grows, I'm seeing that recall onl works when he is within range. I will whistle at him to let him know where I am but other then that, I go on his terms. Although he will always come to me when he goes out for a bit and doesn't see me. He ranges on a average about 90 to 200 yards which is a good start. He is willing to go through thick cover where hogs bed down so he has been showing alot more intrest in looking for pigs. Teaching a dog to chase big game requires a gradual training method. Its going to be impossible to get him going right away on baying/catching hogs.
So Dave start small, and big things will happen with Ty. Start him on pig hides and raw pig feet to get introduce the smell and taste of pigs. Use pig skins as toys for him and if you need any let me know, I will send you some. One really super cool thing that taro has learned from Bacon (my male hog) is that bacon will charge him and nip at Taro. It has taught Taro to keep his distance and mostly bay by constantly moving and barking around the hog to keep it from running away. Once the hog runs, Taro will nip its hind quarter to turn it around. Taro has become a natural at doing this lately. I think when Taro reaches a year old and grows a little stronger he will be ready for the big tuskers.
Sorry for rambling but there is a whole lot more involved and it will take a book to write about it.......
For instance in training a boar dog, getting it on large numbers of pigs becomes really important. You're dog's skill grows exponentially with experience. The hunter needs to be able to take his/her dogs to areas where the game is, and be able to at least have a good guess where the game is, and the best way to get the dogs on it.
I had a bit of a leg up because I hunted without dogs for a few years, but I wouldn't give up those years of solo stalking for anything. It takes so much work and patience to trudge through the mountains for hours on end just to get close to your prey. You learn a lot from walking the mountains, and it makes hunting with your dogs seem almost easy.
I'm not sure if it's a Kai/Kishu thing, but Haru is so biddable and easy to train it's a breeze. My Kishu are much more hard headed. When it comes to the mountains they've got major tunnel vision. Like Gen said about Taro, Baron/Momo are basically running patterns around me, and I just whistle every now and again to let them know where I am.
I'm off to a training facility tomorrow with the dogs. It's basically a mountain that's fenced off, and they release a boar in there the day before. Will try to get some video/pics of the day as I'm going with several friends and their dogs. They're all Nippo breeders, and only one of them actually hunts with his dogs (Kishu). The rest of them all breed/show Shikoku, but they take their dogs for training every so often to see if their prospective breeding animals have their hunting instincts intact. They also tag along with hunters during the season, using their dogs. Should be a fun day.
These guys gave REALLY good advise, Immerse Tyson in hogs, hunting, seeing , smelling, tasting ,hearing, chasing & being around hogs & other hog dogs as often as possible. This is what is needed for a hunting dog to develope into his fullest potential! Good luck!!
I'm sorta interested in hunting with dogs mainly just learning about it I don't know if I cared to actually do it, but it might be something I'd like to do one day.
Is there a online store or something where I could buy a boar skin? I've always wanted to get one to see how Saya would react to it.. The places I've been to only sell the usual raccoon pelts, hats, purses and things like that..
I do plan to start small. I expect it will be a year at least before he is some semblance of a decent hog dog, but I'm looking forward to the ride. :-)
You guys actually answered one question I had: What do you do when your dog ranges out of sight? Do you follow it? Stay where you are? Or keep going where you were going? It sounds like the answer is to keep going and just whistle or call out so he knows where I am.
Man, I can't wait to get started on this! If the damn movers weren't coming this week to move me I would be going full speed ahead. I guess I'll just have to wait a week or two. :-/
There seems to a large number of hog hunting outfitters in N.C. and I'm sure many of them have there own camp dogs . I'd bet if you called on a few local outfitters and explained your situation . They wouldn't mind letting you & Tyson join them from time to time. Just a thought :)
When you hunt with NK basically what you want to do is have them stick around near you only ranging further when there's scent. After walking with your dogs for a while you'll be able to tell when something's up, and that's the time to stop and wait to see what happens. If the dog doesn't find anything, he'll come back, make eye contact with you, and then move ahead again.
When dogs are young and in training, if you rush them, they'll make a habit of not thoroughly searching an area for fear you'll move ahead and leave them behind. Best thing you can do is to move at your pace, and when they're after scent, stop. When they come back to you, start moving again. They'll soon learn that they're hunting with you, and move in a pattern around you.
Whistling every now and again is just to let them know exactly where you are. I use it a lot when I change direction, or if the dogs start going the wrong way. Best not to talk in the mountains as game is very sensitive to human voices.
I took all the dogs to a boar training facility today. We had a great time with a lot of my friends who don't hunt, but still want to 'test' their NK every once in while. There were a couple dogs out there that just did not have what it takes to work boar. They knew what they were up against, and after seeing the boar trotted right back to the entrance asking to be let out. So, just a heads up that some dogs will work out, and some won't.
Another thing to keep in mind though is that some dogs have a style of hunting that is no conducive to working penned boar. Haru's an example of that. What she does in the mountains when she finds a boar is come running back to me with her ears back and tail down. She looks at me, and I follow her to the boar. In a training pen she finds the boar, comes to look at me, and it's all over. Anyway, I'll post some pictures later.
I took a couple nice charges from the boar, and jumped over it a few times too haha.