Hunting & Working

NK training day in the works.

shishiinu — Mon, 02 May 2011 20:20:05 -0400

Now that things have settled down a bit and I can finally clear my mind, I am planning a training day for my Kishus. I found a place Riverside county that has wild hogs in a large fenced area. The operation is high fenced hunting op that caters to first time hunters and for people who want to hunt with their dogs.

Now here's what I am planning, well I'm planning a trip up a few times from now to september. What I wanted to ask every one here is who would be interested in meeting up for a little NK hog training day? The cost is $450 per pig at the most (usually between $350 to $450 depending on the hog you end up harvesting). Its in a confined area so there are no worries of not findingyour dog although the place is some what big.

Once I have some who are wanting to try this out, I will call them to see if they have smaller pens to "test" dogs. Now if you dont end up harvesting a animal, there is a $50.00 fee for the visit. I have plenty of guns to share and nice thing is that its a license free area so no hunting license or tags are required. It would be a great oppotunity to fill your freezer and to get out and learn how to hunt.

If any one is interested please let me know. I am planning on going up once Koyuki is off her rag.

Koji's SPAM - Videos of 4 Shibas Getting Their Rally Novice titles added 1/21/2012

sandrat888 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:56:35 -0500

Here is a video of Koji's first herding lesson.

It was taken by another instructor at the facility who happened to walk by while we were in the ring. She stopped because she saw a Shiba and not the usual herding breed and took the video, so she could send it to her friend who has a Shiba to prove to her friend that a Shiba can be trained. :)

I obviously did not know what I was doing, but Koji seems to have a better idea than I do. I wish we could go back more often for herding lessons, but with Rally, Nosework and Agility, it is just very difficult to find time to keep doing herding.

How they used to do it

TheWalrus — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:48:28 -0400

Here's how they used to test the Hokkaido on bear at shows. The narration explains that the importance of this test is to judge the dog's wariness/cautiousness. The judge explains that it is an extremely important trait for a hunting dog to have a healthy level of cautiousness. If a dog attacks from the front with no regard for the superior power of the bear, the test is stopped as it shows the dog is lacking a healthy temperament for hunting. Attacks from the side or rear are awarded points.

Jagdterriers and a Kishu

yiasthoj — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:28:40 -0400

Here's a video of a Kishu working with two Jagdterrier baying a hog. I personally believe it's a nice team.

Big hog down! Warning graphic photos

shishiinu — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:44:56 -0400

So as some of you guys know, my wife is due to give birth like any day now. I been holding off on going hunting but the wifey gave me the green light so I can go out for archery deer one last time. ow a few weeks back I spotted a sounder of hogs in this place I have been hunting so I packed my rile just in case. Well the morning was uneventful with only two does coming out nar my blind. I decided to sit up high and just glass the field. Not 5 minutes later, I spot a couple of black dots running around.....PIGS!

I run back to the truck and change out my bow for a rifle. I stalk the hogs and to my amazement, they take me to hog heaven. I end up reaching a area loaded with hogs, I was able to accurately count 26 mature hogs and 3 dozen little piglets. I pick out a largedry sow and once she gets to about 25 yards I put a 308 slug right in her vitals. She goes down not 1 steps from where I shot her and as I walk up to claim my prize, two large boars come charging out of the rush. I yelled but one of them would not stop so as it got to 10 feet I shot my last round at the boar. Te boar spins around and runs off into havy cover. As I pull together and clean my underwear, I gather my stuff and drag the sow to my truck. After a hour or so of trying to load the hog, I go back and try to see if I could find the second hog. I search for a hour but come up empty and a wounded hog in thick cover is not a fun thing.

I gut the sow out and run home to get my brother and the dogs. This time I arm my self with a M1A SOCOM with a 20 round magazine full of 308 rounds. We get back to the large field and right off we spot 7 hogs on a hill side, 6 boars trying to mate with one sow. This time i brought Taro and Sammi out since Yuki is in heat and Taro is on her like white on rice. Taro immediately catch the scent and off he goes straight for the group of hogs. He singles out a medium sized boar and bayes it up like a champ, I almost cried at the sight of Taro baying te hog as if he's been doing it all his life.

Sammi is itching to go but I keep her on the lead until Taro can get better control of the hog. All of a suden the rest of the hogs return and begin chasing Taro. Taro grabs hold of the hog he was baying up and out of no where a larger boar comes out and runs Taro off. I couldnt believe my eyes seeing one Kishu against 7 hogs!!! Taro kept at it for a bit but I saw that the hogs were getting much more aggressive so Taro being smart saw that it was a loosing battle and came back without any cuts or scratches.

We head for the area where I last shot the second hog and let the Taro go. He runs into a patch of thick reeds near a creek and right away I hear him bark and pigs grunt. I can see the backs of two hogs and a bunch of pigles. Taro circcles the area and barks so I let Sammi go and its game on. Only problem, I see Taro fly through the air and a big rotti do a flip in the air! I call the dogs back and leash them up since the sows will be extremely dangerous because of the piglets. We search the area for over 4 hours but no hog so at this point I'm guessing that I missed the shot at the close distance although I have this bad feeling in th back of my mind.

65kg Dogo Argentino catches 45 kg Boar. Mildy Graphic

Clay — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:15:38 -0500

My 14 month old Dogo argentino(Bruno) has grown much bigger than what is termed normal for his breed.
And he still has a lot of growing to do as he is still just a pup. He is 65 kg now
I breed him for hunting wild boar here in New Zealand and he so far has proven to have a strong prey drive,
good nose and a hold that is so strong that some time he breaks a large pigs neck before I even get a chance
to use the knife. His share size makes it hard on him getting through tight thick bush but in the open native he is fast to hit the pig. He still has a lot to learn about tracking and with in another year and 50 -60 more pigs
he will be more confident.
This latest pig only got 30 meters before Bruno's got his large mouth over the back of its neck. It was a very quick kill and no meat was damaged. The pig is 45kg and looks quite small next to the large dog.

Boar hunting equipment

hondru — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:39:46 -0500

@TheWalrus @shishiinu

Any boar hunters out there want to share with me all the equipment they use? Gen, I know you were going to tell us about your knives. Best guns? Thanks!

Another big sucker down! Warning graphic hunting footage.

shishiinu — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 02:09:41 -0400

It has been a exciting week with a new baby in the house with lots of sleepless nights. This morning I had a job interview and when I got home the wife told me to get out of the house a little and enjoy some time with my 4 year old son Yusuke. The first thing Yusuke said was that he wanted to go boar hunting so I packed up Taro and Koyuki and headed for the hills for what I though was going to be a nice walk and some time to blwo some energy.

As we hiked down into the creek bed, Yusuke started to get a bit cranky and said "Dad I dont think there's any hogs here" I tell him dude we just got here! All of a sudden I hear Taro give out a nice bark. I stop and listen again and now I hear Taro and Koyuki barking their mouth off. I put Yusuke on my shoulder and sprint over the hill back toward the creek bed.

All of a sudden I see a red hog in the 140lbs range with Taro inching closer and closer toward the boars face while barking. Koyuki is circling the hog trying to figure out if she should get closer or not but she's barking and keeping at it from a distance. The hog truns and goes back into the creek bed and Taro goes right after it spinning the hog around and baying it up again. At this point I'm frozen cause I was not expecting this and I have a 4 year old with me...

All of a sudden I hear the pig squeal and Taro catches the hog on its cheek trying to hold it down. I bust out the crapberry and start rolling film the best I could (this is where I need a hunting partner). This goes on for about 10 minutes with Taro doing a bad ass job keeping the hog bayed up and going in and catching the hog. I sneak down into the brush with my 41mag revolver and put a round in the hog when Taro moves out of the way. The hog soaks up the round and continues trying to escape from Taro but with no success.

While all this is going on Koyuki is still circling and trying to get into the mix. At one point she gets a little too close and with all other green dogs, she gets bumped by the hog. Soon Taro gets a good hold on the hog and I jump into the mud sludge and put a second round behind the hogs head. The hog goes down but still is struggling to get up so I take out my knife and put a blade through its heart, killing it instantly.

I get the dogs leashed up, check for cuts (Taro had a cut vest on), and grab gear and kid to secure all the gear. Once dogs and gear were secured in the truck, I hike back with Yusuke and make a back pack out of the hog and hike out with the big sucker on my back. At one point I also had Yusuke on my shoulder so now I think I pulled a muscle in my shoulder.

Pics and vid to come, standby...

Tyson's training log --- 2 guns, Ty kicked ass

dlroberts — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 14:26:12 -0400

As I embark on this journey to train myself and to try to mold Tyson into a functional hunting dog, I thought I would post occasional updates in one thread. A place I can share what is working, what is not working, and how Tyson is progressing.

Over the past few months, Tyson's training has been almost exclusively on off leash work and recall. We have practiced recall daily in the back yard, and most weekends we get out hiking and let Tyson do his thing. Yesterday we turned a corner. I took all three dogs for a walk around Lake Raleigh. One side of it is a paved path with public fishing access. The other side is rugged and there are some very poorly maintained and often difficult to follow trails. Once we cleared the congested area, Tyson was off leash the entire time. For the first time in all of our various off leash adventures, two things happened: 1) He started quartering! and 2) He started using his nose a bit. I noticed this first with Joey that around 7-8 months of age, he began to follow scents more intensely. Tyson will be 8 months on the 30, and he's just now beginning to follow his nose. So those are both exciting developments. He also chased a few birds and small game animals. At one point I heard a big animal take off through THICK cover about 30 yards away. Tyson took off like a rocket to investigate. I kept walking down the trail slowly, whistling every 30 seconds are so. He found his way back 2-3 minutes later. I have no idea what it was, but I suspect a deer.

We also began some scent and retrieving work in the yard a few days ago. I elected to begin with a Chukar dummy and bottled scent. When injecting the dummy, the needle separated from the syringe spraying me and half my kitchen with chukar scent. Yuk! I got that cleaned up and finished injecting the dummy. Then I introduced Tyson to the clicker for the first time. I was using small pieces of turkey hot dog which he seemed to really like. In fact, he liked them so much I couldn't get him to focus on the dummy at all. By the end of the 20 minute session, I was able to get him to chase the dummy 5 feet or so, sniff it, then return to me for a treat. So, I plan to try again without the hot dogs. Just get him excited about the dummy to start. I worry he'll hard-mouth it to death, but we'll figure that out if/when it happens.

That's it for now.

Awesome video!

shishiinu — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:56:39 -0400

Not sure if anyone has seen this vid on youtube, gotta love little pups and a piglet play like this.

Pre-season Training

TheWalrus — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:44:49 -0400

The hunting season starts in under 2 months, so some friends and I took our dogs out for some boar training. My younger brother came out with me this time, and we had loads of fun. Baron's been staying with him temporarily, and he's done a terrific job with him.

We got there the night before, had a terrific outdoor meal with everyone, and some interesting conversation about the Nihon Ken. The next morn we were up bright and early for a great Japanese breakfast, then on to training.

Baron was amazing, but he's already had plenty of experience in the mountains, and my goal was to let my Shikoku pup Rome see boar again. Unfortunately he was really having any of it and was more interested in playing with the other dogs. We'll see how he develops over the hunting season.

Here's a friend's Kishu baying the boar. Unfortunately we ended up having to use a very large boar. The larger boar don't move around very much, and are much easier for the dogs to bay up. It's like that in the mountains as well. I guess the larger they are, the less of a threat they feel the dogs are to them, plus the larger boar tire faster.

Here are two Shikoku baying. The smaller female is just around a year old, and this was her first time seeing a boar. At first she didn't show any interest, but caught on very quickly. She has amazing potential, and by her second round later in the day was learning by leaps and bounds. You can see the male here gets charged and almost pinned by the boar, but barely manages to counter and flip himself over it.

'Kuro-yotsu-me' (black-four-eye) or B/T Shikoku are a minority in the breed, but yesterday I got a chance to see a mother/son combo baying up a boar. They were very nice dogs, calm, friendly, but tenacious in front of the boar. It's possible that they haven't had enough experience on boar to get the distance between them and their prey right. For everyone that watches watches my videos/reads my blog and thinks it would be fun to test their dogs on boar, or start hunting, well boar are dangerous game. I haven't seen any serious injuries in training, but I've seen my share in the mountains. Yesterday I had an unpleasant reminder of how dangerous boar can be if the dogs are even a millisecond too slow to react.

On another note, talked to the local hunters and found that they are testing wild boar for radiation in most prefectures up north. Some of the numbers I saw for boar in Fukushima/Tochigi were 7 times higher than legal consumption levels. Even in Ibaragi the numbers were 2-3 times over the limit.

Hunting the Dogo Argentino in New Zealand

Clay — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 07:23:05 -0400

Its breed soley for hunting and gaurding but also makes a great family dog if you
raise them with a firm hand and soft heart.
My pup Bruno is now 11 months old and seen here play fighting with my 50 kg mastiff Stark. Bruno has only caught one small pig but is almost ready now to be hunted with the pack.

Bear Hunting

souggy — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 12:29:20 -0400

Since Gen and I are starting to hijack a thread about hunting bears and cougars, perhaps it's best to move the discussion in a topic of their own:

http://littleheelers.wordpress.com is mine.

It's mostly about Nordic spitzes, but sometimes I blog about my Shiba.

@souggy: Love the Blue-tick and Airedale bear dogs!

@shishiinu: Thanks.

I need to start posting about the different kind of dogs people use on bears and cougars up here. There is one guy who uses a pair of Border Collies, there's at least two or three I know of that uses Elkhounds, about three or four I know of that uses Akitas (all rescued from the SPCA-- so sadly they're neutered), one uses a Jadgterrier... Catahoula Curs, Dogos, German Shepherds, Pitbulls. There is so many variety, it's unreal. There's even a kennel which uses rez dogs (dogs that come from the Indian reservations.)

Most common is the Black and Tan Coonhound, but some people don't like them because they can be dumb when it come to cornering a tom in a cave. (The first Plott's imported to B.C. was about five years ago, I think-- even though they are the traditional dogs in Ontario.)

Holy crap that's amazing that there are so many varieties of dogs used. In the US its pretty much your typical hounds used for lion and bear. There are a few ridgebacks and airedales used for bear and hogs and there's a hog removal company in texas that uses labs for hogs. Good stuff! I'm really surprised to hear that the plott is fairly new to BC, they are the ideal big game hound out here.

From what I understand, the variation in the breeds used is largely dependent on what the owners expect from their dogs. Since Black Bears are easy to tree, since there are bow-hunters who charge at the bear to tree them, any dog that isn't afraid of a bear could be used. From what I read, not everyone wants to spend a couple of grands on tracking collars, a retro-fitted pick-up truck with a containment box and all the expenses associated with owning a pack of Coonhounds. Not everyone want to pursue their dogs for a few hours on ends-- and certainly some people don't' have the means to replace their dogs when things go horribly wrong. Hounds are really bad for not knowing what to do with a cornered cat or a bear taking the last stand. Some people are fine using their family dog because all they want to do is tree a bear, shoot it, go home as they don't want to spend all season having fun with the pack.

Riley, my Swedish Vallhund, has a natural bear-aggression as well. Well, given his breed is tenacious; and they are bred to guard the pastures and to keep the cattle within the pasture while the farmers are away, I am not surprised he has an inclination for this. However I am thinking of getting a second dog, because if Riley decided to chase a bear and the bear decided to stand his grounds, I don't want shit to hit the fan. Two dogs confuse the bear; one dog just gives them something to focus on.

Ideally, I would like a Karelian Bear Dog; but I don't live an ideal lifestyle where it is appropriate to own one given I live in middle of a metropolis. Besides, if one asks if they are good on Black Bears-- most of the houndsmen would laugh at you and say to get a hound or a Catahoula cur instead, because the KBD are bred for Brown Bears, or Grizzly in our part of the world; and that they are not bred to run long and hard. The one question I have though is: KBD are used for grouses, martens, European lyxnes anything that can be treed in their native homeland, correct? If the name of the game is to chase a bear up a tree, I don't see why the working behaviour of a Karelian can't be modified for the North American big games.

I means freakin' sakes, there was one guy in the Washington state sometimes in the '80s or '90s who had a pack of Pembroke Corgis to hunt bears before the people sitting around at Starbucks in Seattle decided it wasn't sporting to hunt bears; or cougars for that matter. I can tell you, a corgi can't run long and hard like a scenthound can; they tire out really easily and they don't run all that fast. That didn't stop him from using them.

Anyway, back to the topic. The reason why I have a bit of an obsession with the topic is because my Shiba Inu was a bear-runner. Yeah, he could tree anything, flush everything and catch rabbits-- but his moral enemy is that big ol' bear. Before, I didn't agree with hunting, but after owning a primitive hunting dog for 15 years, I don't see anything wrong with it because there is nothing better than watching a dog suddenly has his gears rotating and spinning once he figured out what he was born to do. And once they figure that out, it's extremely hard to break them of it.

Edit: Moved topic to "Hunting and Working"

Wild boar hunt - Graphic content

Clay — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:06:40 -0400

Being winter here in New Zealand makes it the perfect time for pig hunting.
The pack caught this good size wild boar (pictured beside my girlfirend)in the native bush below the snow line. The main dog being Dogo Argentino did the finding and holding.

Maco got cut up a bit and required a few stitches so off to the vet

Shiba hunting pheasants

shishiinu — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 20:47:41 -0500

While surfing youtube, I found this vid on a guy hunting Japanese copper pheasants with a shiba. I think this if my first time seeing a hunting shiba. Not the best quality but pretty cool stuff.

Wild boar (last week and today): graphic content

TheWalrus — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 05:05:05 -0500

Today's boar. We finally got the bugger that's been cutting up hunting dogs. Over 100kg, took 4 slugs and a lot more to put him down.

Last week's 50kg female. Very nice meat.

The hunting hound

Clay — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:23:30 -0400

Here is quick look at the New Zealand pig dog.

For all the NY hunters

shishiinu — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 23:23:48 -0400

Looks like the hogs are spreading. I need to do a road trip and hunt hogs in different states, Shigeru and Dave up for a road trip one of these days?

http://news.yahoo.com/wild-boars-invade-farms-attack-pets-152731899.html

Boar hunting training set-up?

hondru — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:21:32 -0400

Okay, Shigeru and Gen, @TheWalrus @shishiinu I've been thinking that I might buy some boar piglets and set up some kind of training pen on my in-laws' property. It would have to be fairly short term, as they're an hour drive from me and I would be caring for them myself, so that's a lot of driving back and forth. So, I'm wondering how one goes about setting up a boar training pen and trains dogs on boars.

I'm not really sure I can pull this off yet, but it seems like everything should be fine. There's already corral there that was meant for loading sheep onto a truck, so I think with minimal touch-ups, it could hold hogs fairly easily. Maybe some hog panels and straw bales. It's got a freeze-proof hydrant right there for water. When I lived there, I was working on making it into a great big dog yard, but then the donkey moved in. But now donkey has his own pen closer to the house.

Anyone who wants to visit me and pitch in is welcome, assuming this goes ahead! If someone who's done this before *cough* Gen *cough* wants to show up, that's awesome, too! I'm also still hoping I can make it down to the training day in SoCal, but that's looking more and more like it won't work.

Garmin GTU 10

sunyata — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:46:42 -0400

I came across this nifty little device while looking for a new watch (my awesome, indestructible, waterproof watch drowned yesterday).

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=67686
"GTU 10 is a GPS locator that combines a web-based tracking service with GPS technology so you can keep watch on children, pets and property. Tracking the GTU can done on the web using any computer or by downloading the free Garmin Tracker app. If your phone can receive text messages or email, you can use GTU.

How It Works
The GTU 10 is small, lightweight and waterproof. It easily attaches to a backpack, pet collar or whatever is important to you.

When you purchase a new GTU 10, it comes with 1 year of Standard Tracking (see the coverage map), so you’ll be ready to go once you register and activate it in your Garmin account.

Then, you can view the location of your GTU 10 on a map from the friendly confines of your computer. For an added level of convenience, you can download the free Garmin Tracker™ app for your mobile device to compare your current location to the direction and location of your GTU 10.

Using your computer or mobile device, you can also:

Create up to 10 geofences (virtual boundaries) for your device. When your GTU 10 enters or exits a geofence, we can send you an email or text message notification.
View track history of where your GTU 10 has been.
Customize device settings for optimal performance, including low battery/powered off notifications to let you know when it’s time to recharge or when the device has been turned off."

It seems like it would be a fairly inexpensive gadget for hunters or those who like to hike their dogs off-leash.

The battery life says anywhere from 1 day to 1 month, depending on which type of tracking you are using.

Any thoughts?

"Hunting" Antlers

hondru — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:35:59 -0400

A good hunting activity for those who don't want to hunt live animals. Seems really fun. Of course, it will also provide antler chews for your pup.

http://antlerdogs.com/

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/hunting/2009/09/training-your-dog-find-shed-antlers

Hearing Assistance

hondru — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:52:19 -0400

I looked into this a while back when I was looking into Iceland sheepdogs, and now I'm wondering if kai (or shiba) wouldn't be good at it. I should contact some people. I already wrote a letter to a breeder who I heard was selecting shiba inu for service dogs, so I'm anxious to hear back from them. Anyone else know anything about it?

Here's a link.

Hunting (turkeys and other things)

hondru — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:34:27 -0400

@shishiinu @TheWalrus @dlroberts

I'm getting ready for the upcoming hunting season - taking all the courses and getting all the licenses I need - and I'm thinking I will train one or both of my dogs to help me. Sosuke if the SAR doesn't pan out and Rakka regardless. Even though she's getting kind of old to start training, I know she's still got drive and is still capable of learning, so it's worth a shot.

So, I've been deciding what animal to hunt with my pups. Boar and deer are an obvious choice for NK. Boar aren't that common, so there are places to hunt them in the wild but not many. There are "penned" hunts, too. It's illegal to hunt deer (and all big game except cougars) with dogs here. It's not even legal to have a dog with you while you're hunting big game, so if you're hunting birds with a dog and you see a deer, you will get in trouble for shooting it. I had thought of trailing wounded deer, which is legal in BC and Montana, so I'd have to drive there to do that. Which doesn't rule it out, but makes it more inconvenient. Which is a real shame, because deer would be my preferred quarry.

There are also bears, cougars, and other big game predators but I'm really not interested in hunting anything I can't eat.

Also - when your dog is baying an animal, how do you shoot the animal without shooting the dog on accident?

So, in trying to keep with larger animals, there are turkeys, which from what I can tell, are hunted much differently than other birds. Turkeys aren't native, either, but they do live in a wild in a few areas. Gen, you hunt turkeys. Do you use your dogs to hunt them or do you do that by yourself? I read on one website that dogs are supposed to bark when they flush turkeys, and most bird dogs don't do that, although NK like to bark at their quarry, am I right?

Other game birds - Dave, you hunt upland fowl. Tell me about your decision to do that versus other game.

Waterfowl - anyone have any experience with that? Probably best left to water dogs, I suppose. I happen to know that Rakka wouldn't retrieve anything from the water, and I think the jury is still out on Sosuke.

Also - taste. Does wild boar taste similar to pork? Does wild turkey taste like domesticated turkey?

Boar Training (graphic content - sort of)

TheWalrus — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 20:24:57 -0500

Pulled from my blog again.

Yesterday I attended a gathering of NIPPO NK owners/breeders/hunters at a boar training facility in Ibaragi. We do this several times a year to test the hunting ability in show dogs, to let young dogs see a boar for the first time, and to test hunting dogs on their skill and hunting style.

There is a large fenced off area of the mountain into which the boar is released. The dogs are then taken in, usually one by one, to find and face off with the boar. At the end of the day, the boar is dispatched, taken to a butchering facility and the meat split evenly between all in attendance.

I took my Kishu Baron (1 year 6 months) and my Shikoku Rome (5 months). Baron is a started dog who has done very well this past hunting season. He was introduced to a harvested boar at 2 months and surprised us all by baying at and attacking it. He accidentally found his first boar at just over 3 months when I let him out of the car for a short walk. Rome was seeing his first live boar today.

Seeing as there were a lot of young dogs and pups in attendance today we chose a small 20kg boar to release. All the dogs did well, with some of the young pups showing a lot of promise. The siblings of Koyuki, a Kishu I sent to a friend in the States in December, were there and did very well. One of the girls was taken in with her mother and actually went so far as to catch with her.

Boar are at the pinnacle of the food chain in most parts of Japan, and hunting them is dangerous for people and dogs, requiring a lot of skill and perseverance. The dogs need good noses to track and find the boar, stamina to keep up with and stop them, agility to stay out of the way of charges, speed to keep up with them, and skill to know how to tackle boar of all sizes.

I spent most of the day in the fenced off area helping to retrieve dogs once their turn was over, and avoiding (a lot of jumping) the boar charges. I end up climbing a lot of trees and dodging a lot, which makes for a fun day for me, and a lot of laughs for everyone watching from outside the fence.

Baron did well as expected, rounding up the boar quickly, and not letting it move much at all. I was very happy with the way he has learned to deal with boar. He basically keeps his distance till I get close, then taunts the boar to charge him, keeping it from running away, and dodges/nips when it does. Rome took a while to figure out what was going on, but after showing him the other dogs working the boar, he got the idea and began baying. I don't ask much more of a pup seeing a boar for the first time.

So, here are some videos. No pictures from today as I smashed my Nikon while climbing a tree. Even small boar are ornery buggers and will charge/bite anything they can.

Rome bays his first boar

Baron working the boar

Me telling Baron and Rome to wait while a friend's Kishu male works a boar

A friend's female Shikoku baying a boar

Me getting charged by a little boar repeatedly while in the enclosure with a friend's young female Kishu

Great spring break week.

shishiinu — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 22:05:13 -0400

Took a few days off to take a break from work and regain my sanity in the quiet woods. Wednesday morning I was in the turkey hills to get my 3rd and final turkey at 0500 or o dark thrity. I get up on top of a big hill overlooking thousands of acres. As the woodpeckers and crows start sqwaking, I hear gobbles from different directions but a bit far away. I sit and wait for the sun to come up and as I set my decoys out, I hear nice loud gobble only 70 yards away.

I get sit up quick and get ready. As I start calling at the turkeys, the gobbles get closer and closer. All of a sudden I get another gobble directly behind me and I can see that he is a nice sized tom. I align my gun on the tom as he walks in to my decoys and boom! He piles up and thus ends my 2011 spring socal turkey season.

The next day I take my son to do some fishing. I knew that the area had left over pheasants from a recent put and take pheasant hunt so I took my trusty 20ga side by side and my trusty bird dog Hana. We fish for a few hours as my son out fishes me on big bluegils and crappi. I hear a pheasant sound off on a hills side so I get the gun, dog, and my son and head for the hill. Hana sniffs around a few bushes and I see a pheasant make a run for a big deadfall. Hana follows the scent trail that the pheasant left and immediately find where the bird was hiding out. For some reason I didnt see the bird but Hana flushed it directly in front of me and boom, one shot one bird.

I have to say that it was a great week hunting with friends, fishing with my mini me, and workig Hana. Now hog hunting here we come. Tomorrow will start my pig hunting season with Taro and Koyuki. I have a feeling tis season may be a good pig hunting season.

Hosoda line Kishu ken (graphic).

shishiinu — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:07:40 -0500

Not sure if this video has been posted but a great clip of some of the most impressive Hosoda line Kishus in Japan. I can watch this over andover again. As most know, My dog Taro and Shigeru's dog Baron are both Hosoda line Kishus. Taro is still a work in progress but I hope one day he and Koyuki will become awesome boar dogs.

Took them out today and Taro again missed a nice size hog. It seems that if a hog is over 100# he has a really hard time stopping it. On the other hand we did catch a 60# sow which I ended up releasing. Yuki had a blast barking her head off at the little sow andeen went in and pulled on the sow's rear leg.

First turkey of the season

shishiinu — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 17:49:27 -0400

Went out this morning (0300) to go hunt wild turkeys for the California turkey hunting opener weekend. Went out saturday but I was met with 29 degree weather with snow and drizzle, cold 20 to 30 mph winds. Needless to say it was a horrible opening day. So sunday morning started early and again I was met with drizzle and cold temps but minus the strong winds and snow whic means I have a chance at nabbing a wise old tom.

This time around I took my wife with me as moral support and made it a date day chasing turkeys. Well after walking through the dark woods with only one flash light, we finally made it to the meadow where I have been looking at on google earth. After checking the tree to make sure we weren't sitting on a ant hill, I got the decoys set up and the blind constructed.

Around 6am, the woods blew up with loud gobbles coming from about 8 different wild turkey toms. Once I was able to hear the turkeys fly down from the roost, I began calling. My calls were met with thundering gobbles and also with my wife telling me that hr back and butt hurts from sitting on the ground. Oh and did I mention she's 2 months pregnant?

Soon we get three toms gobbling in front of us and after watching them strut and almost destroy my decoys, I put the bead on the biggest of the bunch and lights out....After 3 shots.

Another one down.

shishiinu — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:19:28 -0400

Went out again this morning to a new location near the area where I bagged the turkey from yesterday. I was met with gobbling activityabout half hour before sunrise from almost 360 degrees around me from bout 10 different gobblers. My first set up was great as I called in about 12 young toms simillar to the bird I took yesterday. They kept coming in by trios and it was great watching them tryin to mount my hen decoy.

At about 0930, I decided to try a small clearing bhind my location and after setting up, I immediately got gobbles from three jakes. As the jakes came into the clearing, three large toms made their way toward me and began fighting with each other. As I waited to se which bird was the dominant gobbler, one big pissed off tom chased all the turkeys out of the clearing and began walking toward my decoy.

I slowly inched around the tree since he was directly to my right and as I took the safety off gun, the tom noticed memove and came out of the full strut and gave me just enough time to put his lights out. Since the turkey was so close to my location (10 paces), he went down like a sack of rocks. Final tally 23lbs, 1 inch spurs, and a 10 inch beard.

Sorry about the horrible photo, I need to do some thing about that farmers tan! Stink'n asian rednick...

Thoughts on this type of activity?

Saya — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:09:22 -0500

I can't believe this is legal in my state.. Yeah I'm against it.

I'm fine with controlling predators if need be, but this seems too much to me especially with fox there's not many fox in the wild here in my opinion they get controlled by cars I see a lot of them get run over..

http://www.nuvo.net/indianapolis/coyote-ugly-indiana-dnr-reverses-its-position-on-wildlife-penning/Content?oid=1859690

I'm not against hunters, but this seems too much too me how is this training? I'd rather have a hunter call the coyote/fox with mouse or rabbit distress call or howlers and then shoot them for a quick kill..

I'm still in process of reading it all, but thought I'd post to see people's opinion on this.

I raise veggies it's just a small garden, but if it wasn't for coyotes we'd have too many rabbits and my garden would have to be fenced in etc..

Last day of duck season.

shishiinu — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 19:45:58 -0500

Well its been a slow year for ducks and geese this year. Hana has made a full recovery and she has been itching to go out so I figure a quick trip to the local pond would be good for her. We had a super great morning with wigeon, green wing teal, and cinnamon teal dive bombing in to this little pond for the first 45 minutes of legal shoot time. Its just amazing watching flock after flock make a steep dive from well over 1500 feet in the air. I had a flock of cinnamon teal come in and it sounded like a jt was landing into the pond.

We had geese working he area but since they been shot at all season long they were weary on coming to the pond. Now every thing was going great but for some reason I couldnthit the broad side of a barn today and we came home with one drake wigeon that floated in front of me. I ended up winging the wigeon so Hana had a hard time catchin up to the duck. As you can see in the pics, Hana was chasing that thing all over.

Now time to clean all my duck gear and time to get ready for one of my favorit animals, the american wild turkey! But before that I will spend the next two months until turkey season chasin local hogs with my Kishus. As a matter of fact I will be doing just that tomorrow.

Pic from my blind

another

My decoy spread

Hana on her way to the duck

WTF dad can you kill it next time!

Where did it go george, where did it go??

I got it, no I dont...

Now I got it dad!!