The Shortest Day Pig Hunt. It started Friday morning and the build-up hadn't been great, dog trouble? Oh no! They have been on a roll, three Boars in a row since Ming passing on. No, I'd slipped up big time, managing to sink the Material Girl (my yacht) Wednesday night, she was on the bottom still hooked on the mooring out front, but below the water. My attitude to her sinking has surprised a few friends, I haven't been upset really, to be honest I was more upset about Ming dying, I've been a risk taker all my life and if your gonna take risks you're gonna lose from time to time, and she was only a boat for Christ's sake and I sunk her with my own stupidity, whats done is done, crying about it won't change a thing, time to move on now, she will be on Trademe with a $1 reserve in a week. She has been a lot of fun all the same. Hey and when some-one tells you your boat will cost you 15% of her value every year, don't laugh! But still cheaper th...

Suckers and Squealers. I've meet my far share of both over the years and that's about all Me and the dogs have been finding lately. Well, that's apart from the boar that ended Mings life, and one other, the one we were looking for today. This pig had given me the slip at-least 3 times during the last couple of months, I just hadn't managed to get the holder there in-time, and before long he had taken the Bailers up and over the top ridge around 700 meters from sea level, never to be seen again. Up early and soon on the hill with the three bitches Lu, Puk and Jude, Ming's death had left a huge whole in the pack, but I was sure the others would step up. Windy this morning, blowing from the Northwest, a chance of showers, I had a plan to see if I could drop in on that allusive boar today, we'd only been climbing a dry Manuka ridge for 10 minutes, the scrub now starting to thicken up under the Manuka, the dogs now started winding up the hill, "her...

It had been a sad few days, with lots of reminders of Ming everywhere. It's times like this I start to question why I hunt with dogs, whats the point! There are lots of arguments around Pig hunting with dogs, humans have been hunting with dogs, since not long after the first wolf was first tamed, we then started breeding them, to the point where we now have a huge variety, mainly descendants of hunting breeds, even the poodle was a hunting dog originally used by wealthy Germans to hunt ducks. Without a doubt, dogs love to hunt and they especially love to hunt with their owners, who I believe get just as much pleasure from the hunting as the dogs do, just like we love to compete, huntings hardwired into our nature. Some of-course say pig hunting is barbaric. This argument coming from someone who doesn't eat animals or use animal products, is a compelling argument, but for anyone who eats meat, yet then likes to criticise pig hunters, I would say, if you can't bring ...