THE PREPARATION
Training, practice, and exercise are key elements for survival in the wild.
I believe that when a dog puts his life on the line for his master, whether it is in the home protecting his property, or in the woods hunting a wild animal, the master should be proud to have such a friend. When it comes to hunting, the hunter must be willing to follow his dog through rugged terrain in the most adverse conditions to arrive and assist his companion in what he has asked him to do. in my case, hunting for wild boar.
Over the last twenty-five years, I have seen many a dog go into the woods In pursuit of wild boar, some return, some do not. The ones that do not are remembered for many years in the stories that are told. Stories that when written will have captions like "Yeller fought that four hundred pound boar until . . . and "Remember that night when Tina saved my skin when she grabbed that big hog by the..." and "I'll never forget the night cousin Lance and I crawled Into that cave while our dogs were fighting hogs all around us. Buford and Slate were already badly cut . . ." etc. . .
These dogs become legends to their owners and their children and even grandchildren. The stories are undoubtedly true and the dogs themselves are irreplaceable in the minds of many hunters. I have personally hunted hogs for many years, and over the years have lost some of the best dogs I have ever seen hit the woods. The pain of losing a good dog is only overcome by the pleasure of seeing another dog step in and lead the pack on a successful hunt another day. Of the dogs that do return from the hunt and most of them do. Several of them have numerous battle scars as testimony of their pure dedication to the challenge they truly love. This is what impressed me the most about the Dogos I have come to know. They possess a great desire to pursue their quarry. And being the true hound that they are, when given the opportunity, they will stop at nothing to fulfill the task at hand.
A great hunter I know once said, "I'd rather see my dog loose his life doing what he loves the most, rather than have him wither away dying of boredom and old age cooped up in a pen. If I can no longer hunt him, I will put him in the hands of someone that can." When I first heard my father say that I thought it sounded rather harsh, but then I realized how much I feel the same way. Naturally none of us want to see any of our dogs seriously harmed in any way, so we do what we can to prevent it, but that is not always enough. It's kind of like the fastest gunman In the west, there is always going to be someone faster. With this feat, it is the enormous boar with the six-inch tusk that threatens all challengers.
It may seem like a lot to ask of a dog to track, run down, attack, fight and hold a big boar until you can get there. The truth of the matter is, it is a tremendous task, but a true hog dog would rather do that than anything else on this earth. In most cases, he has been trained from the time he is old enough to tell the difference between a hog and another dog. In some breeds, like the Dogo, it is in their blood and the instinctive desires take over the instant they see a hog. The enthusiasm comes so natural to them that little training is required. The main thing that has to be realized by the dog is the exact animal that is to become their prey. Consequently, we use only wild hogs when training our puppies. Dogos seem to have little doubt about what he is to do with them. I tip my hat to the Nores Martinez brothers for a job well done. I fully intend to do everything in my power to ensure the Dogo Argentino breed remains pure and intact. We currently have three adult Dogos, one dog and two bitches. Now they have rewarded us with thirteen puppies, assuring us future generations of hog dogs. We are using the adults for the primary purpose of hunting wild hogs. Because none of them had ever seen a hog prior to our taking ownership, we spent several hours training each dog to hunt in a controlled environment.
The response was incredible. After the Dogos learned what a hog looked and smelled like, their desire to hunt increased daily.
