Bang earns NHC to Groundhog
17 October 2001 • Saturday
Jerry Stoeklein arrived in Tennessee to hunt. We were looking forward to hunting
with him and seeing his dogs work. About a month before we hunted in Maryland
together at the JRTCA Nationals. One of his terriers hasn’t had an ideal education to the
whistle pigs. There were two instances in Maryland where the hog bolted as
soon as she went into the sette. So she halfway expected anytime she
went into a sette for the quarry to come on out and then she could tussle with it above
ground. Our plan for that day was to get her on a groundhog and make her stick.
After breakfast on Saturday we started at a place that had brought opossum and groundhog.
We had his bitch and Bang down checking settes. His bitch went into a sette and started
grrr-ing. She was very interested and with some encouraging she explored the sette.
She came out about ten minutes later with skunk scent. We lit a roadway flare and put
it in the sette so that the skunk would succumb to his demise. There was no more luck at that farm.
The next place we went was to Mr. Lambert’s by his barn. There are many settes that have
always been riddled with groundhog. We have dug raccoon there once and an occasional
skunk but we thought that this would be easy digging if his dogs got in on anything.
We dropped his dogs to hunt.
As we were grabbing tools, Jerry said, “Awwww, Mary Beth let that little bitch pup of
yours run. Any exposure she gets now in the hunt field is good for her.”
“Are you sure?” I replied.
To which he answered, “Well yes! Why not? She’s still putting it all together!”
So we collared Bang up also and let her sniff along.
The four dogs and people were checking out all the paths in and out of the mounds by the
barn. Then Bang slipped into a hole on the backside of a mound covered in pokeberries. She
came out about five minutes later. I was on top of the mound as I couldn’t readily get
down to her and I encouraged her to check it again...that I was right there and I’d help
her out if she saw anything in there. So she slipped back into the same hole. About
ten minutes later, the other folks asked where Bang was. I told them she was exploring
this sette and that this was the longest she had ever been in a sette. Debby Calloway
tossed me her locator box and I started to find where Bang was. We didn’t want to
encourage Bang at the start of the hole since this was only her second time in the
ground and we didn’t want her to come out. I located her about thirty-five feet
from her original entrance. I didn’t think that reading was correct but both Jerry
and Debby also located her in the same area. We also found four other holes that
made up this very large sette. Bang continued to explore underground while we all
marveled at how great this was that she was starting to check settes on her own.
“What are you going to do when she starts baying?” Debby asked.
“She’s NOT in on anything” I insisted.
“She’s been in there close to thirty minutes” Jerry said.
“Well,” I replied “the only time she has seen a groundhog below ground was behind
a pitchfork and she was silent. I hope she doesn’t turn out to be a silent worker!”
Within five more minutes Bang started to bay. The four of us just looked at each other.
We couldn’t believe it! There was an eight month old puppy in the ground baying!
Jerry said, “Well let’s dig this little bitch that’s only supposed to be watching today.”
I said, “You know, it could just be nest...remember Isaac’s first sette when he was
eight months old and there was nest? We opened it up and he was a-barking on hog nest?”
Jerry said, “But we need to let her know about tools and what it is like to get dug to.
She hasn’t been dug to has she?”
It became apparent while we were obtaining an accurate location of Bang that she was indeed
on quarry. I was quite proud and in a state of disbelief. I never in a million years
figured that Bang would start hunting this soon.
We starting digging — the locator box said she was only two to three feet deep. Easy digging
and the whole while Bang barked her head off. Debby then pondered, “Wonder what she’ll do
when it bites her?” We then heard a scuffle and a Bang yelp. We stopped digging to hear
what was going on — Bang stopped baying for a brief time but then started up again.
(Isn’t it just a great feeling to hear your dog barking underground?
That’s one of the happiest sounds.) I then punched a hole with the bar to the tunnel
and we were lacking about six more inches. Bang stuck her nose up the punch hole and
we still encouraged her to keep up the good work and that we were close behind her.
She kept on working. When we opened the hole, we still couldn’t see the quarry so
we lowered Bang back in and she began sparring again. We thought the hog would either
bolt (snare was in place) or that Bang would get backed up to where we could see it.
Debby then said, “I see it! It’s right here. We punched another bar hole between Bang
and the hog and thunked on the bar with the shovel. This got ol’ whistle-pig mad and he
bolted. We snared him and then schooled some of the young pups before we released him.
It’s only four days since her first hog and I am still just a-grinning about it. She located
the sette on her own, entered it, went all through this huge sette, bayed and held the
hog, kept baying after she got nipped, and stayed on it while we dug to her. These are
lessons that usually take awhile to all come together when you’re starting a dog out.
Often there can be frustration when starting a green dog and you lose more quarry than
you get. Or the dog isn’t quite brave enough to enter the dark underground beyond their
legs just sticking out of the ground. Or the dog will be skittish about the tools or
won’t understand they need to stay on the hog’s butt or it will dig away.
I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect situation for her first groundhog. She worked it like she
had been working them for many seasons. And we’ve gotten a glimpse of what a good worker she’s
going to be in the years to come! It’s going to be grand — she’s going to be a real spit-fire!
People: Jerry Stoeklein, Debby Calloway, Mary Beth & Tom
Last modified: May 19, 2003
copyright © 2001-2003 by Mary Beth
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