Wally

Towards the end of the third training year - at the Forestry Training Center, Wakarewarewa, Rotorua - I managed to gain permission to keep a dog. Fair enough, dogs were not allowed, generally, but because I was to leave shortly; permission was granted.

Ross Lockyer and Bob Crooke were also allowed, though they were going into 'forestry protection' so perhaps needed a dog.

The three of us tootled up to Pukekohe on Bob's Model A Coupe to a dog breeder that had advertised in a paper we had read. For the record I sat in the small seat at the back - the Dickie Seat.

I bought a Doberman x German Shorthair Pointer, liver coloured and called 'Grin' by the breeder because that was what he used to do. Ross bought a Blue Heeler and Bob a Labrador x Alsatian.

I called my dog Wally after Wally Mapplebeck, my form teacher at CBHS who somehow managed to enthuse me to take education seriously.

Straight away I began to teach Wally manners and to behave appropriately - when you have special permission, you respect it or risk that permission being taken away.

At Naesby Forest, I had to convince Jack Rolls that Wally would be of no bother in the village, and he acquiesced. Trouble with this sort of thing is that you fight hard for a right and then someone else wants to be given the same right! Theo Russell therefore wanted a dog too, and Jack could hardly refuse him. His dog was a bit older and not so refined.

I used to take Wally for walks/runs morning and evening, mainly among the water races and dredge tailings. Making every day a lesson for him. Without being smug, I know about dogs and while I am no Dog Whisperer, I do not fear dogs and have the ability to manage them.

While I have had pig hunting dogs, and some thought them as 'savage', they were not, but having said that, if they were not chained up, I did not let them out of my sight. I have no truck with those who have these so called dangerous breeds and regard them as 'puppies', then somehow, they tear a young child apart! To me a dog is a dog and while you may well love it, a dog cannot be given the same status as a person.

Having said that, I wonder what was said of me as a walked in the suburbs of Christchurch. Cut off jeans for shorts, hobnail boots (fitted with tricoonies - if that's how it is spelt), with my dog(s) at heel. They were well trained and though they were not on a leash - verbally they were.

So on to Herbert Forest and I did not want Wally to be bothered with pigs. I wanted to train him to point to deer. As exercise for Wally, and for my own interest as well, I would take him pig hunting - me with a .22 rifle and Wally kept at heel.

I do have a lot of pig hunting stories and if time permits I will relate a few. Wally had learnt to pant silently when I was listening for animals.

Oh the other thing he did that I have never seen other dogs do - he would back into a low gorse bush and stand on his front legs only, and have a crap!

For a start, I would shoot smallish pigs, usually through an eye and I would share the meat among the forest workers. There were deer in the forest and very occasionally Wally would point one and I would shoot it.

He seemed keen to chase pigs though and so I let him do just that. He could hold (by the ear) a pig up to about 90 pounds and anything larger he would bail. This meant that I had to use my rough old .303 for the bail ups. I was getting too many pigs to eat so I sold them to Hughie Muldrew, who exported them.

Hughie used to employ a man in his butchery and I considered him unfair in his weighing and payment. And he was. My response was to fill the pig's mouths with stones to increase the weight - once I managed to place the butcher's saw in the rib cavity and gained that weight of that! It didn't give me very much more though.

I bought a big Alsatian x Collie fr9om the Dunedin Pound and Fred became a good companion to Wally. They could handle pigs, so well that I dispensed with my rifle. Using my Green River knife, I would slit the pig's throat! Hughie's buyers complained about this and and asked me to make a vertical cut and then cut the jugular vein without further cutting the meat. I did this many times, but on one occasion, I only cut the windpipe and the dogs had to re-catch it because they had headed off after more pigs, leaving me sitting on the rump of this one - when I stood up, he ran off!

The thing was though, I became to know almost every square meter of the forest because my dogs and the pigs took me there.

As well, I hunted possums for their skins and this too took me into every nook and cranny. Actually I bought my first colour TV from proceeds of possum skins.

Joe Bunting and Friend with Wally and Fred

On occasion I used to take friends out for a hunt and they were usually happy with the outcome.

As you can imagine though my old vehicle became a bit smelly with dogs and pig blood! Old Jim Robertson at the Waianakarua Garage and his offsider Jimmy Jamieson used to wash it out with disinfectant before they would work on it. I preferred the smell of the dogs to that of the disinfectant - but it didn't usually last long!