Update

Went hunting again the day before yesterday. All the tracks we could find were from at least 2-3 days earlier. Tried my 2 favorite areas (which most years no one hunts), but found nothing new. Even went to my pheasant spot at the end of the day to pick up another bird, but the pheasant were gone too.

Just as I was driving out of the area, I saw a gentleman walking down the road in his hunter orange. I asked him if he was after birds or pigs, and wonder of wonders, he was after pigs. Asked if I'd seen any, and I told him all the tracks were old. He told me that during the 3 day weekend the whole area had been shredded up by a large group of hunters with over 10 dogs. They'd only taken 1 pig, but I think they frightened the crap out of everything in the entire area. Wish I had known before I spent the whole day looking.

So no pigs or birds anywhere to be found. They probably all retreated further back and away from civilization. Will need to range farther in next time I think. Will definitely be a few days before they come back to the area. Good news is I've gotten very friendly with one of the local hunters, and it looks like he'll be able to help me out a lot with training the pups. I dropped by his house at the end of the day and got a peek at his 20 or so dogs. He's even got a Kai in there, but it's trained for bird.

Haru is getting more and more stamina, even at the end of the day she's still raring to go. I guess all the work over the summer getting her in shape is really paying off. Still, trying to take it easy on her as she's still young and growing. Lots of breaks during the day, and a few days off between hunts at the moment.

Baron's ears are totally up, he's getting bigger by the day. He's still peeing everywhere in massive amounts. I don't expect too much out of a 2 month old pup, but he's a bit crazy in this regard. Took him out yesterday to the middle of Chiba city to get used to the sights and sounds. All the people around didn't phase him one bit, and he loved all the attention. Trying to get all the socialization in on a Kishu pup is a must in my opinion, the next thing to work on is dogs. He loves playing, but every once in a while we've met dogs that he didn't seem to like. Hopefully we can work through this and not have it turn into anything problematic.

Last night we had a late thanksgiving dinner over at a friends house. Awesome food, great company, what more could you want! It was all good till we got home and realized what the pups had been up to. The bedroom was a bit of a mess, and Baron had peed on the bed. I've crate trained some of my dogs in the past, but most have done fine without being crated. He seems like he may need the crate. Will ponder this over the next few days. Wife was not happy about some of the things he chewed up last night.