Some of our members here may recall how I lost my little hunting dog - Walker - just over a year ago in her endeavors to protect my wife against a Black Mamba…

Well, I pondered for a long time about a replacement for my little warrior as Walker was a "one of a kind" type of dog and I wasn’t sure that I would ever find a suitable replacement for her…

Somewhere around September last year as the 2016 hunting season drew to a close I decided I was ready for a new dog but didn’t quite know where to start looking for one. My wife was of the opinion that we should get a rescue dog from the SPCA but I wasn’t keen on the idea.

It is interesting how the stars sometimes just align as, at more or less the same time, I came across a FB post advertising a JR puppy for sale…

I contacted the guy and asked him how much he wanted for the puppy and his immediate response was: "Hey, you’re the guy who lost his JR due to a Black Mamba bite!"

Long story short - he was touched by the little obituary I had posted for Walker http://forums.accuratereloadin...621012812#1621012812 which was also published in a local hunting magazine and decided to give me the puppy for free…

We named the new addition to our household "DT" and you can draw your own conclusions where that name came from… The little guy fitted into the Troskie household very well and I had high aspirations for him as hunting / tracking companion right from the start.

I had a hunt booked in my Tuli Block concession for this year by my good friend Paul from WY and during our visit with them in the States last month Sabina came up with the idea that this would be the ideal opportunity for 7 month old DT to be introduced to hunting.

Paul has been hunting with me for the past 9 years and he has become a dear friend who wouldn’t mind the little hiccups that go along with training a new hunting dog and he agreed without hesitation to be part of the training exercise. The Botswana hunt was an opportunity for us to visit as friends and for him to get some hunting done at the same time.

We struck it lucky on the first day when Paul made an excellent shot at an ostrich that dropped in his tracks after receiving a shot from Paul's .375H&H. I took DT closer who at first seemed a little intimidated by the large chicken laying dead in front of him but he soon started growling and biting at the Ostrich' legs and getting a taste of its blood. Ostriches don’t make for good trophy pictures so I've opted not to post a picture of the bird here. Sabina is very happy though as she will soon have a new Ostrich leather handbag and Patty (Paul's wife) has some great ideas of what to do with the feathers…

The next day we found a herd of Zebra and Paul shot a big mare who ran all of 80 yards before we could hear her collapsing out of sight. I called the truck in and DT (on a leash) immediately found the blood trail - leading me right up to the Zebra where he barked and fought the heck out of the perfectly dead zebra. To be honest - I was more excited about the potential that my new little dog was showing as hunting dog than the perfect shot Paul had made.


DT with his first Zebra

We loaded the Zebra and continued hunting for another. Luck soon struck and Paul shot a nice stallion. I called DT in and again he found the track immediately and took me straight to the Zebra.

This time he was even more ferocious in his attack on the dead animal!


DT’s second Zebra

En route back to camp I saw a nice Waterbuck and we pursued on foot to have a closer look. Paul’s 300gr Barness TSX bullet did the trick again and we had a dead 31" Waterbuck. There was no need for DT to track anything this time as the Waterbuck died on impact but DT still seemed pretty darned proud of "his" 3rd kill for the day.


Paul's Waterbuck

The workers needed some rations and we were happy to oblige. Next day Paul shot two Blue Wildebeest as rations for the staff and each time when taking DT up to the kill he became more-and-more fierce in trying to kill the already dead animals.

Paul had already hunted Eland with me before but as the saying goes : "You can never hunt too many Eland" so next on the list was exactly that…

We spent two days looking for Eland and after many miles on foot tracked down the bull below - finally getting a shot from about 40 yards.



In the process of tracking Eland our hunting party found themselves surrounded by herds of Zebra, Wildebeest and Impala on several occasions. So when Paul made his shot at the Eland the whole veldt erupted with animals running in all kinds of directions - one of them - a nice Wildebeest made the fatal mistake of running towards Paul instead of away from him and as he was a nice one… Paul shot him in the run at a couple of yards.



The Impala below found itself in Paul's crosshairs the next day… At the shot it jumped probably 4 feet into the air and collapsed less than 5 yards from where it was standing. DT did not have to work on this occasion…



A great way to introduce my new hunting companion (DT) to the sport of hunting and to share this experience with my friend and hunting companion (Paul).

Post Script:

My Tuli Block hunting concession encompasses 30,000 acres of prime game habitat in Botswana - ideal for those who want to hunt a variety of plains game species in a large hunting area. The property is equipped for rifle and bow hunting and provides one of the best plains game hunting experiences in Southern Africa.

Good to hear that you got a dog. I had to put a 15 year old Aussie and a 14 year old Border Collie down in the last few years and told myself no more dogs. That only lasted about 6 months, it doesn't seem like home without dogs in the house.