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The Shiba
is, of course a scent hound first and foremost Shibas have been
used for hundreds of years in their native Japan to search out
small game, primarily rodents and fowl. Bear, moose, elk and other
large game have been successfully hunted as well.
Today, Shibas
are active in drug enforcement, search and rescue as well as in
hunting and tracking.
Our Ashiba
certainly showed us her abilities, when without formal training,
she successfully tracked down her pup over a three-kilometre area
of dusty gravel road and dense rainforest.
It started
innocently enough. After three days of camping and hiking on the
west coast of Vancouver Island, we were heading back to the car,
loaded with backpacks, tents and equipment, and accompanied by
two of our Shibas, Ashiba (four years old) and her pup Anjin-Sun
(seven months).
The trails
are crisscrossed by bears and cougars. However, we left the two
dogs off the lines as the narrow, boggy trails were difficult
enough to handle without dogs tugging on lines.
At about kilometre
one of our five kilometre route, we were passed by two young hikers
on a day outing without backpacks, allowing them much faster going.
Unfortunately
our dogs were ahead of us and resorted to their instinctive behavior
of staying ahead of the "game," in this case the two hikers, and
trying to stand them.
In short order,
the dogs where hopelessly far ahead of us and gone.
It should
be noted that this part of the world is somewhat remote.
How remote?
Well the nearest town was Bamfield, a town of about 500, ten kilometres
away. The next closest was Port Alberni with about 5,000 persons,
but it was 100 kilometres away. In between was nothing but coastal
rainforest and perhaps a logging camp or two.
Trying to
suppress our panic as our beloved dogs disappeared was not easy.
At the trailhead we had a very joyful reunion with Ashiba. Anjin
however was nowhere to be seen. After loading our gear into our
van under the watchful eye of Ashiba, and repeated calls using
our dog whistle, it was clear that a ground search was required
for the missing pup.
Ashiba was
put on the line and immediately began to track her lost offspring.
After three kilometres of dusty road, complete with speeding pickup
trucks, swamps and moss-covered rainforest, we found our little
Anjin huddled under a tree stump.
Ashiba never
wandered from the track, in spite of the vehicles, the varied
terrain and water.
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