Often, when I say that I go hunting and perform the task of the canaio, people say to me: "But you don't even fire a shot, what fun are you having?". I smile and I am not offended, because they do not know what it really means to be a canaio.
Going hunting is not always synonymous with shotgun and shots fired. The canaio is the one who seeks, follows, leads the pack of dogs and allows others to shoot the wild boar. Without me and my loyal hounds it would not be possible to fire a single shot. Without us, it would not be possible to hunt the boar.
I prepare myself throughout the year for this task, I constantly train my hounds to make them become better and better and get ready for the opening of the hunting season.
My name is Silvano and I am a canaio. My hounds are named Shrewd, Mia and Jenna. We track down the boar and lead it to the guns.
A few days ago the hunting seasonwhen the phone rang. It was Giovanni, who said: "Hi Silvano, how good are your dogs this year?". I replied with a smile: “They are the best in the area, you know. When is the hunting trip scheduled? ”. John hesitated and replied: “In four days. You are ready?. And I: “We are ready all year round !!”. Next to me was Shrewd. He listened to the whole call and seemed to have understood that he had to get ready. Not for nothing did I call him Shrewd. After the conversation with Giovanni, I put down the receiver and looked at my faithful friend and told him: “In four days we will go hunting”. Shrewd began barking, rallying Mia and Jenna. He seemed to be saying to them: “In four days we're leaving, get ready !!”.
The next three days I took the dogs for long walks in the scrub surrounding my cottage. I wanted to keep them in training without wearing them out too much. The day of the hunt came. The alarm went off very early, before dawn. Mia was already on her feet, while Shrewd and Jenna were still lying on the floor of the house, but with their eyes open.
They were ready and I was excited. Once prepared, I leashed the dogs and let them get into the car. They were silent, focused. After a while we arrived at the appointment. Giovanni and the rest of the team were waiting for us.
We all said goodbye and after having organized ourselves by assigning to remind everyone their own task, we left and went into the woods. The smell, the colors and the sounds of the forest are something unmistakable: the dry leaves that creak when you step on them, the smell of moss and the brown that dominates everything always gives me new sensations.
I dogs quivered from the desire to start. Once everyone had taken their position, the huntsman, namely Giovanni, blows the horn: the hunt had begun. Shrewd, Mia and Jenna began their work head down, sniffing the ground for the boar's trail. They were quick in their movements as if they didn't want to lose even a second and immediately find a trail of smell to follow.
Rumors spread throughout the forest urging the dogs to find the trail and scare the boar to lead it towards the guns. More than twenty minutes passed when Mia found a trace and the others started barking in a row. Every time I went hunting my only thought was their safety: it happens that the boarfeeling hunted, he attacks the dogs causing them quite serious injuries. I knew they were able to defend themselves, but a raging boar becomes very dangerous.
The dogs followed the boar's pass and at that moment he realized that it was not very far from us, even if I had not yet been able to see it. Suddenly I saw him in the distance, at a distance of about twenty meters. He turned towards us and his heart began to beat strongly: he could load the dogs and this worried me. Instead, the boar started running in the opposite direction, towards the rifles.
The dogs pursued him, barking frantically. The boar was faster than the dogs, but it was heading in the right direction, towards Giovanni's rifle. After a short chase the boar had disappeared from my view, I was no longer able to see it.
I could hear the dogs chasing him. I waited anxiously for the shot from the rifle. He heard one of my dogs yelp and I thought it was being attacked by the boar, but it wasn't. He was slightly injured by stepping on brambles, but he didn't think much about it and continued the chase. You hear the shot in the distance: Giovanni's rifle had hit the mark. A blow to the side of the boar, which after a few meters had fallen to the ground.
The dogs realized that their job was done and that they had done it perfectly. All three turned to me, as if waiting for my compliments. I stopped to look at them smiling. I called them opening my arms and they dove on my chest. I congratulated them, stroking them and saying: “Well done !! You did it !! ".
Shrewd made a very long bark, as if to say: "We won !!".
My name is Silvano and they are my dogs.