Tails of the Travelin' Trio: Earthdog Fun

(Cottonwood, AZ) We've been waiting for this day for a long time. It was really hard to hold in my excitement. People kept trying to tell me not to expect too much as it usually takes border terriers two to four years to really develop a keen hunting instinct. Since Boogie is less than a year old it would be unusual to have enough instinct to do this well enough to pass. But I was excited anyway.

This weekend's tests were put on by the Arizona Earthdog Club (of which we are members).

Due to some kind of difficulties, the test started about an hour and a half late. They began with Masters - the highest level. I've heard about Masters but have never seen it since it is held back in the wilderness and spectators aren't allowed to follow along. But today I got a very rare opportunity to go along on one of the Master hunts. Today's judge is a very famous author of the best selling Earthdog book. She is working on the second edition and wants some new pictures. So she asked me to take some pictures for her. Cool.

The Masters hunt was so amazing. Before the event starts in the morning they have a draw. They draw names out of a hat and pair all the dogs up. Each pair is called a Brace. The brace that I went with was Tavish and Stu - two border terriers.

When it is your turn, you walk out to a designated place in the wilderness where you meet the judge. At this point they have a briefing where they tell you exactly what will be expected of both you and your dog.

Two dogs hunt off-leash in a totally natural setting. This is Tavish (Boogie's relative) during the hunt.

And this is Stu during the hunt - the other dog in this brace.

Their goal is to find a false den - I think in today's case the dogs had to go about 300 yards before coming to the false den.

Each dog must find the den and realize there is nothing at the end of the tunnel other than rat bedding. They must continue on and find the real den. The first dog to find it gets to work it first. In this case, Stu (the other border), found the den first but they must wait until both dogs find the den for the work to begin. Oh, the person you see in the picture is the den master who came over after the dogs found the den. She is making sure they don't get the door off the den.

Here you see Tavish finding the den and indicating this is indeed the real den.

The other dog must stand quietly and Honor. I'll explain what you're seeing here. On the right side is Meg, Tavish's handler, waiting while Tavish navigates the underground tunnels. The person you see to her left is Stu's handler. Stu is sitting beside her (hopefully quietly but in this case noisily) honoring. The person you see in the far background is the AKC rep who is here to make sure everything is done according to the rules. The person next to her (that you can barely see) is the den master - or some similar name. Her job is to make sure the den is open/closed at the correct times, to put the rats in and take the rats out of the den at the right times. The person seated is the judge - she is sitting just above where the rats are in the tunnel. And finally, the guy standing is an apprentice judge.

The first dog goes into the tunnel, has to find the rats, and then actively work them for 90 seconds. Working means barking, biting, digging, etc. Then the dogs switch places and the second dog works the tunnels while the first dog honors. On this particular hunt only one of the dogs passed (it just happened to be a Sunkist dog, Tavish!). The other dog was barking constantly during the honor - which is a big no-no. I can envision this to be Boogie's problem if we ever get to this level.

After the dog works for 90 seconds, you are instructed to retrieve your dog.

After both dogs have worked the tunnel, the test is over. The dogs and handlers then return to their set-ups while the judge(s) do their paperwork. In this picture (from left to right) is the AKC rep, the judge, and the apprentice judge.

The judge keeps very detailed records of exactly what each dog did during the entire test. Some of the things noted are hunting style, time to false den, time to real den, time to rats, style of working rats, honor behavior, etc.

This looked so fun! I can't wait for Boogie to get to this level. It really was fun to watch the dogs do what they were naturally bred to do. Since I had to follow from behind so as not to disrupt the dogs, I don't know that I really got any photos that would be usable for the book but I sure had a great time.

At the same time Masters was going on, Introduction to Quarry was taking place. This is not a qualifying event - it is just a good practice on a very easy little tunnel for beginner dogs. That drew a crowd of spectators.

Juniors was scheduled last today so it wasn't Boogie's turn until about 3:30pm. Boogie was the second dog to go in Juniors. He had been choking himself trying to pull me to the test area.

I finally had to pick him up as he was wheezing so hard. Then there was a delay so I set him down and held him as we waited near the spectators. You can see he is very focused on the task at hand.

As I was walking toward the line I found that I was shaking extremely hard. I haven't been nervous in nine years so this was a very odd feeling. (The last time I was nervous was when I first ran Wazzu in agility.)

I set Boogie down, let him pull me a couple feet while being very careful not to let him or me cross the start line which is 10' from the tunnel entrance. About a foot before the start line (or so I thought until I saw the below picture) I took Boogie's leash off.

Very carefully I let him move forward a few inches. Although you're allowed one command (either verbal or non-verbal) I opted not to give a command - that way if I accidentally do something that is considered a command, I'm still okay. (Funny, I thought I was letting Boogie go right at the line, when in actuality as you can see, I let him go at least a foot or two short of the line.) Look at his focus!

The second I let him go he ran straight to the tunnel entrance and disappeared. Yippee.

Then Boogie had to work 60 seconds while I stood still at the start line. I'm pretty sure those were the longest 60 seconds of my life. It seemed like I stood there for about two years. Finally the judge called me over and motioned for me to take Boogie out.

After praising him for a few seconds I pulled him out of the box...as he was kicking and screaming. I just about had him out when he made a sudden dive to try and get back in. Sneaky little guy.

But I was ready for that and managed to wrangle him into my arms. The judge then told us we'd passed!

The place where everyone sits and waits is about 50 yards from the test site. People always wait very anxiously for the person and dog to walk back and then everyone finds out if the dog passed. In my case they knew immediately as I started jumping up and down and holding Boogie high above my head the very nano-second the judge said we passed. Everyone was laughing and clapping for us. I was the only one that did the victory dance...but I just couldn't help it! Young little Boogie passed on his very first try. It was really fun to accomplish that with the people we've trained with there as well as his breeders in attendance too.

Out of 16 dogs in Juniors only four of them passed. I am so happy and proud that Boogie was one of the four. There are no placements - you either pass or you don't. But I was told that Boogie got to the rats faster than any of the other Junior dogs - he got there in just seven seconds.

As soon as the Juniors were done they started the Barn Hunt. This is just a fun game that they sometimes do after the test concludes. They set up a big area that looks like stuff you'd find in a barn...hay bales, branches, garbage cans, empty milk cartons, and lots of other "junk."

Then they take three canisters and hide them somewhere amongst the rubble. Two of the canisters have rat bedding in them and one canister has a rat in it. One at a time a dog is let loose in the "barn" at which time the clock starts. The dog has to try to find the canister with the rat. The handler watches the dog and when they think the dog has found the correct canister they say "mark" and time stops. If that canister does not have the rat then they get a No Time. If the canister does have the rat in it then the time is recorded. The idea is to find the canister containing the rat in the least amount of time.

The hard part for the handler is to know if the dog is telling them that is the bedding canister or the rat canister. So you have to know how your dog marks a true find versus something he's just checking out.

Fifty dogs participated in the barn hunt. All were eligible earthdog breeds except for three. Those three were Wazzu, Sparkie, and Slugger! Of course Boogie had a huge advantage (over our other three dogs) as he knew what he was searching for. Sparkie thought this was a really fun game! They hid Sparkie's in a really hard spot - it was up high and blockaded by numerous branches. She found the bedding canisters really quickly but immediately moved on. She kept air scenting where the other canister was but couldn't find any way to get up there as all the holes were only big enough for small dogs. But she was very diligent and kept working until she finally pushed enough stuff out of the way that she could get it. When she got to it she was crying and crying all while trying to pick up the canister. She got a standing ovation. Too cute.

Wazzu was next. She was too shy. Why were all these people staring at her?! So she just stood next to me. I'd tell her to go find it and she'd walk to the barn stuff and do a little sniff and come right back and stand next to me. I tried to get her to find it for three minutes and then asked to be excused. Poor Wazzu.

Slugger was last. He had no idea what he was looking for but he definitely knew he was looking for something. He looked and looked.

Finally he found something that seemed really interesting. But as bad as he wanted to investigate it, he just couldn't as every time he leaned in to try to sniff it a branch would move and he'd jump back like he'd been electrocuted. Of course everyone laughed. Even though it was scary he kept wanting to check it out so I decided that must be the one and called "Mark." Everyone clapped for little Slugger. He was so cute.

Boogie took off like a rocket checking the surroundings very quickly as he knew just what he was looking for.