GBAEC Earthdog Trial 8/8-8/9-09

Spot was entered in Master on Sat and Sun. Neither day was a Q.

On Saturday we were in the 4th brace with a Norfolk terrier named Rizzi. We had trained with her before. She already has a title. The walk up was fine. They worked well together. The AKC rep was there, plus Monique was apprenticing, so we had a little group for the walk up.

When we got to the den area, both dogs kind of wandered. They were checking out a pile of debris, like tires and things. The judge waited a long time to see what they would do before telling them to go mark. I had to move pretty close to the rats-about 10 feet away-before he marked.

Spot marked first, so he went first. He handled the tunnels fine, and worked well. When it came time to remove the cover, I asked the judge to remove the cover, but she just pulled it off, and Spot backed up. Then he kept coming and going back and forth. Eventually he came out the entrance and I went and picked him up. Rizzi Q'd.

On Sunday we were in the first brace with a Scottie that we hadn't met before. This dog also had her title already. She was super, super slow. We were crawling up the walk up. We had to stop and wait a few times. The judge had us stop quite a ways back from the rats. I would say a good 30 feet. We stopped right near the debris pile and Spot was hunting in there quite a bit. So much that the AKC rep took some pictures. The Scottie went up and marked, and eventually the judge had me call Spot. He went up and looked, then went around the tunnel area, and again I had to walk up to about 10 feet from the tunnel before he marked.

Spot had to honor first. He started eating grass, which is a first. When it was his time he went right in. The judge had placed the roller in the first section, before the false den. I realized that Spot always turns right inside a tunnel. So the first right was the false den, then he backed up and turned right, which meant he had to come over the roller, and back out. He turned around and went back in and went to the false den again, but was able to get himself going in the right direction and get to the rats.

He worked the rats the full 90 seconds. Then it was time to take him out. I could tell he had moved back a bit, so I waited before removing the cover. The 15 second time limit doesn't start until the cover comes off. I thought he was up at the front, so I removed the cover, but he scooted back. He came right out the entrance, so I grabbed him. Turns out his mark would have failed him anyway, even if I had gotten him out.

After that, I was steward for Junior. We had 20 dogs. Only a few qualified. Most just wandered around. A few went in the tunnel, but not all the way, and one went in, worked, but then came out again!

Then I had to stay and help pack up. This is our last test of the season, so we pull all the tunnels and clean them and store them. That took a while, but we had lots of help. One bonus-we are changing our tunnels so they are all a standard size, and we had 4 two-foot sections that we didn't need anymore. I asked if I could take them so I could practice with Shelby and they said sure. Score! I tried to be cool-but this will be awesome. Hopefully I can practice and enter Shelby in the trial in Andover in October.