Little WDs

The Little White Dogs...Saturday was their day as we were up before 4:00 and headed to Ocala for the yearly earthdog test...it is just THE coolest thing ever to get to watch dogs do what they were bred to do...obedience and agility events are fun, but nothing like the events that tests your dogs' natural innate abilities and temperament...just like border collies, or any breed for that matter, terriers are NOT for every one and not every person could live with mine...but I love terriers especially Jack Russells and terrier trials and earthdog tests...talk about "mindless fun" for me and a nice change from having to memorize and strategize an agility course! aaahhh pretty much turn the dog loose and let it hunt...so cool!

Both Pauli and Bosco show in the master class. The judge holds a briefing and then there's a drawing and all the master entries are randomly paired with another dog. These days, 95% of the terriers at these tests are border terriers...with a few Jack Russells, Carin Terriers and Smooth Fox Terriers and Schnauzers thrown in. Bosco was paired with a Border Terrier and was the very first brace to go and Pauli, whose brace was also a Border Terrier, and someone I knew, yeah, was the sixth brace. There were 10 master teams total.

At the master level, the dog is tested on 7 different “skills.” The first is the walk-up. The two handlers and two dogs and the judge start about a football field length’s away from the made-man den that has been buried underground. The two brace dogs must actually hunt their way to the den. The dogs must not heel or stay with the handlers and the judge, but must cast out and hunt, each dog being required to check back with the handler at the judge's request. The dogs must investigate an empty, unscented den that has been set up for the test. Then both dogs must find the entrance to the real den and mark it decisively so that there is no question the dog is indicating an active den. The den itself is a 9x9 wooden liner about 30 feet in length, buried underground that has two obstacles: a 6 inch diameter PVC pipe crossways in the den to simulate a root and a narrowing down to 6 inches for a distance of 18 inches. First dog to “mark” the entrance to the den, is the first dog to work. The dog is released into the ground and has 60 seconds to get to the quarry; must work the rats for 60 seconds and must allow himself to be removed from the den by his handler within 15 seconds. While one dog is working the other dog is staked out and must wait his turn with minimum amount of noise while his bracemate works the quarry. The dog has to “pass” each piece of the test in order to earn a qualifying score. Four qualifying scores is a Mater Earthdog title, M.E.

This is what a liner looks like

I was a little worried about the walk up with Pauli as she is 14 years old now and is totally deaf. But she and her brace had a perfect walk up. Both dogs casted out and hunted and Pauli used her brace partner as her ears! She would also look to me, and I would give her an arm signal to come in which she totally read...what a good dog! Pauli was the first to mark the den. She took the judge by surprise as she was through that 30-foot tunnel within seconds and at the rats chewing on the wooden bars to get to them. She did however, fail the honoring portion as I opted not to tie her to the stake as I know she would have crushed her throat pulling and lunging on the tie-out.

I didn't care about the pass or fail, I just wanted Pauli to get to do what she loves most...hunt. This is probably the last earthdog test she will be able to do, and she had a blast!

MACH, ADCH Terrier-ific St. Pauli Girl, ME

Bosco's walk up started out a little scary as he took off running the second I took the leash off of him but he totally took me by surprise when he came to me when I recalled him and then hunted with his brace until we got to the den! He was the first to mark and the first to work but just could not negotiate that first left turn and kept coming out of the false exit at which point, the judge asked me to retrieve him so that his brace could work. But another surprise, he honored and didn't scream his head off!!! Good try, buddy!

Foxer's Moon Yur Not the Boss of Me
OA, OAJ, SE (Senior Earthdog) JJ (junior jumper)

After the test we stopped by to see my mom who lives about 20 minutes away from the show grounds. My nephew, his girlfriend and their little boy Josh had driven up from Miami to visit my mom and go to Disney!

How cute are they??!!!

It was a long day and by the time I got home at 3:00 that afternoon, my poor Border Collies had been in my van basically since 5:00 that morning...so we just hung out in my yard and played with toys...more mindless fun for me...I didn't get a pic of Burn, but he was right there, lying in wait in the grass like an alligator watching Triumph be a goof with his toy!