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Romandachs
07-17-2006, 02:03 PM
Louisville Dachshund Club had their FIRST Earthdog Sanctioned Test today. We are hoping all is well with our paperworks and will be able to start having our own Earthdog Tests in Mid Kentucky. We REALLY lucked into finding some Great people and Grounds, when we found the Rolling Fork Beagle Club. All the members are FANTASTIC and we had our Field Trials there last fall for the first time. Then when we applied for a Sanctioned Earthdog Test, they agreed to let us have it there as well as putting in permanent Dens on their some 350 acres of land. The Bunnies have been plentiful when we was there, they allowed practice with the dachshunds in the fields this weekend while DCA Region IV had 2 earthdog tests and we had our match. Cheri Faust and Larry Golhke both donated tons of time and their expertise to help us get started. It was a HORRIBLY HOT weekend with Temps near 100 degrees and humidity at 95%, I think the comments of the weekend were...Lets do this some other time of the year!! We just had errors in our paperwork due to misunderstandings of what needed to be done up front that by the time it was fixed, our time to have the Sanctioned Test was NOW. Anyway, the Beaglers watched most of the weekend, they are very helpful and curious about our short and long dogs. A few of them went out to the fields and ran their Beagles with the Dachshunds, how awesome is that?? It is a win, win situation and a great opportunity to learn from eachother.
So how did things go??
I ran numerous dogs both days. I started several in Intro. Cinder has passed intro once a few years ago but has not been back out since then. Milo (Cinder's Daddy) has always wanted to just cheat and go to where the judge is and get the Rats from above. I entered Missy Ann strictly in the Intro. She is almost 10 years old and dearly loves Rats, Mice etc. but it has never really "clicked" with her, so I didn't want to push her too much. I entered Onyx and Homer in the Intro, both almost a year old, they had seen their first REAL rat a few weeks ago outside the fence, since they carried on so much and really had a drive to get the Rat I entered them. It would have been nice if they had known a verbal command to "Get The Rat" prior to doing this. Onyx totally refused to go into the den, Homer refused during the intro, enough to fail but he judge was VERY nice and let us work him a bit longer and see if we could get it to "click" then once he figured out what he should do about going into the den to find the rats, he did it perfectly/ So I entered him in the JE Later.
So Saturday, I ran:
Miss Mon: Intro and JE, which for Intro, she went in, came back out, went back in, worked them a bit and came back out....FAILED.
I already had her entered in JE, afterall she LOVES to get the RATS! And she FAILED!
Homer: Intro and JE: Failed/Failed (That JE tunnel is Looooooong and Dark!!) But since he did kinda "Get It" I entered him for our match and Intro On Sunday.
Onyx: Intro and JE, Totally refused to go into the Den on Intro, so I ended up not even running him for JE.
Missy Ann: Intro....QUALIFIED! I didn't have her entered for JE at the time, but since she did so well in Intro, I entered her for JE...ans she QUALIFIED!
http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL959/4873249/11582811/168018565.jpg
Milo, Intro and JE, Qualified, Qualified!!
http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL959/4873249/11582811/168018553.jpg
Cinder, Intro and JE, Qualified, Qualified!!
The judge was impressed with this Father/Daughter Duo, Cinder was 2 seconds behind Milo for Intro, then closed the gap a bit more for JE and they worked almost exactly the same.
At the last minute, since Truffles had gotten out of my ex-pens numerous times and came to the clubhouse looking for the rats, I decided to enter her in JE but wished I had entered her in the Inrto since she has absolutely no experience with Dens. She took 10 seconds too long to figure out she needed to go into the hole in the ground to find them, she reached the rats at 40 seconds, then worked them the required 60 seconds. Maybe next time!
On Sunday, I had 6 entered in the match, Everyone doing the match failed! They couldn't seem to get past the entrance to the den.
I had Homer and Miss Mon entered in the Intro to Quarry. Homer QUALIFIED! Yeah, not bad for a baby who has never seen a den or knew what the word "Rat" meant. Miss Mon needed the second command once again to go and stay in the Den. She worked the Rats as required but still failed. Since she was more excited I went ahead and entered her again for JE.
My JE starters for Sunday were Homer, Truffles, Milo, Cinder, Missy Ann, and Miss Mon. Everyone did HORRIBLE for the JE Match so I didn't have much hope anyone would do anything. Everyone wanted to Cheat to get to the rats via where the judge was sitting. So I was HOPING someone would get back on track for the official JE run.
Homer wouldn't go into the hole and his 30 seconds was up, so the judge asked me to encourage him again to go in, so I actually picked him up and put him inside the entry of the hole and said "Get the Rats", well he cautiously went in and did make it to the rats and then worked them the 60 seconds required. I think he will eventually get it, but alas he will be going to a pet home and I don't know if they will have any interest in taking him to ED tests.
Miss Mon did her usual in and out mode til her 30 seconds was up, so I encouraged her to go in, she went maybe past the first turn and came back and looked at me. I think her biggest problem is, she knows she just can't get to them in there. Some don't care, they will work them and bark at them anyway. Miss Mon says...I can't get them in there so WHY bother! And that hole is too dark and too long for all the effort!
Milo tried to cheat, he went along the top of the den, went to the judge, messed up his time so that when he did finally decide to go in he missed his 30 second limit. He did however work them for the allotted time, maybe next time! At least it finally "clicked" with him. He always tried to cheat in the past and would never go into the den. He said, I can just get them from the top down by that person sitting at the end :D
Truffles went into the Den immediately and QUALIFIED for her first leg of her JE
http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL959/4873249/11582811/168018559.jpg
Cinder went in and immediately started working the Rats and QUALIFIED for her second JE leg and she is now:
Romandachs Return To Cinder NW ROM JE
http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL959/4873249/11582811/168018552.jpg
I am SOOOO Proud of her. She is due to have puppies around August 3rd, and she REALLY had the hunting drive.
There was two titles earned this past weekend. Minnie a Parson Russell Terrier completed both of her legs for her Title and Cinder got both of hers for her JE title.
http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL959/4873249/11582811/168018558.jpg
I look HORRIBLE in these pics, but with the Heat Index at 105, humidity at 95%, I was sweating to death!
We had a GREAT weekend, far better than I ever expected!

Anatresia
07-17-2006, 02:14 PM
That's great!!! Your kids are talented AND beautiful!!!

I think my Rigby would like Earthdog. She has that dachshund "scream" when she goes out at night, or if she sees a squirrel or bird in the yard. She will stare endlessly out of the window, watching for prey. And we had a rat living under our deck that she would sniff and run back and forth as it ran around. (We have since used a trap to take care of that problem.)

Congratulations on your winning wieners!

lizzieb38
07-17-2006, 02:18 PM
:cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: to all of them. Good job furkids!!! Don't worry about how you look, cuz I'm sure we all look like we've melted!!!

Frzframe
07-17-2006, 02:19 PM
Way to go Cinder girl. Just love her to death!!! Sound like you had a very busy weekend. I don't know how any of mine would do but I think Dudley would be to scared and Mitzi would try to cheat. :(

Alex's Mom
07-17-2006, 02:44 PM
milo is probably thinking "You hoomans is DUMB!!! Why on (or under) earth would I do all that work when I can do it the easy way?? Dog oh dog, ya godda wunner about dose hoomans sometimes!" *shaking head* :rotfl:

Congrats to all your guys...I'd love to see an earth dog trial (Alex wouldn't be much good at it I don't think), but we don't have any around here :sosad:

areese
07-17-2006, 02:50 PM
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:
We did an earthdog practice (there's a terrier club out here that does practices and trials.) Laika was insane. It almost scared me. She was in "intro to Rat" LOL and got her teeth locked on the cage and was yanking it out of the woman's hands. Screaming, crying, FROTHING at the mouth. She did an intro tunnel once but mainly all she wanted was that FIRST rat. She kept trying to get away and back to that same rat. It obviously was HERS. It took her hours to stop thinking about that rat....
I think I might do more with her after we get our CPE agility championship. I'm afraid if we really got into it, it would wreck any chance of us running agility outside cuz she'd be hunting instead. But she loves it so after we get our C-ATCH, I was thinking it would be her turn to do something she really really loves and was born to do...

Patt
07-18-2006, 03:26 AM
Good job! :appl: :congrats: :1jump:

Tex
07-18-2006, 07:31 AM
:way2go: :perfect10 :way2go: