Cattle Cairn

[bradl]

Today at the CRCTC earthdog test Stella appeared to be auditioning for a job at Dempsey's farm.

The hunt-up route took us past a pasture with four cows. My little velcro dog (we've actually been failed on the hunt-up once or twice because the judge felt she stuck TOO close to me) took one look at the cows and decided NEW QUARRY!

She ducked under the (turned-off) hotwire and started barking at the cows and circling them. Twelve pounds of fury, she gathered up these four cows into a thundering clump and moved them to a corner of the pasture. The cows were running around themselves a fair bit and at one point I saw Stella rolling across the grass. I don't know if she got kicked or was just doing the "Cairn speed roll" they sometimes do. She was completely unfazed so I believe she was just doing a maneuver.

After the cows were apparently adequately clumped to Stella's satisfaction, she finally deigned to glance in my direction. I'd given up calling and whistling for her, so we used the old "I'm leaving" feint and started walking into the woods. At that point she finally decided to leave the beef and rejoin our hunting party.

She did not pass the test, either. The judge allowed a restart in the woods (ruling the cows a distraction) but Stella's indication of the quarry at the den site was lackluster. You could practically see the wheels turning in her head ... "Maybe I'll just blow this joint and head back for some more cattle action!"

It was not our day at the test. In Junior, Dundee took a $20 dump, just as Echo did during her Senior test. Oh well, that's earthdogging some days.

Despite our lack of official results, Stella impressed many onlookers with the pluck and versatility of the wee Cattle Cairn.

[Lynn in TN]

I can't blame her I like steak too.

[TazTalk]

What an interesting day you had! Stella believes she comes from a line of herding dogs, eh? Never a dog momemt with Cairns. I like your sense of humor and perspective with the whole thing

[finncaraid]

Good girl Stella! Don't blame you- why go after a bunch of dumb rats when there's bigger prey close by?? Maybe you should enter Stella in local herding competitons. Bet she'd show those border collies a thing or two. Perfect example of big dog attitude in small dog body!

[kjwarnold]

You go, Stella!

[Hawkeye]

Stella is #1 in my book! She just brought Earthdog up a level

[pindrop]

Sounds like you all really had a wonderful time - I know it's a bit disappointing not to have come away with some trophy but when I read how much fun Stella had, in my book you can't beat that. As they say - maybe next year. Thanks for such a wonderful narrative - it was very descriptive and I quite enjoyed reading all about the pups exploits.

[bradl]

Nah, it's not even disappointing! We are lucky in that Stella, Echo, and Haggis are already Master earthdogs, so there is no pressure at all - we enter them because we're already at the test working as organizers or test committee anyway, so why not let them have some fun during the day?

(Well, we don't enter Haggis any more due to his age -- he's along to nap and wag and try to beguile treats out of passerby )

Dundee is young yet, so he's there paying his dues, and learning little bits by experience. New earthdog people often ask me "How do I train my dog for this?" I usually tell them "I don't know, we train ours by writing checks for entries and let them figure it out on their own." A slight exaggeration, but only just.

[Kathryn]

I do so often wish I knew what these little dogs were thinking! Way to go, Stella!

[Lynn in TN]

I do so often wish I knew what these little dogs were thinking! Way to go, Stella!

I would love to know what they are thinking too! These little dogs are so smart! Sometimes though I'm not sure if it would be a good thing to know what they are thinking!

[Islander]

Brad, it's a great relief to me that with all your experience and knowledge, you still resort to the "I'm leaving!" feint!!!

"We're leaving....Bye!!!" works far better than "Come!" for Gus when we are hiking!

[bradl]

Oh heck yeah. They hate to think they might be missing something.

All four of ours are full-on card-carrying Cairns with all the pandemonium that implies

[Greg P]

Hated missing the event. Would have liked to have seen this!

Damn those $20 dumps.

[Dempsy's Mom]

Stella's hired! Now, be careful around those cow herds, espcially larger ones. Dempsy always enjoyed her little routine with a cow - a little bark, scare the cow routine. One day the herd of heifers were in the back lot - Demps took off under the fence and thought he was just going to have a friendly game, but he scared the herd, they were curious more than scared, they ran - Demps ran after - and the cattle herd circled around and that left Demps in the middle. I was scared to death, but he made it out of this running circular herd. The look on Dempsy face (and mine I am sure). That won't happen again.