Packy's Fun Day at Purina Farms

[kjwarnold]

Wow, what a fun day at Purina Farms yesterday! Lots of dogs (mostly JRTs and Dachshunds, only about 12 Cairns), great weather and tons of helpful people. Packy got to try Earthdog and did okay with the training tunnel. It took a little while, but he did go into the regular short tunnel several times and made it to the rats at the end, but then just backed out when he figured out that he couldn't actually get to the rats. The lady helping said to just keep trying and usually they figure it out. Not sure if I'm going to get some rats and practice at home, but we might go to the next Fun Day on April 7th.

We also did Lure Racing and while Packy really liked the idea of chasing that rabbit thing when he was outside the fence, he HATED the muzzle they made him wear and going into the starting box. All he wanted to do was get out of that box the same way he went in, hence the shot of the start of the race below, where he's backward! Once he was out, the most important thing was to get the muzzle off. When that was accomplished, then he was ready to chase the rabbit. For the second heat, he got the muzzle off before they even let them out of the starting box, so he was ready to roll.

This was a really neat event, especially for people who have never done anything like this. The folks were very helpful and everyone was friendly and obviously dog-smart. They were having Aussie herding trials in another area and I would have loved to seen that, but we were having too much fun with the terriers, so didn't get over there. If you have a chance to get to something like this, I would certainly encourage you. Packy was wiped out at the end of the day -- he went to bed at 7:30 p.m. What a great way to wear 'em out!

[hallswel]

I want to try mine with Lure Racing, I think they would really like it

I love the picture

[bradl]

Oh what fun! Our dogs LOVE racing.

[kjwarnold]

Brad, do your dogs have to wear the muzzles? If so, do they just get used to it eventually? Guess I'll have to practice putting Packy in a box to get him used to starting...

[Darcy's Folks]

That is so cool!!!! Wish we lived closer to do that!!!!

[bradl]

Brad, do your dogs have to wear the muzzles? If so, do they just get used to it eventually? Guess I'll have to practice putting Packy in a box to get him used to starting...

They do get used to it and a dedicated runner won't care. However, not all of them like it and *many* will focus on trying to get the muzzle off at first, if they are not used to a muzzle. That said, our experience has been 99% at Cairn-only racing and no muzzles required. We first encountered racing at a JRT event and while the JRT made their dogs wear muzzles, they didn't make our girl wear one. If you know your dog will be racing again with a muzzle, like anything else you can train them ahead of time that muzzle=FUN. JRT folk like the Softie muzzle. It depends on the dog a bit - some tolerate the Softie best, some tolerate a basket best.

Some dogs don't like the starting box and we often saw dogs trying to get out the way they came it (i.e., the back of the box). But if they enjoy chasing the lure, it doesn't take long for them to view the box as A Good Thing. Our Barley will actually abandon the lure once it reaches the hay bales, run back to box, and nose the door open in order to "reload" herself for another run. I kid you not. We have witnesses

[kcsdogs]

That is great! Looks like a ton of fun, I wonder how any of ours would do.

[Eliz222]

I'm glad you had a great time....I hope I can go in April! Do you have to sign up before you go? What do I need to bring with me?

[kjwarnold]

No sign up needed, just show up and get ready to have fun. We took water and Packy's travel bowl. There's a spigot there, but some people said it worked and others couldn't get it to work. No collars or harnesses when they go down in the tunnels for Earthdog, but he did wear just his collar for the lure racing. They have muzzles there for everyone to use, but if you have your own, I'd bring it since your dog is probably used to that one.

Just realized that the next Fun Day is Easter weekend, so we won't be there. We'll be out of town, rats! Hopefully we can catch the next one.

[mrskti]

Dori and Ellie neither liked the box for the lure race. WHen the door opened they just walked out and looked around, it was pretty funny. FInally they saw what was going on and took off. With a little practice they'd be good at it too. THe JRT with the stubby legs was faster than all the dogs....lakelands, carins and fox terriers...he just flew.

[fiddler927]

That looks like great fun, and I think Ellie would have a blast; Black Lady is too curmudgeonly in her old age and would most likely shy away. I just wish we had something like that here in Indiana. Or maybe we do, and I just haven't heard about it.

Laurie

[kjwarnold]

Ours was sponsored by the Missouri Earthdog Club, so maybe if you're looking in your area for something like the Fun Day, you can search on "<Your State> Earthdog Club" and see what's out there.

[bradl]

AKC also has a nice club search tool: http://www.akc.org/clubs/search, which you can then use to search for performance clubs. If you choose earthdog, you can get a list of clubs licensed for earthdog by state, or the whole list.

[fiddler927]

Thanks for the tips, folks. I'll search online and find what I can.

Laurie