OTEEC Mother's Day Weekend Earthdog Brags

[bradl]

Another earthdog weekend come and gone. I'll let others brag on their dogs (as well they should!) and report on our crew's weekend.

Saturday Stella was entered in Master and qualified beautifully with her tenth master leg.

Sunday she qualified again for her 11th leg. Just for fun we also ran our 12-year-old male Haggis (already a Master earthdog) - he did not qualify as he spent far too much time eating salad (grazing on the tender grass) and the judge felt he did not 'indicate' the tunnel entrance sufficiently. I agreed! When it came time to put Haggis in the tunnel though, he dashed through without a hitch and, arriving at the quarry end, let loose a lovely yodeling "AroooOOOooooOOOO" after which he worked like a trooper. He would have passed if his indication had been better.

Because Master tests are run in braces, we needed an extra dog to fill out the final brace. We ran Echo (Stella's mom, and Haggis' daughter) in that position. She also ate a lot of salad and indicated just as poorly as dear old dad. Likewise, she also aced the hunt-up and worked up a storm with the quarry. So while Stella carried the day for our clan, a GREAT time was had by all.

A friend who is working on sharpening her grooming skills stripped Stella after her run. When I showed up at Master awards to collect our qualifying ribbon I carried a giant ball of fur in one hand, with Stella in the other, to assure the judge that it was indeed the same dog collecting her award as had run the test. If Rachel sends me the picture, I will add it to this topic.

In the Junior test I handled a dog I co-own with a group of friends, both Saturday and Sunday. It was only her second time in the Junior den on Saturday and she went in quickly, but did not work the quarry. On Sunday she entered just as quickly, reaching the quarry in 15 seconds, and worked by gently whining, with the occasional squeak, for the required 60 seconds. Congrats to Dolley on her first Junior leg!

Cairns were VERY well represented at the test. Six of the eight dogs running in Master were Cairns! Several Cairns earned Iron Dog awards (qualifying in BOTH senior and master tests on the same day) and at least one new Cairn title was earned, but as I said - those owners will have to brag on their own dogs!

[Greg P]

Thanks for the rundown, Brad.

I didn't make the trip to Turner (my favorite Masters hunt area!). I did get complete phone recaps from Val. Kona earned his Iron Dog on Saturday, and Q'd in Masters on Sunday, but didn't earn his Iron Dog.

I would have loved to see Haggis run. I bet he was a happy boy after the chance to "yell" at those rats. He and Geordie (brothers) have to held up as two dogs who have greatly influenced the NW cairns natural instincts for earthdog. Somehow that "gameness" gene was strong in these two and it carries down through their offspring.

I think it's awesome that NW cairn owners are so enthusiastic about working their dogs, as evidenced in the cairn counts at the trial. Congratulations to all who won ribbons, and more importantly had fun with their cairns!

[mattoleriver]

First let me state that I'm not usually even awake at the time of day that these tests take place. I usually just show up with Griffin and let him do this thing while I stand there in a fog.

Saturday was a fairly typical day. In the Master test Griffin was braced with a very nice working and experienced Dachshund. Both dogs enjoyed a pleasant and uneventful hunt to the den. At the den Griffin completed the test in steady, but certainly not flashy, style. Unfortunately the Dachshund got hung up on one of the obstacles and did not qualify.

The Senior test was next and I really don't remember any of the details from that---obviously not a real flashy performance! Once again Griffin completed the test in very steady style.

Those two passes brought us an Irondog on Saturday.

Sunday maybe I was a little more awake, or, maybe completely unconscious. Certain parts of the Master test are burned into my memory and other parts are just so surreal that I suspect they could not really have happened as I recall them!

The first little oddity was that there were four braces and Brad was handling dogs in three of them! Was my mind playing tricks or was the guy everywhere?

I arrived at the staging area and had a very short wait for the judge to arrive to get the test started. Everything seemed as it should be. For this test I would be handling Griffin and Brad would be handling Echo who had graciously offered her services as the bye dog.

As the test started both dogs both dogs took off along the brush line and probably went less than 50 feet before turning into the brush. We caught up to where the dogs had entered the brush and saw that they had found something interesting but it was obviously nothing related to the test. I had no idea what it was but could sense that it was very interesting. Brad called Echo and she emerged from the brush immediately ready to continue the hunt. I called Griffin and got no response at all. I called again and, again, got no response. This must really be some good stuff in the brush! I was becoming desperate (and more than just a little angry!) when Griffin completely failed to acknowledge my calls. Finally he did emerge and took off after Echo toward the den. The judge warned me that that lack of control would not be tolerated again.

Just about this time I got a good look at Griffin and realized that he was liberally smeared stem to stern in steaming fresh POOP! I was mortified, how could he embarrass me this way? Then the reality of the situation slowly sunk in: I was soon going to have to pick him up at some not-to-distant point---EEEWWW!!!

The dogs worked their way up to the den and Griffin indicated first so I removed him from the entrance while we waited for Echo to indicate. Here I am holding my poop covered dog while we waited---and waited---and waited---! By this time my mind was really messin' with me so I'm not certain if Echo ever did indicate---it seemed like hours.

Finally time came to release Griffin into the tunnel. I was sooooo happy to drop the smelly little guy and send him on his way. Seconds ticked away and I could hear Griffin going through the tunnel but he was not locating the rats. All I could think was "Of course you can't smell the rats, but they can sure smell you". Finally Griffin found the rats and worked them like the old pro that he is. Time was up and I had to remove him from the den. Oh boy, once again I have to pick up this fenzied, wiggling mass of filth! Okay, I held my breath, reached in and pulled him out. At last this little horror show was drawing to a close.

I was a bit distracted and don't seem to remember anything about Echo's time in the tunnel.

When the test was finally finished the judge told me that despite my fears Griffin had passed.

The Senior test came next...well, actually a bath then the Senior test! I was still a little distracted by events earlier in the day so I don't remember many details and suspect it was another steady performance devoid of any unusual theatrics.

Griffin completed the Senior test and earned his second Irondog of the weekend.

Our day was not over. We broke for lunch and presentation of awards---what could possibly go wrong?

We collected our ribbon for a Senior pass and Griffon was his usual charming and humble self. Only thing different this time was that I did not hold him up for the usual pose with the judge.

Next came ribbons for the Master test. Leaving Griffin on the ground worked so well earlier that I decided to do it again. Okay, big mistake, don't ignore the star of the show! While I was accepting the ribbon from the judge Griffin was peeing on my shoe!!!!

The End

George

[Greg P]

Priceless....."Griffon was peeing on my shoe"........ just priceless!

[kjwarnold]

Well, we weren't there but we did go to the All Terrier Fun Day at Purina Farms in Missouri. Packy got to give Earthdog another shot and while he LOVES the rats, he HATES those tunnels! I bet he wouldn't go more than a foot into one on any of the tries. The handlers that were there to help us were very experienced, but they sure couldn't get him to go in. He kept finding shorter, faster, better ways to get to the rats. Oh, well. I bet he would have gone in there if there had been a fish with that rat!

Next stop was the lure racing. We had 4 Cairns all racing together and it was a riot! Once again, Packy just wouldn't go into the starting box, so I had to drop him in after the others started. Turns out one of the others wouldn't do the box either, so there were Cairns just "dropping in" all over. Packy came in second in his first heat. In the second heat, he was almost tied for first, but had to stop to check some important pee-mail along the side. So much for lure racing...

Anyway, the 4 Cairns made a fairly good showing among all those dachshunds, Jack Russells and even a Border Terrier. Well, at least the other Cairns did... We checked out the Agility Trials after the Terrier fun. By the time we got back in the car, Packy was pooped! A good day had by all!

Congrats to all the others who did REAL Earthdog events and have some great brags!