Many of you are thinking - "what in the world is a EARTHDOG???"Well, actually the word "terrier" would be correctly translated as "earthdog". It's the breed that loves to chase rodents, dig them up, get stuck in holes sniffing out their dens, etc.
Earthdog is a sporting competition of the AKC (American Kennel Club) here in the USA that is specifically for terriers to test their ability to do what they were originally bred to do: chase and capture vermin (i.e. unwanted rats, mice, moles, squirrels, etc.).
The competition includes freely entering an underground hole and tunnel of 30 feet/10 meters long and find a cage of rats. When they find the cage of rats they need to let the owner know that they found them by barking and digging at the cage (or, in Honey's case, biting the cage because he wants to get the rats!).
Honey has been training for this competition during the summer with the local Fox Terrier club here in the Minneapolis area. This past weekend he qualified by getting a ribbon in the "Intro to Quarry" competition, which is like a Beginner's degree. If you want to see more, go to Honey's website (www.belindaloo.com/Honey.html ) and there is a short video clip of him going in the tunnel to get the rats. By the way - the rats are in cages for their own safety!
It has been great fun to train Honey for this and most of it comes naturally to him. This is what he was bred to do and he absolutely loves it!
We tried to get his Junior Earthdog title this past weekend, too, but his times were too slow or he became distracted from the tracking the scent. However, he shows great promise (said the judges) and so we might go to one more competition in November to see if he can win the Junior Earthdog title.
It's been fun to get out of the house into the outdoors world and meet other people here like this. Honey thinks it's great fun, too!
No comments:
Post a Comment