The whole clan (being myself, Sweet Husband, and Porter House) accompanied the Wee Welshman to Iowa this weekend for an earthdog trial.
The short version: We got one leg (out of three that we need to get) towards his senior earthdog title! And, not only did he earn it, he earned it with style! (I am a proud, proud mama.)
For the longer blow by blow, read on....
On the first day Moe came, he saw, he conquered. (Click to make the picture bigger--the little mound in the earth is the entrance to the tunnel.)
We went up to the tunnel, he went right in, found the rats, and barked ("like a squeaky toy" to quote the judge) and scratched for the required 90 second. When it came time to call him out, I walked up to the tunnel and yelled "Moe Come!" in my deepest, manliest voice; lo and behold, he came right out to me the very first time I called. The judge said it was one of the best recalls he had ever seen. (And he said this about my dog--my completely recall-challenged dog!) I think our practice tunnel really helped.
The second day was as weird as the first one was normal. For starters, it began pouring at about four in the morning and hadn't stopped by the time we were ready to take our turn. Despite the best efforts of many of the club members, there was probably an inch of water standing in the bottom of the tunnels. Because they'd been digging, it wasn't terribly clear where the entrance to the tunnel was so I ended up lining Moe up badly at the start. Between that and the weather he just got completely confused. He wandered around looking for the entrance for awhile, and tried to get the rats through the top until the time was up. Once I showed him where the entrance was he went in but he popped right back out the false exit, and just looked up at me--with a very muddy, bedraggled face--like he was completely lost.
At that point I decided it was time to call it a day. I've read that part of the purpose of holding trials in the rain is to prove your pup will hunt in any weather, but I don't know many sane people who would realistically take their dogs out in weather that nasty. Moe and I have both decided that we're certainly not fans of it!
Bottom line for the weekend--Moe's performance on Saturday couldn't have made me prouder, and Sunday was understandable. I think--with drier weather--we just might have a senior earthdog by the end of this summer! There are more pictures of our weekend, including the bridges, here.
