I had only entered Andiamo in the Saturday morning class. Andi has already been in competition once. He was in a Rat Instinct test, where he qualified and earned a Rat Instinct Title. (Rat I). He loved it and he was also entered in his first Novice class. He had no trouble locating the rat, but in the novice class he needed to go through a hay bale tunnel and get on top of a hay bale to find another rat tube. I called out "tunnel" to him, but he didn't think it resembled any tunnel he was familiar with, so he passed by the tunnel and did not qualify.
I thought of buying some bales of straw to practice with, but it has been too wet here and I don't have a barn. So when I heard about the workshop, it sounded like a great idea. The night before the workshop, I used the couch and a coffee table as makeshift hay bales. I used a vacuum cleaner box as the third bale to cross over the top. It was about the right size and shape. My intent was just to teach Andi, but when we started, everyone thought it looked like fun and they all joined in the game. They were very excited. I had dogs going over, under and around the faux hay bales. Andi got so excited he jumped on top of the coffee table and they all thought it was a wonderful game. They were all doing it coming and going, on command within a very short time. I kind of started thinking about maybe taking the other guys too. I have been wondering if it would be too rough for Journey yet. I decided to just take Andiamo Saturday morning, as he was entered in the 9:30 class. It would give me a chance to decide if Journey was ready to try Rat Hunt.
We both enjoyed the class so much. Going to the workshop was so helpful it made me wonder how Andi ever managed to get the title without any practice at all. He did very well in the workshop. I directed him to go through the tunnel (I used the command "under" instead of tunnel, so he would not get confused in agility classes.) He just whipped right through the tunnel. He had no problem finding the rat and distinguishing the tube with the rat vs. the tubes with rat litter or empty. And most pleasing to me, he used his original signal to tell me which tube contained the rat.
Just as we were starting the workshop, a woman came in the barn with her dog and greeted us. She recognized Andi and I recognized her as the Judge of his two previous classes. She was telling Janet Oatney how good Andi was and how he pointed like a Pointer dog when he found the rat, Our turn came up and he did exactly that again. So interesting. Janet answered a question that someone in the class asked about the various signals that different dogs used to alert to the rat. The person asked if you could train your dog to alert the way Andi did, by pointing. Janet said it was possible to train a dog to point, but when he got excited he would usually revert back to what was natural for him. Pointing is natural for Andi, so I will apparently have an easy time recognizing his signal.
After the workshop was over I talked with Janet about any open spots for the other guys. She said it would be fine to bring one dog for the 1:00 Pm class and then to bring the other one for the class on Sunday at 11:00 Am. We walked around a little and checked in at the big barn to see if by chance there were any other White Shepherds at the UKC conformation show. No luck I guess Andi is not going to have a chance to get his Grand Championship Title. Oh well, he has his Champion Title and he prefers Rat hunting and agility anyway.
We headed home to pick up the other guys. It was only a short drive. I told Journey it was his turn to hunt a rat. His expression below sort of says it all. "What is a rat?" "Will I know it when I see it?"
Journey was very calm about everything. He is in Excellent B class in agility, so he is used to being around many other dogs and crowds. He also has his Grand Champion title, and getting that involved being around many other dogs at several dog shows. He had never seen a rat though, except for maybe at Petco where they were in glass cages, so he could not smell them as well, nor actually meet them nose to nose.
Janet carried a small wire cage around, with a very friendly and fearless black and white rat. Journey could hardly believe he was allowed to touch noses with the little guy. The rat seemed to like him and Journey enjoyed the greeting. Janet moved the cage in different directions and Journey followed it, She then placed a rat in a tube with little holes all over it. There were other tubes also. One tube had rat cage litter in it; one was empty and the other had a live rat. Journey went right to the rat and almost pointed as clearly as Andi did. We repeated the recognition process and Journey never went to either of the other tubes, just immediately to the rat tube, even when the positions were shifted to different locations.
Time to go in the ring. Janet told me to stand in the start box and observe him. I did and I realized I would never have done that if she had not demonstrated how valuable it was. I watched where his nose was aiming. He saw one tube and his ears flicked, he turned his head and saw the tunnel. I removed his collar and he immediately went through the tunnel, hopped up on a bale of hay and poked the rat tube. He was perfect. Ron picked up the rat tube and Journey did not care at all, he was already going up and down aisles looking for the next rat. He found it so fast, Janet wanted him to be done so he got all kinds of praise and did not have a chance to make any mistakes. She said he could hunt again on Sunday, when we brought Pirate.
I put Journey back in the car with Andi and took Pirate out. I just walked Pirate around a little and he was so pleased and proud. He pranced like a pony, as he is inclined to do when he is excited. We walked through the barn and he had a chance to lift his head and sniff a lot of strange odors.
Sunday we all headed for the fair grounds.
Pirate meeting the black and white rat. He was interested, but maybe not quite as much as Journey or Andiamo, It is possible he was just playing it cool. He can really act cool if he wants. When Janet moved on to the next dog, Pirate turned and went back to my chair where he nuzzled the bag of treats. I found that amusing as neither Journey or Andi had any interest in treats, compared to the rats. Pirate is not a chow hound either and it was sort of fascinating to see him sort of demand a treat. It was like "I met the rat like you said, so now do I get a treat?"
He then casually lay down in front of my chair and watched the rounds that Janet made with the rat. He did not try to get to it until Janet once more moved in our direction. At that time he got up and stepped forward to once again sniff noses with the rat and watch it as it turned around in its bedding. I would not say that he was uninterested, but he certainly did not act as if he would have grabbed if, had it been out of the cage. He was just "Mr. Cool" That is also not unusual for him, but i did not expect it when he came face to face with a rat!
Next came the part with the rats in tubes. One empty tube; one litter tube and one with a live rat. The three tubes were at least a foot apart and all on their sides in a rack to hold them so they did not roll. They were identical to look at. Pirate watched all the dogs when they took their turns, but showed no emotion, just calm and cool. He knew when it was his turn and immediately stood up and waited for me to walk with him to the tube rack. He did not sniff either the empty tube, nor the litter tube, just went quietly to the rat tube; gently nosed it and started to head back to his spot by my chair. Janet laughed. She said "you are going to have to stick very close to him and watch him closely. He does his job very well, but he does not hang around. If you do not see his alert, he will probably move on to the next rat tube almost before you can call it. He might go back to tell you; but he might not." She said "he is one cool character". Ron commented on how different they all were. Janet mentioned that they were actually all calm, compared to all the other dogs in the class. There was a Scotty that sounded as if he and the rat were killing each other every time he smelled it. There was a Labrador that spent much of the time leaping back and forth over the rack. One Border Collie practically flew at the rack and went to each tube biting at it and growling and barking. You could tell which tube the rat was in by how loud she barked, compared to her sounds when she smelled each of the other tubes. But she was biting at each tube, She was so excited! Without having all the tubes together though, you might not be sure when she just found one of the other tubes alone as will happen on a real hunt. She is young though and so is the Labrador, Maybe that is why Pirate was acting so cool, he felt the need to show off in front of younger dogs, Who knows! It was funny though, We went in the ring for a hunt next, He was a little more animated, but still calm. He went directly to the tube with the rat, They put it away and I praised him, He immediately continued his hunt up and down between bales and found the second rat, I praised him and he put his nose in the air, seemed to determine that was all the rats, so he headed for the gate. How he knew there were only two rats was interesting.
I put Pirate in the car with Andiamo and I let Journey come inside for his promised hunt. He knew exactly what to do. He went through the tunnel and found his rats immediately. Janet said "these dogs are ready for competition!"
Okay then... I better save my money. The next Barn hunt is in April and Janet suggested I put both Journey and Pirate in the instinct class, followed by the Novice class for all three of them, She said to put Andi in the Instinct class again too, if I could, even though he has his title, because it is good practice, So I guess I am going to be busy at this next show. They can take the Instinct class as many times as you want, until they get 3 "Qs" in Novice, that is a title and at that time they move on to the "Open" class and they cannot do the Instinct class again.
It is really fun and I am looking forward to it.
Maybe we will have more titles from the shows in April. Then I will need to order new pictures of each of the other boys ... oh well it is not every dog that gets a Rat Title! Below is Andiamo with his first title.
