White Shepherd Stories

Lucca's Game "Footsie-Foot"

Lucca and I have a game that we have been playing for the past few months. I started it, by sometimes putting my foot gently, on top of one of his front feet in a teasing manner. He is very mischievous and he would eventually jerk his foot out from under mine, and then he began placing his foot back on top of mine. The game advanced and I would put my foot back on top, with him pulling his foot out and replacing it back on top of mine.  He picked up on it quickly and enjoyed it. For some reason, it usually began when I was sitting on the edge of my bed. Andiamo watched it and seemed amused, but he is a little foot-shy and he did not seem interested in playing this game.  

The game did not have a name that I knew of, but somehow, "patty cake" came to mind.  Anyway, I started referring to it as "footsie-foot" and Lucca thought that was a good name. Andiamo knew full well what a foot was called and he was not in favor of games that involved even me, messing with his feet. So our game persisted.  We did not play for long periods of time, but Lucca was game to play most any time. Sometimes he would get excited and would quickly withdraw his foot and slap it on top of mine again and again. We now play this game numerous times a day. 

At times he gets very excited and a little rough. He rolls his eyes at me and pretends not to notice me moving my foot towards his. He reminds me of a child when he gets excited playing the game. I find it more comfortable to wear socks or slippers for the game, and I especially remember to keep his toenails trimmed so the game is more comfortable for me.  

Yesterday I was writing, and I guess I did not seem open to playing footsie-foot with Lucca. He and Andiamo were wrestling and just enjoying some inside play. At one point Andi stopped wrestling and instead, tended to an itch of some sort. He was turned in such a manner as to leave one front foot extended out front and to the side. Lucca did not miss a beat. He promptly reached out his front foot and jammed it on top of Andi's foot.  Andiamo pulled his foot back out from under Lucca's foot, but Lucca just kept putting his foot back on top of Andi's foot. It wasn't long before I realized Andi was actually playing the game too. It was so cute. Andi had always watched us play the game, but it had not occurred to me that he knew the rules. He had never tried to get into our games. It was so adorable and kind of amazing, as he was quite skillful. Lucca seemed thrilled to have taught Andi how to play.  

I did not have my camera handy, but I will keep watch and try to get a shot of them playing their game.  

Barn Hunt - May 2018

 

 Andiamo, Journey & Lucca with their ribbons. 

 

 

 

My good boys each got a RAT1 Instinct Title - Qualification ribbon at our Barn Hunt last Sunday.  It was Lucca's first Barn Hunt.  He had not gotten a chance to go to a Rat Workshop, so he really did not know what he was doing. He is used to finding scented things in our Saturday training class.  He has also learned to track down and identify an item that I have held. 

On Saturday, several friends from our training class with Dorothy Webb, went to another part of the Longview fairgrounds to see how the Barn Hunt was doing.  It was the first day of the three day Barn Hunt event.  The officials of the club did not have a very good turnout and they acted happy to see us.  I had already entered my three boys for the Sunday trials.   

Liz wanted to enter her Anatolian Shepherds, and Dorothy thought she might enter Charlie, her young Tervuren. We watched for a while. 

Sunday morning we met at the trial, about 9:30. We were all having a good time.  The Barn Hunt people seemed to be having a good day and everyone was pleasant.  Liz's dog did well and he got his RAT1 Instinct Title.  Dorothy's Charlie was very close to titling and will most likely title next time. 

Andiamo did not seem to be as interested in the rats as he was at the last hunt.  He did qualify though he was not all that anxious to find rats. Once I asked him to climb a hay bale and he did.  I praised him and he proceeded to get the "zoomies" jumping from bale to bale as he was happy to please me.  He did not qualify in the Novice class.  He did not want to do the tunnel, and I did not properly identify the rat tube. 

Lucca was very distracted.  He did smell each tube, but there was one he didn't like.  I wanted him to go back and check the three tubes again, (the empty one, the one with rat litter, and the one with the live rat).  I was looking for a little stronger indication from him as to which tube held the rat.  I had a hunch which one it was, but it was his reluctance to smell that tube that convinced me it was the rat tube. He got the funniest expression when he smelled that rat.  If he could have talked I believe he would have said "ewwwww".  I think perhaps Lucca does not really have great potential as a rat hunter. 

Journey probably did the best.  Maybe due to his success in agility, he went through the tunnel every time he was in the ring and he had no problem climbing the hay bales.  He identified the rat tube with a slight tail wag.  He also qualified once again in the Instinct class. 

In the other trial Lucca was even less interested.  He refused to smell another tube after once smelling the rat tube.  He snorted and made a face registering extreme dislike!  He did not identify the hay bale tunnel as a "tunnel" like his agility tunnel at home, which he loves.  He did not understand what I wanted him to do as far as climbing on a hay bale. We are not allowed to touch the hay bale to encourage our dog to jump on it. 

He finally went over to where the Judge was standing and he sat politely by his side.  It seemed I was the only one hunting the rat. 

Andi was trying to have a good time in spite of his basic lack of interest. It is kind of strange in that my dogs do so many different activities and have always enjoyed them all. They love nose work and all three are excellent at finding different scented items.  They also find hidden items that I have touched.  They do car searches and will hunt almost anything, inside or outside.  They never get tired of this.  They love swimming; lure coursing; rally, and obedience.  Journey was a super agility dog until he had an injury.  Andiamo was involved in agility until I was unable to manage it. 

I really expected them to like hunting rats; especially I thought my little Lucca the wild boy would go for it.  Guess you never know. 

Personally, it is not one of my favorite activities.  There is no chance to introduce the dogs to what they are looking for, as they do not get to see the rat.  If I could once coax them through the tunnel in training,  I don't think it would be a problem. If I could practice them on climbing a couple hay bales so that they understood what I was asking them to do, they would catch on fast.  I am unable to handle loading and unloading hay bales or toting them around on my property.  If we have any rats on our property, they are not interested in introducing themselves to my dogs. I am not a potential rat handler, so would not be a good rat owner. 

Many of the people participating in the rat hunting are very nice, but unfortunately several of the people who are running the trials just seem to always be having a bad day. One person is so rude to the spectators and entrants, that they feel humiliated and embarrassed at being yelled at or otherwise verbally abused loudly, in front of so many people.  I don't know if it is just their normal way of acting or if they dislike most people.  Who knows why people act the way they do. But unlike so many other activities that are available to do with your dogs on a weekend; this one is not that much fun, in my opinion. My friends only entered the morning trial.  They just witnessed a couple uncomfortable tirades. I believe our last Barn Hunt was about a year ago.  It may be a while again.  

    

Barn Hunt for Us All

Andiamo with his RATI title ribbon, from his first Barn Hunt.  He duplicated this at his second Barn Hunt Trial on April 9, 2017.  We do not have the pictures from this latest trial.  Both Pirate and Journey were entered in the two trials offered on Sunday the 9th of April. It was their first trial. Both Pirate and Journey titled in the Instinct class in each trial.  So all together, each of my three dogs has a total of two RATI Instinct titles.  What a team!

All three were entered in the Novice class.  No one Q'd but all were very close.  Best of all, to me, they all did both exercises that they needed to do to qualify.  They needed to climb on top of at least one hay bale, and they needed to crawl through a hay bale tunnel. They needed to find one rat and I needed to "call it" when my dog alerted for it.  Andiamo and Journey both did the tunnel at least twice. Pirate climbed the hay bale stack and he kept going to the top of the second layer of hay bales.  He looked like he thought he was king of the mountain. He only needed to climb one bale. What a guy!  I could not be more proud of them.  They really enjoyed it,  We did not manage to coordinate their finding a rat, with me properly "calling the find". Maybe next time.  Having all three dogs complete the tunnel and the climb was a big step forward.

Some of our good friends came to see what barn hunting was all about.  We had fun, in spite of some very grumpy people that we tried to ignore.  There is not much I won't do to provide my dogs with fun adventures. If this was not the case, and if I was just visiting, as a spectator, I am afraid I could not refer people to a Barn Hunt event, at least if they had the same three or four officials that this one had. (I think they were officials).

If you were driving by the fairgrounds and saw the sign about Barn Hunt.  You might think it would be something fun to watch.  It is open to the public and though you might never have seen their website; it does welcome spectators to the relatively new sport of Barn Hunt.  It lists a few rules, which you would not see, since you were just driving around and thought it might be fun to spectate. In the barn, there are no rules posted for spectators, nor could I locate any flyers that a spectator could refer to for information. A couple people with name tags might be helpful, but in lieu of some basic information near the entry or on the registration table, there was no way to find out anything helpful.  There were some nice people around, but most of them were busy with their dogs and the unfriendly people were much louder, actually yelling across the barn at embarrassed people who were just trying to understand the event.  They were so rude to so many people, it made us cringe for them.  I am not a member of the club and I had only been to one previous barn hunt.  My friends and I found ourselves apologizing to a couple people for the way they were treated. It was awful for them. It would seem that if the club did not want spectators, they should post the event as not open to the public.  It would save a lot of peoples feelings.  Our experience was that it did not seem that many of the people we saw, much cared about anyones feelings. It made us very uncomfortable even though only one of us got yelled at, and that was before she found us. She was walking into the barn and stopped to ask a question to a person sitting in a chair.  As we explained when she found us, the person she found was sitting in an area called "the blind" and no one is supposed to talk to them.  There are no signs posted and there is no way she could have known she was committing such an error. 

I am more familiar with agility trials and they also have a few notoriously grumpy people in a couple of the clubs. Other people in the clubs try to make up for the rude ones. I just find it hard to understand why people would think it appropriate to be so rude to nice visitors whose only crime seemed to be wanting to see what goes on at a Barn Hunt.  This was not a case of someone letting their kids run wild and unsupervised; nor were the people we saw doing anything except trying to figure out where they should stand or sit, to see the activities.  To top it off, one woman was yelled at so severely she was crying as she left the barn. There was no way the spectators could have known what not to do at the barn hunt, without someone telling them.  But they did not need to be told by someone humiliating them and screaming across the barn at them.  

Because my dogs having fun activities is important to me, I will most likely continue taking them to Barn Hunt events.  Other than friends who have already been there with me, I doubt if I will ever suggest that other friends visit unless they are feeling tough enough to be treated in the manner we witnessed.  It could really ruin your day.  I only speak for myself and this was only the second time I went to a barn hunt event, so I don't know all the rules.  I am trying to learn.  However, I spent one entire day of the first event, asking questions of various friends of mine who were entered in the event. They were, of course, helpful and polite. You can't expect a spectator to spend hours asking questions just to enter a public place, to enjoy an event on a Sunday afternoon. Perhaps some flyers on the table near the entry; or a board with some suggestions would help.  A sign or two designating the areas that are forbidden (the blinds), would at least give them a chance. 

The two Judges I met were very nice, friendly and helpful.  Most of the ring crews (in the three rings) seemed to be helpful and polite. I certainly do not want to leave you with the opinion that all the people running this event were mean and unfriendly.  Except for the incidents I described above, there were some very nice people working on the ring crews and working their dogs in the rings. It is fun to watch and sad that a few rude people overshadowed some of the fun, of watching the events.  

Andiamo met a sweet little female Corgi that he attempted to wow with his most cuddlesome invitation to play.

Looks like love ...

 

 Pretty little Charlie watching my boys learning to hunt rats.  

I think Charlie wants to try this.

I'm sorry Charlie I really love you best, I just have never played with a Corgi before and I wanted to meet her.  

So here is to many happy barn hunts, with many wonderful dogs and friendly dog-loving people that might take the time to make people feel comfortable, as they familiarize themselves with a new activity. They might enjoy themselves and want to enter their own dogs in the future.