Alphabet Dog

[Belle]

If I may......

After a long drive Friday night and early Saturday morning to Marietta, GA, Vixen and I arrived at a sunny park full of barking dogs, lots of dirt and awesome rat smells. We were fourth in line for the Junior Earthdog bracket of the trials and Vixen was chomping at the bit to have her shot at those rats!

She was so eager to go that I had to carry her up to the release point or she would have choked herself on her lead. As soon as I set her down she zoomed into the hole and got to the rats who were 30 ft. and three 90 degree turns away underground in approximately 17 seconds. She barked and dug and "worried" the rats for a full 90 seconds and impressed the judge with her aggressive digging and barking.

Out of 32 dogs who competed in the Junior bracket on Saturday, Vixen and Gwen, another border terrier, were the only two dogs to pass the test. This was Vixen's second time to pass the test so she also earned the title Junior Earthdog after her AKC name. She is now officially known as CH Beverlea Fox Hollow Vixen JE. :wub: Yes, I'm one proud mama!

Sunday was our first time to compete at the Senior level. The wind was blowing hard and the scent was a little more difficult to follow. The hole was about twenty feet away, whereas it's only ten feet away in Junior. She lost the scent and never found the hole to go after the rats. She did, however, find the rat steward and the back-up stock of rats - the judge sitting on top of the rats she was supposed to find from underground, and some killer smells behind me in the woods.... :blink: The nose and the brain were definitely working!

We have more trials coming up in February and March, so hopefully we'll be able to change that JE to an SE sometime during those trials. After that, it's on to Master Earthdog! In the meantime we continue training for Agility, Obedience, Canine Good Citizen and Rally titles.... Having a smart, fun dog as a kid and hobby sure is the bomb!

For those not familiar with Earthdog: You follow the scent of the rat down into a small tunnel. It's 9x9 inches, the dog has to duck and crawl along, but he fits. You go through the tunnel and at the end is a caged rat and you have to bark and dig at it. There are four tests, Intro to Quarry, Junior earthdog, Senior earthdog and Master earthdog, and only three titles. You don't get a title for the Intro to Quarry.

[coolchef1248 @adelphia.net]

good for you and vixen

that is quite impressive!!

[Linda Z]

Atta girl, Vixen! We knew you could do it!

And congrats to Vixen's mom. Your training has paid off!

[dmiller]

She is now officially known as CH Beverlea Fox Hollow Vixen JE. :wub:

Hmmm. Try putting that on a name tag when she goes to her

*advanced class*!

Congrats -- to the both of you. ;)

[LG]

She is now officially known as CH Beverlea Fox Hollow Vixen JE.

aka "Rat Dog"

If she ever becomes "Cat Dog," I'll pay for a trip to Texas, a good Mexican dinner for you, and a meal of Vixen's choice for her, if you'll have her get rid of all the stray cats in my neighborhood.

(Just kidding above.) Congratulations!

Edited November 15, 2005 by LG

[Digitalis]

Congratulations Vixen and Belle !!!!!!

You to obviously make a team and work well together. What an honor. The effort is worth it.

Digi

[rascal]

Wooohoo! What a TEAM!!

Congratulations to you and your awsomly cool little friend!!

[WordWolf]

WOW!

If I was a rat,

I'd be TERRIFIED of Vixen!

Vixen sounds like she was ready, but the weather WASN'T!

She found the "spares", she found the stuff in the FOREST,

anything the heavy wind wasn't hiding, she found!

Congrats on the Junior title for both of you!

[TheHighWay]

Congratulations, you two!!

I've watched EarthDog trials on TV. Quite impressive, what a dog will do to get its rat.

Keep up the good work! And keep us posted.

--THW

[Belle]

Awwww, thanks so much, y'all! :wub:

I know it's kind of silly to get all excited about these things, but I just can't help it! It's just awesome seeing your dog "wiggle but t" excited about something she was bred to do and doing it very well. She was so excited and yet so tired Saturday night that she was snoring within minutes of us getting to the hotel.

It's a great time of bonding and working together as a team, which is totally different from our daily walks, games of fetch and hide-and-go-seek. I also love the border terrier community and have made many friends through these competitions and trials. They've been very supportive and helpful during my transition this past year even though they know hardly anything except that I got divorced.

LG, she definitely is a "cat dog" as well. :P I can't walk her anywhere without her being on the look out for cats under cars, in the bushes, on the fences, etc. She's caught her share of them and one has part of its tail missing thanks to Miss Vixen. :unsure: