Doggie Fun
To continue with the dork theme, I took the dogs to an Earthdog practice session today. The idea is that terriers get to do what they were bred to do -go to ground and hunt vermin. Except the tunnels are made by people and the vermin (usually rats) is in cages behind a barrier, and the dog only gets to 'work' the rat (ie bark at it etc) rather than kill it. Kinda like Gymboree, where kids get to do what they used to do when they actually played outside. Except, as opposed to real vermin hunting, nobody got killed...one would hope anyway.
Needless to say, the dogs don't get much opportunity for earthdogging in Ann Arbor, since I haven'y figured out a way to dig a bunch of tunnel mazes around here. Hence we drove up to this place around Flint, where these people have 22 acres of land and a bunch of fox terriers...and tunnels. They're holding practice session once a month. Today, there were all manners of terriers with all ranges of experience there. First, to warm up, they got to play with a rat in a rolling round cage. That got everyone hot and bothered.
BTW, being intelligent creatures, the rats seem to learn very quickly that the dogs can't really harm them and they appear to get bored very quickly in their cages.
Then it was time to actually enter the tunnels. I was very proud of the boys because they figured out the point of the whole thing very quickly. First, they thought it would be easiest to just run over to the person with the rat cage at the end of the tunnel, but that's not allowed, so finally they managed to traverse the tunnel with all its nooks and crannies and found the rat and 'worked' it, baby!
Ede, usually the more lethargic of the two, had a grand ol' time and seemed to catch on quicker than Atze. He worked the rat quietly, but very intensely:
Atze, of course, was his usual maniacal self by the time he got to the rat and couldn't stop barking:
All in all, a good time. The dogs are all tuckered out from so much excitement and brain work. We'll definitely have to go back next time!
Oh, there was some people watching to be had too. Let's just say, dog people are strange...
Needless to say, the dogs don't get much opportunity for earthdogging in Ann Arbor, since I haven'y figured out a way to dig a bunch of tunnel mazes around here. Hence we drove up to this place around Flint, where these people have 22 acres of land and a bunch of fox terriers...and tunnels. They're holding practice session once a month. Today, there were all manners of terriers with all ranges of experience there. First, to warm up, they got to play with a rat in a rolling round cage. That got everyone hot and bothered.
BTW, being intelligent creatures, the rats seem to learn very quickly that the dogs can't really harm them and they appear to get bored very quickly in their cages.
Then it was time to actually enter the tunnels. I was very proud of the boys because they figured out the point of the whole thing very quickly. First, they thought it would be easiest to just run over to the person with the rat cage at the end of the tunnel, but that's not allowed, so finally they managed to traverse the tunnel with all its nooks and crannies and found the rat and 'worked' it, baby!
Ede, usually the more lethargic of the two, had a grand ol' time and seemed to catch on quicker than Atze. He worked the rat quietly, but very intensely:
Atze, of course, was his usual maniacal self by the time he got to the rat and couldn't stop barking:
All in all, a good time. The dogs are all tuckered out from so much excitement and brain work. We'll definitely have to go back next time!
Oh, there was some people watching to be had too. Let's just say, dog people are strange...
posted by Ness @ 9:51 PM
2 Comments:
At 4:14 PM ,
JT said...
Earthdogging, how fun! I'm glad the rat figured out it couldn't be harmed because those first several minutes must have been hell for the poor thing! Like a Jaws of Death ride at Disneyland or something. Tell us more about the crazy dog people!
At 6:01 PM ,
Ness said...
Oh, that rat gets used repeatedly. It probably has a megalomaniac complex, thinking it keeps away all these dogs all by itself...
All I can say about the dog people in this small space is that of course, there had to be a(nother) German, with a horrible German accent. Except then I spoke to her in German, and her accent was even worse! (from around Frankfurt)
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