River and I attended a barn hunt trial at Dogwood training center in Ostrander, Ohio the weekend of July 30. I believe it was their first barn hunt trial and they did a wonderful job. I know it's labor intensive with all the messy straw, building the course, making sure the rats are safe and well cared for and making sure everything runs smoothly for the competitors and they did a great job.
The first day, River and I didn't do so well. She finds the rats fairly quickly but her alert is very subtle and very quick and she wants to move on and unfortunately, I don't always know if she's found a rat so we didn't qualify either trial.
On Sunday, I was determined to get our final Q for Open and move up to Senior. I watched very closely and when River sniffed a particular area for 3 seconds I called it and found a rat. The second rat was a bit more difficult. I saw River barely scent one area and she ignored the rest and then she was standing along the gate. She was done. She had found the rat but I didn't see her do it. So by process of elimination, I took her over to an area that I thought she checked but I couldn't even see a tube. I called her over and asked her to check it, she did and she sniffed along the top of the straw for 3 seconds and I called rat, finding the second rat.
River and I were the only team for the blind to Q. So she got a Q, First Place, Title and High in Class award and we got to move up to Senior.
The next trial, we were in Senior, which is 4 rats, 3 litter tubes and 1 clear. We had a really good run and I needed an extra 2 seconds but we timed out. I missed River finding one rat and that cost us but by the end of our 3 minutes and 30 seconds, I had found the right tube and was about to call rat for the 4th time when we timed out. Dang it! So close....
All in all it was a good weekend barn hunting. River enjoyed herself and slept for hours after we got home and she didn't want to get up on Monday morning. A hunting puppy is a tired puppy.
The first day, River and I didn't do so well. She finds the rats fairly quickly but her alert is very subtle and very quick and she wants to move on and unfortunately, I don't always know if she's found a rat so we didn't qualify either trial.
On Sunday, I was determined to get our final Q for Open and move up to Senior. I watched very closely and when River sniffed a particular area for 3 seconds I called it and found a rat. The second rat was a bit more difficult. I saw River barely scent one area and she ignored the rest and then she was standing along the gate. She was done. She had found the rat but I didn't see her do it. So by process of elimination, I took her over to an area that I thought she checked but I couldn't even see a tube. I called her over and asked her to check it, she did and she sniffed along the top of the straw for 3 seconds and I called rat, finding the second rat.
River and I were the only team for the blind to Q. So she got a Q, First Place, Title and High in Class award and we got to move up to Senior.
The next trial, we were in Senior, which is 4 rats, 3 litter tubes and 1 clear. We had a really good run and I needed an extra 2 seconds but we timed out. I missed River finding one rat and that cost us but by the end of our 3 minutes and 30 seconds, I had found the right tube and was about to call rat for the 4th time when we timed out. Dang it! So close....
All in all it was a good weekend barn hunting. River enjoyed herself and slept for hours after we got home and she didn't want to get up on Monday morning. A hunting puppy is a tired puppy.
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