Hey, it's me, Baxter your roving rover reporter reporting to you today from a field on a farm. That's right, a farm. You see, today I am going to try this thing called earthdogging. I don't really know much about it, so how bout we learn together?
Now, I'm standing here in front of a sign that says IQ and if you're thinkin what I'm thinkin, fuhgeddaboudit. This ain't no smart test. IQ means Introduction to Quarry. Not like where you dig for rocks, but like, stuff you hunt, like bunnies. Or more precisely, rodents. Rats. In a cage. And this introduction ain't no meet n greet with everybody wearin nametags, if ya know what I mean.
So these rats I'm talking about are in a cage at the end of a wooden tunnel that is buried on three sides, with the top being mostly covered in hay and plywood. In Intro to Quarry, the goal is for a dog like me catch the scent of the rats, go into the 10 ft long right angled tunnel to reach the cage, and stay interested in the rat cage for like 30 seconds, all in under two minutes. Moms can talk but they can't touch, and really, they should stay behind the stick line though at this stage in the game, if encouragement is necessary, the judges allow it, cuz u know, at this stage it's all about the learnin.
I'm seventh in line so I have some waiting to do. Lucky for me there are some doxies to mingle with - these wirehaired minis came from 6 hours away just to be here, can u believe it? But there are also other sorts of dogs here, mostly terriers like westies and cairns, but there this one dog that looks like a lamb. Everyone wants to call him a bedlington but me, I just wanna bark at him, which is why there's no picture of him.
Well that was fast! It's my turn now and I've just been informed that I must do this in the buff. So, uh, ladies and gents if you would just ignore anything you don't usually see, let's go inside the pen, shall we? Ahh yes, there's the hole, but there are soooo many interesting things to smell around here in this small fenced in area, who cares about that hole?
Whoops well I guess my mom does so, let's check it out, shall we?
Well, it's dark in here..no bunnies...and i dunno what rats smell like so i can't say for sure if they're in here...yuck i think i just ran into a spider web...ya know this tunnel would be a lot more interesting if there were rawhide in it. good thing i know how to shimmy backwards cuz there's not much here to see, nosirree. i dunno why anyone would really wanna go in here, sheesh...
Ahh fresh air. I guess we're done here then, right? What's that, Miss Judge Lady? Do I wanna sniff the rats anyway? Yeah sure I guess...
Ooooh, is THAT what was at the end of the tunnel? My spidey senses are tingling all over! Maybe next time I WILL go thru that tunnel all the way to the end! I totally gotta go to the next practice event.
This is Baxter your naked ribbonless roving rover reporter wishing you a happy earth and earthdog day.
