Earth Dog demonstration
 

Has anyone ever tried Earth Dog with their Yorkies? It's a sport to test a dog's ability to follow the scent of a rat through a tunnel. It's mainly for Terrier breeds.

A club held a demonstration on it for the first time in Alaska today, and it was pretty cool. The idea is to show the dog a rat in a cage and get him excited about it. For the demonstration, they had the dogs go through a wood box on land. In the real sport, the box is underground.

Eddie proved to be a champ going through the wooden box, but he failed miserably with the rat. He had never seen one before, and he was half afraid/half disinterested. They want the dogs to bark like crazy and try to get it.

I led him to a tunnel with a 90 degree turn and the rat in the cage at the far end. Eddie went to the turn and turned around. He wanted nothing to do with that dark tunnel. Of course, it was raining, too, so I don't blame him for being disinterested.

Oh well. It was fun trying. If I could have used a squeaky toy, he would have impressed everybody.

No rats are injured in Earth Dog, btw.

Here are a few pics.

Congrats, Eddie on getting through that tunnel! That's way cool-Emma and Milli both give paw on that one!

Now...where on EARTH did you get those rats!?!? :eek: :eek:

LOL. I asked the same thing. Aclub member has the rats as pets. They are always caged and surprisingly don't seem to mind the dogs.

Evidently, the club is not allowed to hold the demonstration in Anchorage (the big city) because they use live rats. They had to hold it in a rural area 40 miles away.

I watched an Earth Dog show on Animal Planet.

They had their tunnels underground and I was amazed at just how much "tunnel" there was!

I'm sorry Eddie didn't enjoy it....maybe next time?

:aimeeyork Unless it has changed since 2006 Yorkies are not allowed to compete for titles in this sport..are they? I think I read that in order to earn titles there has to be a concerted effort by organized Yorkie fanciers to participate in the earthdog trials. Is this what you are doing? Just curious.

Hmm, I didn't know that, thanks. I just assumed a terrier was a terrier when it came to Earth Dog. I'll have to look into it. The club that put on the demonstration thinks they are about a year away from getting AKC accreditation, so we probably won't do it again until at least then.

It was just fun to try it out.

No harm in practicing untill then! I believe it said that dog breeds are determined to be eligible for this event based on the kind of hunting they have historically done, as well as interest in breed owners to compete. It said that Yorkies did not historically follow their prey into burrows. I bet the little boogers would be good at it! I think mine would. I remember thinking it was a stinking shame.

I have an old yorkie book that says something along the lines of ... if you don't have a show yorkie take him around to the local farm when they're doing rat hunting in the hay stacks and he'll kill lots. It won't matter if his ear gets ripped because he's not a show dog.

I was like what the heck!! I have problems with my dog's ear getting ripped no matter what "quality"!

Dixie's killed a couple of mice. She was sooo Proud of herself. Dougal just barked at them. You should see the Wee chase birds in the park. Not that she has any hope of catching them but she tries, bless her!

I guess yorkies don't count for Earth dog because they're classified as a "toy" breed for showing purposes.

Go Eddie. Dixie bets you'll rock as an Earth dog.

I bet Hallie would be a pro at that but I don't know how safe those rats would be.

And did you have to post a pic of them really? :eek:

You can be such a girl sometimes. :) I think the city has squeezed the hardcore Alaskan right out of you. You're probably afraid of slimy fish by now too!

I don't know what Sadie would do. She'd probably go right at them. I'd run from them myself. She is a pretty good hunter, though. She stalks bugs of all kinds. And once she caught a gecko and bit the tail off (that was fun for me to get it out of her mouth....eww!) She likes to chase birds & squirrels. So she'd proably want the rats, too.

I'd give my right arm right now for a Halibut charter and Salmon fishing in Valdez! I'm still an Alaskan girl, after all I can pry a chipmunk out of Hallie's mouth :)

OK, OK, you win. But you'd have a hard time reeling with no right arm, silly. Give a leg.

American Kennel Club (AKC) does not yorkies to compete. However, Yorkies are permitted to compete in American Working Terrier Association Trials(AWTA). These are two different sanctioning organizations so in fact, you can compete with your yorkies(with AWTA), just not with AKC. Will at least not yet. ;)

Lisa

Intro and my Yorkies
 

Hi, I have 3 Yorkies who train with me in obedience and agility. We are also practicing for Earth Dog. One of my earlier dogs and I did obedience and agility. I have always wanted my dogs to be able to participate in what they were breed to do, chase rodents. Yorkies maybe classed as toys now but the breed was originally developed to work at rodent removal. We started going to our local Earth Dog introduction last year. My Emma who is 3 years old today caught on by the end of the summer and was working the beginner tunnel. Lilian who is 2 was busy tracking but not going into the tunnels. Winnie who was 1 in Dec comes as cheerleader and wants to play with the rats. This year Emma was into the tunnel as soon as she was released and worked the rat solidly until I removed her from the tunnel. I was told that was that a real test, she would have passed. Lilian has started entering the above ground tunnel and Winnie is still trying to be friends. I have been told by the other folks there that this is pretty representative of how the other breeds have done, it takes some maturity to get the idea. Next week we will try Emma in the senior tunnel. On Sat we have been invited to join the JRs in a fun day. I figure that it is just a matter of time before they allow us in AKC Earth Dog, after all Rat Terriers just made it in.