WDC Banquet and Awards

Winnegamie Dog Club always does a wonderful job of acknowledging members' achievements by adding AKC titles to a perpetual plaque and awarding certificates for other wins and achievements. Last year was Jake's year in Barn Hunt Association, LLC so he added a list of titles to his plaque and had a pile of certificates awarded to him! I'm so proud of him and he truly lives up to his nickname "Rock Star Jake"!

Added to Jake's plaque were the following Barn Hunt titles: RATO, RATS, RATM, RATCH, RATCHX, and RATCHX2.

Certificates were awarded for:

• 29 1st place wins (15 high in Class), 11 2nd place wins and 2 ***3rd place wins (one certificate as per my request!)
• 1st dog to achieve RATCHX in Barn Hunt
• 2nd dog to achieve RATCHX2 in Barn Hunt
• 2nd place in Master at Nationals
• 1st place in Senior at Nationals (personal best of 77 seconds)
• 2nd place and Silver Medal at Nationals

What have we been up to in 2014???

Check out Jake’s website (www.RockStarJake.com)

to see his meteoric rise in Barn Hunt and our travels in 2014!!

Here we are at Barn Hunt nationals in St. Louis in September.

Titles & Ribbons & Toys, oh my….

BARN HUNT weekend ……  So here’s the scoop…

2 Titles – Open and Senior
2 - 2nd places – one in OPEN and one in SENIOR
2 – 1st places – one in OPEN and one in SENIOR
2 – High in Class – SENIOR

GO JAKE!!

And 2 goodie bags he shared with Brita! 

Jake's Barn Hunt Senior Run 1 min 29 sec

Jake flew through the tunnel at the beginning (not on video), had to do a climb, found 4 rats and
ignored 4 tubes, 3 of which had litter in them.

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Ta DA!! Jake's FIRST title!

Jake’s first BARN HUNT title!!

Shed + Straw = FUN!

30 bales of straw coming…  hmmm…  the shed!  It had become the dumping ground for all the environmental distractions used for PSA.  So…  9 garbage bags of milk jugs, cans, bottles, hoops, etc., etc.  bagged and ready for the garbage pickup.  Tarp and 4x4 raised box on the floor.  Straw!!  And, you know, Jake gets almost as excited at frozen chicken backs in the tubes as he does with live rats (which aren’t part of MY plan!)  …..liver maybe..  just thinkin’.

                             

So after the chicken lunch, Jake and Brita get to hang out while I figure out how to cover the window openings so the weather stays on the outside and away from the straw!!  I’ll also have to fence part of it in since Jake kept going to the outside since the tube was on the edge of the building and he thought it might be easier from out there…  FENCING I have!! 

UPDATE – the next day….
Jake, again searching for and finding the chicken in the tube….  what a guy!  He has NO hesitation about standing on his head to get the tube.  Then he takes it and heads out to the yard and finally back to the crate in the garage where he will get to eat the chicken he found!

      

Rain tomorrow so I wanted to get tarps around it so the straw wouldn’t get wet.
My plan was to have CLEAR plastic but had to use what was available so I  
used tarps for the back and far side and resorted to a
sail from an “A” scow which has a VERY high mast so it is very large.  
Not quite done here but after a bit more work it looks like a wrapped sardine can!

What we DO for our Dogs!!

 

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Jake’s a ROCK STAR!!

Barn Hunt ROCKS!
Who would have thought that an 80 pound German Shepherd would place 2nd in 2 novice trials on Saturday earning a NOVICE title and then finish 2nd and 3rd on Sunday in the OPEN level earning 2 legs towards that title!

Click here to read the first post that explains the new sport called Barn Hunt!

Saturday - Trial 1 – Novice - Krista Williams (judge)  21.58 seconds – Pass - 2nd place
Saturday - Trial 2 – Novice - Krista Williams (judge)  24.38 seconds – Pass – 2nd place
Total time allowed for novice is 2 minutes.  He missed 1st place each trial by 1 second.
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Sunday - Trial 1 – Open - Krista Williams (judge)  66.84 seconds – Pass – 2nd place
Sunday - Trial 2 – Open - Krista Williams (judge)  64.40 seconds – Pass – 3rd place
Total time allowed for OPEN is 2 minutes 30 seconds.
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I posted on Facebook and below are “likes” and comments!

Candace Shaffer, Rolando Arthus Salvador, Tracy Jennerjohn and 52 others like this.

Nancy Nestler Go Jake! What an intersting sport!

Laurel Stone Nancy - it's just plain fun! In novice there are 3 tubes (rat/rat litter/nothing) hidden in the straw and the dog must find the one with the rat and indicate it so the handler calls it. if the handler calls the wrong one, it's over. Dogs have to go through a tunnel made from bales 18" wide and 22" high which determines whether or not dogs can participate. They also have to climb on a bale and if they find the rat before the climb or tunnel they have to go back and do it. Novice time is 2 minutes. When Jake did it Saturday, his times were 21 and 23 seconds and was ONE second behind the winning dog. In open there are 2 rats and one is hidden high with more time and in the higher levels there could be 5 rats but you're not told how many with bales stacked 3 high and several tunnels. Oh and they run naked (no collar) so holding Jake in the start box while handing off my leash without holding his scruff is probably the hardest part for me because he is SO excited.

Connie Bachhuber Jake is a natural. And thank you for being so willing to work. Gate Steward is not an easy job.

Marilyn Tokach What goof! He looks so proud of himself... but in a laid back, "yea, I did it... what's the big deal?" sort of a way.

Laurel Stone Connie.. you're too nice.. gate steward is the easiest job and you get to watch the dogs! Marilyn, He is a goof as we know. When he finds the last rat I have him bring the tube to me and he sits in front of me in a perfect retrieve position and releases it when I say out!

Sandra Hoesel Are you coming to the Rock Road Barn Hunt Oct 26th & 27th? Jake has that "I wanna go to another Barn Hunt" look in his eye! Congrats on all those pretty ribbons!

Laurel Stone Yes ma'am, I'm coming over to your place Sandra Hoesel! At least my entry is in an envelope with the others at Gail Donaldson's! Who knew he'd be so naturally good! If we don't pass any it will clearly be my fault (don't pat the straw Laurel, don't hold him by the scruff Laurel, don't shout Laurel.. you get the picture! :):))

Who would have thought it??  BARN HUNT….finding rats in a tube … 
more exciting than bitework!!! 
GO Jake!!!!

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Barn Hunt ….huh??

Does it have to do with dogs?  What the heck?  Of course, it has to do with dogs and not something to do with hunting barns!!  Check out the website:  Barn Hunt Association LLC  “The rat hunting game for all dogs!”  …huh?  RATS???   OK I said…  as long as I don’t have to actually hold the rats maybe I should check it out….  after all my dogs will chase and eat anything and so will Winnie!  Wait.. I don’t want them eating rats!  Well, not to worry..  they don’t EAT them, in fact, they don’t even touch them, they just hunt them… in a hard, HARD PVC tube, and, in fact, they don’t even chase them.  They HUNT them in a barn..  BARN HUNT… duh..

Off to the first training…  Jake, Brita and Winnie. 

• Brita:  SO excited she could hardly contain herself…  wait..  that’s Brita no matter what!  Brought her up to the start box and thought, she’s good at searching so let’s see what she does.  Silence, intense searching on the bales of straw.  Silence.  Over the tube with the rat. Over the empty tube. Over the tube with the paper that smells like the rat.  Nothing but more good searching..  hmmm..   Let’s show her the rat… More searching.  Put her back in the van. OH NO…  light bulb! No one told her what to search for!!!  Next time.
• Winnie:  ..the rat killer in her yard.  Piece of cake.  Nothing…  Show her the rat… Aww…  cute… she LIKES the rat.  Looks like we’ll need to do some work here.
• Jake:  Pretty excited – but then that’s Jake…  what to do?  Sniffing around…  WAIT – there is something ALIVE in this tube – I need to kill it!!!  … several times this happened..  “THIS is your dog”,  she said!   No, Jake, you can’t do a bark and hold on the nice lady!  No, Jake, you can’t take it back to the van with you.  “Out-down” became a very handy command.

Signed up Jake and Brita for the Instinct Test for the upcoming trial.

Second training went much like the first.  Put Winnie on hold until after the trial. Brita did the same good searching.  Jake was a wild-man.  Change the entries to Jake only – Instinct and Novice.

Trial day 5 days later. 

• Instinct test:  Only requirement is to pick the tube with the rat in rather than the others.  Piece of cake.  Rule #1 of trialing… make sure you walk your dog.  Handler error.  DQ.  Another lesson learned – you can’t hold the dog back in the start box by holding the scruff of the neck.  Glad I did this instinct thing to get ready.
• Novice:  Jake couldn’t be more excited but is containing himself ok.. it’s been worse.  Get him in the ring, hold him back by the chest, tell him to tunnel and he goes under the bales (required), finds one tube and passes over it, searches more with me just walking slowly around saying “where is it” occasionally,  He finds the tube between 2 bales and starts digging, pushes it out and pounces on it.  I take it and hold it up while telling him to get on the bales (required to jump on them at some point),  He jumps on the bales and them launches himself at the tube that the judge has now taken from me and (thank god!) misses.  I gather him up as I hear the spectators breathe a sign of relief (Hey it was the most excitement all day) and take him from the ring.  Total time: 1:33 – Qualified!  (2 minutes is allowed)

ok… We’re hooked and plans are underway for bales of straw and training in the yard!

 

Thank you Kay for taking the pictures!

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