Swy debuted in his first official dog sport event. I will admit, I didn't plan for him to try barn hunt this year because in practice he is doing better but still hit or miss on whether he alerts or just runs around. But Sophie could no longer do Instinct after moving up to open and I had already paid for the spot.
My goal was, no peeing in the ring, no reacting in the blind and just having fun. I really didn't expect him to alert to the rat. I knew he would find it but his alert is very light and usually our trainer has to cue me into it.
Well Swy blew me away. He was calm in the blind (eating a whole lot of hot dog and calmly checking in with me). Then he went into the ring, I released him, he ran through the tunnel and did his climb (not required in Instinct but encouraged). Then he ran around the ring, it looked like he was about to raise a leg so I called him. He came running and I reminded him to find the rat. He sniffed all three tubes and lingers on the last so I went with it and called rat.
Voila, please meet Shasta's Braveheart, RATI call name Swyatt!
Sophie also had a great day. Her first open run, she dug at a tube for a few seconds and then moved away but came back and then moved away so I called it. It wasn't her normal indication but sometimes in her first run she isn't as clear. My bad, it was a bedding tube she was just double checking so no Q.
Her second run, she ran around and said hi to everyone but then got to work. She found both rats and received her Q. She took first place in her height and High in Class! So proud of her.
Congrats! Instinct is both harder and easier than you would think. Koira was entered once and totally bombed- she gets super obsessive about all the tubes, with or without rats. Great job on Swy, and of course on Sophie.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the wonderful share. We always wanted to go to one of these events. Great job Swy with being your first time. Sophie, congratulations on your first place winnings. Have a great day.
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