Gauis Baltar JE

Congratulations to Sean and Gauis for not only earning their Junior Earth dog title,

but doing so in one weekend. While managing to qualify in Introduction to Quarry every time as well! Making this a 4 Q weekend. That was after a total bust of a trial in North Carolina last weekend.
On Sunday he even reached the rat in IQ in under 5 seconds (4.2)! Very impressive.


If you've never heard of Earthdog (especially if you have a dachsund) Check out this earlier post.

Gauis was his usual exuberant self at earth dog. And waited patiently and politely to take his turn as usual....right..... All those terrier breeders are going to ban us from going to those trials one day just because Gauis is so annoying.



Now it's on to Senior Earthdog! Where there will be a false den to contend with AND.......

Gauis will be expected to recall back to the front of the tunnel away from the rats.

HAHAHAHAHA!

This dog won't take food when he knows he's about to see a rat. I have no idea how we are going to train that.

But you all will be happy to know that Sean held up his end of the bargain and gave Gauis a whole steak for dinner for completing his title.

Sean's only concern this weekend was Gauis changing his working styles while engaging the quarry. You see dogs are allowed to scratch, dig, growl and bark at the rat as well as bite the bars that separate them from the quarry. All of these things are considered "working". The dog must work the FULL 60 seconds after he reaches the rat to qualify.

Now the first few trials Gauis went to he worked by barking. Non-stop barking. Which was nice because when your standing at the opening of the tunnel you can hear him. This trial he would alternate between barking, growling and biting. All acceptable but nerve wrecking because only the judge can hear them. This leaves the handler standing at the front of the tunnel wondering Oh, gosh did he stop? Did we NQ? What's happening in there? But the biting does increase the possibility of us walking away with a broken bar one of these days. A badge of honor on the earth dog circuit.

Well before I go I will leave you with a few more photos of Gauis and our buddy Zeus who I'm sure is happy in his new foster home. We'll miss you buddy :)

A Tempary Companion

Hey everyone,

I'd like to introduce you to Zeus.

Now I'm sure your asking yourself. Who is that? You only have one dog Liz? Well you would be correct. This is my SUPER temporary foster dog. You see about a month ago I contacted DRNA and applied to be a foster home. It was a pretty in depth procedure. I mean there were test questions and full recommendations and everything. It was like applying to college. So all of that got approved and then we needed a home visit. And there we sort of hit a brick wall.

You see Sean works at night and I work during the day. Which means Gauis is only alone at home maybe two-three hours. It also means we are difficult to caught in the house at the same time. Great for foster dog parents but sort of a scheduling nightmare for a home visit. So the home visit thing was going nowhere and I thought in no time we'd get rejected for simply being unavailable.

But then I got a urgent email about a dog emergency. "Can you just keep a dog at your house a few days while we get him in a real foster home?" Well of course we could. That was the whole point right? That we were in a position to take in a foster dog. That suddenly changed to, "Hey can you guys go pick the dog up from his original owners?" So we did that too hence our VERY temporary pal here. In fact I'm trucking him off to his new foster home this afternoon.


Here is what we've learned about Zeus so far. He is 1.5 years old. He is both large dog and small dog friendly. He was taken from a yard with two large boxers and went to agility class with us Thursday and got along with everyone. He's a love bug and hasn't meet a stranger as of yet. He is 100% cat safe, and ignored Gracie even when she hissed at him. The three of them slept on the bed together yesterday. He was apparently raised with three cats according to his original owner. And he has yet to mess in my house, so he seems reliably house trained. AMAZING! Not what I was expecting from a foster.


Gauis wasn't so sure about this foster thing at first. Some strange dog in his house eating his food, playing with his toys and talking to his people. But then he realized that he could play with the him! Like anytime he wanted to, not just on special occasions like at a dog park. Then it was all over. He was in love.



I thought giving back fosters would be really rough for Sean and I because we might get attached. I never thought about Gauis falling in love :P Such fun, can't wait to get our next foster.