Use kibble to motivate your dog. Take out one piece of kibble and, when your dog is looking, throw it about a foot into the tunnel and wait. He should stick his head in to retrieve the food. Repeat this process , slowly increasing how far you throw the kibble. Once your dog makes it to the end of the tunnel, reward him with a handful of kibble and lots of praise. Repeat this process until he has had all his kibble for the day.
Once your dog has nailed the short tunnel, begin training him in a longer one. Long tunnels have more sections and offshoots with corner pieces involved. Make sure the corners are at perfect right angles. You just have to repeat the setup and training but in a remodeled tunnel to get him used to different situations.
You can use a lab rat or a squirrel for quarry. Critter boxes or cages are used to keep the quarry and your dog safe from each other, so they need to be secure. You can make the critter box from plywood. It should have a wire-front opening with a top handle. They can be made from narrow aluminum bars or wooden dowels and anchor them with wood and glue.
Leash your dog and stash the critter box somewhere behind the tunnel, but NOT inside it. Now, let your dog run. He should remember his previous training, then run through the tunnel. When he goes inside, grab the critter box and place it under the trap door.
This method trains your dog to never run around the tunnel but to run through it. Once he locates it, open the trap door and pet him through the opening. Rattle the cage to encourage him to work the quarry. You can pull him out via the trap door, or you can remove the critter box from behind bars. As your dog gets more comfortable with one tunnel, add gradual steps by adding different sections to it.
AWTA runs Earthdog den trials. You can read the list of eligible dog breeds below. Participating dogs must navigate a foot tunnel and reach the quarry within 30 seconds. This certificate is only applicable to AWTA members. The dog must work natural earth to find either a woodchuck, badger, fox, or raccoon to receive a WC. The dog must enter the ground without encouragement. The beginning class is called Introduction to Quarry, and any eligible dog can be entered in this class, regardless of experience.
With the help of a good judge, the beginners will usually discover their hunting instincts in a short, ten foot tunnel. The next class, Junior Earthdog, is a step in the direction of earning a title. The dog must negotiate a thirty foot tunnel with three turns. In order to pass, the dog must leave your arms, find the tunnel, and go to the end, where the dog must show that he has found the rats by barking, pawing or digging. The next classes are built around the same theme but increased in skill.
In the Senior Earthdog trial, the dog must find a hidden tunnel by scent, and after he has found his prey, he must come directly back to his handler after being removed from the tunnel by the judge. For the Master Earthdog trial, the dog must find the tunnel in a field no less than three hundred feet from the starting point, and find the right path to the rats, when there could be side tunnels to distract him.
For this highest trial, the handler must retrieve the dog from the tunnels. These dogs can go on to help their hunting handlers to flush game, including fowl and rabbits. It has been said that the trip home from the hunt determines which terriers have what it takes. No riding in saddle bags for this breed. Problem-Solving Ability. When faced with a situation where the quarry is not directly accessible, the terrier working the fells and rocky crevasses of the Lake District was required, for instance, to figure out how to reach an underground ledge, or negotiate a narrow opening.
Scenting Ability. Given the harsh climate and the many hiding places for the fox, superior olfactory powers were necessary for the Lakeland to avoid wasting time in unproductive hunting. Hardly any character trait could be more important to the Lakeland than to be totally certain that life is good.
Adrenaline Addiction. For a terrier to develop combat skills it must be willing to perform acts that reward and punish at the same time. Its prey drive must be stronger than its avoidance of pain. In short, it must be what is known as an adrenaline junkie. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality. Earth terriers must have some of the genes that contribute to obsessive-compulsive disorder or they would never get their job done.
If there is a root in the way when digging to quarry, the terrier must stay there and dig as long as it takes to get past the obstruction. No sane dog would work at an obstacle for hours! Too many of those OCD genes or inappropriate reinforcement during development or both and you have a dog with behavior problems, not The Great Hunter.
It should defend itself if attacked, but must not be quarrelsome. Going up into the hills to reduce the fox population was serious business to the Lake District farmers. Their sheep were their income. They would band together, each bringing his terriers. No way would a dog-aggressive terrier be allowed to disrupt the hunt. Truly form follows function in character as well as structure. Nor is it difficult by selection to create a population of calmer, placid individuals who are not at risk of developing behavior problems when raised in pet homes by inexperienced owners.
But when you travel down one of these two roads, you have seen your last Lakeland Terrier. The American Working Terrier Association was formed in to provide a gateway for Terrier and Dachshund fanciers to enter the world of work with their dogs. Trials in artificially constructed earths to earn Certificates of Gameness are offered, as well as the coveted Working Certificate, earned on wild quarry in a natural earth.
Working with advisors from this group, AKC developed its Earthdog program several decades later. Dogs are judged against a standard of performance, not against each other. The different breeds tend to work differently, with different hunting patterns and speed. In Earthdog Tests there are qualifiers and non-qualifiers, not winners and losers. ED events are humane, too. They are always separated from the dogs by dual barriers. The rats sit there grooming themselves, apparently unconcerned about the nutty dogs barking and biting at the wooden bars in front of their cage.
The Introduction of Quarry Class is offered for terriers and Dachshunds 6 months of age or older that are inexperienced. The area is customarily fenced, the artificial earth is short 10 feet with only one turn and mild encouragement by the handler is allowed. The dog is allowed to change from one type of work to another.
The regular classes are Junior, Senior, and Master. At each level different aptitudes and skills are being assessed. A terrier or Dachshund that has earned titles through the Master level has demonstrated many of the traits necessary for success as a working earth dog. There are three notable exceptions which may someday be incorporated into the Earthdog program as they are in European tests.
Those three are size, courage and endurance.
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