Trial 1: Gimme was on fire and eager to search. I'm probably the only person to call "alert" in a barn hunt trial - fortunately the judge knew what I meant. Gimme found one rat quickly and then went on looking. She checked another area thoroughly, but left it. Then she was all interested in another spot and I called it, but I wasn't able to show the judge the right spot. There was a blank tube just above a rat tube (I hadn't even noticed the lower tube) and Gimme was coming down from on top of the pile, so I thought she was onto the upper tube. I was just too quick to call it, since she came down and found the real rat quickly enough. I did realize from watching this video, if I use the same technique with barn hunt as I do for nosework containers, it seems to work. You'll see the second pile (after she found the first rat), I step in, then start to move away and she quickly leaves it (around 50 seconds).
Trial 2: I was determined to work it like nosework containers and only call those tubes she sticks even when I start to move away. Gimme found two rats in 1:33... then we checked, checked and rechecked until I was satisfied there were no more. I called "finished" at 4:05. I've called finished too soon so many times, it was really hard for me to call this. So we got our first master leg and a second place. We need 4 more for the title. There's a lot of this video where Katherine was trying to run around and keep up, so its very shaky and lots of video of straw and such. Plus we were in the ring for over 4 minutes, so it is long. Still there is some good stuff. Have no clue who it was to call "Yeah Gimme" after I heard "Congratulations" from the judge.
Here's a couple pictures I captured from the video... Is she pretty or what...
Trial 4: I was again determined to work my plan and did well at it - there were no false calls. Gimme was fabulous. She found four rats in 1:53. Then I noticed her looking outside the ring here and there, which I took as her not thinking there were any more rats, so I got her to do the tunnel and called "finish". Wrong. There was one more under the green ramp - a spot we never really checked. She went by there a couple times, but was either up on the bales, too close to the small piles or I was between her and the rat. We had about two minutes left, so we easily had the time to go around and check one more time. BTW when I got her to "find" the fifth rat, I think she caught a nail in one of the tube holes, so I pulled it out and teased her with it. Even though we didn't get a leg, I was really pleased with this search.
We get to do this again in two weeks. I'm looking forward to it. The skills jump for the Master level is really a big one. Since we've done it once, I feel more confident we can do it again.
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