Last weekend we went to Ridgefield for two days of barn hunting. I drove home each day - cheaper to make the drive than staying in a hotel and much nicer to sleep in my own bed, though tiring to drive.
Saturday
Crazy8 (1) - We started the day on fire. Gimme did the climb and tunnel and found 6 rats, for her personal best of 80 points. She was having a great time - as was I.
Master (1) - Gimme got 4 out of 5 rats. I called clear too soon. She actually found the 5th rat right when she came in the ring, but it was a drive-by. I noticed it, but didn't place importance on the hesitation. I should have taken her back to the spot for another check of it.
Crazy8 (2) - Gimme did the climb and tunnel and found 3 rats for 50 points. We only needed 20 points to complete her Crazy8 Gold title. Yay for us!
Unfortunately the scribe failed to record our tunnel, so in addition to not getting the 10 points from the tunnel, we lost another 20 points for the fault. Thus the record reflects we only got 20 points. Enough to still complete the title, but not what I know we earned. I didn't notice this in time to have the judge correct it, so it stands. I am choosing not to be upset since there have been other gifts in trial judging. There was one time a scribe erred and we got an extra 20 points. Another time a judge got confused and basically told me where a rat tube was - so with just seconds to spare we got another rat for 10 points. So it's a wash now.
Master (2) - I don't know why, but Gimme false alerted right away. She'd just left the start box and barely started searching. It occurs to me I need to go back to the walk-away test for every alert. That is where I walk sideways away from her when she alerts, to see if she's serious about it. If she's serious, she'll stick it or she may briefly leave it, but then go back to it. If she's just testing to see if I'll fall for a tube, she'll leave it and not go back.
Sunday
Crazy8 (3) - Gimme was slower and less focused, so in addition to the climb and tunnel, she only found 2 rats, for 40 points.
Master (3) - Gimme did a nice job and found 3 rats pretty quickly. She was still searching and not giving up, but also not finding anything. There was one hard-to-get-to spot I knew she hadn't been to. I tried to guide her to it, but she wasn't able to understand what I wanted. Finally she came over the top of the pile from another direction and then with just a tiny bit of encouragement she got right to the tube I wanted her to check. She did a lovely indication, despite having to almost stand on her head to do it. It was a very nice Q - number 7. We just need three more.
Crazy8 (4) - I'm not sure what was going on with her. She did the climb and tunnel and found two rats, but then false alerted. Then we ran out of time. So we ended the run with just 20 points.
Master (4) - Gimme found 4 out of 5 nicely and then false alerted. The actual 5th rat was directly across the ring. Judge Dan said she found the 5th rat early in her search, but I was not in a position to see it, so she left it to find me and then didn't go back. Sometimes if I don't call "rat" to her find she won't go back, as if she thinks maybe this rat is not good enough. Because this was the last search of the weekend and coming from sharing the blind with a dog and his peanut butter Kong (see below), I think Gimme was both tired and frustrated, so she just alerted on a litter tube to see if I'd fall for it, which I did. If I'd done the walk-away test, she probably would have left it and we might have found that fifth rat for another Q.
We've been to this site before. The barn hunt club shares it with an agility club. Last time we weren't very successful because Gimme was so distracted by all the agility noise. This time she didn't seem to notice the noise.
The blinds were hard for us. They were 10 x 20 canopies, open on just one side. The masters blind was open on the long side, so it didn't seem as restrictive; however, the crazy8 blind was only open on the short side. While Gimme mostly handled it well, I do think it was very tiring for her. This would at least partially explain her performance drop off on the second day.
The only times she didn't handle it well were both masters blinds. In one there was a reactive Chow that kept targeting and then barking at other dogs in the blind. Fortunately none of them ever responded to his bad behavior. He never targeted Gimme, so I think he just needs training, but it was still stressful. The second time we were in a blind with him, he was worse. Afterwards I instructed the gate steward to not put us in the blind with him again.
Unfortunately this meant our last blind of the weekend was in with the nice lady with the Irish Terriers. Apparently she liked my peanut butter GoToob idea for Gimme, so she is now bringing a Kong filled with peanut butter to entertain her own dog. This just about blew Gimme's mind. She was absolutely certain she needed to get over there and chase that beast away from her peanut butter! I wasn't having any luck convincing her there were other peanut butter sources in the world besides our private stash. Fortunately everyone was very nice and we rearranged the seating to put the two of them at opposite corners of the blind. Then I was able to get her attention and help her calm down.
One thing I've started is a review of all my blog posts about our barn hunt trials. I'm making a list of all the lessons-learned since the beginning. I think it would be helpful to put the most important ones on a 3x5 card, so I can remind myself before each class of the most successful strategies. I want to write it up like an affirmation. When I do my part Gimme is more successful, so this is my plan to up my game.
So, we ended the weekend with a new CZ8G title and 60 points toward Gimme's next Crazy8 title, the Platinum level. Just 440 points to go. We picked up one Masters B leg, so we need just 3 more to get the RATCHX. Once we have that I will stop competing in Masters and just focus on Crazy8.
All in all it was a successful weekend
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