"Jake" earned the first RATCHX in the history of the Barn Hunt on July 27, 2014, at Waukesha, WI. Rat Champion Excellent requires that a dog earn 25 Master legs total, including the 5 earned in the RATM and the 10 earned in the RATCH! He subsequently earned another 10 legs to earn his RATCHX2 (CLICK HERE to see the facts of this journey) in October 2014 and his RATCHX3 in July 2015! In 2015, our focus turned to Dock Jumping and he is competing in the venues of Dock Dogs, NADD and Pier Pups where he has a personal best of 16'6" in Big Air (earning a Junior title and an invitation to Worlds) and 9.330 seconds in Speed Retrieve! In 2016 Jake earned his RATCHX4 in Barn Hunt, a Speed Retrieve title from Dock Dogs and is now a Nosework junkie where he has earned in 2 years his UKC Elite title!
Sunday, November 12, 2017
Relearning the dock!
I spent MONTHS teaching Jake to NOT go down the ramp but rather jump off the dock so he could do dock diving. Now, so he can continue swimming and not over-stress his back/rear end, (he only has one hip due to an accident when he was a wee one and removal of the head of the hip at 4 months old) I'm reversing course to make it easier. Also, to make it easier is the reason why he has a life jacket on again. Today, he is showing off and teaching Micah (James Affeldt) who is barking in the background that it's really fun to retrieve in the water even though jumping 16'.6" (person best jump) is not a part of it! He just turned 8 and he still thinks he can do it all so unfortunately I have to be the voice of reason for him!!