Jake surely earned his keep today! I was clearing some brush in the yard and heaving it over a fence. A piece caught my glasses (no line bifocals..$$) and flipped them off of my head which I didn't realize immediately until I had walked around a bit. I searched to no avail because weeds were high so I brought Jake into the picture. Into the house we go. I got another pair of glasses, sat down with treats in one hand, glasses in the other and taught him "glasses" just like I've taught him other odors to search for. It took him 5 times for him to get it. Then I did a few times of hiding the glasses in the house and he alerted on them. Off to the weed patch where I tossed the practice glasses down a few times and he found them. Then told him to search more and he started sourcing on a raised bed (unused but with weeds) and, lo and behold, there they were. He first started sniffing on the outside of the concrete blocks through the holes and then went around to the side where they had landed. I first thought they had flipped over the fence with the brush so had him searching there but he came out to the concrete blocks. This whole process took 20-30 min. from the time I started teaching him. I recreated the find to take the photo. What a dog!!
"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!