Saturday, June 19, 2010

Earthdog Fun Weekend

Hi guys!

No I haven't fallen off the edge of the world; I'm still around but boy is it ever hot today. Mom only lets us out a little while before we have to come back into the cool house. I don't know why; we can sit under the trees but she insists... could it be the tick she found on me the other day?

We all went up to New Jersey over the weekend of May 29/30th for an Earthdog Training and Fun Weekend. We get to see our old buddies and make new friends. This time there were a total of 15 Bedlingtons in attendance! Wow -- I got to see so many other doggies that looked like me, how about that.

I got to meet some great people, they have my year-old little boy Fizz. They all live in Vermont and made the long trip to NJ to see us and have some fun! I'm hugging Fizz's human mommy and his human dad is hugging Fizz's roomie, Willow. I LIKED their Mom, she had the BEST cookies for me!



Fizz is watching me eat cookies...



They had an ice cream truck come for a visit and he was pretty popular with the people! Mom kept wondering if the ice cream guy would come... but she's very bad about sharing any of it with me -- hmpf.



It sure was hot there -- here I am hanging around our tent campsite. Mom was good about keeping me cool. We Bedlies come from the north of England so I'm not a hot-weather type of guy.



There was a good turnout -- here I am in front of some doggies waiting in line for one of the games on Sunday.



Emmy said she wasn't interested in Earthdog anymore so we could go without her, so Mom took her over to our breeder's house and got my 8-month-old son Ringo to try doing Earthdog; he's never even seen a rat before. He gets along with everybody so we had no problem letting him ride in the car with us.
Here's Ringo sizing up the situation before his beginner class started:


Fizz thought if he barked loud enough he'd scare that rat out of its little cage so he could go chase it!


Fizz knew he couldn't get that rat so he's just looking at it:


Ringo, however, watched another Bedly pal of ours (the lady came over from IOWA!) bark at the rat, so he started barking too! Ringo did so well he got to run through a short tunnel a couple of times. That's my boy!


Ollie got to do some training that day, too. He's got some work to do but he's young yet, he'll get it. He's already doing the short underground tunnel and loves to bark at rats under there.

I, on the other paw, got to play the games the day after all the training. I got to play the 'Chuck 'n Pull' game where they have a groundhog skin over a liter bottle and they pull it through a tunnel and we doggies are supposed to grab it and pull it out. It's on a string so the people try pulling it back. I Looooove this game... grrr grrr grrr....


There were lots of other activities and at the end of the day they had the "Jersey Junkyard Challenge" where they put a rat in a PVC tube, mix it up with other empty tubes, and then place them all in a pile of boxes and junk in a fenced ring. Then we doggies get to go inside and find the right tube. Our mommies stand outside and tell the timer (yes it's timed) to stop time if they think we've found the tube. After every turn they'd mix 'em up again.
Mom couldn't get pics of me or Josie playing, but here's one:

This guy was from PA and he's not quite sure what to do!


When it was my turn, I found a tube in a tire and started chewing on the tire to get the tube out, so Mom stopped time and she was right! Of course I found it -- my time was 7 seconds which got me 2nd place. Josie went in and did it in 12 seconds so she was 4th place. I think 6 Bedlingtons were in the top ten, and we all got prizes.. I got a big stuffed skunk toy! Ollie likes it too...

So we all got together and posed for a pic with our club banner. Say cheese!!!
(Mom is the one in the red shirt in front) I'm standing by myself on Mom's left -- she had a hard enough time keeping Ringo, Josie, and Ollie in line!


So that was our fun weekend -- more is going on around here but I'll leave that for another post.

Stay cool and in the shade!
Love,
Rudy