[nagdu] Fw: Putting the Pounce Back in Your Pup.

[Tracy Carcione]

That was interesting.
A person I know trained her golden guide for field trials in retrieving. 
I know they did it more after retirement, but I think the golden did field
work while he was still an active guide.  They both enjoyed it.  The
person got the fun of training her dog for something that wasn't
life-and-death, and the golden got the fun of retrieving, which he loved
to do.  It seemed to be a break for him--a de-stressing thing.
Tracy

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 9:31 AM
> Subject: Putting the Pounce Back in Your Pup.
>
>
> Putting the Pounce Back in Your Pup.
> NY Times Friday, 2010_06_11
> By ROBBIE BROWN. CARLISLE, Pa.
> THE rolling hunting grounds in southern Pennsylvania were teeming with
> rabbits
> --
> brown streaks darting into plastic hutches, cottontails munching clover,
> and
> barely
> detectable silhouettes under shady sumacs. But my basset hound, Elvis,
> seemed
> far
> more interested in the baked ziti smell wafting from the clubhouse nearby.
> No pasta until you eat your rabbit,' I scolded parentally.
> Elvis flopped down in the shade of an oak and closed his eyes. It was 9
> a.m. --
> six
> hours before the big event -- and he was already asleep.
> We were at the Fun Field Trial here, a hunting training program held in
> the
> spring
> for dogs that have never hunted but whose breeds were created to do so.
> Part
> doggie
> boot camp, part nature-versus-nurture science experiment and part
> outdoorsman's
> Westminster
> Dog Show, the trial was founded last year by two local basset hound clubs
> to
> test
> the hunting instincts of ordinary house dogs.
> It is open to four breeds normally associated with the great indoors:
> bassets,
> beagles,
> dachshunds and petit basset griffon vendeens. But with their remarkable
> noses,
> short
> legs and voracious appetites, these dogs were bred by Europeans centuries
> ago to
> lead hunters toward scurrying rabbits, badgers and other quick-moving
> prey.
> The trial is the canine equivalent of Yankees Fantasy Camp, pairing master
> with
> tutor.
> But instead of batting lessons from Darryl Strawberry, rookie dogs are led
> on
> hunts
> alongside prizewinning hounds with names like Digger and Quest. Owners,
> who
> first
> gather at the clubhouse, later stand along wooden fences and shout
> encouragement
> ('Go Ollie! and 'Hunt 'em up!') like parents in a grandstand.
> Disclosure to PETA: No rabbits are killed, and the only gun is a starting
> pistol,
> fired into the air to measure a dog's 'gun shyness. In fact, the dogs
> never
> catch
> rabbits -- and normally don't even see them -- but are judged on their
> ability
> to
> follow the scent as long and directly as possible.
> It's what dogs were bred to do, and they can relearn it surprisingly
> quickly,'
> said
> Kenneth Engle, the trial's founder, vice president of the Basset Hound
> Club
> of
> America
> and owner of 13 hunting dogs.
> Not that Elvis had shown much pedigree or promise so far. That he had even
> left
> the
> club building, so to speak, was a feat.
> Since I adopted him last year at age 4 (previous name: Flash), Elvis has
> led
> a
> resoundingly
> pampered life. He clocks an average of 20 hours of sleep per day -- on the
> rug;
> on
> the sofa; on the passenger seat of my car; on his large, fluffy bed at
> home;
> on
> his
> larger, fluffier bed at the office. Occasionally, he will rise, blink at
> the
> daylight,
> eat some food and fall back asleep -- a medical condition I call
> wakeolepsy.
> To Elvis, meals come on plates, not legs.
> Most of the owners, from up and down the East Coast, seemed more confident
> in
> their
> dogs -- 30 strong at this trial. Lawrence Castagna, an art curator in East
> Hampton,
> N.Y., decided to enter his 1-year-old basset hound, Gamble, after the dog
> tugged
> at the leash whenever rabbits appeared near his home.
> If Gamble were my son and he were good at baseball, I would be taking him
> to
> Little
> League games,' he said.
> Others felt like Nancy Zeidenberg. Asked why she brought her basset,
> Homer,
> she
> described
> his vacuum-cleaner-strength nose and obsession with devouring every last
> morsel
> of
> cheese, peanut butter and freeze-dried liver at home in Ridgewood, N.J.
> 'If
> he
> can
> smell cheese,' she said, 'maybe he can smell a rabbit.
> This belief -- that you can teach an old dog older tricks -- seems to be
> gaining
> popularity. The number of so-called instinct-performance tests to measure
> a
> dog's
> hunting and herding skills has increased 39 percent over the past two
> years,
> totaling
> 1,549 in 2009, according to the American Kennel Club. Many are geared
> toward
> pets
> and owners who have never hunted.
> In Vacaville, Calif., trainers at the Herding-4-Ewe Training Facility
> teach
> collies
> to herd ducks and sheep. In Crosswicks, N.J., an instructor at the Village
> Green
> Farm Earthdog Center coaches dachshunds to chase badgers through
> underground
> tunnels.
> A dog that's not allowed to hunt won't hunt,' said JoAnn Hilliker, a
> basset
> hound
> trainer in Gainesville, Fla. But if you allow them to hunt, most of them
> will.
> Not necessarily, said Alexandra Horowitz, an expert in dog behavior at
> Barnard
> College.
> After millenniums of domestication, she said, dogs are as much like humans
> as
> they
> are like wolves.
> People think if we put dogs in the right environment, they'll just go back
> to
> their
> wild ways,' she said. It really just depends on the breed and the
> individual
> dog.
> Back at the trial, at the Carlisle Beagle Club, about 120 miles west of
> Philadelphia,
> the event's organizer, Mr. Engle, drew numbers from a bingo machine. Out
> of
> 15
> braces
> of dogs (one experienced, one newcomer), Elvis would go 14th, with a
> basset
> named
> Quest.
> That meant I would spend the morning walking the grounds in search of
> rabbits
> for
> the other dogs. Every few minutes, someone would sight one and excitedly
> cry,
> 'Tally
> ho! The whole group would hustle to that spot, and two dogs would be
> unleashed.
> Normally
> the trained dog would sniff feverishly and then race after the rabbit, its
> nose
> skimming
> the soil. The only question was: Would the inexperienced dog join in?
> Most house dogs were simply confused. They seemed interested in the smell
> of
> rabbits,
> but equally interested in the smell of other dogs. They did not grasp the
> mission.
> Sirius, a basset owned by Sheldon B. Stern, lost interest about 30 seconds
> into
> the
> chase. He sniffed the rabbit's path briefly, eyed another dog curiously
> and
> then
> trotted back to his owner.
> That's the problem with our domesticated dogs,' said Mr. Stern, a
> psychologist
> from
> Long Island. They smell our pizza. They don't smell the rabbits anymore,'
> he
> said,
> adding, 'If we had put a steak in the woods, that might have worked.
> Still, I held out hope that Elvis would surprise everyone and reveal
> himself
> to
> be
> a natural-born hunter. Before the trial, I had asked Ms. Hilliker, the dog
> trainer,
> for advice on preparing him.
> You need to familiarize him with the smell of a rabbit,' she said and --
> without
> joking -- suggested that I 'find a road-kill rabbit and tie it to a tree.
> Instead, I bought a little plastic bottle of 'rabbit scent,' a perfumelike
> liquid
> used by dog trainers, and drizzled it across the yard. Although Elvis
> didn't
> run
> down the scent's path, as I'd hoped, he did roll around on the scent,
> suggesting
> to me that he was at least interested in the smell of rabbits.
> So when Elvis's turn at the trial came late in the afternoon, and Mr.
> Engle
> cried
> 'Tally ho! ,' I eagerly ran Elvis to the spot.
> Immediately, Quest put his nose to the ground. And then, for a magical
> moment,
> so
> did Elvis. He breathed the scent in deeply, began padding down a path
> after
> the
> rabbit
> and looked like a genuine hunting dog. It was thrilling.
> And that's when Elvis got distracted. Quest darted into a tuft of tall
> grasses,
> but
> Elvis looked daintily uninterested. And just as the rabbit appeared to be
> escaping
> for good, Elvis stopped. He lifted his right hind leg and urinated.
> Hunt's over,' Mr. Engle declared.
> If Elvis didn't display a killer instinct, he did show a glimmer of
> hunting
> prowess.
> And that was enough for me.
> As for Elvis, Mr. Engle gave him a consolation prize, a trophy for
> participation
> in the form of a ceramic rabbit. This one caught Elvis's attention. He
> chewed it
> to pieces at home. And then he fell asleep.
> Forthcoming American Kennel Club tests and training in the area:
> RETRIEVERS Hunt Test, July 3 to 5, Nod Brook Wildlife Management Area,
> Simsbury,
> Conn. (along Routes 10 and 202, sharing an entrance with Tower Business
> Park);
> sbgrc.org.
> TERRIERS AND DACHSHUNDS Earthdog Tests, July 3 and 4; Earthdog Training,
> July 17
> and 18 and Aug. 14 and 15 (registration required); Village Green Earthdog
> Farm,
> 221
> Bordentown-Crosswicks Road, Crosswicks, N.J.; www.dcnj.net/calendar.htm.
> SIGHTHOUNDS Lure Coursing Tests and Trials, July 23 and 24, Stormville
> Airport,
> Route
> 216, Stormville, N.Y.; (519) 458-8181.
> OTHER EVENTSakc.org/events/search.
> PHOTOS: Fred Atwater, from Neptune, N.J., with several of his experienced
> basset
> hounds. The Fun Field Trial pairs dogs that can hunt with dogs that can't.
> (C23);
> Top left, Elvis, the writer's basset hound, checks out his rabbit statue.
> Top
> right,
> participants point to a rabbit entering the brush. The dogs never catch
> rabbits,
> but are judged on their ability to follow the scent as long and directly
> as
> possible.
> Above, Elvis, left, and Emma, another novice. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY JESSICA
> KOURKOUNIS
> FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES ) (C29) .
>
>
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