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

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

What fun!  Although I spent enough time convincing my poodle pup that
chasing squirrels, pigeons, peacocks, kitties and rabbits (to love them and
bond with them, not to eat them!) to want to reintroduce her to her wild
side.  /smile/  Still it sounds like a fun day with the doggies.

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Ed Meskys
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 10:30 AM
To: sandy meskys; nagdu; dogGuideUsersNH at yahoogroups.com; Discussions Of The
Seeing Eye
Subject: [nagdu] Fw: Putting the Pounce Back in Your Pup.


----- 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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