Tunnel completed

I finished the go-to-ground tunnel today. Using the remaining bits of plywood and some scrap I had laying around, I added a 'T' , a three foot pipe, and a den. No one could ever accuse me of being a carpenter, but the finished product should be serviceable.

All of the parts are able to be turned so that the whole tunnel can be rearranged into different designs. I set it up on the edge of the yard while Gordon investigated.

He didn't enter, and I didn't encourage him either.

Once I had it set up, I decided to see what Gordon would think.

I loaded up the den section with some used bedding from the rabbit cage and a third of a hot dog.

Then I loaded up one section of pipe with a wall of dirt and sand.

Gordon had been running the short tunnel pretty easily lately, I was wondering how he would do with the new twists, turns, and obstacles.

He entered at the tunnel at the T. I had to coax him at first, but then he was in and running.


Pat, pat, pat, his paws thumped through the tunnel. He ignored the dead end tunnel and headed straight for the den. Some tasty smells should have been eminateing from their as it was full of the used bedding.

I forgot to fasten down the trap door and it started to pop open as he trundled through. I held it closed with my foot.

Then Gordon started to dig. I could hear him in there, and dirt was being pushed out of the seams of the tunnel. Go, dog, go.

He paused once to rest, then finished the job. Next thing I knew he was tearing up the den, and chomping down on some well earned hot dog.


We repeated the exercise a few more times. He did awesome. I've got the trap out for a squirrel to see how Gordon likes that. In the meantime, I'm going to pick up a rat and see if that helps to make more positive associations.

It was a good exercise.

Instant Improvement

A few weeks ago I spent a little time building a short go to ground tunnel. I have been working with Gordon off and on since then, and Graci has even played around in there a bit.

Gordon will race down the tunnel, exiting out of the 90 degree turn for a treat like it is nothing now.

Last few times I have had him out hunting in the field, he had been tentative going into holes and had to be coaxed to go in and investigate.

So we took it to the dunes today to see how he would do.

Last time we were here we found where fox had dug into the dunes, and Gordon did face off against something.

It is too late in the year now, and it has been awfully hot, so I didn't expect to find anything underground.

But Gordon was ready.


We weren't long in the sand before we came across our first hole.

Gordon made a B line for it.

No hesitation, he just plunged right in, flushing the first game of the day.


Toad.

Gordon taught it a lesson, then plunged deeper into the hole.

He sniffed around then backed out, determining that there was nobody home.

We continued to meander through the dunes, coming across some cool turtle tracks in the sand.

We followed them for a bit. Gordon loves being off leash wandering through the brush and field. You can see it in his face and demeanor. He marks everything he can, then moves on to his next discovery. he wanders, but never far, and usually comes when called.

We found some bones strewn about so I guessed there would be more fox holes close by.

We did come across more holes.

Gordon wasn't afraid of any of them.

He checked them all out briefly, then we would move on.

We never did see a fox below ground, but Gordon did chase one through the dunes before he lost it in the tangles of grape vines.

I would call the day a complete success.

We are going to extend the go-to-ground tunnel and keep working though there. I'll introduce some caged quarry soon and see how Gordon reacts. I expect to see more improvement, especially as he gets to see more time in the field.

Building a go-to-ground tunnel

In an effort to get Gordon more accepting of going to ground, I've decided to make him a tunnel to practice on.

I'm following the basic plan outlined in American Working Terriers.

I've altered it just a bit, making the tunnel 8x8 instead of 9x9, as I know Gordon is small enough to fit. The tunnel is still a work in progress, but we've been able to start training already.

I started by cutting 4 feet off of a 4x8 piece of plywood. My main tunnel would be four feet long, and I would have some left over to make a 90 degree turn, and another stretch of tunnel later.


I cut eight inch wide strips from the one side, leaving space left over in the middle. Then I measured out a 90 degree angle and cut that out as well.



I put together three of the sides by screwing them into cross pieces made by 1x2 scrap. I hinged the fourth side so that I can open the top of the tunnel should I ever need to. I've closed it temporarily with one screw.


Then we start training.

It was easy at first. Put some food at the front of the tunnel. Dog comes and gets it. I would put the food further back.


Gordon would start by balking, then barking at the end of the tunnel. Then he scurried a little way in. then further, and next time further.


Right now, he'll go all the way to the end of a four foot tunnel, but is still tentative. Next we will add a corner and more tunnel.

Once the dog is running the tunnel, we'll add a critter and see how he reacts to that.

Fox in the dunes

I took Gordon out for a stroll on the dunes late this afternoon. The dunes are a great place to do this as the dog can roam pretty much at will without me worrying about losing him. I knew there were fox up here and one time we chased a raccoon over a hill, but I haven't seen much activity lately.

Very quickly we cam across sign of fox. Their foot prints dotted the sand. Soon we came across scat and then bones.


It wasn't long before we found a den. It was old and part of it had already caved in. When we walked around to the other side, it looked like something had been digging the hole back out. Gordon decided to stick his head in and check things out. he wasn't too interested, so we milled around a bit and moved on.

I figured that would be all we would see of fox. We don't have groundhog in this part of the country so any dens that fox have here, they have to dig themselves. This last hole was shallow and short, about what I would expect.

Then we found another den. This one was high up on a dune. We clambered up to check it out. as Gordon poked around, we stepped through another dig underneath the first. The two seemed to be connected. Maybe the fox were digging a lot deeper than I thought.

Obviously, no one was home in this one.

Soon, the amount of fox tracks increased. They were everywhere.
More scat.

More bones.

And here, a fresh hole. I could smell the musk of something inside, and Gordon was on his toes.

Gordon is new to the going to ground thing. He will tentatively poke his nose here and there to explore, but it has never gotten much further than that.

He was interested in this hole. He poked his nose in, then pushed past his chest. I could hear a soft wuf, wuf, coming from inside the den. I knew that Gordon is basically a wimp and wouldn't engage with anything in the hole, and I was curious what would happen.

The musky smell of fox grew stronger. Gordon put paws to sand and started digging his way further into the sette.

He wiggled and pushed. He would take a break and mark the plants outside the hole, then dig further in. Eventually, his back legs disappeared. He seemed to step up, over a ledge in the burrow, then was gone. I waited.

That was the hardest part, waiting.

Then he wiggled his way back out, butt first. He took a break, panting in the heat. Marked, then went right back in.

He worked the hole for close to 45 minutes. I don't know if he ever saw the fox inside. We didn't find a back door, so it had to be in there. I think it was a good experience. More than I could hope for actually.

We finally moved on and found an old fox carcass (mummy) close to the den. It looked like a young one, but I can't be sure.


It was time to go and we meandered back to the care. On the way, we came across another den. This one was large and seemed to also be active.


That made for at least two, maybe four fox dens in an area of about three acres. Interesting.

We'll come back to play here again.

I'm curious to see how Gordon's interest in fox developes.

Dogs go to ground

My younger son and I took Gordon on a trip up to Maryland to wander the fields and look for groundhogs with Patrick, Terrierman.

It was the perfect day for hunting.

My son manned the camera so all picture credits go to him.

We started off at a familiar farm. This piece of land has changed over the years as the owners have modified their management style from corn to cows.

A stream meanders through the bottoms of the field and generally groundhog holes dot the shoreline of the brook. The dogs gamboled through the thick grass on the edge of the creek looking for their first scent. It didn't take long.

Five minutes and Mountain had pinged on his first hole. The other dogs piled in. Mountain had opened up in the hole and Pearl was on her toes with excitement.

Gordon still hasn't quite got it yet. He's interested - but not sure what to. He will get into the holes and sniff - but doesn't go all the way in with reckless abandon, like Patrick's dogs do. I'm working on exposure here.

We dug one hole and exposed a corner of the set, Mountain was on it, in and out the holes, then digging at where he thought it should be.

There was definitely something in there. I pole the ground. It was hard to tell where the tunnel was because the ground was so soft after all the snow they'd had that the pole went in like it was butter. We found the tube and then dropped another hole. We ended up behind the groundhog.

Pearl engaged it from one side, and Patrick tried to tail it out with the other.

We spent the rest of the morning following the creek, but realized that the recent flooding had evicted most of the wildlife out of their holes in this area. We moved spots and tried another farm. We saw lots of beautiful scenery and plenty of holes, but no one was home in most of them.

I couldn't have asked for a better day.

Near the end of the day Gordon was getting it. He located a hole and knew that it was occupied. He was on his toes! He was active, engaged - he wanted to proceed, but the hole was impassible. It was a layer of rocks, crossed with more rocks, and no way the dogs could fit.

My boy and I thanked Patrick over a pint. I had Cookie Dough, Luke had Mint Chocolate Chip.

We headed out to spend the night at the campground, then came home the next day.

Gordon is going to need more exposure to this ground work thing- but he's going to get it, I have no doubt.

Happy Easter.

Gettin' out

It seems that spring is here. The plum tree out back is in bloom and my youngest has started his garden. Bees will be getting here the second week in April - so not much longer.

I got the opportunity to get Gordon out for a stroll through the dunes today. The temperature had dropped from 74 yesterday to 40 with the wind blowing at 30 mph. Wind chill brings it down to close to freezing.

I took the kids to soccer and then headed up into the dunes in search of fox or raccoon. I wanted to get the smell in Gordon's nose. Gordon stayed close, investigating nearby. We meandered through the sand hills following game trails and looking for places where fox may lie up. We found a few promising spots that seemed to delight the dog's nose, but no live animals.

We headed off the dune and into an area where the forest was being swallowed by the sand. A great horned owl flushed in front of us and cruised low across the ponds below us.

The birds were out in force. Little black jobs jumping from branch to branch as the dog sniffed down below. This area looked great for squirrels except for the water. There were large green pools tenuously connected by narrow land bridges. A red shouldered hawk screamed at us from the trees.

It was a good walk - I am needing some excuses to get out into the woods this time of year.

Disproportianately proud

With yet another weekend storm rolling in and the wind gusting up, I decided to take the dogs out for a long stroll in the woods. The wind was blowing too hard to fly the birds, but a long walk in the woods was in order.

It was just Graci, Gordon, & I. The woods were wet and squishy. The low spots were all underwater, and where we were walking, the mountain bikers had been working on clearing a riding trail.

I have been encouraging the dogs to investigate holes and sniff around spots where I would expect to find squirrel sign. They were right in there with me. We don't have groundhogs here, so even though Gordon has had the opportunity to do some go to ground work with Patrick, around here, he never sees a groundhog hole.

Stock photo of Terrierman's Mountain in a hole.

To be honest, his last performance on groundhogs was less than stellar. I was disappointed actually. He didn't want to get into the holes like Patrick's dogs, and wasn't into the digging.

I do think he will get better, but he needs more exposure.


Anyway, today he was investigating every hole, digging through rotting logs, and acting like he was hunting.

At one point he wiggled himself up under a root ball of a tree and started digging with abandon. I would have taken a picture, but I forgot the camera. He didn't want to leave his excavation. graci got in there to help. They kept digging and wiggling their way in. I was trying to come in from the other side by pushing through the root ball with a stick, when Gordon emerges with a small rat in his mouth. He shook it and killed it straight out. He pranced.

I praised him. I'm not even so proud about the kill, but more proud with the gusto in which he pursued it.

Watch out Terrierman, here we come.

Back

I've spent the last two weeks in upstate New York visiting family for the holidays. Overall, it was quality time. I didn't get to fly the birds, and I have to be honest, I am eager to get back out there. I don't know how close their weights are to be ready for flying, but hopefully we'll be out there soon.

What time off from hunting did was give me time in the field with Gordon. He was aboe to prove himself as multi-talented while we were out.

I spent a good part of everyday mock hunting. My father would often tag along, and so would the kids.

It snowed almost every day, but that only made it more fun as we don't often get snow in our part of NC.



Early on, Gordon started flushing rabbits. He roamed back and forth around us, sniffing every nook and cranny. He likes to investigate holes, though he didn't find anything until the end of the week. The ground was frozen though and he couldn't get in. He did not want to leave it though.

He scrambled under briers and investigated holes in trees, and than, about midway through the break, he started treeing squirrels.

Yes, Yes, Yes,Yes!

He started to sniff them out and would bark treed. He started looking up, and finding them on the sides of the trunks... He would watch as the squirrels moved, and he would wait as I pulled on vines. I think he has it!

Now to get it so that Tess doesn't want to eat him....

Gordon gets a haircut and a walk

Gordon was getting awful fuzzy - so we shaved him short and he looks great! and then we were able to spend some of our break time out walking.

Without the birds we got some time to investigate holes and rabbit tracks. We sniffed around squirrel trees and stomped through the brush. He ran and ran and ran with the big dogs. He loved it.


He stayed close, but was curious about
everything. I have been slack getting Gordon together with the birds this season - partially because I know Tess has a history of hitting dogs.

I really need to take some time getting them acquainted. but for the next few days - with the birds fat and snow on the ground, I'm going to spend more time in the woods with my dog and my kids. Both groups need more time outside investigating.