Last year,with our staffie bull fast approaching 15, we decided to add another dog to our family.
As we are a fairly active family (hiking, camping, etc.) and seeing as both my wife and I jog, we decided on a dog we felt could keep up with us. In March of 2011 we purchased a patterdale terrier.
Not only has she has been a great companion for all our activities, she has rid our large yard of gophers, moles, raccoons, squirrels and even a possum this fall. All of this in a 16lb package.
This fall my son and I began taking her out to a friend's ranch on the coast to join him and his jack russell terriers in flushing out vermin on the ranch. It's been a workout for both of us, as it involves digging by both the owner and the dog. Some of the daylight holes we've had to dig are 4 feet deep.
Dixie has been so good at it, we decided to get her involved in local earth dog competitions. I built a plywood tunnel system in the back yard and have been using thawed out rats as prey items. While the tunnels are only covered with mulch and hay, they have several hinges on the tops in which I fill them with dirt. We change the layout every few days to increase the challenge factor. It's amazing the workout out, both physically and mentally she gets from these sessions.
I'll post some pics of the tunnel build and some field work later. I know there is at least one other patterdale owner on this forum, so in the meantime I was wondering if any of the terrier owners take part in earth dog work.
If not - cool. In the absence of having a blog I think I'm going to post our experiences here. Before owning Dixie I had no idea this sport existed and that it would become as consuming a hobby as owning snakes.
In the meantime, here's a pic of our little athlete at 11 months. She'll be 13 months in a week.
Originally Posted by Skiploder
Last year,with our staffie bull fast approaching 15, we decided to add another dog to our family.
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