Gideon faced his first squirrel in the short den liner this morning, and he did fine.
There has been no hesitation going down the pipe, and the dog seems to bay well for such a green dog, and considering it cant get with 20" of the quarry.
I released this squirrel (they are only held captive for one short session), and hopefully we will catch another for this afternoon. The trick with training sessions is to keep them short and fun, and build on them. Gideon wants more, more, more!
The bags of mulch on the top of the den liner are there to prevent the liner from moving. The back of the critter box has been rotated out for this first training session, so that Gideon can see the squirrel and associate it with the scent and the scurrying noise. A groundhog, for the record, is simply a 15-pound ground squirrel.
This little clip is the end of Gideon's first go-to-ground session. The squirrel bolts to freedom at the end (not sure if it can be seen). No animals were harmed in the making of this movie!
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For another version of the same story, but with Gordon the Cairn, see Harris' Hawk Blog.
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