Making a Working Terrier

Gordon shows his stuff in a North Carolina dune sette.

Working terriers are not just born, they are made.

If you give excellent working terrier genetics to a lazy person, a pretender, or a fool, not much will come of the dog, at least as far as real dirt-work is concerned.

If you put a small terrier from the pound in the hands of the right person, however, great things may yet occur. The odds are not quite as good as if the dog were from working stock, of course, but the basic feisty nature of a terrier does not wash out overnight. The code may explode if the dog is given a little opportunity and if the owner is patient, and follows a basic set of directions.

A good example can be found over at the Harris' Hawk blog, where Doug has taken his Cairn terrier, of pedigree unknown, to the next level.

Last year the dog showed a spark of interest in the field, and though Gordon is a little bit big in the chest, he is still small enough to work. What he needed, however, was a little "easy experience" and confidence-building.

Job One was building a short go-to-ground tunnel, which Doug did following the basic directions in my book (available here for those interested).



The end result of a little practice in a very short section of go-to-ground tunnel: instant improvement.

Gordon is now going down empty fox pipes in the sand dunes near Kitty Hawk (see picture at top).

Perfect!

Doug has added a few more tunnel sections to his set-up, and is now introducing Gordon to rats at the end of the tunnel pipe. It turns out that a little live vermin was all Gordon needed to start digging through earth-blocked sections of tunnel.



Is that a field-hunting earthdog being made by the hand of man?

Count on it! Gordon's definitely got the right owner. I predict much fun to come!
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