Everyone deserves a break from time to time. Although my idea of a fun weekend getaway might be a bit different than most considering it includes two golden retrievers and finding rats hidden in a barn... We spent the weekend of April 1-3, 2022 with our pups trialing at Finny Farm for Barn Hunt and exploring the city of Knoxville. This blog post is about all of our adventures on this short dog friendly trip.
Why Knoxville?
I know what everyone is thinking- why not just do a Barn Hunt trial in Kentucky? We do frequently trial in Kentucky but by some streak of bad luck I had managed to create scheduling conflicts with the local trials until July 2022. Merlin had just wrapped up a 6 week Barn Hunt class and was finally giving clear indications on rat tubes and he was doing the open level bent tunnel willingly with enthusiasm. The last thing I wanted to do was finish the class and not touch the sport again until July. I wanted to take the momentum from the class and give Merlin some real practice in the ring.
My gut told me this was the perfect chance for a weekend trip somewhere new. After searching a bit on the Barn Hunt Associations event page I saw that there was a trial in Greenback, TN on a weekend we had free (which is rare). A bit more research would reveal that the Knoxville Barn Hunt club was nominated Club of the Year in 2021 which meant the trial site must be pretty nice. I'd also heard local Barn Hunt friends talk about the Greenback trial before so I figured it had to be worth a weekend trip. I sent in my registration, booked a hotel, arranged for a babysitter and proceeded to get excited.
April 1, 2022: The Drive to Knoxville
After work on Friday my husband and I loaded up the "Mom Bus" (my 2021 Traverse) with enough dog equipment to open a pop-up roadside dog shop (seriously, how do the dogs need so much stuff for such a short trip?!), I set the GPS so that my directionally challenged self wouldn't get us lost, and we proceeded down I-75 towards Knoxville.
The trial premium gave a list of local dog friendly hotels which was super helpful in the planning phase since I had never really been to the Knoxville area. I had settled on a two night stay at the La Quinta Inn & Suites by the Knoxville Airport. So many of the other hotels in the area limited guests to one pet per room or charged a pet fee for each night of the stay and I was not willing to dish out the extra cash. The La Quinta pleasantly surprised me when I found out that they would allow two dogs, they had no weight restrictions AND rewards members (which was free to sign up for) did not have to pay additional money to stay with pets! Which basically makes La Quinta a dog owners dream hotel. I can say with 100% honesty that I'll be looking for more La Quinta's to stay at for future dog trips.
The ride from Morehead to Knoxville was easy breezy with no traffic delays or bad weather. At check in the polite gentleman at the front desk was able to give us a bottom level floor near a side door which was great for potty breaks. I made sure our keys worked and put the luggage inside the room then headed back outside for the pups.
Goose had stayed in hotels previously and had absolutely no issues- he waltzed right in like he owned the place. Merlin however is still a puppy and this was his first time inside a hotel. He was very confused and a bit stressed out. Luckily it wasn't anything a little snuggles could take care of. We decided to lounge around at the hotel and take it easy for the afternoon so that Merlin could adjust. We DoorDashed some amazing food from Chapuline's StreeTacos and set our alarms for 6:30am the next morning.
April 2, 2022: Finny Farm Day #1 and Exploring Knoxville
We woke up around 7:00am after snoozing our alarms a couple of times. The humans and dogs ate breakfast and then set off towards Finny Farm. Finny Farm/Canines by Karen is owned by Scott and Karen Echternacht in Greenback, TN. They host a multitude of dog events throughout the year ranging from agility, dock diving, and barn hunt, and they even have a dog store on the property. The location was very easy to find and the GPS took us straight there. We picked a nice shady spot by a tree to park, set up our chairs, and made our way over to the barn to see the run order.
For Saturday's trial I had Goose entered in Novice A for two runs and Merlin entered in Open A for two runs. Goose is sort of terrible at Barn Hunt and was only one qualifying run away from earning his RATN (rat novice) title. Merlin is much better at Barn Hunt but had just moved up to open level and was set to make his debut on the harder course.
Goose's Novice A Runs T5/T6
After a quick judges briefing at 9:00am we waited for the instinct dogs to run and then made our way to the blind with Goose for his first run. I'll admit I was a bit nervous since I knew Goose needed ONE MORE leg for his title. I was hoping he could ace his first run and then the rest of the weekend would be icing on the cake. Let's just say that didn't exactly go as planned.
For those of you reading this who don't know the rules of Barn Hunt I'll give you a quick explanation of a Novice level run. There is 1 rat tube, 1 litter tube, and 1 empty tube on the course. The dog must find the rat tube, jump on top of a bale of straw, and go through a very short straw tunnel in under two minutes for the run to qualify. During this you cannot touch your dog and you cannot call rat on the litter or empty tube. Three qualifying runs earns a dog their RATN title.
Goose is very stubborn and he really showed his true colors during our first run. He found the rat almost instantly in the ring and even jumped on a straw bale the second time I asked him to (Goose is weird about textures on his feet so he sometimes refuses to jump on the straw). The run felt good- until it all went to crap. Goose found the corner of a straw bale that apparently smelled better than anything he had ever smelled before. Despite my attempts to make him stop sniffing the corner of the bale he would NOT stop sniffing it and we timed out of the run before he could tunnel. I leashed him up and took his stubborn fluffy self outside for a pep talk with his dad.
After a brief break we loaded up in the blind again for our second run. I had only signed Goose up for two runs on Saturday. I wanted him to qualify for one, earn his RATN title, and then mostly retire his stubborn butt from Barn Hunt. Here we sat in the blind for our second run- his FINAL try for that day. The steward called our name and we headed in.
Almost immediately Goose fixated on a spot on the floor near the corner which I later learned was an area the previous dog in the ring had peed on. Uh oh. I'm not kidding when I say Goose spent easily 90 seconds sniffing the floor (remember we only have 120 seconds for the entire run). He would not budge despite my name calling, luring, and feet shuffling. I could already feel the $40 leaving my pocket to sign him up for more attempts during Sundays trial. But then, by some miracle, he stopped sniffing. I mentally knew we didn't have a lot of time left but felt that we needed to give it our best shot despite the odds. Goose immediately found the rat after he left the pee spot, he jumped on a bale the first time I asked and then he tunneled! HE HAD FINALLY DONE IT. After a 6 run streak of non-qualifying runs Goose earned his RATN title with a time of 1 minute 48 seconds.
Cheers erupted from the tiny crowd watching. Everyone was truly so happy for him. In the words of my husband "I saw him go through that tunnel and felt like I witnessed a miracle". We did a happy dance on the way back to the Mom Bus and he got a huge handful of treats for his efforts. Hallelujah. Praise the lord. He finally did it.
Merlin's Open A Runs T5/T6
By this point Merlin was ready to roll and hopped out of the crate ready to strut his stuff. Merlin was previously terrified of the tunnel in open level which is why I had stopped trialing for a few months. After our recent class he had decided that he loved to run through the bent tunnel and we were ready to trial again. We loaded up into the blind and we were ready to make our open level Barn Hunt debut.
As soon as we got into the ring I could tell Merlin was a bit stiff. He's a bit of a nervous dog compared to Goose and it takes him a bit to settle in to new places. He went around the ring multiple times and found one rat but could not locate the other one. We timed out of the run but left with our heads held high.
The second run Merlin was a lot less nervous and he found both rats! Merlin also gave extremely clear indications on the tubes by pawing at them which made me super excited. In the past he would sit near a tube which wasn't the best indicator and I would sometimes have to guess the tubes location. We had been working hard on pawing in Barn Hunt class so it was great to see it translate to the ring. Despite finding both of the rats we ran out of time before I could ask Merlin to tunnel. Dang it! We decided to focus on the positives and he earned a big handful of treats despite the NQ.
Exploring Knoxville
Our runs at the trial wrapped up around noon and us humans were incredibly hungry. My husband pointed out that there was a German pub in Knoxville that marketed itself as being dog friendly. Let's just say it didn't take too much convincing and we were headed out from Finny Farm and towards Knoxville in a flash.
Immediately when we arrived at Schulz Brau Brewing Company I knew it was a good choice. The patio was large and open and they even had a stack of metal dog bowls by a faucet for dog owners to grab water for their pups. We celebrated Gooses RATN title with a couple of excellent beers and some GIANT pretzels.
Next we headed to the University of Tennessee's campus for a walk. The dogs had spent a lot of the day cooped up Friday and we really wanted to tucker them out before heading back to the hotel so that everyone would sleep good. UT's campus was beautiful and we got in a lovely 3.5 mile walk before heading back to the car.
Our last dog friendly stop of the day was the Blackhorse Pub in Alcoa. The dogs both got lots of attention and pets here which was great socialization for Merlin. Of course the local beers were once again excellent. We grabbed a 6 pack of the cream ale to take back home to KY, paid the tab, and headed back to the La Quinta for the night. We were exhausted from all of the activities of the day and hit the hay early.
April 3, 2022: Finny Farm Day #2 and Travelling Home
We all woke up tired and groggy Sunday morning and were a bit slow to get out the door. Luckily we only had Merlin entered in Barn Hunt which gave us some more time in the morning to get to the farm. We were lucky to snag our nice shady spot by the tree and then we headed over to the barn for the run order.
I quickly realized it was a good thing we didn't waste too much time getting out the door because there really weren't a lot of dogs running in Instinct and Novice on Sunday. Merlin was called to the blind about 30 minutes after the trial started and we were ready to give the open level course another try.
During Merlin's first run he failed to find any rats which is very unusual for him. Both of the rats were hidden up high on the tunnel during this run which I think threw him off. He is used to searching low then high and when he couldn't find any rats at all low to the ground he lost some steam searching. We timed out of the run and immediately headed back to the blind for another try.
The second run was shockingly well. I had no intentions of Merlin qualifying for any runs this weekend since he is still getting used to open level. Not only did he find BOTH rats almost immediately, he climbed and went through the large bent tunnel for the first time ever during an official trial. Merlin was so excited coming out of that tunnel you would have thought he had just won the super bowl. I swear I think he knew he had done something special during that run! Merlin earned his first qualifying open level run with a time of 1 minute 30 seconds. 1 run down, 2 qualifying runs to go for his RATO title.
After some happy dances in the parking lot and lots of treats we grabbed Merlin's ribbon from the judges table and proceeded to get ready for the journey home. I found myself feeling a bit sad at this point. Although the weekend was short we had so much fun. I mentally told myself I would make another trip to Finny Farm in the future and that I would plan another dog weekend trip for Fall 2022 as soon as I got home. We put Goose and Merlin back in their crates after a potty break and headed back to Morehead, KY.
And with that our fun dog weekend trip to Knoxville was over. :(
This post was a bit different than my usual blog posts but I had a lot of fun writing it. I'm happy to report that our next dog weekend Barn Hunt trip is currently planned for Fall 2022 in Oak Creek, WI. I'm already looking forward to it and I'm also looking forward to all of the local barn hunt trials between now and then. Thanks for reading!
Until next time-
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