Amber Cox

By: centraljersey.com
CHESTERFIELD – No, earthdogs are not glorified vegan frankfurters or biodegradable tennis shoes.
Earthdogs were popularized in England where farmers got tired of chicken-killing foxes and trained small dogs to find the varmints in their foxholes and chase them out -something the dogs like to do anyway.
Locally, Bordentown-Crosswicks Road resident Jo Ann Frier-Murza recently won a lifetime achievement award from the American Kennel Club for her extensive work with promoting, chairing, judging and hosting earthdog events and den trials for more than 35 years.
"It’s not a living, but it’s something I can do for the people to help them" understand their dogs and how to use their natural instincts in a safe environment, she said.
"Some people just think that terriers are obnoxious and willful and sometimes mean, and it’s all related to their original purpose. Sometimes when they get a chance to do that original purpose, all those things fall away at home because they’ve found an outlet."
Ms. Frier-Murza got involved with earthdog training around 1972 when it was new. It began with the American Working Terrier Association and was adopted by the American Kennel Club in 1994.
"There was a lot of promotion to go from the private organization to go to the national kennel club but that’s what happened," she said. "It’s been evolving since then, and it gives people’s dogs that really don’t have anything to do, something to do."
Ms. Frier-Murza has written a book, "Earthdog Ins & Outs," describing the early history of earthdogs and covering about 28 breeds.
"Originally, the dogs were meant to go underground and mainly hunt foxes because the foxes were preying on people’s chickens and lambs," she said.
"In England, where most of the breeds originated, if you lost your chickens, lambs or livestock to a predator, you might actually starve. As a result, they had to find a way to keep the foxes away from their livestock and keep the fox population down."
She explained that earthdogs would go down into foxholes and other small predators that lived underground and chase them out. Later, it became the sport of fox hunting.
Orginally, it wasn’t safe for dogs to do these trials, going down a hole and fighting with an animal that doesn’t want them in there.
"Now it’s safe. It’s a constructed tunnel, only a few inches underground and at the end is a rat in a cage," Ms. Frier-Murza said. "Nobody gets hurt. The rats don’t get hurt. The dogs don’t get hurt. The rats, in fact, don’t really care. They get used to it. Sometimes they’ll even sleep in there while the dogs are barking at them."
Ms. Frier-Murza got involved with training dogs because in 1971 when the group first started she was in graduate school studying animal behavior. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s in forest zoology and animal behavior.
"To me, working with the natural instinctive behavior of an animal was just the most interesting thing in the world," she said. "This is natural and instinctive. You don’t have to really teach them to do it; they just want to. They just want to do it, and I like the idea of giving the dogs the chance to do it."
Ms. Frier-Murza also does obedience training and is starting to work more seriously with tracking training. At one point, she also did protection dog work.
Ms. Frier-Murza moved to Chesterfield in 1985 and began the Village Green Farm Earthdog Center on her 30-acre property where she lives with his husband, Stephen. and their six dogs.
She said she doesn’t start with events until the end of April and the last one is in November.
When Ms. Frier-Murza completed graduate school, she began as a biologist working for the state Division of Fish and Game.
"I started out as a biologist, and because of the way the state does things, I ended up being a conservation officer and biologist," she said. "I went through the (Ocean County) Police Academy as part of my conservation officer training."
She also picked up an interest in martial arts and received a black belt in 1998.
Among her many honors, she has received a proclamation and plaque of recognition from Puerto Rico.
"A couple of their members had come to see what was going on at my place, and we talked, then they went and set up a program in Puerto Rico to get dog titles," she said. "It’s a little bit different. They came up with something that fit their environment and actual hunting that the dogs might do. That’s interesting to me, too, that they added their own spin to it."
AKC prints out a pedigree for dogs as they acquire titles like champion. The titles are added at the end of a dog’s name for registration purposes.
"People like to do it and see that title on their dog’s name," Ms. Frier-Murza said. "If you’re breeding dogs, you want to see what the dog has accomplished in its lifetime, and seeing all of those things on there (the registration) is helpful. You don’t have to take anyone’s word for how great that dog’s grandparent was.
"That’s one of the reasons why the AKC does all this stuff and registers dogs. There are people that want a dog, not just a breed, but the abilities within the breed to do what they want. They can go back as far as they want to go with the AKC history. That’s what people get when they do this, not only the fun of the day but the feeling of accomplishment, and their dog is recorded forever and ever as having accomplished this stuff."
Ms. Frier-Murza also said she went to Australia to give a seminar and judge trials. She said Australia has developed its program mostly based off the American program, with some of their own spins. She also has traveled to a number of European countries to observe their earthdog trials.
Ms. Frier-Murza said meeting all of these people and traveling to different places all over the world really keep her interested in the sport of earthdog trials.
"The people and their dogs is really what keeps me going in this," she said.