Yay! The first article. Always a confidence-booster for the handler. Emma just 'wants it back'!!! The start was strong, with Emma moving right off the scent pad on the track. We could see Tascha, the black line, but no dog....the growth in the first half of the track was very tall and very thick and very wet...
I took so many pictures, and hardly any showed even a hair of Emma! The black arrow points to her in this one, if you really look, you see a bit of her. Here they are actually in a shorter part of the field, on their 4th leg just chugging along...slow and steady. 
After another corner, they headed into a different field, but first!!! there were giant puddles to almost swim across. When I walked through it - and yes, Emma went right across this spot and was totally soaking - the water was well above my ankles.
This field had been in grain, and a favorite of sandhill cranes and geese the last couple of weeks. Some straw rows were still left to plow through when you're a little dog. Emma has made another turn, are heading towards a road crossing, and have just crossed the first cross track...Emma never looked at it. She was dead-on her track and gaining even more confidence as she went.
One of my favorite pictures! This was actually out a ways in the field after the road crossing. The tall grasses are at the ditch by the road, the perspective is just a bit off here. Ditches on each side, tall and tangly growth, she checked out to the right of the road on the far side and then zipped back to the track opening into the far ditch and she was off. Once she hit this field and short ground cover, she was easy to see for the gallery. She was (obviously) ecstatic with her second article find, and then took off again along the track.
Emma has just turned her last corner and Tascha is waiting to make sure Emma is moving along it and confident it is the right direction. And it was!
She is about 3' from her last article in this picture. To the right is a 'groundhog home' which she did not go near. She suddenly dived over to it just after I took this photo. What a wonderful little worker she is
Happy little Emma with her glove! She was soaked and shivering after this track. She worked steadily along from the start and was somewhere over a 1/2 hour on the track. We forget sometimes with urban now, that TDX is still the longest track. It was cold this day as well and Emma worked her heart out. She LOVES obstacles in training, though, so it was perfect for her.Orrin plotted a great track, and Treva, tracklayer did a great job walking it. Needless to say, Tascha was over the moon and I was as excited as she was. Emma got lots of towel-downs and was wrapped in a blanket to dry and warm up. She's a tough little dog.
Treva Reed, tracklayer, Tascha Gagnon holding Emma, Orrin Eldred II, judge. Thanks to all!
