Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Trusts' really, really, really close UTDX

On Sunday, June 6th, Trust and I were entered in an Urban Tracking Dog Excellent test at EPS trials in Powassan. Trust was very well prepared for this level and I had high hopes. I felt confident and relaxed; after over a month of dry weather, it had rained the night before, which is always helpful for urban tracks that are aged a minimum of three hours. She started happy, strong and confident on the track and I was so pleased with her attitude.
Above, we are on the first leg of the track, nearing the first turn. Trust was trotting along on part of this track, she was so enthused. I don't know where these ladies came from, but they were walking over our first turn and towards us. Trust did not care, she was happy to see someone make a fuss over her. I told them what we were doing, and told Trust to leave them and get back to work, which she did. Apparently, the tracklayer, judge, and others watching were a bit aghast when they saw the ladies!
She is working smoothly along our second leg in this picture where she found and indicated her first article, a metal circle.
Ahh, and here's the 'glitch'. As she approached the next corner (which of course I didn't know at the time) she spied a plastic childs' shovel, which was a few feet off the track turning right. She went to check it out, indicated it 'was not ours', but I went and picked it up anyway as is the norm. Just as she was moving back, a groundhog family, living behind the wood pallets, began to shriek at her. She had to go and investigate. I told her to leave it, and she moved out to the left and forward. Now If I hadn't been frazzled by the rodents, I would have encouraged her to back up instead, and I'm sure we would have picked up the track again. Instead, I moved ahead with her. We went across a driveway, and she indicated no scent, so we began to work in circles to get back, but the judge whistled us off. So sad. Once we moved back to the track, she had no problem completing it, through all the variable hard surface work around the school. She zeroed right in on her wood article on pavement and was anxious to continue.
We had come down the brick walkway here, and something pulled her over to the grass before moving back onto the brick and pavement. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of most of the hard surface work, around the back area of the school. My friend, Tascha, was taking the pictures, but was a long way off and out of sight of most of the hard surface. Just to the right in the above photo, there is a left turn before the road and it leads on brick to the final article, a glove. At that turn, 3 little kids on bikes crossed in front of us, and went to pick up the glove. Our tracklayer called to them to leave it, and Trust went up to find the glove.
Trust was very pleased with herself! And to top it off, there were 3 little kids waiting for her to pat her and receive kisses. They thought she was so pretty and she just ate it up.
I was very, very proud of how Trust worked and especially happy with her working so enthusiastically all along the track. I was not happy with me, but she did an amazing track. I couldn't have asked more of her.
Our track was nicely laid out, and Trust obviously liked the scent of our tracklayer!