Trust gave it her all....

We drew 2nd last UTDX on Sunday, the rain had let up by then. Here, she is just starting off from the scent pad. Although her start was described as solid, it was not her usual gung-ho, let's go.

The arrow points to the start flag, barely visible. We seem to moving along well on the long first leg, approaching a road. She is on the track, as it heads between the two trees in front of us.

We have crossed the road and she's made a left turn, moving along here very nicely.

Our first article, plastic. We then continue onward, onto a gravel driveway. This is a works dept. office and work yard.

Her right turn is on the driveway and taking us into the work and storage yard. This is where we began to have trouble...and the end of the photos. Our photographer, Tascha, backed off when she thought Trust may see her. This was a difficult area. There were only 2 ways out, the correct one was on the other side of this building. But wind was funnelling in that opening, swirling and bouncing around in the 'enclosed' area. There were two buildings on the other side, machinery at the end, and beside "our" opening to the field beyond was a high and long pile of gravel. The wind was coming over that and Trust kept working back and forth around here. She was frustrated. When she finally 'got out' there was a pond that wasn't supposed to be there, although it was not as large as the night before, apparently, but her track just circled around there and she didn't get it. Instead, she was trying to work up behind the building in the picture, and I couldn't get her back where she might pick up the right direction. She was missing 2 legs, a corner and an article by trying to go across the road again....which was right if she had been further down and followed the correct track. The wind was bringing the scent across the road to us, and she was trying to cross where there was another corner. So, in her mind, she was right, but not so, as she had cut off too much of the real track. I finally 'let her go' and as she moved up the ditch to the road, we were called off. It was a tough spot; more so than I would have thought just looking at it. We came home later, walked through the forest and she was perfectly happy again, forgiving her mom for letting her down.

New TDX!!!! Tascha & Emma - Perfection!

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!

So Close....Rosemary & Reese

You can see by this picture what the conditions were like early Saturday morning for the TD trial (EPS in Powassan). Thursday were torrential rains and the foul weather continued through the weekend. U.S. judge Orrin Eldred II was up for his first Canadian judging assignment and it was unfortunate for him as well to not have nicer conditions. He brought a number of his model planes with him, hoping for good flying conditions, but that just didn't happen. Also our leaves were beginning to turn this past week and pictures would have been lovely....

However....it's typical tracking weather!

Rosemary and Reese did a wonderful track right to the last corner with only 30m left to the article. Reese moved along with speed on the track and was very enthused. The glitch was on top of a hill, with wind taking the scent over and down, the wrong way from the correct direction. Reese really worked on this, but twice moved off in the opposite direction. The judge kept hoping she would come back and pick it up, but finally had to call them off. Such a heartbreaker. He was mightily impressed with "our" pretty little beagle, Reese, and would have taken her home with him. I'm very proud of how both Reese and Rosemary worked this track.

Next time!!!!

Trust in her Element on Monday....

Trust has just indicated her first article, a sock, near the end of a very long first leg on grass, overcut while aging. She has her eye on a golfer...ooooh, maybe he will want to fuss over me!

We turned just short of the golf course, and headed towards a parking area. Here she transitions from grass to gravel to pavement and a quick turn coming up. This was a difficult spot as well, as it is a very well travelled area with vehicles and golf carts. She spied 'people' and the smell of lunch was also wafting towards us. She actually 'tried' to continue on past her turn, and I let her go a ways, but then stopped to hopefully re-focus her on the track. Of course, if a test, I probably would have followed along, oh-oh. She did circle back and move down the proper track direction.

This leg was actually laid about 2' left of where I put the red line. The breeze was coming in from the right, but she hugged the curb most of the way. Above, she has just indicated a wood article, which I was surprised hadn't been picked up by this time. It was aged 3 hr. 20 min.

Further down, her turn was close to the crack you see near the bottom of the picture. Also a very, very heavy traffic area, the cars whipping over here in and out of the golf course. She made a wide circle around the corner and then jogged back to the track.

Again, she's hugging the curb along this leg until she nearly reaches the main entrance and suddenly turned right towards the entrance pillars. There is an article on the other side.

A car was parked on the right when I laid the track, and again, being the front entrance it is heavy walked and driven over. Her plastic article is at the edge of a little bush around the bend, I was hoping it wouldn't be noticed and picked up

She is probably letting me know how much she hates plastic articles, it is yellow and right beside her (blue arrow).

We continue across the drive through, and up a small hill to a right turn.

Which takes us across another driveway that heads toward the hotel restaurant, onto another patch of grass and another right turn over the double main entrance driveways.

She is barely to the left of the track here, and then veers out and over the little island before continuing across to the grass and a left turn. She actually circled around a little on the grass, walking 3' right past the metal article, before turning and coming back around to it.

I thought she was going to continue on and totally miss this article. As I would in a test, and as a team, I actually verbally encouraged her to 'look' which she did. You can see the leg and turn up to her final article in the above picture.

I had planned to turn and leave the leather glove in the gravel/sand lot, but then saw some garbage? ahead. I decided to leave it closer, on the edge of grass/gravel instead, as I wasn't sure what that "thing' was. Trust had turned and was working left of the track, until she suddenly veered over to the article. Overall, a pretty good track, just a couple of little glitches.

Sunday, Emma's TDX track

I took these first two pictures as I began to lay the track for Emma and Tascha. The fog had almost lifted and the fields were beautiful. I just love early fall tracking. This was a field I've not used previously, 200 gorgeous acres just down the road from me.

Heavy dew, frost in a few areas, and the sun coming up behind the fog...beautifuEmma has just made her first turn and Tascha is "catching up"! The first leg turned out to be quite wet for little Emma, wouldn't you know it?!

The second leg was very long, up a hill. Here Emma is working out the scent on the top of the hill, and just turned in the right direction, pausing and double-checking.

Then she takes off hopping and Tascha begins to follow her from the corner.

Now having turned onto the fourth leg, and after finding her first article, Emma is 'on the run' and very confident along this leg, heading downhill. It's so rare to get pictures of Emma on tracks where you can actually 'see' her, usually the cover is too deep.

Emma has found her second article and Tascha is rewarding her for that.

I looked 'back' to take this picture. It was a tough go for a little dog, but Emma worked through this thick and tangled bush area without a hitch. Way back is the hilltop we had been on earlier.

After the last turn shortly out of the bush, she is now heading to the final article. She was really working well and enjoying every minute of it.

Yay! There's a leather glove down in there. Her tail was wagging a mile a minute. What a happy little worker.

Tanks' 5th Birthday Party!

It's hard to believe - Tank is already five years old! A 'small' party this year, just these four. We were remembering our birthdays of the past with 8 dogs in a little circle, and trying to figure out how we did that!!! Blast celebrated indoors with his cake and ice cream, he didn't seem to mind. It was just too chaotic to try and include the "can't sit still" Blaster with the time involved in getting Jess and Storm ready and comfortable.
Sunday was gorgeous, so we could go out on the deck for this. Trust didn't like her cake and just stared at it for a while before deciding perhaps she should eat it before someone else did. You can see who gobbled down 'his' the fastest!
And now Tank's watching and waiting and hoping someone might leave some for him! As if!!!! Jess and Storm could only have a tiny bit each to begin with. Tank enjoyed an extra special walk (actually, he had three) through the woods yesterday and lots of ball time.

Delightful or Deadly Forest Fungi?

We have never seen so many mushrooms or colourful fungus in the forest as we have in the past three weeks. Conditions are perfect, I assume, and some pop up overnight. I can't believe how fast they grow! Here are just a few very colourful shapes and I've no idea what they are. We just bought an Audobon book to try and identify them, but there are thousands and many are so similar.
Each walk through different areas in the forest always surprise us.

Every day there is something new. It's almost like magic.

I don't know what, but something nibbles at many of these, so hopefully something in the forest knows if they are safe to eat!

I think perhaps anything red is to be avoided, but they are certainly lovely to look at.

Some just pop up on wood, or dead leaves, they don't need earth to grow on or in.