Sundays' Class, May 6th

 The grass is just starting to grow and green up but some areas were tough for the dogs new to tracking with long and dead patches.  However, working on serpentines again this class, the dogs did very well.  Their second "tracks" were laid with a straight stretch between serpentines.  Above is Rosemary with her blind hound, Hunter; look at him working along his track...nice.

 Brenda and Pippen are in the early start of their serpentine.  Pippin is working really nice, just his second class.  He puts head and nose down and just keeps moving!

 Brenda is doing well on her line handling, and watching every move Pippin makes.

 It was interesting to see him pick up a bit of speed on his straight section, then working back into the serpentine, a steady and slower pace.

 He has just reached his article, and Brenda moves up to reward him.  Pippen loves to tug which is a great reward for him.

 We also did some "squares" and Abbey and Tascha are just coming back on the last leg.  Abbey is another keen little worker.

 This was the first class for Chimay and Carrie, so their first introduction to the scent circle and then the serpentines.  Chimay picked up really quickly on this, and by his second serpentine was moving really well.

 They are near the end of their second serpentine track.  Again, notice the head/nose right down there.

 Chimay downs at the article, and Carrie briefly holds it up to show us.  In case you can't really see...Chimay is a lovely Bouvier.

 I had laid a short TDX type track for Reese in an adjoining field.  A beautiful large moose had run into the field from the back, and by the time I got my camera, he spotted me, turned, and ran off before I got the picture.  Darn!  He did not run into the area I was laying the track, although it would have been one of those opportune training moments. (this was before laying the track) Working lovely along this leg.

 We had decided previous to my laying the track, to mark corners in advance with flags, at various distances ahead.  The idea was, if Rosemary noticed the flags, she knew a corner was coming, but not "where" it was.  This just gave her the opportunity (as it was training) to really watch Reese carefully for loss of track, how she handled the corner, any obvious body language, etc.  In the picture above, Reese had passed it, and then circled back around Rosemary and in front to find the track again, and she was off.

 There was an article up this leg, and Rees lies down on it, waiting for Rosemary to come and praise and pick it up.

 I made a corner turning close the ditch here.  Now, because it was TDX, it could have gone through the ditch.  It turned right and paralleled the ditch for a distance.  Reese really wanted to go into the ditch.  So Rosemary had to make a choice, or figure out what Reese was doing...was she tracking through the ditch, or did she just want to go into it.  It smelled good, I'm sure.  So she held her ground until Reese finally gave up and took the leg and moved off, correctly down the leg.

 The track crosses the road, you can see the flags on the other side.  They are waiting for the car to continue until it is safe to cross.  Reese worked nicely across it.

 I had dropped an article while laying the track, leaving me without the final one.  It had gotten hot, so I took off my coat, folded it up, and left it at the end.  What a bonus!
Reese worked (using her nose!) almost right to it, before actually "seeing" it.  She did really well on the track. 

Lying down at 'the article' and Rosemary is rewarding Reese with treats she had in her pocket.  All the dogs did well with a variety of things we worked on.  It was a good day!

The "Blaster" Turns 3 Yr. Old Today

 Happy Birthday to Blast!  What a handsome fellow he is, he's turned into such a great dog.  Thanks to Carmen Duggan of Carmspack German Shepherds for this great boy; along with Trust and Kira, too, and Spook from Kilo!!!! 
We always have 'birthday parties' for the dogs, with party hats and carrot cake, but it just didn't seem right to put a silly hat on Blast tonight for everyone to laugh at.  I really like this picture of him, and a few friends suggested a dignified hat might work out ok......so.......

Here's Blast, about as dignified as possible in a Police Dog handlers' hat.....

First Class for Second Group

 Above is 'Cruiser' and Lori, in the Scent Circle.  I introduced this method to four of the 'new to tracking dogs' today.  They all worked in the scent circle then were put away.

 There are two blind dogs in this group.  Above is 'Charlie', a double dappled dachshund, blind due to breeding.  Karen got Charlie from a rescue. A happy guy, that doesn't stand in his way.  He worked nicely in the scent circle.  Below is 'Abbey' in her scent circle, tail never stopped wagging, trying not to miss any piece of food in there!  She is a miniature long haired dachshund.

 Rosemarys' 'Hunter' is our second blind dog, a hound blind from birth.  He is also the senior dog in the class, and worked wonderfully with his nose constantly down.  In this picture, we have brought the dogs back out to do another scent circle and then work in a serpentine track.  They are part way through the serpentine.  This method teaches the dogs to keep working with their nose down on the track.  Once they may move off the track, quickly they recognize there is no scent, and they almost immediately move back on to it and keep going.

 Hunter has just found his article at the end of his serpentine. Rosemary is rewarding him with treats at the article.  Hunter was very happy!!!

 Cruiser in his serpentine, also working nicely through it.  They are required to work at a slow pace in the serpentine, steady and with nose down.  The handler keeps a relatively loose line, and walks behind the dog, giving the track command they are using when the dog picks up a treat. 

 As long as there's food in there, Abbey isn't going anywhere else.  Each flag marks a food treat, so the handler knows exactly where it is.  The dog is scenting the tracklayer through the curves and the food is gradually spaced further apart and then randomly placed.

 Karen started her serpentine with the food treats a little too far apart, but Charlie kept his nose on the track and continued on with no problem.  He was really clear to everyone watching, when he moved off the track, says nope nothing there, and turned back onto it. Below, Charlie has moved past his last flag on has just about reached his article.  Really nice work.

 Brenda had previously started some simple tracks with 'Pippin" (a Lowchen) before this class began.   I lay a track for them to see how they were working, and left a glove on the first (long) leg, and took his favorite toy with me to leave at the end.  He was in the windiest area with a lot of dead grass, so had to work awfully hard in some areas.  In the above picture, he has found his first article, and Brenda plays with him tugging the article...great fun!

Pippin has just turned a corner and after a bit of searching (crosswind was strong), he puts his nose down and moves off nicely.

He is just about reaching his toy at the end of the track, Brenda with a nice, short taut line and good communication.  He "killed" his toy after he reached it!

I also laid the track for Rosemary and 'Reese'.  Distance between a TD and TDX, as Reese (our cute little beagle) has her TD and they have been working towards a TDX.  Reese had three articles on her track, mainly long legs, with four corners.  Above, they have just finished a lovely corner and are on their fourth leg.  Below Reese has just reached her final article and Rosemary is looking for her "down" on it before going up.   Reese always lies down on her articles, taught well by Rosemary.
We had a good first class today, interesting with the various dogs at all different levels.

Blast Earns His Urban Tracking Dog Title!

What a great day we had yesterday in Whitby at the Cross Country Tracking Clubs' UTD/UTDX test!  Blast is now Carmspack Blast TD UTD.

 Judge Jack Wilhelm, apprenticing was Louise from New Brunswick, and our tracklayer was Eileen.  We were just approaching the start.

 And off we go, nose down on the track, a good start for sure...

There were 5 dogs entered in UTD, and 4 dogs in UTDX.  Although there were some really good working dogs on the tracks, and three were soooo close to 'making it', (including our special little Emma who just couldn't seem to make the last corner but worked her heart out) Blast ended up being the only pass of the day.  He did a lovely track, and thanks to many people that forwarded pictures, there are enough to put together the track from start to finish!  Hope you enjoy it!

 We are headed toward a driveway which we will be crossing.  A vehicle drove in and stopped to unload something into the building we were passing, and Blast turned and paused to check that out, before coming back onto the track and proceeding.

 He crossed the road and came to a few obstacles that had to be navigated around.

Apparently, the track turned left after the posts, but he cut this corner right onto the next leg, so at least we didn't have to worry about getting tangled up.  That is the vehicle in the background with the person that caught his attention previously.  Once he hit this second leg, his nose never came up.

Blast moves along this leg never lifting his nose.  Our "three followers" are moving to catch up.  It felt so good to be behind Blast when he was working so well. He zoomed pretty quickly down this leg, and there's no picture on it, as no-one could come up behind until we turned the next corner onto another driveway.  When he reached the corner, he turned briefly right, said "nope" and took off to the left, crossed the driveway and up onto a tiny grassy island.

 From that, he moved into the paved parking area, and rushed up to his first article, a sock.  Above he is on it, and I'm just bending to pick it up. Our track here was near the curb, and after we moved past the article, he went up onto the curb/grass area for most of the rest of that leg, when he lost the scent near the next corner, he came back on the asphalt and turned right.  We headed past a sewer grate (hmmm maybe that was the corner marker???) and out onto grass.

Our "official followers" could see clearly enough, to stay well back of us here.  On the grass alongside the red brick building, he seemed to have a little problem, circling as if having lost the scent.  Not sure what was going on there, there was a structure that began to buzz and we both looked 'upwards' when that happened.  Seemed to be some kind of venting system, but not sure what from.  He 'regained his composure' and shortly picked up the leg, I believe he had gone just past the right turn.

 Once he started along this leg, he was nose down, again, and picking up speed leading to the final article.  YAY!!! I KNEW it was close!!!

A square of leather in the grass, I couldn't see it until he reached it, and paused briefly.
I ran up and picked it up.  Blast would prefer to just keep going, he likes gloves that he can rip apart!!!

 There it is!  After holding it up, I 'traded' it for the sock (first article) in my bag so he could play and tug with it.  Now "that" was rewarding for him!  And then I hear Eileen yelling at me "that's my good sock" and of course, I thought she was kidding.  Blast was having a mighty good tug session with it and it turned out Eileen was serious!  We "argued" over whose sock it was, I gave it back, but I don't think she'd be too happy wearing it again!!!  I also didn't know that it had a rock in it to hold it in place on the track.  It was quite a windy day, so rocks were used to hold down articles that may blow away. They thought I was going to hit myself in the head with it.

What a good boy!  He could knock me down at this point and kiss me to death...he did a really good job, and now has a UTD title.  I just love this dog!

And this was baby, Blast.  Almost three years ago, what a little cutie he was.

 Judge Jack Wilhelm presents us with our lovely Rosette and map of our track.

The wind was still pretty strong so I'm trying to keep the ribbons from blowing around over Blasts' head.  We were pretty cold all day, and the sun just came out near the end of the day.  Blast works well in the wind, so it was really a great day for us!

 Most of the group of spectators waiting for one of the UTDX dog to start its track.

The tracklayers who are so appreciated to volunteer two days to work at these tests....or is it the fish and chips lunch on plotting day that brings them out?!!  Thanks to Jack Wilhelm (our judge) and Louise Weaver (from New Brunswick) who was apprenticing in UTD this weekend.  It was so nice to meet Louise, as we've only 'met' on the Tracking Council Conference calls, and great to talk to her about German Shepherds, as well.
As someone pointed out later, there were four CKC judges attending, and there were also four CKC Tracking Reps.  Kind of unusual. 
We would sure have liked more passes on Sunday, but I think everyone enjoyed the day anyway, watching some nice dogs working and enjoying each others' stories.  Thanks to everyone from myself and Blast, who got a lot of attention! (and there's more pictures, yet, thanks to everyone that contributed).  A really good day!