Tracking Champion Blast - new title - Oct.21/12

I am so very proud of Blast.  Yesterday, October 21st, he earned his UTDX (Urban Tracking Dog Excellent) title at Cross Crountry Tracking Clubs' Urban Test in Whitby/Oshawa.  Judge Marie Babin is presenting us with his rosette in the above picture.
Blast earned his TD in fall of 2010, in Sudbury, judge Sharon Smith.  This year, in April, he earned his UTD in Whitby, judge Jack Wilhelm; his TDX in Sept. at Powassan, judge Laura Mackay; and the UTDX yesterday.  Earning all four levels  of CKC tracking titles now makes Blast a Champion Tracking Dog.  He is just three years of age.  What a great dog he is.
TCh Carmspack Blast was bred by Carmen Duggan, (Carmspack), Whitby...just as TCh Carmspack Trust RN CD was.  Determined, willing working dogs. Thank you to Carmen for these two special dogs, and going back to my wonderful Spook, as well, who was from Kilo.  Spook had her TDX, which was before urban tracking came into play.  However, Spook did, what we would now consider, urban tracks in a couple of demonstrations many years ago.  They were in very well aged, high traffic areas, and I remember wondering how in the heck she was able to do this, and so well, back then.
Yesterday, Blast began our track on newly mowed grass, with very windy conditions from our right, and the line was winging out to the left in a convex curve.  Blast had a good start, but with the wind, was going slightly out to left and back onto the track as he worked along it.  The first leg was the longest leg, and made a left turn after brushing through some trees.  Shortly after, he found his first article (cloth).  We had another right turn coming up, then a left, and this area had some little rolling hilly areas with a mucky ditch running through.  He had to work very hard in this area.  I found out later, there had been about 50 Canada Geese down in there when the track was laid.  Surprisingly, I didn't notice the 'poop', I was concentrating on his body.
The wind swirled around in this area, but I was surprised he was having as much difficulty in there as he seemed to be.  He worked very hard and eventually got back to the track, down another hill and across a paved driveway opening into a parking lot.  I remember feeling a little relieved at this point.  Blast is normally excellent on hard surface.  So we had the strong wind at our backs now, and were working down alongside a building to our left.  He "looked" up a couple of times to the right, but didn't make any real attempt to turn.  I remember seeing a Timmies' cup, upright, out in the parking lot, wondering how come it wasn't blowing off, and thought perhaps this had caught his attention.  But...he was moving ahead.  Then he began to turn and circle back towards that area.  He passed the cup, and then I thought (maybe) I saw what he was headed to....a wood article on the centre of crisscrossing yellow parking lines.  Could it be?  It was!  Such a good boy.  However, this meant we had gone past it, off the actual track with the wind, with him coming "back" to it.  I was a bit confounded at that point.  (Blast has always been terrific at 'finding' items that have been lost for ages or buried under snow in winter.)  I believe his earlier "looking up" that way indicated he picked up on 'something' but had continued to carry on.  So, he then had to work the direction from there again, went ahead a little, climbing a knoll which overlooked a busy road.  On the other side of the road was the gallery!  These people staring over at us required being barked at!!!  Gave me more heart failure at this point, as I verbally encouraged he get back to the job at hand.  With the occasional backward glance at this group, he continued on the grass section, right of the actual track, through a bushy spot at the corner, a turn, and headed back to the track on the pavement.  At this point, he returned to his normal Blast hard surface work, and took off down the final leg to his last article, a leather glove.  I knew when he hit that leg again on the pavement, he had it nailed.  Apparently, I was running behind him, although I don't remember...What a thrill.  He did it!  I have to say, he put a good scare in me, he worked so hard and usually is very quick on his training tracks.  I knew he was getting concerned a couple of times out there, but he never gave up.  When he reached his glove, he was determined to rip it apart (he does this when it's a glove) so I had to rescue it quickly, he had only taken a small piece off it, as it was our 'keepsake'.
Thank you to our judge, Marie Babin, our tracklayer, Pamela Burns, and everyone at the club and other spectators cheering us on.  It was really great to see old friends and meet new ones yesterday.  Our track had seven legs, six turns, and three of those corners were on the hard surface!
Getting up at 2:45 a.m. and the 4 hr. drive each way was worth it!  Tascha who is our biggest supporter and supplier of all the bad food we eat on these trips was much appreciated by Blast as well as me. 

Carmspack Blast UTD TDX - New Title!

I'm back to not being able to load pictures, but just wanted to put something on about Blast!  He earned his Tracking Dog Excellent title on Saturday after and during the huge rainfall we had Friday and Saturday.  He worked steady on a lovely track plotted and judged by Laura McKay, on her first judging assignment.  The track had eight legs, 7 corners, a road crossing, and two ditches.  Nice thick groundcover, but soaking wet....we were all soaking wet....but who cares!  We Passed!!!
The next day he was entered in UTDX and was a smidgeon away from doing that also.  A truly great track, he worked his heart out. 
I might end up starting a new blog, hoping the same thing doesn't happen though, with the pictures not loading, don't know yet.  It's very frustrating.

We have one more try this year at the UTDX so it's back to work!
Luck again, no idea how I got this on!  This is judge Laura McKay with our Rosette for Blasts' TDX pass the day before.  Blast is another example of my wonderful Carmspack dogs!

This is a Surprise!

I have no idea how I got these on..playing around and trying different things to put something on blog, didn't check until tonight!  I bet I can't find how I did it, but will try....These pics. from a track Tank did 2 wks. ago.  After I laid the track, coming back to get into van..below, the fellow on the mower showed up!  My start was right beside the pole, and he completely cut over the whole area of my first leg and start!
When we returned to do the track, above, we encountered this on our second grass leg!  Fellows were walking all over and around the area, and an article was almost right beside them!  When Tank and I reached them, they were standing there on a break, and we had to pause and chat, as they were curious about what we were doing.  Tank actually did the cut grass and this area quite well.
Now back to figuring out this stupid blog issue again!

This is just a test, for me, really.
I've not been able to load pictures for five - six days now, and still can't find the solution.  So, I want to see if text comes up.
There were a bunch of automatic updates around the same time frame, 5-6 days ago, so think some 'demon' has caused me this issue.
Will hopefully get it fixed soon!
s.

Back to Aug.6th--Tanks' UrbanTrack

Our start was just back from the package of garbage on the left.  We saw a man, woman and dog walking back on the other side of the road, and thought they had first walked up along the edge here.  Tank was certainly following "something" along the edge, for a long way, before coming back on to the track.

There was a really tiny ball about 1 1/2' off the track, we were curious to see if he would find it...sure enough!  I told him to leave it, and he went back on the track.

His first turn would take us to a cement walkway.  He had gone slightly past the corner and curved back to the track just before it headed onto the walkway.

He has the odd small piece of food along the hard surface, and keeps right on the track.

The red line shows the track.  He had followed it dead on until we reached the curve and the overhang above, and walked out onto the pavement.  After a few feet, he came back up onto the walkway, on the track.

I stood back from the turn left, while Tank checked into the doorway entrance to the building, turned and came out onto the left leg.

We've worked here before with other dogs, and at this spot, they all usually try to go 'right', back into an "opening" beside the building.  The highway is close behind, a very busy corner.  All we can figure out here is that the busy highway traffic and open area is pushing and swirling scent over into this area, making it tricky for the dogs to "get past" this spot. Tank is still "looking" in that direction, while the turn is to the left, through the parking lot.

This is his first article, a sock.  He will continue alongside the white line and then make a right turn, continuing on through the parking lot. There were actually four hard surface turns in this track, one on the cement walkway, and three in the parking lot.

We had turned right and he came back, I think, for a pc. of food.  He had been moving nicely without food, and don't like to see it draw the dog back.  However, I put a few down as reward past some difficult spots or past turns. 

Same leg as above, making a left turn with the next article, wood, beside the pole.  I walk up to give him a food treat for this one after he lies down.

Tank continues over the pavement and will go up onto the grass and make a right turn.
This track had about 3/4 on hard surface, four articles, aged 3 hr. and had gotten fairly warm.  I had hoped for a cool morning, but you can't control Mother Nature.  We had planned to age tracks for three hours, but I always feel a track agine in heat is just that much more difficult for the dogs.

Tank is just making his right turn on the grass.  He had gone up to the edge of the road again first, and came back...confirming my thoughts at the start, the someone had been walking along the edge while we were gone.

What can I say.....?  Pit stop!  He actually found a tiny bit of shade to stand in...

And we continue on.  A little ahead, he will make an open right corner over to his metal article.

He's just about to reach it in this picture.  I was going to leave it on the cement circle but it was afraid it would become too hot there while aging, so just left in down in the grass.

Tank seemed a bit concerned about 'this thing' deeper in the grass and seemed hesitant to touch it at first.

I told him to 'down' and when he did I approached and treated him.

Off again....across a driveway and over onto a narrow grassy area with a quick turn alongside a fence.  You wouldn't encounter this in a test, but in training, anything goes if it serves a purpose in experience and training...at least that is my method.  No problem, Tank is on the track and reaches his glove.  We had a little "sardine party", the same as Blast did, and played with glove.  This was a nice place to end on a hot day, in the grass and some shade for him for a few minutes of play and reward.  He did great and I was really pleased with how he worked.  It was a pretty difficult track with so much non-veg. surface and turns.  Thanks to Tascha for helping us today and taking the pictures...all 108 total...!  I have a few more of Emma to do yet!

UTDX Track for Blast Sunday

 Now this is a Bum View - actually, two bum views!  At the scent pad with Blast.  I'm trying to get him to spend a little more time there, as his preference is to move off quickly, and then to check the directions.

 Which he did, then moves out on the track.  This is a really nice location, behind a building and then we move around to the front later.

 Above, we are on our third leg, I made short legs through a treed area for the first section.

 The fourth leg curved around a bushy area and his first article (wood) is there.

 No reason, I just liked this shot of him.  Tascha took some nice angles of us tracking, and I had a huge number of pics. to go through to pick from.

 As we move out past the bushy area, we go through a narrow portion on veg. still, with the building on our left.  This takes us out to the front area.

 Another left turn out here and we start out over hard surface on a driveway.  Blast went a little to the left of the actual track while I waited, and he came back to the track.

 We climbed over a grass hilly berm and then out onto another driveway/parking area and over to grass again.  I've put on the track in red above, and a broken yellow line showing where he went.  As I expected, he checked around the corner of the building before moving out parallel to the actual track.

 Doing this, he went "past" the article on the grass, just before the pavement.  He has just picked up the scent and will circle back to the article (sock).

 This would be poor article placement in a test (in my opinion) but is something I like to train for as I know exactly where the track and article are.  It's really like you are tricking the dog, with scent swirling around the corner of the building.

 He has moved into the parking area and cut the left turn short, heading towards another article.  This actually surprised me, as it is metal and flat, so I know he didn't see it.  I'm not sure if he just picked up the track, or smelled the article, which would have been hard.

 Blast went right to it, and pawed at it.  This was just fine with me, I have a treat in my bag for him.  This was a very good find!!!

 We've continued past another driveway, short grass area, another driveway, and into this verg. area, turning left.  He's working very nicely through here, it was actually quite sparse with some tansy and ragweed in there, not too pleasant.

 I just liked this picture, too.  Certainly shows a nice working tracking dog, I think.

 Moving off veg. and onto another parking area with one more turn taking us to the end.

 Blast was a bit to the left up here and began to follow a crack back to the track.  Soooo interesting to see this.  The red arrow farthest to the right points out his glove and the other arrow a container with sardines...yum.

 Right to the article, he's such a good dog.  He's paid no attention as yet to the sardine container.  If he was "looking" rather than using his nose, he could have seen both of these a long ways back.

So, big praise for the article and then I showed him the container with the sardines, took the lid off and in he goes!  I can't stand the smell of them, myself, but both he and Tank absolutely love them at the end of the track.  Blast did a really nice track, working happily all the way.  Having done so little work these last two months with the extreme heat we've had, I'm absolutely thrilled with how he is working.

Short First Track for Emma

 Tascha wanted to work on a short aged, motivational track for Emma, but also an issue she had run into recently with Emma wanting to reach the grass, when the turn was on non-veg. surface.  So this was incorporated into her first track.  Above, she has turned on to her second leg, after walking through a puddle on the 'other' side of her corner.  No water issue with this little dog!

 Her track crosses a wide driveway/parking area, onto grass with a right turn and out onto another driveway. 

 Emma was motoring through here pretty well, good working attitude.

 The track left the grass and crossed another wide driveway.  Tascha made the turn just before the grass.  Of course, Emma checked the grass, but turned back onto the pavement to pick up the track.  Exactly what this was about!!!  Above she found her first article a little further up the track.  Note!  Hoping Emma didn't exceed the speed limit!!!

 Further on up, there was a left turn which she made nicely, further into the parking lot.
Above, she is checking another corner (it's right) but she double checks left first.  Tascha stands and lets Emma work it out.

 And off she went, finding the article shortly, right on!  This track accomplished the objective...short, fun, including one problem area which was successful for Emma.

 Time to play!  Tug that glove, Emma.  Pull Tascha off her feet!

A few retrieves with Emma racing back to Tascha with the glove - which is almost as big as Emma!  Fun, fun, fun...mission accomplished!