Tracking Reese the 'wonder beagle'

Rosemary and Reese are working at a corner and Reese spotted us! She quickly put that cute little nose down and moved out on the last leg to her article. Such a cutie. This is the ONLY picture I took where you could actually 'see' anything more than the tip of her wagging tail in the long grass. Tacha and Emma were also tracking today, and there wasn't a single place you could see Emma, wee little long haired miniature doxie. Both dogs worked great in the tall grass/weeds/and tangly vetch.

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!

I Couldn't Resist...

I couldn't resist trying Blast with an ice cream cone, like Tank and Trust a day ago. Blast has come a long way in his response with manners and connecting with me over the last few months. Sometimes I wondered if it would ever happen, he was quite a handful as a youngster.
We have a really nice working relationship now, and I love him to bits.
So........ice cream was new to him, and a good excuse for me to have another cone!!! Out we went on the deck, I called him over and let him see it, of course, no interest. No interest at least until he saw me eating it.
Told him to sit and 'easy' and held it out to him. He took a sniff and tried to take a little bite.
Got the idea pretty quickly.
I was hoping for a lick, not a bite, but he's no dummy. What does a lick get you?!

But he was still gentle about it, even though trying to get a BIG bite, and wasn't pushy about it.

Although he ended up with more than I intended to share with him, I guess it was successful.

An Ice Cream Cone Afternoon!

After Blast "cleared the way", Trust and Tank and I went for a little walk, and when we came back, they asked me for an ice cream cone....well, in my mind, I guess. We shared a Hokey-Pokey Ice Cream Cone on the deck...yummy!!! They both politely take their turns.

Walks in the Wild

Blast and I went for a walk this afternoon "in the open" out in the front fields. We were keeping an eye out for a bear, who was here twice yesterday. Not a very big one, but a bear nonetheless! So, we ended up being bombed by deer flies, not sure which which was the worst evil....

First Border Collie UTD in Canada!

Congratulations to my friend, Donna Brinkworth, and her Border Collie Alta-Pete Jet TD UTD.
They earned the Urban Tracking Dog title in Thunder Bay last weekend. What a long trip for them travelling from Alberta, but Jet made it all worthwhile, along with Donna completing her apprenticeship for TD and TDX! Congratulations on that as well.


Jet is relaxing (after a long day!) on the shores of Lake Superior, wearing her medallion and hugging her rossette and glove. Doesn't she look pleased with herself!!!

Trust - May 24th - 1st laid, second on

So, this is the second track of the day, and the one aged longer. Both were less than the required minimum time in a trial (3 hr.) as the heat/humidity/dryness is just too tough to be working these dogs in. This is not "life and death" it is a sport. So Trusts' first track was aged just under 1 1/2 hr. and this one was just over 2 hr. Each is very different, this one has some shady areas, but more pavement. I had two people come over to talk to us in this track, and poor Trust got a bad deer fly bit on the top of her nose near the end of this track. By the time I saw it, it had already bit her just before I squashed it.
Van parked over here, we started in shade under tree, crossed parking lot/driveway (person parked right on the track to talk!) and then sun dappled shady grass, over driveway, into treed spot with sparse grass and pine cones. I'm standing at her first turn looking back to take this.

Her first article is just ahead between some of the trees, she's obvioiusly found something worth smelling by this rock.

We turned from the grass into a sandy parking area. Just before I took this picture a fellow was rushing up behind us to stop us and tell us there is a loose dog that lives there...just so I'd know.

I appreciated that, I've seen this particular dog, it seems harmless, old and slow, but you never know.

She's found her second article and will be making her MOT turn further up on the pavement.

Trust worked nicely along the paved parking area, her turn was close to dead on, and out the driveway which turns to gravel. The arrow points to a wood article. She had moved over to the grass before this, but zeroed right in on the article.

I've laid the track off to the left, behind a stip of grass that was not cut when I laid the track. I'm not really sure here why she was tracking all along on the right side of the road. It didn't make sense to me with the light breeze here why she didn't once head over to the left, but seemed to know exactly where she was going??? I did wonder if she was pooped by this time and just had enough. However, at the "right place" she turned right and headed into the grass to the final article. Just one of those puzzles...

And here she is at her final article. You can clearly see the bump on top of the poor girls' nose.

We had a nice walk back to the van, through a lot of shade; she didn't seem worn out at all, but it was hot by this time. I had given her water at every article, by the way, and wiped her face down. I would have stopped had I thought she was in any distress at all, and would not work any later in the morning in the heat.

All burning up here has been banned and the long weekend just past, all fireworks were also banned. I really can't remember such a long spell of hot and dry weather, and we badly need rain.