A Little "Trust" Track

Trust sure wanted to track today and this was a short, fun one for her. Winds were extreme after last nights' storm, but she did extremely well.

Before I forget, someone asked me today where to find her UTDX track from Easter Sunday, which gave her the title of TRACKING CHAMPION. If you look at the blog archives on the right, click on 04/24-05/01(3) and her track and descriptions,etc. is the third one.Trust sits to indicate her second article on this track.She cuts the corner here, around the corner of the building.Trust is right on the track all the way up here, she did pause at the corner, sniffed it, hen went back to the track onto gravel, alongside a paved area to the final article.

Tomorrow I plan to track both Blast and Tank, hopefully get some pictures, was having trouble with my camera today so missed most of this one, mainly all the hard surface which was nice.

Search Game with Kira

Plastic pots (numbered as used for sign holders for Rally 0) with holes in bottom turned upside down work great for this. The red arrows show the two pots with something inside - for Kira to indicate.We work on a leash for this so I can direct her along the 'route' or she's apt to just barge in and knock them all askew. This one grabbed her attention as there was an "unplanned" bee buzzing inside it; I moved her past before she tried to flip and get it.Nothing in here, let's check the next one....Aha! Let's flip this one over and claim the prize!Smelling this one. When she reaches them, it only takes an instant to scent over the holes and either move on past, or flip it if it has something inside.And this one did, she's about to flip it.Wow! That was fun work. Time to play.

A New Title for Reese!

The cutest beagle ever has earned her TRACKING DOG title!!! Another title to her long list of achievements, Rosemary and Reese earned this title on Saturday, May 27th in fine style. I am so proud of them, they worked very hard to accomplish this.This is a typical picture of R&R working along their track at the test. I had a nice view from a distant hill and was able to get quite a few pictures. But they worked so well through the track, the pictures all look like this one!!!Rosemary, Reese and judge Jack Wilhelm presenting the rosette for a NEW TD at the EPS trial last weekend. A big congratulations to Rosemary and Reese.

My Very Special Trillium

I call this a "triple trillium" due to the multi flower petals. However, I think the proper name may be Double Flowered T. Grandiflorum. I have been 'nursing' this for nearly fifteen years, starting with three stems and flowers. This year it has nine stems and flowers. It began life near Orillia on the edge of the hayfield on our property. When I discovered it, a couple of years before we moved, I was determined to take it with me. It was amongst hundreds of 'normal' white trilliums.

Up here, in N.Ontario, there are no white trilliums, and I'm so happy this has survived. We have many single deep red trilliums behind the house in the forest which really 'show off' this white one. It's just sooo pretty.

Back to Tracking!

After a long layoff with both Tank and Blast, we're back at it. The main goal this year has been to finish Trust with her UTDX and earning her TRACKING CHAMPION title.

I am still amazed (and thrilled) that we have accomplished this. Of course, she still wants to "go out tracking" and we will do occasional tracks for fun but now the training is aimed at Tank and Blast, both towards their UTD's.

Yesterday, I did a track with Tank, NO pictures with him pulling as hard as he does, I need both hands! However, it was not a good training track anyway. As we were part way on our first leg, I saw a lady walking her dog on a flexi way up ahead. It was obvious they had walked fully along our first leg and wouldn't you know, pretty much continued to do so. ALL the food I left on hard surfaces was gone and Tank was wavering off and on the track. They finally moved off it towards the end which was hard surface, and he did much better. Just one of those things in urban locations....

Today was Blasts' first track since last fall. He was, let's say, raring to go! Nice start, good first three legs and corners, all on grass. It was steady rain, which I hadn't expected, before we started and continued the whole track. He had a wood article on grass, which he indicated nicely. In the above picture, he is on leg 4, about to turn on leg 5, taking us through the sand with a corner there.The start of this area was recently 'aerated' so it was an 'extra' transition.Blast almost contorted on this corner, he took it so sharply.We moved from the sand onto a stretch of grass. He worked to the left of the track closer to the fence, right up to the parking lot.We went from grass to gravel before moving onto the parking lot. This area also is busy with vehicles coming in and out, which would have driven across our track and final corner.Blast turned just before the corner, and worked slightly off the track on this last leg.

There had been quite a bit of rain while it was aging, and running off down this way.The second article was after the last corner, on the last leg, plastic lid. I had left a tiny piece of meat under it, and he is nosing it off, to reach it. Lucky it was still there, with the number of cars that had driven over.Here he is at the glove (final article). You can see the runoff of rain on the asphalt.

I was quite pleased with him considering how long it's been since he worked. Plus he had just begun on urban training, after getting his TD last fall. Lots to do, but will be fun (and easier!) to have them both working at the same level and just fun tracks for Trust...maybe some back to fields and forest...my favorite.

Nice afternoon walks.

Very cool and extremely windy today, so the blackflies were not out. We were able to do some garden/grass work and lots of outings with the dogs. This afternoon, we had really nice walks/runs through and around the fields. Lovely!Like Blast, Kira can show a really soft side when she's so inclined. She has lovely, expressive eyes.

Blast Birthday - 2 yr. old!

We didn't forget, but Blast actually turned two years old a week ago. There's just been no 'good' time until today to have our 'normal' birthday party for him. We decided to just do a few pictures without the whole 'family shots' also, as it was close to their dinner time, and this always takes time to set up.Most people can't believe Blast would actually stay still long enough to wear a hat, nor to not lunge at the cupcakes. But he has his soft and calm side when required...he's such a good boy.We are sharing this one, it's actually iced carrot muffins, and he's very gently taking tiny little bites from the side. Happy Birthday, Blast!!! Can't believe he's already two years old.