A walk

[Jovial Monk]

Turned up to tracking practice, lodged the $25 fee and entry form for the tracking trial on 5 Jun.

So eventually, time to put the harness on Demi and clip the 15m long tracking lead to the harness and off we went. Start peg and an old sock from the track layer, tell Demi “find” and off we went, dog was heading for the fence paralleling the track, had to let her do a bit of sniffing there then tell her sternly “Get back on track! Find!” and away she went for a while. I was looking for the next marker when I realised: no markers! Gulp!

Anyway, Demi found the corner and while still being off the track was heading definitely along so apart from stopping her when she was getting too close to the fence left her to it. Had to let go of the lead once and go to the far side of the shrub the dog had gone around to pull it out the shrub.

Hehehehe towards the end the instructress was telling me to move the dog further to the left but Demi was walking very fast and very determinedly and I left her to it and she actually was headed straight for the tracklayer who was hiding behind a big tree. Congrats, couple of treats and a drink for Demi—dogs really have to do a lot of thinking, discriminating between all the scents and finding turns and twists in the track, coping with wind etc etc and really have a nice big drink when finished.

That was 400m, plus back etc, a Km walked. Put dog in car and go follow behind someone setting off on a high level 1200m track: walking behind an experienced handler and dog you can learn heaps, reading the dog (is it certain, is it following a delicious rabbit track, is it puzzled and having trouble finding the track again) and watching the handler manage the dog—even watching how they manage the lead is important, the tracking lead is 15 metres long! So another 2Km on top of all the walking yesterday and Sunday—and still got obedience practice tonight that I can’t miss what with the obedience trials on the weekend!

[Jovial Monk]

I mentioned a tracking trial two posts up. Demi flunked that one (actually, I flunked it, it is always the handler’s fault never the dog’s Today had a trial starting at 8.00 at Monarto, 30 minutes up the SE Freeway. this is the story:

Shit! Woke at 7, tracking trial was at 8.00am at Monarto!

Broke a few speed limits, got there on time and it was {sob} cold and windy and raining and the mean old judge made me start anyway {cccccold!}

Made sure the bitch had a good sniff at the article at the start post (in trials you only get one post, the starting post, in practice you have a post or marker pegged onto trees/bushes etc along the way and you can see the corners etc) told her “Find” and away we went, straight ahead from the start post. Kept my ears open, judge and steward following, a good sign as they won’t move off the track, about 20m behind the handler.

Hmmm dog hunting around, moving off but not really committed I reckon, let her quarter back and forth I think. Judge eventually calls out “go back to where she was tracking” which I do and she heads off, away from the fence line she had sort of been moving to but only at very high levels will tracks cross a fence. Next thing, she is sniffing, then picking up in her mouth and moving a few centimetres a sock so I yell out joyfully and loudly “ARTICLE!” and on we go, she goes around another corner, quite committed and away we go. Nervous me I guess holding tight to lead with only 3-4 metres of lead between me and dog. Moving along, a bit slow because I was nervous due to Demi missing that first corner and judge yells out “Who is the one with the nose?” which sort of tells me we were on the right track and a few seconds later I see the tracklayer hiding behind a bush but clearly visible to me the way the dog had taken me. Normally Demi (and every dog, really) air scents the last few metres but Demi didn’t for some reason.

Anyway I saw the tracklayer and knew we had passed and next thing Demi was there greeting Tegan the tracklayer effusively.

At the handing out of certificates to all passing handlers/dogs the judge said it was a little bit painful to watch—I should have paid out another 6-7metres of lead and let Demi really set a fast pace.

But we got a pass, T1, Tracking 1. Will put in an entry this evening for the next trial where we will go for a T2, which is twice as long (800m) as a T1 track and can have more corners. Then if we pass that we do a T3 which is the same as a T2 but the tracklayer is not known to Demi. If we pass that we get our TD title—Tracking Dog.

[boxy]

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Decent smilies!
:jump





Thanks to FD, some small thanks to me
full thanks to annie who collected these neat smilies!

and thanks to Aussie for wanting the neato smilies to improve the look of the board.

You whine like a little bitch, about others going off topic... and then make that post.

The only thing those smiles are good for, is attracting other idiots like you, who think they are the coolest thing since they found the forward button so they can spam all their contacts with hoax and lame joke emails

[annielaurie]

The only thing those smiles are good for, is attracting other idiots like you, who think they are the coolest thing since they found the forward button so they can spam all their contacts with hoax and lame joke emails

So waddaya got against these classy looking work-of-art smilies, hey? Tip of the hat, Boxy!