Monday, January 7, 2008

Tracking Fun


It was a beautiful morning -just perfect for tracking. Barbara stopped at the Burger King to get biscuits as rewards. She put the bag of biscuits in the trunk of the car. Did she really think that I wouldn't smell them in the trunk?

When we got to the field Trotter and Tully were already there with Chris. So was Trapper, a Brittany. He and his special person Jeanine have done lots for canine freestyle together and Trapper had earned many titles. He has retired from freestyle and at age 11 is learning to track! His picture is posted above. Barbara took several pictures of Trapper and Jeanine but she somehow managed to erase most of them. She really has to pay more attention to what she is doing.

We had a great morning of tracking. I was very excited since I knew that sausage biscuits were involved. Barbara laid a long track for me - 200 yds. with 3 turns - and let it age for 25 minutes. Even thought I had been very busy over the weekend I still had lots of energy to run my track. The first two turns were easy. Sometimes the track crossed some tire ruts in the field. The scent would pool in the ruts and of course I would have to check in both directions. Barbara stopped going forward and once I realized that the trail did not go in the ruts I was able to get back on track. The last turn was a bit tricky since it was near some tire tracks too. Barbara had to back up and help me a bit (that is what she is there for) but I finally got it and headed for my last article. It was a hairband wrapped around the sausage biscuit. Yeah! I could tell that she was very pleased with how well I did my work.

When we got back to the cars I found out that Trotter and Tully got egg and cheese biscuits for their tracks. It smelled quite delicious. Barbara says that eggs are gross and she will not get me an egg biscuit but I would certainly like to taste one someday.

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