Fall sports

Fall is my second favorite season because it means that winter, and the potential for snow, will be here before you know it.  It is also my favorite time of the year for sports, both human and canine sports.  Football has begun (and so far the Steelers are 1-1), NASCAR is winding down (my favorite driver is coasting towards retirement and there isn't anyone in particular that I want to show an allegiance to), and this is the time of year when tracking picks up as well as the fall shows, obedience trials and agility trials.  For Swing we are dabbling in the show ring but I'm also putting her back on the tracking line with the goal of getting her certified before winter officially arrives.

Last week was the first time we had been out in the field since May and I didn't start off where we left off but rather pushed forward.  What I learned from the first dog that I tracked was that you shouldn't spend too much time on a step when your dog is catching on to what you want them to do.  With the Weims I noticed that they can be pushed quickly in the early stages and once they pick up the idea of working turns, distance and age can be worked on almost immediately.  Since Swing when from a double laid track with the track layer standing at the end of the track to a single laid track with the track layer following us in 3 sessions, I felt confident that once she figured out how to do a turn, adding more than one to a track should be fairly simple.  She did not disappoint me, last week I put in a "U" track and she ran it almost perfectly (she had a little problem working against the grain of the field, but I was patient and let her figure it out).  I also used her track to have a cross track for Dodge to work through, one advantage to having two dogs tracking.

Since the weather put a damper on agility training this evening, I promised myself that I'd get the duo out in to the field again.  This time the U track had two left turns (last week it was two right turns) and she did much better going against the grain (I put two of the three legs against the grain of the field).  My objective is to do one or two more U's and then I'll get her back on a long straight track that I will begin to add some age to.  If I can get her out at least once a week I should be on schedule to set up a certification track by late October/early November.

For those of you that do not participate in tracking, in order for your dog to be eligible to enter a tracking test, you have to have a judge "certify" that the dog can track.  It is the one sport where the dog must show that it has the ability to do the job before it can enter a test.  This only has to be done once (unless you can not get in to a test within a year of being certified) for each dog and only to get their TD (Tracking Dog).  The certificate is good for you a year and you enclose it with your entry to a tracking test.  I prefer to track when it is quite cool/chilly out.  I've been known to be out in 20 degrees with a good wind going.  So you can see why Fall and Winter are my favorite seasons.

Stay tuned, I'll see if I can get some pictures of the little girl on a track.  She still has a ways to go but what I'm seeing looks very promising.  And as for the conformation ring, she is still looking pretty immature compared to some of the bitches that are out there.  Amy thinks she's just going to be a slow maturer (and I'm sure Ella and Milo are in the same boat) that may not fill out until she is closer to 2 years of age.  We'll enter some outdoor shows but we are not going to go at it like gangbusters.  I can spend that entry fee a lot more wisely on matches and other training.