Back on Track

I know, I know, what an inactive blog, right? Well, as I stated before, the weather and multiple other factors (life, work) has prevented us from doing a lot of work with 2 of the 3 dogs in the house. Baxter had a great year earning a Swedish and Lithuania CERT as well as getting 2nd prize in underground (gryt) and his Tracking Championship (SEVCH). We neglected our brown dog a bit, though he worked his way towards a fabulous 1st prize underground late this summer, and we decided that it was his turn to go out and have fun! We are still trying to set up a natural underground test for him, but this has been easier said than done. In the meantime, we decided that Fred and Liina would go and do some practice tracks.

So Tuesday we went down to Sjöbo and did some practice tracks despite the rain and crappy weather. Actually, we were supposed to go on Friday, but a strong storm called Alexander put a halt to that. It is fine to be out in the woods in the rain, but high winds and hoping that branches don't land on your head is a whole other matter! We had set up 2 tracks, one 650m track with Fred and one 250m track with Liina, both anlagsklass level (2-5hr old). For Freddie this should have been a walk in the park as he has previously received 2nd prize in Schwhk/20 and 100 pts CACT in a SchwhK/40, but we haven't worked him much in the past year, so we just hoped that he would be as good as ever.
Well, we weren't disappointed. Freddie managed the 650m track in just 17 min and would have been even a bit quicker, but deer had recently been on the track. Freddie was "laut" and would have easily gone after the deer if we would have let him. We took a few minutes and allowed him to calm down and he was back at it. Freddie is interested in wildlife, just as much as Baxter, but very easy to read on the track as when he is off or "uninterested," he looks like a pointer; head up, very stiff. The thing which is great about Fred is that if you stop moving, he immediately goes back to tracking. So a little bit of obedience training with Fred and he'll be fine, he just has to remember exactly why he is out there.

The best treat of the day was Liina. I handled the little one and she was AWESOME! She was super interested in the blood, stayed really well on the track, went back and checked the line, took the corners without hesitation like a pro and plodded confidently and not too quickly (always moving, but not running) to the end of the track. I think that she was fortunate to get a great noise from her mom! She thought it was SO fun and was very proud of herself and her hoof prize. :) She is not yet 9 months old, so she can't officially be tested yet, but I see a bright future ahead of her in tracking!

We will have another round of practices with both of the dogs on 600m+ tracks a few hours old in January if the weather holds up and then testing starts again! Wouldn't it be great to have 3 Champions in the family?

Wandering in the woods on a non-rainy day here in Skåne