We're Certified, But, Oh, What a Day of Craziness It Was

This is a true story, you just can't make up things like this.  To protect the innocent, the names of the participants in this story have been changed, and those of you familiar with all those involved might find some humor in the way the identities have been "shielded."

Two weeks ago when I made the plans to try to certify Rigby for an AKC tracking test I never gave a thought to the fact that the date would fall on September 13th!  I was born on the 13th and have always considered it a lucky number, not a number to avoid.  I've never had triskaidekaphobia, even on those times when the 13th fell on a Friday!  After this morning I might be changing my opinion and never schedule anything of importance on the 13th of any month!

It started from the time my alarm went off at 5:45 a.m. -- I fell back to sleep and woke up at 6:08, not terribly late, but it put my morning into high gear to get ready to leave for the park and not forget anything, especially the harness, the line and plenty of good treats for Rigby!

I had hoped for a cool morning for our certification test, looking forward to dew on the grass, and hoping for no rain -- I just don't like to track in rain (Rigby could care less, she'll track in anything).  As soon as I started driving toward the park the rain started to fall -- at least it was just a very light rain.

On the way to the park I called one of my fellow trackers, Allen, to let him know that I'd be a few minutes late -- didn't want them to think I had chickened out at the last minute!

We arrived at the park to find out that I was not the only one who had overslept this morning.  The tracking judge who was to do the certification had a malfunction with her alarm clock, woke up late and decided not to come out to track.  Thankfully the tracking judge, Phyllis, called Allen to relay this message and Allen reminded Phyllis that she had agreed to do a certification track for Rigby.

So now we had extra time to wait before the certification track would be ready to run, more time for my stomach to get tight and the nerves to take over.

To keep me busy, I was assigned the task of laying track for one of the other TD dogs, Greta, and I put in her track and then followed along as she expertly followed my scent, making her always precise turns, finding a few hot dogs along the way, till she arrived at the glove.

As we were finishing up Greta's track Phyllis arrived and, after a brief discussion with Allen, left to lay the certification track.  I headed in the opposite direction to lay a track for Phyllis' dog, Perry, that would be run after Rigby's certification attempt.  I was finding it tough to keep my mind on the tracks I was laying, getting anxious to see how Rigby would track on this damp September morning.

Finally it was time to head out to the field where Rigby's track would be run.  I got her out of the car, we headed to the start flag, harnessed her up and away she flew.  The track started in the very center of a large field that we normally divide in half to make two tracking fields.  I was surprised when Rigby's first turn went to the right, as I thought that that side of the field had been used for the track of another TD dog that had not yet run his track.  But Rigby's indication was true and off we went.

Putting Rigby's harness on.

Rigby was moving very quickly and I was just trying to stay with her and watch for indications of the next turn, but what she did seemed very odd, she dropped down about 10 yards and then seemed to follow a track that ran a bit lower than the previous track we were on.  To my dismay I heard Phyllis call to me, which meant that we were off track and we would not certify.  Then Phyllis signaled for me to look ahead of where we were and I saw two start flags about 70 yards away, it was obvious that two tracks had been plotted in the same field, and the second one had hot dogs on it, as it was a training track, not a testing track.  This meant that our certification track had been fouled and Phyllis agreed to put in a new track in a field that had not been used already.

You might wonder how this could have happened. Well, so do we.  All I can tell you is that sometimes communications get crossed and the wrong messages sent.  Phyllis thought she had the entire field to work with and Allen, who laid the other track, thought Phyllis was using only the far end of this large field.

My concerns were with Rigby.  She was tracking with great motivation when suddenly she was pulled off the track with no chance to finish or find a glove. 
I've always been told this is not something you want to do with your tracking dog as it can be demotivating.  I took Rigby back to the car and put her in her crate and gave her some hot dogs while telling her what a good dog she was.

I was beginning to think that this was just not meant to be the day that we would get to certify, nothing was going right.

We left the area while the new track was plotted and put in. Thankfully I was able to go watch Allen track his Irish Water Spaniel (well, she almost looked like one after her track) Zsa Zsa, which took my mind off another wait for our track to be ready.

We drove back down to the field and were told that the track was ready to run.  Suddenly a car swerved off the road and into the parking area between my vehicle and Phyllis' van.  A man jumped out of the car and almost ran over to Phyllis asking for directions to someplace he was trying to find, all they while ranting about how he dislikes Pennsylvania. Just what I needed, another delay.

Once the man was dispatched with the needed directions, I got Rigby out of her crate and we headed to the start flag for the second time.

I put her harness on.

She eagerly took off on her second track.

There was no problem with motivation with this dog.

She tracked as true as she usually does.

Headed up to the corner of the field that always gives her problems.

Made that turn and tracked across the top of the field.

She found the glove with no problem, retrieved it to me and passed her certification track in a mere 5 minutes.

Heading back to the cars after the track.

Rigby would keep tracking if given the chance.

Two happy girls on a great tracking day.

So now I'll be sending my entries in to try to get a place in a tracking test this fall.  But you can be sure that I won't be entering any tests that fall on the 13th of the month!!

Later in the morning, while heading out to track Phyllis' dog, one of the other trackers mentioned that he sometimes has his birthday fall on Friday the 13th.  Ironically, Phyllis said her birthday is also on the 13th and I said, mine too!  Then we started comparing months and I found out that both Phyllis and I were born on January 13th, although not the same year.

NOTE FOR NON-TRACKERS:  Are you wondering what it means to certify a dog in tracking?  Well, in order to enter a tracking test a dog must first be certified by a tracking judge that the dog and handler are able to pass a tracking test.  So, in essence, before I can enter Rigby in a tracking test we have to pass a test with the same requirements, to prove we can do it.

Rigby and the Memorial Day Tracking Challenge

In an effort to keep moving forward in our tracking progress, I decided to lay a track for Rigby to start off the Memorial Day holiday.  I had taken her for a walk at the fairgrounds on Sunday, the day before, and it was then that I decided what her track would be the next day.

On Saturday about half of the fairground fields were mowed, leaving areas of short and long grass that could be used.  I thought this would be a good time to give Rigby a lesson in changes of ground cover, as well as giving her a chance to track on freshly mowed grass.

I started her track going downhill on the mowed grass for about 100 yards and then straight ahead into the long grass for about 30 yards.  Then there was a right turn in the long grass, 30 yards of long grass and then into a lane of mowed grass that was about 20 yards wide and back into long grass again.

The second leg was a total of 110 yards and turned right, uphill, for 70 yards, to a left-hand slightly open turn across the grain of the hill.  That third leg was 80 yards, with a right turn that continued the track uphill for 70 yards to the glove.

Map of Rigby's track.
Started at the start flags (in blue on the right) and finished
 at the top of the page on the left side.
The blue-striped area denotes the high grass and the white area is the mowed grass.

Rigby started from the first flag at 8:15 a.m. with a very nice start.  She tracked the entire mowed portion of the first leg with no problem, only stopping a couple times to find a slice of hot dog.  She also showed no hesitation when she reached the long grass, heading in right in.  She showed loss of scent at the end of the leg, circled to the left and then picked up the right turn.  

She came to the mowed path and crossed it quickly. At the tall grass she did a bit of searching both below the track and above before choosing to head into the long grass on the track.  She tracked quickly to the second turn and again circled left before taking the turn to the right and back up the hill.  After another quick leg she found the left turn with little searching and made the open turn.  She continued to the fourth turn and made the turn to the right, again uphill.  She was moving a bit too quickly on this leg and tracked right over the glove until I called her back to find the end of the track. In hindsight, I should have thought to put some hot dog slices in the glove to aid her in finding it in the high grass.

I started to play with Rigby following her track, and then remembered to check my watch.  It was 8:21, only 6 minutes since we started the track, which means she did the track in about 5 minutes!

What I thought would be a challenging track, with several changes of cover, ended up being nothing new to Rigby and she proved again her love of tracking and her wonderful scenting abilities.

She ended the track soaked in dew from working in the tall grass.  We ended our tracking time playing with the glove before walking out to pick up the start flags and putting away the equipment.

Rigby in the tall grass.

Pretty girl.

And happy girl!

Obedience Training Update

I haven't written any posts for a couple months so I'll try to catch up with a quick summary of Rigby's progress in her training.

Currently Rigby is training in three areas, tracking, obedience and agility.  Her tracking continues to improve, as she is doing TD length tracks with up to four turns.  Lately her obedience training has seemed to start coming together and she is making strides.  She just started her second series of agility foundation classes and it is no surprise that she seems to love jumping and learning all the obstacles.

This week at her obedience class Rigby's heeling, including her figure 8, showed much more consistency in attention and smoothness.  She did a stand for exam for the first time, having done a sit for exam in all her previous classes.  Besides working the novice level exercises she did a recall on the flat AND over the high jump and also performed the broad jump exercise.

Rigby's level of maturity is displayed by her ability to relax more at class and during training.  She is settling in more quickly when she arrives at a training site and it's easier for her to focus her attention on her training rather than all the other exciting things around her.

Friday evening I got some video of Rigby heeling, doing some figure 8 work and doing a recall.  The heeling shown here is not the best she can do (this video was taken after we had been training for quite some time that evening), but it gives an idea of where she is and shows her happiness in her work.

Thanks to Karen Schroeder for taping Rigby and I at our practice session.

GTOTC Basic Class 2014

This post is for the GTOTC Basic Obedience class that I taught starting in January 2014 and ending with graduation day on March 10, 2014.  Assisting me was Stephanie Barber, and I thank her for all her help and support, with a special thank you to her collies for being our outstanding demo dogs throughout this basic class.

We had a nice-sized class of 8 dogs and even through a couple months of horrible winter weather we kept up a very good attendance record as a whole.

The dogs were all very quick learners and there was a lot of progress in behavior over the 8-week class.

As a graduation exercise on the last night of our class I set up a rally course that included heeling, sits, downs, heeling through cones and a few tricky turns. The class also successfully completed their 30 second stays in the sit and down position.  We also practiced our recalls one last time.

Here's a series of photos from the last class and the presenting of the graduation certificates: 

A very nice sit by Max

Weaving through the cones

Nice sit, Bailey!

A very good front.

Ares shows a good front...

... and the finish!

Jack getting ready for the rally course.

Happy heeling.

Max in the cones.

Max performs the "down."

Another very nice sit by Bailey.

Bailey finishes her "finish."

The "sit" ...

... and the "down".

Ares weaves through the cones.

Pretty sit, Ares!

And the "down."

Jack shows a good "front."

"Down, Jack."

The celebratory cupcake cake with a dog cookie on top!

The following photos show the dog/handler teams who were present receiving their certificates:

Congratulations to the whole class on a job well done!!

Four Good Weeks of Tracking

Yesterday it was too cold and snowy to go out tracking, it was the first tracking day Rigby and I had missed in quite some time.  To get my "tracking fix" this week I thought I'd review our last four tracks, as they each showed the value of a good tracking foundation and the progress Rigby is making.

The system of tracking training I've been taught consists basically of "teaching" the dog to track on multiple straight tracks, starting with 10 to 15 yard tracks and gradually lengthening them till the dog is doing several hundred-yard straight tracks in one outing.  The aging of the tracks comes naturally with the lengthening of the tracks, as the additional time needed to lay a longer track and wait for the track layer to return to the start flag adds time to the age of the track.  

Rigby was given a very strong foundation on straight tracks, as we spent months making sure she had all the skills on a straight track before adding in the element of a turn.  She needed to have a good start, she needed to stay right on the track, no weaving back and forth, and she needed to have her nose down, truly following the track as laid.  During this learning period I follow right behind her, within six feet or so, to make sure she has no chance to deviate from the desired tracking form.

Although at times I got tired of straight track after straight track and I was just sure my girl could do more, I stayed with the program as presented by my tracking mentors and didn't push to go faster than we should.

Rigby then started to learn turns, from very gradual open angle turns that progressively became 90 degree turns.  At first her tracks had one turn and she would do a couple one-turn tracks each tracking day.  Then she started two-turn tracks and then two tracks, each with two turns.

After months of what felt like crawling when I wanted to run, we seemed to hit the learning curve that everyone was looking for and all of a sudden all the foundation training came together and it was decided that Rigby was ready to really move forward with more advanced tracks and challenges. 

The past four weeks of tracking really demonstrated these advancements and I wanted to memorialize them here, as much for me, as for anyone else.

Week 1:

This was our first week tracking at a location other than Mingo Creek County Park.  We tracked at Rockin' V Stables, the farm of my friends Sam and Lin Viviano.  It was a crisp winter morning, with snow covering the ground.

Rigby's track was laid by Phil and it was a two-turn track with three very long legs.  That in itself was nothing new for Rigby, but the challenge on this track was that Phil accidentally dropped one of his gloves on a leg of the track and Rigby had her first intermediate article and the challenge of re-starting after she found that glove.

Rigby did find the lost glove, retrieved it and got her praise.  Then when asked to continue tracking, headed right back out and completed her track happily, finding the glove at the end.

The other nice thing for me about this day of tracking was that my friend, Lin, joined us to watch two of the dogs run their tracks.  I'm glad she had an opportunity to learn a bit about tracking and to see the enthusiasm that Rigby has for tracking.

Week 2:

This was the second week of tracking at the Rockin' V Stables.  The day was much colder than the week before, but with the sun shining and an hour later start time, by the time Rigby's track was laid it turned out to be a beautiful tracking day!

There were several inches of snow on the ground this day and it made it very easy for me to know exactly where Phil had laid the track.  Rigby left the start flag with her usual quick speed, making quick work of the first leg.  She turned left and headed downhill toward a road.  By the time she reached the bottom of the hill she was pulling me so hard that we overshot the turn.  I backed up a few yards and waited while she searched and then found the right-hand turn and started down the third leg.  The next turn was also to the right and Rigby had no trouble following the track.  We tracked uphill now to an open turn to the right, she worked the fourth leg very easily until she found the glove.

This was Rigby's first 4-turn track and the longest track she had done so far.  It was exciting to see how she has progressed and how easy tracking has become for her.

Week 3:

This tracking day was a Sunday, back at Mingo Park.  Although the day was chilly, it was much warmer than the previous two weeks and the snow had been melted in the rains the previous couple of days.

Ellen laid Rigby's track this time and, because we had fewer dogs in attendance, she used most of the first field at the entrance to the park.  Rigby's track was about 440 yards, with 4 turns.

Rigby had a nice start and a great first leg.  The first turn was to the right and headed uphill, she had no trouble with the turn.  The next turn went left, across the hill and she tracked with her usual speed.

Next was an open turn to the left and back downhill.  Rigby indicated the turn twice, but I wasn't sure she was correct.  On her third indication I went with her and, of course, she was right on.  The last turn went to the right and across the hill.  The scent seemed to have rolled downhill a bit and she stayed a bit low to the true track as she went along.  Suddenly I saw the glove right in front of me, but Rigby had missed it, as she was not quite on the track.  I backed up a little and asked her to find the glove, which she did with little hesitation.

This track was particularly rewarding to me, as there was no snow to indicate where the track was and it was reassuring to know that we could do the 4-turn track without the benefit of seeing the footprints in the snow.

Week 4:

This Saturday we were back to the very cold temperatures and fresh snow that was a couple inches deep.  The park was beautiful, all the trees covered with snow, and it was very quiet since few people had chosen to be in the park this day.  Since it was mostly an overcast day it did not warm up as the other days had.

When we first arrived at the park I got Rigby out of the car and she and Como greeted one another and played for a bit in the snow.  I noticed that the extended time in the snow and cold did cause a bit of tenderness to Rigby's feet and worried about how this might affect her with tracking.

To give Rigby less time with her feet in the snow, I put her harness on in her crate and then we headed out to her track.  As we expected, she was so excited and happy about tracking that she didn't seem to notice the cold at all and she tracked the first leg, a left turn, an uphill second leg and then a right turn. She found the next turn and went right again.  This leg was downhill and she and I both handled it better than the last downhill leg in the snow, she was a bit slower this day and I was able to keep up better and I also gave her a bit more line so that I did not hinder her efforts.  

Part way through this leg I started to notice that the cold was bothering Rigby's feet and she limped a bit on her left rear leg.  Then a bit further she stopped dead in her tracks and held her right rear leg in the air.  I thought we were done for the day, as I didn't want to cause any injury or frostbite, and so I reached forward and just wiped her foot off with my glove.  With that she jumped back into tracking and within a short time found the glove.  She then played with the glove and ran and played in the snow the entire way back to the cars.

I guess her challenge that day was to show what a tough girl she is and that she can work through discomfort to get to the goal that she knows has been set before her.

This week, with even colder temperatures, snow and wind, we stayed home, warm and safe.  In place of tracking we were able to play fetch with a glove out in the snow for a short time and we both are hoping this weather changes soon and that we are out tracking again next week.

2013 In Review

2013 didn't go quite as I had planned and it brought many unexpected happenings for Rigby and our family.  For Rigby it included a broken toe, surgery on her leg for an injury and a case of pyometra with an emergency spay.  For Dan it was a pacemaker and for me knee surgery.

All those interruptions in our training put us a bit behind in our training schedule, but we'll just have to work harder in 2014 to try to catch up!

Rigby grew up so quickly and matured into a lovely young dog over the past year.  Here's a bit of a review of 2013 in photos...

With her big brother Rocky

One of my favorite photos of Rigby.

She loves to carry sticks on our walks and sometimes carries
branches so large that I don't know how she can do it.

Play time with her friend Skye!

A walk in Washington Park

She surprised me by jumping this fence!

Some of you might remember the red pen
incident, when she dyed her chest and legs!

A bit of shaming for Rigby.

Glamour shots!

A BIG yawn!

My very pretty girl!

Playing with Rocky!

Cone of shame.

Rigby learned the hard way not to get into Rocky's food dish.
He bit her leg and she had surgery.

All was soon forgiven and they were back to playing again.

Summer fun!

Rigby's birthday party!

Rigby's Halloween collar.

Watching for the trick-or-treaters.

Checking out the bird feeder on our deck.

Rigby loves nap time with her dad!

Dressed up for Christmas.

Checking out the goodies in the Christmas stockings.

Tracking was the one activity that Rigby and I were really able to train on a pretty regular schedule and she has shown a love for tracking, as well as great potential for the future.  Here is a video of one of her tracks:

In 2013 I lost my best friend and my first Weim, my rescue boy Frankie.  I miss him every day, his antics and his fun personality.  He was always there to greet me when I came home and to comfort me after a bad day.  

Rigby is doing well at filling in for Frankie, she reminds me of him in several things she does, such as inspecting all bags that come into the house and digging through the toy box to find just the right toy to play with.

Here's to a great 2014 for all of Rigby's friends and family, including all the Grayhart puppies!