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Awarded The DWAA Certificate of Excellence In 1997
All Rights Reserved
As Published In ...
Dog Days
The Springer Quarterly
DWAA News
"JJ" was the pick of the litter, a very nice show puppy. He was one of the few survivors of a catastrophic motor home fire, had been shuffled through multiple combinations of owners and finally returned to his breeder who died shortly thereafter. From there, his journey continued. In his last home, due to the owner's work schedule, it was manditory that he be crated for long periods of time. This did not sit well with either "JJ" or his owner. The owner quickly decided that, once again, "JJ" needed a new home. The trauma from the fire, multiple homes and owners had built up insecurity, clostrophia and separation anxity in this wonderful dog. We opened our hearts and our home to him almost four years ago as his eighth home in four years. When he arrived at the airport in Houston, even heavily sedated, he had partially destroyed his kennel in an attempt to escape. Such was my introduction to this "special" dog. For many months, he could not be left alone or crated. He escaped from every run and enclosure and always seemed concerned that he would be dumped wherever we went. Even today, he cannot be crated out of our sight.
I started taking JJ for rides in the van to watch as I trained one of my other dogs in tracking. After a few weeks, he would bark every time the other dogs came to a corner or found the glove. After five weeks of his watching and our listening to him bark at the tracking exercise, we tested him on a simple track and he showed that he was both a quick learner and a natural tracker. His desire to please, combined with his competitive nature was overcoming some of his anxiety problems.
He quickly mastered the basics of tracking and on a cold day in December, JJ along with one of our Clumbers, received his TD, in back-to-back tracks, after only four and a half months of training. He was sporatically entered in conformation where he frequently won the breed and had garnered a few group placements in a very tough Sporting Group. His performances in conformation were anything but lackluster, however, it was obvious that he and I were both addicted to tracking. In an effort to assist him in his recovery, we removed him from conformation competion to allow him to continue with tracking. He went to all of my classes and became a "demo" dog for corners and turns.
We had worked on TDX for almost a year when one day he became ill. The vet diagnosed him with several large tumors in his throat and mouth. We discussed our options and brought in a surgical specialist to remove tumors. JJ went through the operation without much hope of success.
His determination took over as he slowly recovered. The vets were adamant that he not be worked for at least six weeks following surgery. JJ would whine when I took the other dogs out tracking. Once again I started taking him along again "to watch" and soon he convinced me that he wanted to try again. Last fall we entered the ESS Tracking Dog Excellent test in Detroit and and after a very long drive, we did not pass. We began working diligently on variable surface and he started to really progress.
Now, we can say that Variable Surface Tracking (VST) has come of age for the Spaniel community. A new type of tracking, VST became an official AKC event in 1995. The sport is considered by many trackers and the AKC as the future of tracking.With the continued reduction of available space to hold tracking events, this new test involves the use of urban areas such as colleges, industrial parks, business areas and other typical non-tracking sites.
Unlike the normal Tracking Dog (TD) or Tracking Dog Excellent (TDX) tests, a VST track is plotted on, as the name implies, variable surfaces. The track must include three different surfaces, which shall include vegetation and at least two areas devoid of vegetation. Non-vegetated areas can include concrete, asphalt, gravel, sand, hard-pan or mulch.
As we trained down here in the tropics of Houston with high heat and even higher humidity, I looked forward to some cool weather and an opportunity to work with JJ somewhere other than in a steam bath.
We made the long drive from Houston to Chicago for the Glenbard All Breed Obedience Club, Inc. VST test on Sunday, June 22. When we arrived, it was hotter in Chicago than it had been in Houston. So much for planning.
The site for the test was a County Government complex in Wheaton, IL. As we arrived, I thought it was actually a college campus, divided by a large, "not lightly traveled" road. About eight buildings and a small lake on one side of the road and seven buildings and two large ponds on the other side. The entire site is about 150 acres of tracking heaven.
Large expanses of manicured grass and multiple blacktop parking lots, divided by islands filled with mulch, wood chips and some plants faced the entrants. Stone, gravel, dirt and concrete were also available for the various surfaces. Just for fun, the planners of this complex threw in a few hundred geese and ducks to entice the sporting dogs which might venture to this lovely site. It is a beautiful location suitable for five long tracks, and is to me, an example of what "urban tracking" is all about. Hopefully more clubs will find similar locations to expand this sport.
We drew track three which was located near the headquarters building. The first two tracks were across the road, so while a Welsh Corgi Pembroke and a Doberman ran their tracks, we sat in the heat, baking like chicken on a grill, and waited for the judges to return. By the time it was our turn, the sweat was pouring off of me and JJ was very hot and had lost most of his motivation. As we walked to the start, he looked up at me as if to say, "but you promised me cool weather". We approached the start, I put on his harness and led him to the start flag which was located three feet from a sidewalk. He downed at the flag and we went through our routine of allowing him to settle in and sniff the article, while I took several deep breaths. When we were ready, he strongly indicated the track direction for about ten feet. Then, he proceeded to put on the worst display of a start I have ever seen. He came back and sat at my feet. Re-scented ... he started again and came back and laid down ... it was the longest three minutes of my life and for a moment I really though it was just too hot for him to work.
Since we have been working large asphalt expanses, his grass work has become somewhat questionable, but I trust him. When he gives me a direction, I believe him, so even though he had only gone ten feet, I felt he was right. I knelt down and told him that we had come a long way and even if it was hot, we needed to get going. I looked down and told him that he knew where the start was, he had told me the direction and if he wanted to track down the sidewalk instead of on the grass it was OK with me.
He put his nose down and tracked confidently down the sidewalk while I followed like the "dope at the end of the rope". He checked the grass twice during the first 24 yards, then crossed a blacktop road and progressed up the sidewalk in front of the county jail building. It was visiting hours and a mother and child were walking across a parking lot towards us. At about 110 yards, JJ indicated a turn into the parking lot and looked left to see people were coming out of the jail building and right to be faced with the woman and child. The woman confidently told her child that it was "OK to pet the nice doggie". I held my breath and prayed for him to remember his show ring training. He walked into a perfect stack, wagged his tail and acted like a proper show dog, while the child hugged and petted him. Finally they walked on and I took another breath.
I knelt down again to help give him motivation and a small drink of water, and re-scented him. He looked left again and then started off right into the parking lot. We crossed 18 yards of blacktop and went up on a 6 yard island filled with mulch. He shifted right a few yards and continued on across another 22 yards of blacktop to another island. This was a wide mulch filled island with a large sidewalk about 15 feet wide down the middle of it. He sharply turned left and headed down the sidewalk for 130 yards. The farther we went on the non vegetated surfaces, the stronger he pulled and the more determined he became. At the end of the sidewalk, we crossed a blacktop street to the grass in front of the courthouse building. He checked right, around an evergreen tree, and then went left behind a bus stop shelter and up a wheelchair ramp to the front doors of the courthouse.
He was confident across 27 yards of brickwork and down the other wheelchair ramp. Suddenly he turned right into a flower bed and started crittering. We had a very brief discussion about this not being the time for him to play with a lizard and he shot left for 20 yards across the grass near a chain link fence to a white object on the ground. As I approached the potential article, I saw that it was the plastic lid to a coffee cup.
When I reached down to pick up the coffee cup lid, a door opened about fifteen feet away and a line of ten or twelve prisoners in orange jumpsuits, each shackled together, exited the building to our left. The prisoners moved along the fence, talking among themselves about JJ and stood near a waiting van. Ignoring the new distraction, JJ restarted and went about 20 yards down the fence line to a stone path under a large portico. He threw on the brakes and started indicating that an article or turn was nearby. He looked left, then right around a large post and found a leather wallet in the gravel. We had now gone 380 yards.We continued across the grass into a tunnel of blacktop, grass and chain link fencing. Fences right and left with a blacktop road down the middle. He indicated the track was on the right side in the grass, near the curb. He was confident as he strode 75 yards down the blacktop to a open turn onto an adjoining street. To our right was a large hill with a railroad track at the top. On our left was the wide blacktop road we had just crossed and beyond it, high fencing for the jail area.
JJ stepped out of the street and onto the grass next to the curb and headed down the shoulder. About 75 yards later he indicated a metal article. We had now gone 563 yards. Off we went again for 75 yards of grass and an open left turn into the street. Twenty yards of blacktop and 18 yards of grass later JJ entered a parking garage.
As I entered the dark garage from the bright sunlight, he was standing near a pile of trash. A small rope, a coffee cup and some paper. He checked each as a potential article and near the curb he located a small plastic coffee can lid with the number 4 drawn on the top. As I grabbed the article, JJ jumped into my arms.
I lifted the article above my head and clutched JJ to my chest, only then did I hear the crowd for the first time. We had gone 703 yards, officially 387 on vegetation and 316 non vegetated, but JJ had worked about 400 yards of non vegetated surfaces. I removed his harness and we strode into the sunlight to shake the judges' hands and have everyone pat JJ for his achievement. The dog nobody wanted, had succeeded in doing what many said could not be done.
He will now be known as Ch. Kay N Dee Hiddenbrook Rampage CD, TD, VST, an English Springer Spaniel. Only the sixth dog to earn this title, the first Spaniel of any breed and the first dog to pass this test without the advanced TDX title. Now, JJ and I will continue to work on tracking and animal assisted therapy and he will occasionally be shown in the conformation ring to show that this Springer, "the dog nobody wanted", really can do it all!
© 2003-1996 - Ed Presnall - All Rights Reserved