Back to the PawMark Article Menu© 2001-1997, Ed Presnall
All Rights Reserved
As Published In STA On-Track
As I watched, my first thought was that if this was in black and white and not real life, I'd be watching a slapstick Charlie Chaplin movie. Across the field was a young lady with a very nice looking puppy. While the puppy danced and pranced in circles around her, she was comically trying to both untangle the lead and buckle on the harness, in preparation for their first lesson. The harness was only halfway on, the lead wrapped around both the handler and dog, and as I watched I simply had to smile. I'd seen it before. Soon the handler would give up and start yelling either at the dog or hopefully for assistance.
I watched carefully. Something about this young lady and this dog was different. She quickly removed the harness, untangled the lead and calmly started over. After two or three attempts, she completed the task.
Like most people who get involved in tracking learn, repetition is the key to being successful. Even something as simple as putting on a harness will take a time or two to get the proper procedure down pat. I walked across the field to introduce myself.
The handler's name was Christy and her GSD was named Ariel. Soon I learned that Ariel was from a well known breeder with great success in the show ring as well as in the field. I also learned that Christy, having been involved with Schipperkes for years, had selected this breed and this dog to fulfill her desires for a working dog. She talked of having an "all round" dog which could compete in herding, conformation, agility obedience and tracking. I'd heard that story before, from too many first day students.As we spent the next few weeks working on basic training. Out of the corner of my eye, I always watched Christy and Ariel work their lesson plan. My admiration for them grew. They were, as I had first thought, different. They worked together as a team from the first day, gaining confidence from each other.
As the classes continued, I found myself working more and more with Christy and Ariel. We laid a few extra tracks and worked on some of the tougher scenting problems which she might face in her TD test. The dog required challenges to excel while Christy asked endless streams of questions which often made me rethink my training methods.
As test day neared, I knew that this team was ready. She certified easily and made the draw for the fall test. We worked harder and longer on the difficult scenting problems, changes in the length of grasses, small ditches and a multitude of things which they might encounter in the test. During the weeks before the test, we haunted the test site, a county park only a few minutes away, laying tracks, which had been used in previous tests by other judges, to prepare them for their test day.
When the big day came, they drew track number one and passed in style. Christy had been watching me train my Springer in variable surface tracking and shortly after the test asked if we could work together. Due to an illness with one of my dogs, it was several months later before we actually started working together on VST.
As we progressed, we implemented more and more unusual and unorthodox training procedures into our practice and Christy and I became a team working together to reach our goals. Together we devised methods to motivate the dogs and keep their interest as we tracked over miles of asphalt, concrete, mulch and dirt.Three months later we entered a test. I passed with my Springer and watched with pride as Ariel worked the first half of the track magnificently before being distracted in a large parking lot. The long drive home was a frustrating time for me. I had passed and was very happy, but Christy had failed. We promised each other that we would work even harder and try again.
We tracked at night using flashlights in areas where there were no street lights. Learning to blindly follow our dogs in and around the scent cone which moved and swirled around buildings. Heaping praise on our dogs when they were right and motivating them when they faced seemingly insurmountable problems. Each night we learned a little more and each time we went out we came up with new questions and problems to challenge both us and the dogs.
We planned tracking around our real jobs during the week and around our home life on weekends. At times, I'm sure, our families thought we had run off to be tracking gypsies, but we trained on through the heat, rain and dark of night. When we felt we were ready, we entered another test.
On the night that Christy was notified that she had made the draw and would run, I was told I would be an alternate and therefore most likely not participate. We decided to make the long drive together as a team so that I could be there to offer support. A few days before we left, I received a message that one of the entrants had withdrawn to attend another test and I would be allowed to run. The team was again heading north, to prove that variable surface tracking was an attainable goal.
As we waited on the judges for the start of her track, we talked of all the preparations we had made. We instilled confidence in each other and promised that we would do our best and let our young dogs do the work of proving they were ready.
As she walked across the street with her harness in her hand and Ariel by her side, I was proud. She had come a long way from being a student to being my partner in a training program. In seven short months, we had taken two young TD dogs and turned them into confident trackers on variable surfaces.
The start was on short grass for 47 yards with a right turn about 10 yards before a drop off to a loading dock to a building. Ariel made the first corner sharply and continued on for 60 yards where she turned left between two buildings for an additional 68 yards of grass before entering an asphalt parking lot. Five yards later, Ariel indicated the second article (fabric). The track continued on asphalt for 28 yards where it turned right for one of her moments of truth. Not missing a beat, Ariel executed the turn and proceeded another 75 yards on asphalt to a curb and sidewalk in front of a small metal building and a communication tower. The tower was surrounded by approximately 30 feet by 30 feet of high chain link fencing. As Ariel approached the sidewalk and chain link fencing, she appeared to be drawn down the fence and away from the track. After about 30 yards and checking out the back doorway of this building and 3 unclaimed newspapers, she recovered and returned to the track and proceeded down the side of the metal building on a concrete driveway. After 25 yards on cement, they crossed 5 yards of mulch, 15 yards of blacktop driveway and proceeded another 25 yards, stepped over a curb and proceeded 8 yards across grass. Facing them was a very high traffic road. The track turned left on grass for 15 yards, crossed a blacktop driveway and proceeded another 25 yards on grass to a left turn between a building and parking lot entrance to a Nursing Home. After another 25 yards on grass, Ariel indicated the third article (metal). The track continued down the grass island for 55 yards to an open turn to the right across 6 yards of grass and out into the parking lot.
Ariel worked diligently determining the proper place to step into the parking lot. Faced with a long row of cars, she searched intently up and down the row and finally decided to enter the parking lot next to a Mercedes, one car off from the track. The area was heavily contaminated from both automobile and pedestrian traffic in the parking area.
As she came out into the main portion of the parking lot between the cars, Christy and Ariel were confronted by an elderly resident of the nursing home in an wheelchair. The chair was parked directly on the last turn and when she spotted Christy and Ariel, proceeded toward them directly on the next to last leg of the track in the parking lot. While the woman rolled down the track she said "Honey, I'm not afraid of dogs, bring your dog over here for me to pet it". The woman continued to advance on the team.
Although the judges tried to wave the woman in the wheelchair off the track, she was oblivious to what they wanted and merely waved back. At that point, the woman in the wheelchair was pushing Christy and Ariel off the track as she kept rolling towards them. The judges told Christy to "hold up" and one of the judges approach the woman in an attempt to draw her off the track as she appeared to be confused. After a brief and humorous discussion with the lady, who wanted to be pushed around the parking lot, she and her oxygen tank were deposited near the nursing center door to the cheers and grins of the spectators.
After Christy rescented Ariel, they continued to work this portion of the track. She executed a nice open left turn on asphalt, went 60 yards on asphalt, crossed a grass island about 10 yards wide and across another 50 yards of asphalt. As she moved through the parking lot, she headed left of a Stop Sign in a barrel which was located in the center of the parking lot. When she reached the Stop Sign, she gave an excellent indication of an article and started a circular search. Ariel located the final article, a plastic lid, about 10 yards to the right of the Stop Sign.
A tear rolled down my face as I watched my partner and her dog locate the final article on their track and triumphantly hold it up for the world to see, thus becoming Jendhi Shepherds' Jigger TD, VST, the youngest dog to ever attain the Variable Surface Tracker title!As I ran across the parking lot to congratulate them, I thought back to that first day and to all the goals we had reached since then. I was right, they were different. They worked as part of a team breaking down problems, setting goals and reaching upward for that golden ring.
They were part of my team, and I was proud of them.
© 2003-1996 - Ed Presnall - All Rights Reserved