We’ve all heard the story of the Texas Rangers. They were so tough and so prepared that they lived by the motto of One Riot … One Ranger. Well in the southwestern corner of the Great State all that was required were six dogs and six tracks for six new TDX titles!
I once again had the pleasure to judge with Sharon Jolly and work with the members of the Tracking Club of El Paso. I was warned before I left to pack lots of warm clothing and to expect cold temperatures in the mid 40’s. I laughed and said I’d make sure and pack the shorts, flip flops and SPF 50 sun block! It was a nippy four degrees when I left Southern Wisconsin and the snow cover behind and almost 80 when I changed planes in Houston. Several hours later I was met by AKC Judge Melissa Thomas in sunny El Paso.
The TCEP TDX site is seemingly abandoned desert lands once sold as retirement property under the name of Horizon Communities Improvement Land. The hundreds of acres are crossed with gravel and dirt roads and are used for hunting, field work, tracking, motorcycles, dirt bikes, dune buggies, long walks in the desert and lots and lots of drinking and shooting. Areas nearest the main road abound with shotgunned buckets, broken bottles, and discarded tires. But what it is most is … beautiful.
As I said more than once during the weekend, this is not what most people think of when they envision a TDX tracking area. What many across the US would consider as 100% obstacle tracking, this version of the X-Tracking Games is an annual affair. Sand, hills, cactus, sagebrush, mesquite and a dozen other things I was told could sting, bite, poke holes in you or leave scar tissue as a reminder of the fun you had on your track are the normal daily tracking fields for this hearty group of southwestern trackers. The test was scheduled for five tracks as the Club is still trying to figure out how to best utilize this new site. We started the day with light snow and a fine misting rain. After Sharon Jolly, a local judge and one of my oldest friends in tracking, and I plotted the five, we broke for a tailgate lunch near a mesquite tree that had been designated as the weekend’s porta-potty. Nope, no electricity, no running water and no bathrooms in any direction for miles for this tracking group. After lunch we decided to put in an alternate track in an area that had not been previously used.
Sunday morning dawned bright and cool. As the exhibitors arrived I started to notice a trend. Was this a sewing club, perhaps a bridge meeting gone bad or did this handful of 70+ year old ladies really think they were going to make it though the miles of shifting sands. I should not have worried, these folks were prepared.
Each handler and dog had a specific start routine, a nice article indication, knew when and how to water and re-scent their dog and had a nice walking pace through the brush and briars that made this old tracker proud.
Track 1 – Michele Mauldin and Phantom Wood Just M’Jammies RN TDX, Rottweiler (B). Tracklayer Shawna Buckley drove the 10 hour round trip from Midland, Texas to put in and watch this passing track!
Track 2 – Julia Pieper and Siskin’s Mi Amore Divino CDX, AX, AXJ, RAE, VCD2 TDX, Itilian Greyhound (B). tracklayer David Ham walked with us as we commented how this team made it look easy!
Track 3 – Carol Greenwood and Bugler N Adobe Hillfigerstyln TDX, American Cocker Spaniel, Parti, (D). Carol scared the daylights out of us as she fell near the start and then later in the track managed to continue following her dog as she dragged a ten foot long brush pile attached to the end of her line. Never looking back or even considering that it might stop her she followed her boy as he urged her faster, faster … here’s an article, there’s another one and look … the glove! Tracklayer Melissa Thomas cried through most of this track watching the poetry of this team in action.
Track 4 – Joann Neal and CH OTCH MACH Sandstorm Skirt Alert UDX2 VCD2 RE TDX, Miniature Poodle (B) . This team came to play and they had their game face on! Tracklayer Nancy Chanover drove 100 miles from Las Cruces, NM to watch this team motor through their track.
Track 5 – Julia Clough and CH Sippiwisset Rogue Wave PT AX AXJ VCD1 RE TDX, Pembroke Welsh Corgi (D). Living the spring and summer in Maine and the fall and winter in Santa Fe, NM, Julia prepares her dogs for whatever they might have to track in. Tracklayer Melissa Thomas followed along as this team confidently led us through their track and to that final glove.
It almost did not seem fair to allow a young whippersnapper to intrude on what was being called to “Grey Haired Ladies Tracking Club” but we all relented to allow Sharon Celum , our only non social security aged exhibitor, to run the alternate track with Kellum’s Sweet Shawnee TDX, German Shepherd Dog (B). After walking five complete TDX tracks Sharon and I fell behind a step or two and relied on tracklayer Nancy Chanover to prod, push and sometimes pull us to keep up with this charging team as they strolled across the desert.
TCEP is a small Club with about a dozen members. But those members have heart and know how to lend a hand to keep a test rolling. Rick and Patty Rees and one of their friends Brian, as well as Las Cruces Agility Judge Brian Owen came to carry flags, pound stakes, handle cross tracks and do at least a hundred other jobs while Guy Thomas met us at the end of every track and shuttled us to the start of the next one.
After rosettes were handed out and photos taken I pulled out my whistle and blew a long, low almost mourning sound that caused everyone to stop and look. As I replaced the whistle in my pocket I commented that I had never been to a TDX test where the exhibitors were better prepared, the dogs more ready, the weather nicer and the hosts more compatible, much less one where nowhere during the test was the sound of a whistle heard!
After another great meal, the exhibitors headed home. Exhibitor and Club member Sharon Celum arrived at my hotel long before the sun rose to get me to the airport. With a five hour layover in Houston, I was able to leave the airport and have lunch with my two sisters who live there. That meal completed the food pyramid of Seafood, Bar-b-que, Mexican food and Texas sirloin during the weekend. Like many trying to return to the Midwest, my flight was delayed but I eventually stepped off the plane in Chicago to zero temperatures and gusty winds. Taking a train to Wisconsin and then cranking up the frozen Jeep for the drive home, I hit glare ice and water runoff which slid me into a ditch full of icy water. Stabbing the Jeep into 4x4 drive I finished the final five miles at a sedate speed. A few minutes later I opened the farmhouse door to a chorus of barking dogs, 18 hours after leaving El Paso.
She has been in the sport for years. She no longer tracks for titles, instead uses
her extensive background and easy going manner to train her dogs to succeed in
the real world. She became a trainer to
help others; she became a judge to give back to one of her favorite sports. She
works with the local law enforcement, and is respected because she is one of
the best at what she does.
He is a relative newcomer to the sport. A Texan with a bigger than
One weekend in February they both fled the snow and ice
of their homes to come together in
In the end (and after expenses) almost two thousand dollars
was raised to support the tracking tests at the 2008 National Specialty, and a
Judges dinner and perhaps a roundtable discussion night so that others can
learn more about tracking.
You too can see them in action at the National in
Three weeks before the test we were doing high-fives as it was mild in mid 30’s (well mild for the Midwest) with a dusting of snow. Lisa and I opened our restored 100 year old farmhouse as test headquarters and the fields had been chosen, from the many offered by our considerate farmer neighbors, with the T’s planned in knee high winter wheat and the X’s planned with hay, clover, corn stubble, woods, a few fences and dirt road crossings. The closing date was the day after Christmas 14 hearty soles entered the TDX and 9 entered the TD. Mother Nature apparently did not appreciate our challenging her and responded in kind and tossed us a snoball, in the form of 6 to 12 inches of new snowfall. We continued on.
Plotting day on Saturday started with chilly temps in the mid 20’s with wind chill in the low teens. Two of our X tracklayers called in with family emergencies and we started a round-robin of telephone calls to locate additional replacements. Plotting started only an hour or so late and Mel Lloyd and I, along with AKC Representative Herb Morrison, our trusty tracklayers, flag carriers and cross-track layers plodded through frozen fields, foot deep snow covered crops and sometimes waist high drifts while plotting the 4 TDX tracks. Dragging back to the house for something warm to drink and a bite of lunch we continued on with Lois Ballard and I plotting 4 TD tracks.
During the evening Mother Nature decided to give us another surprise. By 9 pm it was 43 degrees and over 50 by midnight. For those of you who do not live in the Snow Belt, 50 degrees with snow on the ground usually equals what we call snow fog. The snow is melting so fast that the air is literally saturated with moisture. Looking out the front door we could not see the trees in the front yard. Tracklayers started appearing well before sunrise and we sat in our living room drinking coffee and munching on breakfast treats waiting to start the tracks.
Changing the normal format of a TD/TDX to fit the conditions, we put in 1 TDX and then 2 TD tracks. As a group we moved to the TD fields. To watch Kent Hildebrand and his Labrador Retriever “Countess” make short work of their 4 turn 490 yard track. Countess is now Cabin Creeks Countess TD! I’m not sure who was more excited over the pass, Kent or Countess’s breeder Catharine Green who was jumping for joy! The second dog up was a Bloodhound who started well, made the long trek down the 230 yard start leg, nailed the corner and then missed the next corner. Next time this hard working team will pass.
While the TD’s were running, the last 3 TDX tracks went in. As we finished up the TD’s we caravanned to the TDX fields to watch the dogs.
First up was a Giant Schnauzer. The field, which 24 hours earlier was a foot deep in snow was now a melting, icy clover field. The dog had a rocky start and eventually overshot the first corner and heard the whistle.
Next up was a Miniature Poodle. She had a strong start, indicated and initially took the first corner and then broke off and created an open turn away from the track. We were all pulling for this dog as many of us had seen her earn her TD and VST titles and we knew that if today was the day she would be the one to pass.
Our third TDX dog was a Bernese Mountain Dog. This dog worked down the first 100 yard leg and then turned right, pulling it’s handler away from the track.
The last TDX dog was a Boxer who never really started working and after a few attempts by the handler to get him to work, he quit and stood wagging his tail at the spectators.
Arriving nack at the TD fields our third Td dog was ready to run. This Border collie started at a run quickly covering the 75 yard start leg, nailed the corner and sped down the 190 yard second leg, checked the corner and then raced down the 55 yard third leg, stopped briefly at the next corner and then continued straight to hear the whistle.
The last dog of the day was a Golden Retriever who stopped on the way to the start flag to eat grass and then continued to eat grass down most of the start leg. These dogs will all pass soon.
Returning to the house, we were all fed on home made chili, smoked brisket and slabs of smoked ribs, beans, tater salad and a dozen different deserts.
Ahhh yes, tracking in Wisconsin in the winter. Not for the faint of heart!
In the high desert of Washington State lives an enthusiastic group of people who are the heart of the Columbia Basin Dog Training Club. I received a call months ago to come to the Pasco, WA area to teach a basic and urban tracking workshop.For a place that only receives 7 or 8 inches of rain a year, the weekend was a bonus to area farmers and orchards. Over the three day period, the area was soaked with a steady and cold rain, making tracking uncomfortable yet offering a unique opportunity for many to track in an weather pattern rarely seen in this part of the state.
Friday was spent offering guidance and assistance to individual club members and their dogs. On Saturday we met at a local park and started beginner dogs, worked novice and advanced dogs through short and challenging tracks through the desert fauna. Many of us looked like drowned rats when the day was done, but quickly adjourning for dry cloths, a cold brew or two and a steak dinner we quickly forgot about our earlier discomfort.
Sunday we spent along the banks of the Columbia River working dogs in an urban setting along and through parking lots, picnic areas and boat launches. A get together ended the day with hot pizza and cold drinks ... and a few tracking stories.
So if someone tells ya it does not rain out there, don't believe em. We've seen the rain and watched the locals track through it!
I was in
During that test several track layers
and spectators noted that there were also "closet" scarlet Es out there. It was apparent from
their movements on the track ... a start routine, an article indication (that
everyone could see), standing still and waiting for their dog to make a
decision at a corner, gently handling the line as if they were in a "dance", and working as a team with
their partner while showing the world that they were implementing Component TrainingTM and
making it work!
So if you run across
someone displaying a scarlet E, don’t hold it against them … you too
can attend a workshop or spend a week at
