February 2008 Archives

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 Texas attitude.  He has worked to move the sport he loves forward, and away from antiquated training techniques.  This has rankled the old establishment who find him an upstart; his books and writings have inspired many to work in different ways and to achieve what they thought was not possible.

One weekend in February they both fled the snow and ice of their homes to come together in Pinehurst, NC on a balmy February morning. They came to teach others about the sport they care so much about.  Eighteen people came to work their dogs. A surprising number for a mid-winter working seminar.  A dozen more came to watch, walk, listen and learn as others worked.  They talked and played games, learned to trust and believe in their dogs and their own abilities.  Most of all they had fun.

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 Perry, GA in April … as they judge the sport they both love. Mary Thompson from York, ME and Ed Presnall from Sharon, WI. An unlikely combination giving back to the Club and to the Tracking Community.