Tracking Test

Today reminds me to trust change. I loved the old tracking test site so much and worried that the new site could not possibly compare but instead I discovered yet another amazing place in Montana. Wowza.

But let me back up a bit to April.

As you may recall, Claire had a very successful National Specialty — but she did not pass the Specialty TDX test. Although she did well and made it almost to the end, I did not think her track commitment was strong enough and that meant I wasn’t super confident in her.

And so on my long drive home I devised a plan — it was back to Tracking Kindergarten for us.

Claire and I have tracked almost daily (except when traveling, of course) since we got home from the Specialty. I went back to a single straight leg to start our remedial program — not aged at all. I included lots of food drops and articles, and the usual amazing covered meal at the end (Claire loves fried eggs 🤷🏼‍♀️). My goal was to make staying on the track super easy and heavily reinforced.

After that was going really well I added turns, gradually building up the number of turns and the length of those daily well-reinforced tracks. Laying all of my own tracks gave me a lot of practice in learning to read Claire better and to understand how she tracks — that has helped my confidence in her.

Towards the end of May I added aged tracks back into her training. I did not do this gradually but rather went directly from fresh tracks to tracks that were three hours old BUT I went back to just a single well-reinforced no-turn track at first.

As I expected, adding age wasn’t an issue and in the past 2 - 3 weeks Claire has been doing almost daily tracks that were aged three hours. Sometimes these had one turn and sometimes they had 5 - 7 turns but always they were reinforced with articles and the covered meal at the end 🍳 🍳

I tapered her training last week — on Wednesday she did a track with one left turn and on Thursday it was just one right turn. She rested on Friday and Saturday — and today we were ready!

I put on the Luckiest of Lucky Socks this morning — the ones my sister knitted 🍀🍀 I was wearing them when Claire was High in Trial at the Specialty.

I add the tie-dye shirt I had made to wear on obedience day at the Specialty — why mess with success?

OH NO!!!

I could not find my Lucky Happy Hippie Heart to carry with me, and I had to leave without it this morning 🥺 But as I was walking through the fields to take photos of the dogs and tracks before mine, I found this…

I knew then — Every little thing gonna be all right

And it was.

Getting directions about how to walk in to the start

Claire checking out the people and then…

Seven turns, a jaunt through a forested area where I thought one of us might lose an eye, cross tracks by humans (planned) and deer (unplanned but it’s Montana), 830 yards, multiple articles, and 12 minutes later — she found the final article.