July 26: More VST training

I’ve been meeting up with three friends and their two dogs, Steve and Janet Ripley with Archie (Golden) and Terrie Borman with Sage (Weim), and we're doing VST work twice a week. All three dogs have their TDXs so our sleeves are rolled up and we're working hard surfaces. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Steve has put a CT on his older Golden Zoe, is tracking judge and has a VST booklet out he wrote this winter. I can't say enough about how most of the tracking folks freely give back to those who want to learn. I don't know who learns more on these tracking evenings -- me or Devon!

Devon again worked the oldest track, aged at least 2 hours. She's doing great work along the backs of buildings where walled areas, like loading docks and pools, pull in the scent. She turns, checks them out, dismisses them and moves along. Articles have been no problem.

Last night we had a leg of the track go along the curb of a parking area, with islands jutting out every 6-8 parking spaces and a tree line beyond the grass. It was after 10 p.m. and there were bats in the trees flying out to eat bugs off the lights; beyond the trees and up a big hill was I-465, the Indianapolis' outer belt. Devon tracked along the curb and up and over the islands ignoring everything around her. We got to the end of the row and her track went on the grass for about three paces then made a left turn back into the parking area in front of a walled off area with three doors that held three dumpsters. Steve (who laid the track) wondered out loud to us if Devon would catch the turn or track on past it getting sucked into the channel between the treeline and wall of the dumpsters. Either she fully understands English and heard every word Steve said, or she's tracking because she never lifted her nose, made the left and tracked confidently past all three doors that housed the dumpsters. In fact, she tracked past so quickly we didn't even see the cat she spooked who was in the dumpsters -- it scared the rest of them and we never saw it!