Preparing for TDX tests

This post is for Anney in Florida and Judy here in Indianapolis and several others who have asked me how I train for the TDX test. As I said when Page passed her TDX, I think training for the TDX is the most enjoyable tracking training. The dog has a full understanding of the game, and in my case with both my girls, they were up for challenges. They enjoy working out new scenting problems, and I love watching them work and learning how they problem solve.

However, the TDX test itself grueling. It’s long (800-1,000 yards). It’s mentally exhausting to have your mind focused for that long a period of time (both of my girls took between 25-30 minutes to complete their tests). And on both Devon and Page’s passing tracks, we had a challenging problem to work out that took about 10 minutes alone.

You also can’t rule out the mental “downer” watching dog after dog fail TDX tests. Devon failed her first test, when four of six passed that day (an usually high pass rate). Luckily she drew the first of four tracks the day she passed; she was the only pass that day. Page was the third track, and we watched one dog fail on the first turn and the second dog suck into the cross tracks on the second leg. Not an encouraging start.

And finally the test is physically exhausting, with long walks up and down hills, through trees and occasionally over obstacles. I nearly fell on my face going down hill in the woods on Page’s track, and I’ve been a tracklayer at a TDX test where a judge hit the ground following a dog.

Since I enjoy the training so much, but don’t cherish the test, I want to make sure my dogs are very well prepared when I send in that $100-110 entry fee – especially for a test that has less than a 20% pass rate! The best advice I’ve received for being prepared (credit goes to Steve Ripley for this) is to successfully “pass” a full, blind track three times before you enter a test.

Passing a full, blind track doesn’t necessarily mean finding a judge to lay it. Find someone else to lay you a test track and put in cross tracks. Most seasoned trackers will be wiling to help you get ready for a test. As I’ve said before, this sport is full of people willing to give back to new trackers, even if you have to drive a couple of hours to find them.

When I train for TDX, I train my concepts in parts (or puzzle pieces and the credit here goes to Cathy Hawkins of Camp Jigsaw). I don't run full length tracks all the time; I work 400-550 yard tracks most of the time. The first thing I do is teach age on TD-type tracks. Once I get the dog up past 3 hours, I rarely drop them below that mark. After the dog passes a TD, he/she will never run a track less than 3 hours in a test, and cross tracks are newer than 3 hours. I don’t want to fear age, so I’ll run tracks up to 6 hours just so I know my dog can do it. When I’m training, I’ll routinely run tracks between 3-4.5 hours old.

Next I start working obstacles and tracking concepts. One track will be about woods, so we'll work woods obstacles three times on a 400-550 yard track. The next track might be about changes in cover so we'll do that several times. If you re-read my August 16 post about TDX training in woods, you will see a list of things to prepare for when training woods. This is my philosophy for all types of TDX training (changes of cover, other obstacles, etc.).

The track here is a good example of a woods training track. Page ran this track 5 days before her TDX test. It was 470 yards long and aged 3 hours and 15 minutes. It was in an area where she tracked well. The blue line is Page’s track. The yellow lines are well worn “roads” where hay wagons pulled kids on hay rides through the fields up to the end of October. While the wagon path wasn’t a true obstacle, it was a good challenge with lots of extra scent.

The white markers show how I was presenting training on woods that day. If you look at the track, you will see that I hit four of the seven things on the list for training woods in that one track:

• Tracking toward the woods and going straight in
• Tracking toward the woods and making a turn (not entering woods)
• Tracking toward the woods on a diagonal and entering on an angle (and I gave Page a turn right before the diagonal woods entrance)
• Making no turn at all and going straight through a woods

You will notice I also gave Page two other challenges. First, I took her straight through a woods line just to the left of a vegetative break in the tree line. Devon had this on one of her TDX test tracks, and then she angled out of the woods onto the path. It really made me question as a handler if she was correct, but I trusted her and she was right on the track.

Second, I gave Page a vegetative path between two sets of woods. Again, sometimes you are in the woods and sometimes you are on the grass next to the woods. The dog needs to learn how to follow the track and not go where it might be more comfortable to track (on a path and not in the woods beside the path).

While I’m concentrating on training obstacles, I work in areas that are full of other types of scent, like deer and dogs and humans. This teaches the dog to start to ignore cross tracks or contaminated tracks on their own. Again, when you run marked tracks (and all my training tracks are marked) you know where the track is, so you let them work the cross tracks but not go down them. This teaches the dog to rule out tracks that aren't what they are supposed to be working.

When I’m ready to actually work purposeful cross tracks, I lay my own. At first I lay them immediately before I run the track. Then I work backwards in 15-30 minute increments so they are of "legal" age related to the track (cross tracks go in 1.5 hours after the track is laid). My dogs have never been confused by me laying my own cross tracks. The dog is told by the start article who they are tracking and how old the track is. Quite frankly after learning to ignore all the other cross tracks (deer, squirrels, raccoon, etc.), I usually only train human cross tracks 3-4 times and the dog gets the concept.

Finally I work on length. By laying shorter tracks, I can usually track about 3 times a week. When I start working on length of track, I drop back to 2 tracks a week. I don't work length often, and I never work it the week or two before a test. Remember the beginning of this post: a TDX test is a grueling test for dog and handler, so you want the dog to be very fresh the week of a test. In tracking, you aren’t going to teach the dog anything new the week of a test.

When you run full length tracks, you are looking for your dog to a) have the stamina to go the distance and continue to work, and b) what changes in their tracking behavior as they tire. Also, most dogs hit a wall around 600 yards, and they must push through that wall. Keep this in mind as you are working length and put articles/rewards after this distance. You can also make the track "easier" after 600 yards the first time or two you run a long track to reward the dog for working past that distance.

In working length, I learned that Page is less precise the longer she tracks. She's a precision footstep tracker, but with length and fatigue she starts overshooting turns. I needed to learn this and watch for her to indicate the turn was behind us and trust her. Knowing that Page overshoots turns with fatigue allowed us to recover from an overshot turn on our TDX test that likely would have sunk other teams.

Janet and Steve Ripley have a saying that every time we go out to track, the dogs are putting experiences in their mental Rolodex. At a test the dog will come upon a scenting challenge and flip through that mental Rolodex and compare it to what they’ve done in the past and then react. I really like this analogy, and it’s our job as “coach of the team” to give our dogs as many experiences as we can to prepare them for the test.

Page, Tracking Dog Excellent!

Yep, you read that correctly. At the ripe old age of 8 months and 3 weeks after passing her TD, Page earned her TDX on her first attempt. The TDX test has a passing rate between 15-19%. While it's my favorite tracking to train, the test is grueling. The test track is 800-1,000 yards long, aged 3-5 hours, between 5-7 turns with obstacles (woods, roads, creeks, fences, etc.) and intentional human cross tracks put in two places 1.5 hours after the initial track is laid.

I think TDX work is my favorite to train, much like Open and Utility are more fun for dog and handler than Novice obedience. Once you've trained a dog in tracking, TD work is "boring" much like Novice obedience is all heeling. TDX work acknowledges the dog knows how to track, but then applies it to all sorts of circumstances. The dog learns to problem solve more, and the handler learns how her dog thinks and solves those problems. I also enjoy being outside in beautiful parks seeing nature and animals, especially in the fall as the leaves are turning and the weather is cool.

Now onto Page's track. If you've been following the blog, you know I taught Page all aspects of tracking from the beginning. She got her first TDX track on May 30, and we have it on video that she handled it very well. After Page certified for her TD at 19 weeks, I concentrated on VST and TDX work, with occasional TD tracks. In September I stopped working VST and stuck with TD and TDX tracks since I knew she had tests coming up. So while many people are shocked an 8-month-old Golden Retriever passed her TDX, Page had been working TDX for months and I knew she could handle the work.

We also made sure she could handle long, test-level tracks because Steve laid us two blind TDX tracks that Page passed. Those tracks were important, especially the last one which was 990 yards long. It told me a lot about how Page would handle the length and stress of an actual test. One important thing I learned is that she is less precise and overshoots turns when she's tired. That knowledge would come in handy!

We entered the White River Golden Retriever Club's annual TDX test. This is my local club, and the site was only 1 hour north of me, so I had tracked there four times. In those four tracks, Page has done her weakest tracking. Only once did I think she tracked well, twice I had to walk her through sections of the track and once we had to end the track at the first article.

This week of training was about two things: confidence building tracks for Page and my mental game. I think confident tracks for Page was more for me than her. I ran a track in a location I knew she tracked well on Tuesday. It was aged 3 hours and 10 minutes but it was only 470 yards. On Thursday my friend laid a TD track, but aged it 3 hours and gave me extra articles to work indications. Page aced these tracks, so I had confidence in her tracking abilities and knew I could read her.

Now for my mental game! I did a LOT of positive visualization this week. I stayed up beat all week and replayed the good tracks Page had run to this point, putting the bad ones out of my mind. I recalled that Page tracks other people very well, and that I'm probably boring for her to track. I even visualized the telephone calls I'd make to Gayle and Lise and the email I'd send to Donna upon our successful track. On the drive to the test, I thanked God for the beautiful weather and my very smart puppy. I laughed and joked with my friends before the test and made sure I had a smile on my face 100% of the time. I found little things to make me laugh. It's hard to be stressed when you are smiling.

Our draw items were adorable little flip flop boxes that had been painted by Janet Ripley with tracking flags, paw prints and a glove. I chose the Raspberry flip flop (for Ms. Raspberry of course) and we drew track 3. This was the same as her TD track, and our tracklayer was Kris Kothe, the same person Devon tracked 2 years ago. I know Kris is a very capable tracklayer, so I was pleased. I hate running the last tracks, so I was thrilled with a fairly early draw.

I didn't really watch the first two dogs, because I lose my focus if I do. The first dog didn't really commit off the start flag and didn't get past the first turn. The second dog made it past the first turn but got sucked into the cross tracks on the second leg. Then it was our turn.

We had to wait 10 minutes before we could run our track since the first two dogs failed so quickly. Seriously, how much small talk can you make with the two judges before you start? Page was ready to go and was barking and wagging her tail whenever anyone looked her way. Finally they told me I could "suit up" and get my dog out and we headed to our flag.

It was a lovely start in a small mowed path with prairie grass on one side and heavy cover on the other. Page saw the flag and made a beeline for it. She paused at the start article and as I got next to her and started to lean down and pick it up, she was off on her track.

So much for giving her some kind of a command! Apparently she was ready and only needed me to drive her to the test and walk her to the startline. It reminded me of a what Donna says about Page's mother, Bizzy. She'll lock on a mark and say, "I got it, Mom! Send me!" Apparently Page didn't wait to be started, she had it!

The first leg was 110 yards. Page showed me loss of scent, and we had heavy cover now on both sides. I turned to my right and saw a really clear path up the hill. But Page checked left, then forward, then left. I figured we'd be there a while.

Page is a footstep tracker, which means she is very meticulous. She worked for a few seconds, then came right to where the track turned and sniffed the ground and you could see her say, "OH! It went THIS way!" And up the hill we went at full speed! Over the hill and we were in a set of woods and now going down hill at full speed.

I've said there's a reason I wanted to do Page's vegetative tracking while she was still less than 50 pounds and I can stay on my feet while she's tracking. Sure enough I got one foot hung up in a limb and about went down face first about the time I saw something black in the leaves in front of us. I kept my feet and felt sure I was looking at Page's first article.

Article indications have been tough for Page. She loves the game of tracking, but feels no reason to stop and show me articles that are right there on the track where I can trip over them. In the last two months I've really insisted on an indication and won't let her track on without one. While I prefer a retrieve of the article, we have finally compromised on Page stopping and standing over the article until I get it (and usually give her a treat). Of course, I was fully prepared for Page to give me no indication and for me to have to fake one for the judges. Bless her heart when she stopped dead (even with all that momentum coming downhill) and gave me an indication for a black hat!

We had 125 yards of that woods, then we broke out of it for a road crossing. Now most people might fear a road as an obstacle, but I was thrilled. Page has been working VST since she was only a few weeks old, so she's very comfortable on non-veg.

In fact during the awards ceremony, judge Ule James said it was very clear Page had worked VST since she actually tracked across the road. Our track angled across the road, and most dogs will square up and jump the road and find the track on the other side. Page actually put her nose on the blacktop and tracked at an angle across the road. It was so cool for the judge to tell everyone how smart she was!

The photos here are two perspectives of our road crossing. One if from the gallery's perspective taken by Susie and Ginger Rezy. The other is a judge's perspective taken by Ule James.

After the road we had 35 yards of veg then a 5 yard walking/biking path then back into vegetation with trees (this second leg was a total of 240 yards).

Toward the end of this leg, Page flicked her head to the left and showed loss of scent. She worked forward and to the right, but also indicated left. As she worked the loss of scent/turn, I could tell she knew the track went left, but as a footstep tracker she couldn't find the new leg and was only catching the scent in the wind.

As she worked, I wanted to back up, because I realized we were past the turn. However with the wind at our back, it was pushing the scent in front of us and to the right so as Page worked the scent cone, she was working away from the actual turn. I couldn't walk backwards because she wasn't going behind me searching for the scent.

It was incredibly frustrating to watch her work and struggle but not be able to help her except by rescenting her. Had I walked backwards I would have been whistled off (failed) for guiding my dog; I had to wait until she worked backwards. I knew she could solve this problem, because she has many times in the past; but the with an 8-12 mph wind working against her, it was a much harder problem to solve.

Finally after more than 10 minutes on this turn she started to solve her problems, working out the scent cone and finally moving backwards. I immediately adjusted to help her and she finally found the track 5 ft. behind me. She had worked 18-20 yards past the turn before she recovered. I don't know what the gallery or judges were thinking, but I had was never so grateful to see her lock into a leg in my life!

Page didn't flinch on her first set of cross tracks, which were on a 120 yard leg in medium cover. She over shot her third turn, but not as badly as the second one (only about 20 ft.) and worked it out quickly. As soon as she committed to the fourth leg, I figured we had the test made.

The judges said she scalloped to the right at the second set of cross tracks. I do remember her going right and readjusting, but I wouldn't have realized it was due to cross tracks. Thirty yards past the cross tracks, she got her next article, a grey wool sock, again with a perfect indication.

The article gave her a second wind. She was off like a shot and I had to leap over a hole and jog to catch up. Page railed her last two turns, and once on the final leg, I was scouring the ground in front of her for the glove.

Page winded the article and was searching for it, finding it before I saw it. She stopped over it and turned back to look at me. I told her she was brilliant over and over until I reached the glove. I put my hand in the air to tell the judges she found it, and then I wrapped my arms around her neck and hugged her, kissed her and cried! We sat on the ground playing tug until the judges and tracklayer got to us. The gallery was pulling their cars up and honking. Once they parked, they came running into the field for more hugs and tears!

Page's track was 850 yards long. It was aged exactly 3 hours. It had 5 turns. Our obstacles were an open woods, road and path. She ran the track in 26 minutes. It was sunny and 65 degrees with a slight (8-12 mph) wind. Page was the only dog out of six total to pass our test. Our judges were Ule James and Steve Ripley.

If you ever get to track for Ule, he carries a camera (you've seen his photos here), and he makes the most incredible maps -- they are to scale! He also writes little notes on them like "got it" for the articles and "good recover" (that was for that second turn) and "good job!" for the cross tracks.

What a wonderful way to earn Page's TDX! We were at our home club with all our tracking buddies. Good friend and mentor Steve Ripley was one of our judges. Good friend, ace tracklayer and artist Janet Ripley made adorable draw items for me to treasure. So many friends who have supported us and laid tracks for us were on hand to race out into the field and give us hugs of congratulations. Susie and Ginger took great photos and made a fun slideshow with perfect captions.

White River held up their expectations for a great post-test pitch in lunch, and I was ravenous! Page enjoyed the cake and Bernie shared the rest of his meatballs and chicken chili with Page. Someone asked me if I was going to stop and give her a hamburger - not after she enjoyed the pitch in and cake!

And did I mention I think I have the greatest puppy in the world!! Boy I love this dog!

Tracking: 2 out of 3 ain't bad

In the last three days, Devon and Page have had one bad track and two good tracks. Even though we had one bad track, I'm glad things are moving in the right direction - the good tracks have been the more recent ones!

Friday

I combined TDX tracking training at a state park an hour north with transferring our Belgian Sheepdog rescue to her foster home. It seemed like a good idea at the time, since I'd been planning all week to track there. What I didn't consider was the stress the girls had been under with the rescue dog. Page hadn't been feeling well and had gotten me up the previous two nights to go outside.

The day was perfect for tracking with rain the day before and drizzle that day. The temps were in the mid-60s. The cover was perfect. Due to our travel schedule, the track was 4.5 hours old when we came back to run it. That is older than Page has experienced, but not by much.

However, the wind had picked up and was blowing 15-20 mph. Page worked hard on this track, but chased the scent in circles with the wind. It took her 30 minutes to work about 120 yard down the track. When she found the first article, I ended the track.

I expected her to have worked out the issue with the wind blowing scent from our last track there. It was windier than our previous time tracking there, and I know the wind was a big factor. Page just couldn't lock into the track.

But I think stress was a huge factor, too. Page and Devon both had a big disruption in their routine with a new dog in the house. The rescue wasn't socialized with dogs, so she couldn't be integrated into the pack. Now that she is gone from the house, things are settling back to normal and I think the stress has dissipated.

Saturday

A group of us got together to do VST. With Page not feeling well, I gave her a break and just tracked Devon. Actually, I also got to track Archie, too! Steve was out of town judging a tracking test, so we put a track in for Archie and drew straws for who would run him. I got the privilege!

Archie was easy to run (especially since I laid his track so I knew where it was), but the squirrels and his strength did make it interesting. When Archie locks on and decides to go, he decides to go and you better be hanging on! And he loves to chase squirrels, so when he spied two squirrels playing at the bottom of a tree on the other side of a parking lot, I braced myself. Luckily, he was a good boy and finished his track.

Devon had a lovely track that was about 265 yards and aged 3 hours and 20 minutes. She hasn't tracked in quite a while, and she's been sitting around watching her sister get to track. I think the time off and jealousy were good motivators. She looked fantastic!

Devon started beautifully, which was nice since I really didn't know which way the track went off the start flag. She locked in quickly and pulled me along the first leg and worked the first turn very nicely.

The second leg was also along an office building, and Devon was still dead on the track. This was nice to see because the wind which was around 15 mph was swirling around the building and parking lot. You couldn't tell it by the way Devon was locked onto the track.

Devon worked the non-veg turn very well and finally committed very confidently to the third leg which was a sidewalk along a parking lot. She found her metal article without any problems.

My tracklayer told me the track went on to the grass ahead, and I looked straight in front of me to a patch of grass across a driveway. When we reached the drive, Devon started her transition searching; however I thought her transition searching looked an awfully lot like a turn indication. When Devon committed left onto the grass, I turned to question my tracklayer only to find she'd moved from behind me to my right ... then I heard her say, "She's dead on the track."

Well it's a good thing my dog knew where the track was, because obviously I was clueless! I thought it went straight in front of us! Two more articles, and Devon was done and very proud of herself. She should have been. It was a beautiful track, and she even proved halfway through it she wasn't feeling well either!

Sunday

Both girls had to be fasted for 24 hours and put on chicken and rice this weekend. Either it's stress or mushrooms in the backyard or a combination of everything. They don't seem to mind the chicken and rice (good thing I have a great rice cooker and split chicken breasts were on sale this week).

Page is feeling much better, so I decided to give her a confidence building track this afternoon. It's been a beautiful fall day with clear sunny skies, high wispy clouds and the trees are in my favorite period with lots of oranges and reds.

I laid a short 435-yard TDX track in my favorite place at a nearby metropark. After I put it in, I ran an errand to a nearby library, so the track only aged 40 minutes before Page ran it. It's a good thing I didn't run it any fresher, or Page would have killed me in that cover and in those woods! I've never had her pull so hard on a TDX track before!

Page flew through this track in about 10 minutes, including getting her line wrapped around a thorn bush that took me a couple of minutes to disentangle. She stopped at her articles, but I had to make her sit or lay down. I've never seen her track woods so fast or so confidently. I'm glad I ran this track, because it gave both of us our confidence back!

So, two out of three good tracks isn't bad for a weekend's training. We're supposed to have some good weather this week, so I think we'll get back out and do more in the coming days now that both girls are feeling better.

A tough TDX track for Page

On Tuesday, Steve put in a tough TDX track for Ms. Page. He did it at my request, because I wanted to see how Page would run another blind TDX track (this was her second). The track was a total of 990 yards. It was aged 3 hours and had cross-tracks (thanks to Janet). The track had four obstacles, three road crossings and about 230 yards and a turn in a woods.

Page did a really nice job with this track. She did have her problems, but she was able to work them out. She blew past the second turn, which was an open turn into the woods. However, she did check up on her own and work back on her own to find the track into the woods.

In the woods, she worked very hard, investigating lots of scents. She either got spooked by something or stepped on something and was shaking a front paw. After stopping to examine it and finding nothing wrong, she continued tracking.

Page tracked true enough for me to see the article in the woods, but she didn't indicate it until I made her. She tracked on and again got spooked by a branch "getting her" in the rear. The problem was, she had to work past that branch to make her turn and get out of the woods. She handled that well and worked out of the woods and through some heavy cover back into medium cover.

Once out of the woods, she indicated her second article with a nose touch and then moved on. Well, at least it was an indication! The first road crossing was done easily, but just after that road crossing and turn, I noticed Page start to fade with fatigue. She had burned a lot of energy out in the woods, and she had gone 595 yards. This was where the test really began for Page. Did she have the stamina to finish the track?

Page worked the next road crossing just fine and didn't hesitate at the first set of cross tracks. She did flick her head right on the second set of cross tracks and she went past the next turn. I did see her curve toward the new leg, but she then tracked on. When she wasn't confident and worked backwards, I told Steve where I thought the turn was by her initial indication and he said I was right.

This is where Page's fatigue showed: she was less precise on her turns. The thing I was thrilled about was even though she was tired and it was hard, she never gave up. She continued to work that track hard. I bet the only way she would have stopped was if I had walked her off the track.

Going into the last road crossing, I told Steve I thought she was left of the track by what her body posture told me. Steve said I was correct. Page blew well past the last turn, but worked her way back to it and found the final glove. When she did, she put her front feet on it, nose touched it and then sat. A very nice indication for an exhausted tracking dog.

It was a tough track for an 8-month-old pup; but it was exactly what we need and asked for and it really showed me what she had in her. I was very proud of her work ethic, and my ability to read her. What a good, honest tracking dog I have!

TDX training in woods

When I was brand new to tracking, especially TDX work, I read a great article titled "Training Woods" by Rosemary Janoch in the July-August 2007 issue of the Golden Retriever News. In this article, she lists all the scenarios you should practice with a woods. They include:

• track towards the woods and go directly in
• track towards the woods and make a right or left turn in front of it (don't enter)
• track toward the woods on a diagonal and enter on a diagonal
• track parallel to the woods then make a right or left turn into it
• make a turn shortly after entering a woods
• make a turn after going a long way into the woods
• make no turn at all and go through the woods

This article has been invaluable to me in my training, and I apply the list above to any obstacle I can (like ravines and changes of cover).

Well, I said a couple of weeks ago Page needed to get back to TDX work, and that's what we've been working on. In the last 10 days, Page has done three TDX tracks, and she's done really well on them.

Track #1

I laid an evening track in high grass and woods that was approximately 600 yards long and aged 3 hours. There were lots of deer trails through this area, so I knew it would be challenging. Page worked well through the high grass and into the woods. The first set of woods I went straight through on a slight diagonal. Page entered the woods easily and tracked well. However, just before the exit of the woods, Page got very confused.

She worked a deer cross track and took it to the right. She wasn't totally committed to it but came back to it several times. I finally allowed her to track out of the woods on the cross track to see what she'd do and how she'd look knowing the track wasn't there. She did just what I've seen Devon do in this situation. She hunted for the track and never found it. So back into the woods we went.

I finally worked her through the section with several rescents and moving her toward the correct track without pushing her. How did I do that? Well, each time I rescented her I did it farther beyond the cross track until she got her correct track. I didn't push her through the track but helped her work it out. Once she was on the correct track, she practically pulled me over exiting the woods.

The key thing for my training is that all this happened on damp ground with no veg. It's the second time she's really struggled under these conditions. Looks like I have something to work on!

Page handled the rest of the track very well. I gave her another small woods line to cross through an open gap, and I gave her a left turn in front of a woods. This last turn and leg of the track paralleled a deer path just 3 ft. to the right. Page did very, very well on this leg.

Track #2

This track was laid at 8 a.m. and run at 11:15 a.m. on a hot, humid day. It was also about 600 yards long with very heavy, brushy cover and woods.

Page didn't start very strong, but within 40 yards she was pulling so hard I nearly lost my feet in the heavy, dense cover. She made her woods entries very well and tracked quite strong in the woods. I gave her two woods turns, and the difference in this woods was there was much more vegetation to help her scenting.

The other difference with this woods was the vines! The trouble with tracking Page in viney cover is that she goes under the vines while I go over them ... leading to interesting line handling. At one point before her woods exit, Page froze in the vines. I waited for her to move forward and then realized that maybe she was stuck. As I walked forward she never moved but simply looked over her shoulder and up at me with a glare that clearly communicated: "Thanks for FINALLY realizing I CAN'T MOVE HERE! A little help is APPRECIATED!" Once I lifted the vines off her she was gone like a shot. Seriously, where does this girl get her attitude??

On this very humid day, the heat got to her on the last leg. She did take water and a rescent; but again her attitude seemed to say, "Leave me alone. I got it, just let me work it out." So I did, and she found her glove in less time than it took me to lay the track. That's always a good sign!

Track #3

This track was again laid in the evening. It was about 275 yards long, aged a little more than 2 hours and had some VST as well as TDX in it. It started in weedy high cover and including some cover that was a bit viney. This track was laid by Steve, and there were several articles on it. I was VERY pleased that Page indicated her two articles on the track by wagging her tail and picking them up! This is a big improvement for her.

Page did a lovely job on her turns, including triple checking herself when she hit a deer bed after she had already committed 10 yards down a new leg. With the heavy cover, you could see the exact 90 degree turn, and she came right back to it and worked it to triple check herself! Page also gave an extra tail-wagging indication where the tracklayer took a tumble in the heavy cover. Personally, I think she was checking for any cookies that might have fallen out of his pockets!

Page again was meticulous on her transition to the non-veg. This was an interesting twist for her since she hasn't done non-veg in probably 10 days and it was at the end of a TDX track with completely different scenting. After indicating the track went out into the parking lot, she triple checked herself then committed. She tracked well to the final article.

Page did indicate her final glove in the curb, but it was a weaker indication than the others with no tail wag. However, once I asked if she found something, she picked it up and I was able to play with her by tugging and tossing the glove. This is a real first! And she carried it all the way back to the vehicles. When Janet saw her she called to her and Page ran to Janet with her glove for a big party! I think Page could get used to the party part! And my leftover hamburger from dinner got an enthusiastic welcome as a jackpot!