Tracking Connor

Well, my quest continues to get a TD on Connor. He was technically my first tracking dog, starting in March 2006 at Camp Jigsaw in the "green" group. Devon quickly caught up with his skill level and surpassed him when she certified on October 2006.

I've attempted to certify Connor three times with no luck. The last attempt in December 2006 was failed because I missed his turn indication. Steve was quite nice in saying he didn't really indicate and I said, "That was waving a red flag for him." After tracking him to the glove, Steve's observation was, "Normally for a TD you just let the dog track and stay out of his way. You're going to have to handle Connor."

Connor has little drive, which I've known since I got him. He has to really, really love what he's doing to do it well. As soon as it becomes challenging, he's done and that usually means he's done. Tracking for an older dog who is obedience trained is though, and Connor would rather eat any of a wide variety of poop than track. Our biggest challenge is me reading his turn indications (when he actually gives me one). I figured I'd have to become a really good tracker with much more experience to handle Connor. So now that Devon's doing VST, and I've been tracking with others and watched their dogs' indications, I've started with Connor again.

He tracked well earlier in the week with longer grass and cooler weather. Of course, he snacked on all varieties of animal poop along the way, and just wagged his tail when I scolded him and told him to get back to tracking. So I decided today to really challenge him with a full-length TD track.

We ran the track at 1 hour and 10 minutes. It had warmed up a little, and the start of the track was in sparse grass but it was longer. I gave Connor one extra article along the track for a reward and motivation. He did pretty well and was steady and worked hard. His first turn was lovely, and I'm paying particular attention to his movements and any other indications of lost scent. On his first turn, he pretty much just rounded the corner and kept going. His second turn would have failed us, because he never even let up and tracked well past the turn. When he did give me loss of scent indication, he never really came back to the track, preferring to hang outside the track and look very lost. I really guided him back to the track, but once he found it he did well.

He did well on the third turn, and by this part of the track the grass became thicker and his pace and confidence really picked up. He also nailed his fourth, open turn; however, he tracked left of the actual line and was off of it by about 6-8 feet by the time we came to the last turn. I edged to my right when I saw the turn marker, and that likely made him wander that direction. He did pick the last leg up well, and other than a few stops for poop eating, tracked well to his glove. He was quite proud of himself.

Generally, Connor just tracks around corners without indicating loss of scent. However, this is subtle. And a good one in four times Connor will just flat ignore/miss the turn completely and nose down track straight on ahead until he's so far past it there's no finding it again. This will fail us for sure, because there's nothing for me to read!

He also has a habit of quartering a bit. If I see him angling off the line of the track and I stop or give stopped pressure on the line, he turns and heads back to the line. Often, he'll look back at me when this happens, and if I give too much pressure, he will stop tracking. As Steve said, I need to carefully handle him!

Getting a TD on Connor will be worth it for me, and I hope for him, too. I hope it gives him a good time with mom and another accomplishment. For me, it will make Connor a VCD2, and I'd like him to retire with that. And frankly getting a TD on Connor will probably be one of the highlights of my dog career since it has been such a tough road!