Page's TD track on July 14

On Tuesday we headed out to do a field drill with Devon at a local school. I figured I could put in a VST track there for Page while Devon was working. However, when we got to the school, two groundskeepers were sitting out front with spray equipment. I pulled up and asked and sure enough, they had just treated the lawn. Great! One good location was out for a week or so!

The good news was they wanted to meet the dogs and asked what type of training I did. They told me about a park I didn't know of in the next town that they thought would be a good place to work the dogs, so I headed that direction. On the way, I found a new TD tracking field! My goal is to keep working TDX and VST and keep up with TD every week to 10 days, so it looked like today was TD day!

The great thing about this field is it's right across from a bank that gives the time and temperature. I know I started the track at 10:53 a.m. When we came back to run it, the time was 12:35 p.m. The track was 490 yards long with four turns. The cover was short clover.

Page had an outstanding start and pulled me hard. I forgot to mark the first turn, but it didn't matter. She had only a very short search a few feet from where I knew it would be. A short leg and another beautiful turn put us on the third leg.

Here, Page suddenly went off the track to investigated something in the grass. I told her to leave it, and she plucked something in the grass and retrieved it back to me. It was a dead baby bird - YUCK! I got it out of her mouth, told her to leave it and track - and she did! What a great girlie! And now you know why I carry antibacterial wipes in my vehicles!

Frankly, the dead baby bird was the most eventful thing on this track. Page nailed her turns, was dead on her track and even handled her 160 yard leg very well. When she got to her glove, she gave me a sit on the article and we were done in 11 minutes (that clock was handy!).