Page is a Champion Tracker!

I am so proud of Page! She's only 19-months old, and she's passed her first (and my first) Variable Surface Tracking test. By passing all three AKC tracking tests (TD, TDX and VST), Page becomes a Champion Tracker.

Our test yesterday was in DeKalb, IL, at Northern Illinois University. The test was hosted by the Glenbard All-Breed Obedience Club; our judges were Darlene and John Barnard. Page's drew track #3, which was 708 yards long. It had 252 yards of non-veg and 456 of veg. It was aged 3 hours and 25 minutes when we started, and she finished it in 40 minutes. The wind was minimal and the sky was bright blue with no clouds; the temperature was probably in the upper 30s to lower 40s. Our track was on the far west side of the campus near the stadium and other support buildings; there was no football game that weekend.

The one thing I noticed as we started track #1 was the geese. There were thousands of them using this part of campus as a migration stopover. The noise was intense and when a large group took flight it was impressive. As I watched the first two dogs track, both Belgian Tervurens, I just hoped there would be no geese on either Devon or Page's tracks. I thought that would be way too much for either of them, especially with tasty tempting goose poop to eat.

As we pulled up to park on the south side of a large parking lot, I knew Page's start had to be on the grass around us, and it was filled with geese. They asking me to stand behind my car and wait while the two judges tried to remove the geese from my start. I am not joking when I say there must have been close to 200 geese in the field at the start. I could hear the judges yelling and blowing their whistles shooing away the geese.

The judges called me to the start and I walked up the hill with a very excited Page lunging forward in anticipating of finding a start flag. As I looked down at the start flag surrounded by feathers and goose poop littering the ground, I could either laugh or cry. I chose to laugh. How fitting: Gaylan's Wild Goose Chase goes to the flag amid the fallout from geese!

The blue line on the map is the actual track. I have always let Page choose her start, and she’s always been fine. However, I knew she’d need extra concentration on this one. I held her line when she wanted to blast off the flag after her initial sniff of the start article. She looked up at me questioningly. I smiled and then reached my hand down to the article (half of a leather moccasin), holding it for a few seconds causing her to give it another good long sniff. As she pulled her nose up the second time, I told her to track and she was off like shot. The green area on the map indicates the area where the geese were on her start.

Page tracked nose down straight as an arrow for about 30 ft., then she circled left all the way behind me. She dropped back down on the track and tracked a few more feet before snatching a mouthful of goose poop (she got a leave it command for that). She tracked straight for a few more feet and did one last small circle before dropping her nose down and tracking the first leg straight as an arrow, nose down and pulling as if it were a 10 minute old track.

Her first turn was a piece of cake, and she soon found her first article, a white plastic soccer toy that looked like a hockey puck. She was off and tracking again. Her second turn was against a hedge row/fence line, and she showed beautiful loss of scent indicating the turn. The turn was either right or left, and I figured it wasn’t left because that would take us back in the direction of track 2. Right would take us to the front of building with a parking lot beyond it. Since we had yet to do any non-veg I suspected it was a right turn. After investigating the tall cover for critters, Page quickly confirmed the right turn, and we moved to the building.

Before reaching the building, Page found a ground hog hole to investigate, sticking her entire head down to the shoulders into the hole and wagging her tail at the stories the scent told. I told her that she should be tracking, and Page quickly left the hole but clearly told me she thought it would be great fun to investigate! She also found a cross track at the side of building to investigate before moving across her first transition area onto the sidewalk.

Page told me that the track went straight down the middle of a sidewalk. However, she fringed into the ground cover in front of the building and spent quite a bit of time crittering in there. I patiently waited for her to get that out of her system.

Page finally worked to the end of the sidewalk and showed loss of scent. She indicated that the track went into the parking lot, but she worked the turn a lot before committing. The pink line is the line Page took, and I later found out that she turned early and was to the left of the actual track (the blue line) the entire time through the parking lot.

This is where fatigue started to show with Page. She worked the parking lot hard, expending a lot of energy. Halfway through the parking lot, she made a 90 degree turn to the right and investigated the grass (orange area) but couldn’t find a track there. I suspected by Page’s body posture she wasn’t finding anything, and looking around I didn’t see how the track could go that direction, so when Page worked back to me I backed up to where she had the track on the parking lot. At this point she looked up at me with tongue hanging out as if to say, "This is REALLY hard!"

Page got back to work in the parking lot but did a lot of searching. She started working left of her line, too (the other orange area). We finally made it to the grass in front of the parking lot and she did a lot of perpendicular searching, so I suspected a turn in this area. I do remember Page working both right and left through here, and seeing the actual track I now understand her working to the right but not being committed; she was actually backtracking since she came in to the leg left of the turn.

As Page worked this area, a man came out of the building across the street and walked up past us (yellow line). Page greeted him enthusiastically (the only way she knows how). I told Page to get back to work, and he asked politely if she was working. I said yes she was tracking. He said he wondered what all the activity was today. I then mentioned nicely that we were in a test. He said ok and wished us luck. Then he said he was going to go start his big truck and he hoped it wouldn’t bother us. I told him I was sure she would be fine, but thanked him for his concern. He got into the pick up truck parked behind us then went to the next lot to get his big truck. All this time Page was working the grass trying to commit to a track.

Likely because of his man and because I was facing toward the road with my back to the parking lot, Page decided to cross the street. She worked the grass to the left, so I stepped in behind her and we tracked long the far side of the street up to almost the corner (pink line).

When Page was almost at the corner, she stopped and flung herself at the end of the line toward a cup that was laying in the edge of the street and rolling in the wind. I waited to see what she would do next. Normally, if they insist on investigating something, I'll let them go to it to realize it's not their item. However, Page lost interest and started working the grass to the right. I could tell she wasn’t convinced of a scent, and I knew it was late in the track and we needed another article soon. I could also see something on the drive behind the cup that made me wonder. If Page turned that way again, I would have probably gone to investigate.

Page didn't continue forward, but turned right and worked the grass toward a parking lot beyond the grass. I could tell she wasn't certain and I didn't push her toward the parking lot but let her continue to work. I scented her a couple f times, and after the second time of rescenting with the start article, her head went up and she did a 180 and went back across the street and started working the grass on that side of the street.

As soon as we crossed over there and I saw the judges and gallery on that side of the street I about hit myself in the forehead. I KNEW what had happened. She had been paralleling the track on the opposite side of the street, and I suspected what it was I saw on the drive. Sure enough, Page dropped onto a solid track to her right, tracking like it was a fresh track. We came to a corner, turned right and tracked right up to that thing I saw on the drive – Page’s metal article, a metal switch plate.

I am fully aware that had I pushed her to farther to the right when she was working the grass across the street on the corner, I would have heard a whistle because she would have tracked past her article. I did think that the track could go into the parking lot beyond the grass, but I consciously waited until Page took me there. She never did, and she wasn’t committed to anything in that area but was doing a search for scent.

This is where I continue to be very grateful to my many hours of tracking with Steve and his mentoring me on handling. I learned very early not to push my dog, but wait until she tells me where the track goes. I think this is the hardest part of tracking; the patience. But to me it’s the most important lesson.

Page had caught her second wind as soon as she dropped onto the track on the correct side of the street. As soon as I picked up the metal article, she was off again. One more corner, and we were headed toward something white in the grass: her cloth article, a utility glove!

The judges had warned us not to cheer a pass until the judges had said it was a pass. So with tears in my eyes and hearing nothing behind me, I turned to look at the judges. They were both smiling and nodding, but I wanted to make sure. I said, “Did we pass: did we do it??” Darlene said yes and John gave us a thumbs up. I walked back down the track to the judges and gallery, crying all the way!

I got many hugs and congratulations, and immediately the talk started as to whether or not Page was the youngest Champion Tracker. Several knew of another person who passed with an 18-month-old male pointer, so she is not the youngest. But hey, that was never my goal. I have just tracked Page and entered her when I thought she was ready.

Interestingly, my tracklayer admitted to me that when she saw Page's age, she thought I had taken someone’s spot who truly deserved to be in the test. She couldn't imagine a 19-month-old being ready for a VST. I'm glad Page changed her mind!

So Page is now a Champion Tracker, and her AKC tracking career has ended. It's sad because she does love to track. I'll likely investigate working with the Mantrailing group again. Page really enjoyed that and was quite good at it. Maybe we can put her talent to use in other ways!

I’ll end this post where the dream began. When Devon certified at 7 months, the tracking judge who certified us (Steve Ripley) said she indicated a 48 hour old cross track on her track. He asked me how far I wanted to go with my dog, and I said to a Champion Tracker (not really knowing what that would take). He said he would help me, and that day a dream was born.

Steve has taught me everything I know about VST and how to be a good handler. His experience as a tracking judge has shown him everything that people do wrong, and I have worked hard not to make those mistakes. I owe a lot of our success to Steve sharing his wisdom. Steve admitted to me yesterday that he predicted Page would pass her first VST test. And Page surpassed his CT Zoe as the youngest CT Golden, so it has been nice to know that he has been so supportive of me, Devon and Page, knowing all this time Page would eclipse one of his milestones. But that's how the tracking community is. They give back, and they expect the same of you!

And I have to add that Devon was in her first VST test yesterday, too. Unfortunately her track didn't go as well as Page's. But there will be other chances for Devon, and I have a feeling she'll be getting her Champion Tracker post sometime soon!