Curlytop Poodles: Preparing For Testing

I met up with Joyce and Jean yesterday to go tracking. We went to our usualy place, but had 8 dogs to work. I took Chauncey and Blueberry, Joyce had her 3 Goldens, and Jean had her Corgi and 2 Labs. Joyce had already laid Ziggy's TDX track and Henry's track by the time I arrived, so we headed to the top field to get Chauncey's and Blueberry's in so they could start aging before Jean arrived. We then went back to the botttom field to lay cross tracks on Ziggy's track. Then back to the top to run Chauncey's and Blueberry's.

Blueberry did very well on her track, started well and kept her nose on the track the whole way. She is doing so much better and not even hesitating to go the whole distance. Her track was almost 300 yards long, acute turns, and uphill. We had a lot of wind and it changed directions often, so it made more of a challenge for them. I am very confident in her ability to pass our certification test next month.

You can see more photos of our day at Flickr

Blueberry's track

Blueberry finishing her track

Chauncey's track was full lenght and aged about 1 1/4 hours. I let her start to fast and due to the wind she didn't work the scent and track as well, so ended up bobbing for most of the track. I let her out the full 20 feet and she knew where the track went, but kept taking side trails to hunt. She has always tracked that way and I don't know if there is anythign I can do to correct it at this point. I am going to try for her certification and see how it goes. Jean and Joyce pointed out some things for us to work on, so we will be pretty busy.

Chauncey's track