Sunday, December 28, 2008

Snow Tracking

Howie and Norah had their first experience of tracking in the snow today. Norah had no problem with her first short track so I laid her a longer one and she did quite well. It was fun to see her put her nose in my footprints. The second track crossed a deer trail near the end and gave Norah a learning experience

Howie, predictably, had a lot of trouble on the first track. But after a 30 minute or so wait in the car for me to lay the second set of tracks, he did much better. I left the glove for each track in a footprint so it was not visible and each poodle was very pleased with themself when they found it. You could tell when they scented the glove as their behavior went into article search mode.

My older poodles did a little snow tracking about 5 years ago when we had snow. I can wait another five years before we go out in snow again; my van is still buried so I had to transfer a handful of tracking stuff to my little car. The chains are still in the back end along with a shovel, "just in case." LOL

Sunday, December 21, 2008

SNOW SNOW ICE AND SNOW


My county is dealing with ongoing ice and snow storms. MOST unusual for this area; heck my little home town doesn't even have a snow plow! Today is day 7 of below 32 degrees and it is still snowing. On the level the snow is 12-15 inches with drifts well over 2 feet. The snow is above the wheels and bumper of the Mini van and would need to put on chains to get the Pontiac out of the garage. Even if you get out of the garage, the roads are ice over packed snow and the main route Hwy 30, requires chains. Guess we are snow bound for a while!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

just for fun day




The weather in western Oregon was very nice today with highs in the upper 40's, blue sky and almost no wind. I had taken Howie and Norah out Saturday for some tracking but decided to go out again today. I went to the local state offices for some VST work and laid a very short track for each of the four poodles.




Norah ran first and although she has not been on pavement since last spring had no trouble transitioning from the grass over a curb and down the parking lot. She was very pleased with herself when she found her plastic lid and was well rewarded for it.




Howie went next and started on grass to the parking lot with an open angled turn and another 30 yards or so to the article on a grassy berm. He didn't have any real problems, other than his normal reluctance to be steady and methodical. Imagine that! His style did not magically change....he would still prefer to run amuck. But he actually settled down and worked pretty well. I think he may do better on non veg as he has to pay attention instead of being on autopilot.




I laid a piece for Lucy (TD in 2003 but rarely tracks as I don't have enough time). She sniffed her start article for a moment went about three steps, stopped to pee and then just cruised right a long including a MOT type turn and headed to her metal article. Lucy is a "loose" type tracker who has never accepted much line tension (or maybe I just never demanded it!) and I swear she looks like she is just walking along, but she was within a body's length of her track at all times.




Shelby had the last track. Many of you know Shelby (TD 2001 a couple of TDX and VST tries and plagued with health issues). Poor Shelby was beside herself with glee to track. So wild in fact that she was pretty much a mess as a tracking dog....... but she is still my best little girl. Maybe not so little anymore as her harness seemed awfully tight. She must be over 10 pounds now.....little piggy.It was a nice way to spend a couple hours. Better than cleaning house

Monday, November 17, 2008

Howie gets a new title


Howie and Norah played agility this weekend and Howie earned his AKC Open Agility Preferred title on Saturday. He moved "up" to the Excellent level for the Sunday trial and earned his first Qualifying score "Q" in Excellent Standard on his very first try. Good boy Howie!


Not to be outdone, Norah Q'd in Excellent Standard on both Saturday and Sunday and added her first Q in Excellent JWW on Sunday.


starting over !

Alas it appears that the blinkz.com site has disappeared! All that work for nothing. So here I am starting over again. Hopefully I can figure out how to add the photos and recreate some of the adventures of the Wraynbow poodles and the human family as well