TRACKING TESTS

The Labrador Retriever Club, Inc.

AKC Member

2009 National Specialty Events Week

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

TD, TDX, VST

For Labrador Retrievers only

TD/VST  Judges : Ms. Connie Austin & Ms. Carol W. Ruthenberg

TDX  Judges: Mr. Ulysses James & Ms. Pat Norris

Tracking Sites: Maxwell Park for TD & VST, Comlara Park for TDX

Tracking Test Report:

Carol Ruthenberg and Connie Austin judged the TD/VST (Tues morning) and Ule James and Pat Norris did the TDXs (Tues afternoon).

It can be very difficult to organize and get good sites for tracking tests for national specialties that are being held in a "trackingless” town (Bloomington, IL) and Sandy McMillan worked hard to get sites. As often happens when dealing with bureaucracies, the people who gave the permission didn’t tell anyone else, so there were a few wrinkles to iron out.  Test morning at the VST site, a college official said he didn't think he could let this event happen because students would be looking out the window unable to pay attention to the lectures (!) AND the students might fear that these were drug detection dogs. (I imagined hundreds of students running out of their classrooms to their cars after hearing about the Labrador retriever drug detection dogs!) Thank goodness a letter was produced showing that permission had been obtained and the event went on. At the TDX site, the park superintendent had scheduled a handicapped hunting event on the tracking test days, so the fields were limited and plotting was delayed until we determined what fields were safe. Ule, Pat, and Penny Kurz worked until after dark to get the fifth TDX and an alternate plotted.  Cathy Greene did a great job providing food for a very long day.

 

 

The TD Tracks—

Three of five dogs passed, all Labrador retrievers. Weather was cool and overcast and had rained all night, very nice conditions for tracking. Tracklayers Kent Hildebrand, Pam Johnson, Inge Suchanek, Carol Rettig, and Jeanine Craig were excellent.

Track #1. Madam Makita Machacha. Owner Michelle Cullen. This was a very joyful dog, happily tracking down the track and making a few big loops here and there to get the energy out. She passed in fine style for a good start to the day. New TD.

Track #2. Oakdales Salvaged Skipjack, owned by Sarah and Dave Cunningham. Picture perfect job as if she was running on rails. New TD.

Track #3. Took a left instead of a right on the second leg, found two pheasants and a dove, but no glove.

Track #4. Eqwynd's Coleman Scout, owned by Cheryl Tisdale. In the middle of this track, after doing a very nice job, all of a sudden we saw the terrier tail wag, and we thought. “oh no, not now!” After a bit of time, the dog got back to work and, after the dog passed, the handler said the dog had caught a mouse and had himself a snack of a mouse and then moved on. He was a rescue dog who had lived in the "wild" before being caught, rescued and adopted out, so one could see why he wouldn't want to pass up a small snack like that when you were used to not knowing when the next meal was coming.  New TD.

Alternate TD. Dog made it to the last corner before deciding to stop working. We waited hoping he would get back to work but it was not to be.

 VST Tracks—

The VST site was a very busy community college campus and there were no passes for the three Labrador retrievers on this day. Dog #3 got the farthest and was actually distracted by tall grass to the left of a long grass leg. We thought maybe she was thinking back joyfully to the days when she was doing TDX, and seeing the tall grass was just irresistible.

Judge Connie said, “Great crew to work with!! These tracking tests are very labor intensive and the tracklayers Dee Morrison, Jeanine Craig, and Deb Kelley were excellent and made our jobs very easy.”

 

TDX Tracks—

Pat Norris and Ule James had the pleasure of judging the TDX part of the LRC National Specialty. Ule offered good advice to the handlers, “There are some marked obstacles out there – if you fall, get up!” There were five Labrador retrievers that were able to run, but, regretfully, there were no passes.  Only one person fell – she got up. Thanks go to tracklayers Suzan Scott, Deb Kay, Pam Thornburg, Kathleen Stevens, and Penny.  Thanks also to Deb Hamele and Sam Cochran who crossed all the tracks.  Special thanks to Cindy Nauer and Kathleen Stevens who drove all over the park getting everyone where they needed to be without losing any of us or hitting any deer. 

TDX 1. Dog made it past the first corner and got the article, was making its way down the track, when two fisherman attempted to be helpful by laying an extra set of cross tracks. Pat quickly accosted the young men and directed them elsewhere. Our duo continued into the track but got “sucked” into a low lying area and the handler decided to call it a day.

TDX 2. This dog had extraordinary energy, and you could hear the locomotive nasal noises back to where we were standing. The dog swiftly made it to the first corner, and found every tree to wrap himself around with such enthusiasm and speed that the team was brought away from the corner beyond recovery.

TDX 3. This dog appeared to have the maturity and strength on the first leg to make it to the end, so we were very hopeful. They went down the first leg confidently into golden rod, appeared to make the turn uphill, came back to the corner and went off into the abyss, and had to be whistled. Naturally, the dog seemed to do well once she failed.

TDX 4. The yellow lab had great trouble starting in crown vetch and seemed uncertain on the first leg, but hammered the corner and the leg to the first article. Proceeded up into thick bushy cover and, amazingly, went through the meander just like the tracklayer had, came to the other side and found something else to track, and speedily got away from view in the heavy cover. The judges had to chase him down to find him.

TDX 5. Last track ran at 5:30 pm; mist had vanished and it was beautiful out. This dog had lots of enthusiasm and drive for tracking. Starting in tall prairie grass, the dog went down the first leg, made a nice corner going past the cross track, got an article and at the next corner made a wrong turn to the whistle.

“It was nice to see such enthusiastic dogs that will surely have success in the future. The club put on a great test.” Ule commented.

—Penny Kurz