Another New Hobby?

Well, perhaps Sydney's schedule is going to have to expand to include tracking... Soccer Moms have *nothing* on me! haa.

This morning, I ventured out of the house for the first time in what seems like forever. Friends were getting together for a tracking session, and Uncle Gizzer really loves going tracking. He doesn't have many opportunities for activities, so I wanted to take him tracking on this lovely, cool morning. I also decided to bring Syd, since we would be in the company of some serious tracking experience, I wanted Syd's first tracking experience to happen in their company so that I could get pointers, or opinions on her potential.

It's been so long since I've been tracking, I didn't even know that you now have a "start article" at the starting flag. Oops. Thank goodness Linda and Nancy had a knotted sock and a bandana to loan out! Gizmo was RIGHT on the tracks, ignoring food drops, just cruising along the track to find his jackpot at the end of the track. He has not forgotten anything about tracking, and even putting on the harness got him fired up!

When we put in a very short track for Syd, I kind of got her started off badly. Since Syd loves to play tug as a reward in agility, I made the mistake of picking up the start article while she was still in the line of vision, and she thought it was time to play. Nancy and I pointed to the ground and got her nose in the vicinity of a food drop, and well, that was all it took. She worked a bit slow, wandering left and right a couple of feet, but finding the article at the end. The second track was much better, high concentration from Syd, and I was able to let her move a bit away from me. By track #3, I was the full 20 feet behind my dog, and she was a dog on a mission. She left several food drops untouched, and from 20 feet, I could hear her seriously snuffling, working her track.

I was very impressed with Syd's start at tracking. Much like Gizmo, she seems to really get it, and I hope they both continue to enjoy working tracks. With Gizmo being 12 1/2 years old, I really would love for him to get to track more, and I owe it to him to get out and get tracking... With two dogs to train, it might make the drive to find a good tracking site a bit better. :-)