Saber Tracks!

When I was a wee pup, my Mom knew I was super special. I come from a long line of good sniffers; in fact several of my littermates went to Search and Rescue homes. My sister Jenga is a cadaver dog! Not my cup of tea, unless it is a bacon cadaver, but somebody's got to do it. I have a great nose myself, and my Mom started me tracking with the local dog training club when I was 14 weeks old (in February 2011). My first time out I did two puppy tracks lined with hot dogs (yum!) and kept my nose right to the ground like a good tracking dog. Two weeks later I was at it again and did three longer tracks. Here are some pictures of my Mom and me tracking that day:

Yep, I am a natural.

My third time out, at 4 months old, it was raining and cold and Mom took me out in the middle of nowhere to a hay field. I did a couple of short tracks, then a 60 yard track, then another pretty long one with a 45-degree turn and almost no food or markers. Mom didn't even know where the track was, but I did! I followed them all perfectly right to the end.

I went tracking every weekend for awhile. In May when I was almost 6 months old, I did three 100-yard tracks (one with a turn). Then we did some off-leash SAR work finding people hiding in the desert, and afterwards we went back and ran those three (now aged) tracks again without adding any new bait. I did great! I am so good at finding people and articles. I am pretty proud of myself!

One time in the fall, right after I turned a year old, Mom took me tracking at a local park on the river, which was supremely awesome because the whole field was covered in GOOSE POOP!! YUM!! Of course Mom was rather disgusted and kept telling me to "leave it" but hey how do you expect me to discern between a hot dog and a goose poop snack when I am following a track?? Both are so flavorful. It was rather difficult and frustrating for Mom but I secretly hoped we would keep going back there for tracking practice. Alas, so far we have not. So tragic. What a waste of good goose poop.

So we haven't gone tracking since last fall. There have been tons of rattlesnakes here this spring and Mom was a little nervous about that, so I had to get a rattlesnake vaccine just in case. Mom says we are going to start seriously tracking every week and working towards an AKC TD (Tracking Dog) title as soon as school starts again for the human kids. I can't wait! I will share all of my tracking adventures here on the blog. Maybe if I am lucky we will go back to that park by the river! Mmmmm. ::drool:: Well, a dog can dream!