Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want

I have regained enough of my sense of humor to document this adventure. 1-28-24 Durham Kennel Club TD test. Cedar Creek Farm, Hillsborough, NC. My dear friend Valerie gave up a good night’s sleep to drive me down there in plenty of time for the draw. Lovely test site - short pasture type fields. Temp in the 40’s?,overcast, no wind. Had rained hard during the night & the soil there did not drain well, so there were areas with 2-3” of standing water in large portions of the field & the rest was quite wet. Except for all the standing water, pretty much ideal tracking conditions.

For whatever reason, I was very nervous going to the start flag, but Seren indicated the start article & immediately began down a gentle slope on the track. Sniffed around the 30yd flag quite a bit, then continued on. At the bottom of the slope, there was a lot of water, but she confidently made a left turn in it. I let out a lot of line before following along, heading toward a wooded area a ways off. I was expecting a right turn next, but Seren made another left & headed back up the slope. Made no sense to me, but I kept hearing people (including the judges in the briefing) say ‘follow your dog’, so I went with it. Just over a little rise, we could see a paddock behind the barn with a cavorting spotted donkey in it. The motion caught Seren’s attention & her head came up. Now I don’t know how common spotted donkeys are, but the only ones Seren & I have seen before live at the farm where we take herding lessons. So now she is looking for sheep😂. I began backing down the slope bit by bit as slack developed in the line. About halfway down, she started looking to the right but never committed, & at that point the whistle blew☹️.

We went back to the judges & tracklayer, & I told them I thought there should have been a right turn there but my dog said left, looked like she was tracking, so I felt I had to go. One of them said it looked like tracking to her too & if I hadn’t gone they would have had to call me for guiding 🤷

Anyway, we got back on the track & finished in grand style, through a lot more standing water.

What I learned: Why be so nervous - it’s just a dog game. Will this help in the future? My dog can, in fact, track a total stranger. First time she had done so. She can also track through relatively deep standing water, at least if there is grass sticking up out of the water. Even a hint of sheep trumps tracking (knew that) & spotted donkeys hint of sheep.

Mysteries that remain: why did she make that 2nd left turn to go back up the slope in the first place?


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