Do you know how sometimes you see the light bulb go off and your dog just does everything you have been trying to teach him right, after weeks of ripping your hair out and wondering if there was a snowball’s chance in h_ll he would ever, ever do what you were asking?  Charlie and I had that kind of two days in tracking… mind you, the light bulb went off for Charlie before it did for me.  Yes, we got a twofer this weekend–Charlie AND I had a lightbulb-type moment in training.

Saturday we tracked with Butch at Rosaryville and I laid a track with 12 articles, 3 turns and food sporatic with two long 20-30 foot stretches without food.  Food on start pad, food leading off the start pad to help Charlie start focused with nose to the ground and food two to three steps before and after each turn.  The rest of the food was very sporatic.

As has been the case for Charlie, he started without as much commitment and focus/intensity as he should and as Butch pointed out to me, I let him.  I brought him to the scent pad and let him begin when it was obvious to everyone but me, that Charlie was not really paying attention to the job he was about to start…  and it showed… he was not intense until he had gotten half way down the first leg and had found two articles.  Butch picked up the last article on the first leg before Charlie got to it and I asked him why (later, when we were finished).  It was to see how Charlie would work without the constant motivation of an article just up ahead.  When you have twelve articles on a track, there is a lot of article motivation.  Charlie platzed two times without articles and I restarted him… no reason that I could tell for him to decide to platz.  Other than that, the track was ok… nothing to write home about, but ok.  He indicated all the articles and kept working, albeit without a huge amount of drive.

Butch’s comments:  Allow Charlie to go ahead (let the leash slip through my hands before I begin to follow); don’t bait the corners for at least 3-4 steps before and after; have longer stretches without food; stop trying to make the track easy so Charlie can always do a perfect job–no learning experience and he will get bored.  Charlie is not the most food driven dog in the world (getting better:-) and if he is bored, then what motivation does he have to keep going down the track?  It can’t all be compulsion!  He has to want to do it too (at least for me to be happy and that is a definate part of my equation).

Light Bulb for Charlie.  On Sunday I tracked at Villa Julie.  I stopped asking him to track when he messed up–what I mean is, if he platzed and there was no article, I stopped just asking him to restart–I gave him a correction forward to restart.  He said, OH, OK and restarted with focus.  And if he went off the track, I gave him a correction instead of letting him wander his way back.  Again, he said, OH, that is what you want–OK and he refocused.

 Light Bulb moment for me:  On Sunday and again today, I laid the track like Butch asked (see above).  Before I started Charlie, I had him sit and give me focus.  I then placed the line between his legs and let him begin.  Although I would like him to spend more time on the scent pad (and I’ll ask Butch about that), he started with more focus.  When he platzed without an article, I gave him a correction to restart.  He had his nose deeper than before, he moved forward with me letting the line slip between my fingers until I was 6-8 feet behind him and he never seemed to notice.  He nailed all the articles. On the first turn, he went a step too far, did a tight circle, picked up the turn and off he went (remember this is new to him, no food on turn–he worked it out).   Sonja was with me and she said my turn was not 90 degrees and she thinks that contributed to Charlie’s inability to find it right off…  The second and third turn he nailed.  It was a reasonably long track and I was very happy with how I laid it and how he ran it.  My light bulb moment was realizing Charlie didn’t need me to make the track easy and perfect for him.  He needed the challenge to work it out himself and he needed the motivation of the challenge and he needed the motivation of the correction to do the work.  He worked harder and with more focus.  Whoo-hoo. 

We both have so far to go, but at least I feel we made progress this weekend.

Two things not to do when training a dog with low tracking drives:  first, do not feed the sucker dinner the night before, let alone breakfast…  Charlie had a nice dinner and no breakfast.  The result of last nights dinner:  he was not intense for the food and his tracking demeanor showed it! and second, don’t go later in the morning… after all, it is July!  The ground and ground-cover was dry and in places, patchy.  Charlie tried to blow off the first article, was never intense, missed the first turn….  not pretty and very discouraging.  I need to make the executive decision that Charlie gets no food unless he is tracking or working in Obed and the day before he tracks, he can have a light breakfast, at best….  he must understand there are consequences for not being intent on the job at hand!  Following the track, downing on articles…. that will earn him food and he must want it to do it!  I guess I have finally hit bottom and will bite the bullet and make him work for his food.  Too bad I had to reach this level of discontent with Charlie’s tracking to make the decision to make food something he must earn….

I never got it together to post on my visitors, but I want to comment on what a GREAT dog Tori’s Snips is and how nice she was to have around.  Tori went on a road trip and left Snips and Frodo with Aunt Lyn, Cousin Charlie and Momma Zellie….  Frodo got to play with everyone….  Snips and Charlie and Charlie and Zellie.  Snips got to play with Frodo and Charlie.  Zelda and Snips were not allowed to interact.  Maybe they would have been ok with each other, but maybe not and I was not in the mood to find out, so they did not share space.  Snips is 10 give or take and I would have thought she was a puppy except her white muzzle gave her age away.  I was totally impressed with her.  Friendly, outgoing, silly, playful, youthful looking and acting….  what a great girl!  Frodo was a typical puppy–in to whatever he could get, playing constantly, eating like a pig… I had to stand watch over Snips’ food to be sure he didn’t woof his down and make a play on her food.  Both good guests and I was sorry I didn’t get any photos…

 I’ll start with the disaster.  After tracking with Butch on Saturday where Butch laid a track sans food and 12 articles as motivation, I thought (wrongly it turns out) we should do the same thing on Sunday (track #97).  Ah, what a mistake for many reasons…  one, I was feeling under the weather, groggy with allergies and we didn’t track early like we usually do, so the ground was very dry and the air was muggy…  no dew on the ground; two, I went to an area that had low grass, not the usual mid-calf stuff that tends to hold the scent better; three, did I mention I didn’t use food anywhere?; four… actually three is enough.

Charlie started ok, downed on the first 6 articles, but no intensity and he was struggling with the short grass, the dry conditions and the heat.  By the 7-9th article, he was quitting, I was trying to make him realize he had no choice but to continue by making it uncomfortable for him to just stand and stare off into space (I held his rear leg up with the tracking line, so he was standing on three legs and was not comfortable…)  I finally got him to the 9th article and I left him platzed and went and picked up the rest of the articles and took him back to the car to think about it.  Zelda and I came back out to be sure I hadn’t forgotten anything and I left feeling very low.  After talking to Butch and having him set me straight about doing the no-food, article for motivation type track, these should be infrequent and under his direct supervison!

Sunday, to help lift my spirits, I drove to Rosaryville in the late afternoon/early evening and Charlie did 15 minutes on the A-frame (the place was crawling with both pavillions packed, music blaring, cars everywhere)…  I took Charlie over the A-frame with a 20 foot leash, nothing in his mouth to start.  Then had him take the dumbbell from my hand and bring to front.  Next he went over the A-frame and back with the dumbbell (on long line).  Then over the A-frame with the dumbbell off leash and me encouraging him by tapping the frame to go back over (not around) and finally we did two over and back to front with me throwing the dumbbell and Charlie going over, retrieving (me tapping the frame) and when Charlie came over the top on the way back, I would be back in place for his front.  I was VERY happy with his speed… we need to work on straight fronts and mouthing.  All in all, a very good 15 minutes!  Then we went off to Sue’s for a fantastic dinner… and a very rainy drive home.

Rain all night and drizzle Monday morning made it perfect for tracking, so after our morning walk at 6:30am, we drove to Villa Julie (now Stevenson Univ) for a morning track.  The conditions were primo!  Wet, cool and grass mid-calf high.  I could see the entire track and had marked the articles so I knew where each one was before Charlie got to them (although he nailed them all).  Great experience for us and we needed the confidence it gave us (or at least me).

Zelda’s job was to do some obedience, be as non-threatening as a doberman can be, ignore the young woman and, oh yeah, eat goodies as fast as I fed them to her to keep her on her toes doing obedience and paying attention to me and the food.  Zelda was golden.  I was so proud of her and have to thank Kristina for offering Zellie-Belle the chance to show she can do whatever is asked (for a price, mind you–almost an entire bag of goodies!)

And, Kristina really, really impressed me with her people skills, her calm demeanor with me, Zellie and the young lady.  It is a real skill to manage people and Kristina did it with ease.  I was unsure what would be asked of me and my girl and I was a little apprehensive.  I didn’t want to do anything that would harm this young woman’s progress, but Kristina was our go-between and all went very well! 

To top off my adventure, Kristina took us from Rosaryville to Bethesda through DC, something I never do (drive in the District) and it was a blast–glorious day for a drive past all the monuments, the WWII monument which I really want to go back and see, the Kennedy Center, the Tital Basin….  the Washington Monument.  It has been a very long time since I’ve been in downtown DC and I’m glad I got to see everything on one of the nicest afternoons we’ve had recently.

Zelda got three new toys, a bag of dog cookies and a lot of attention… she wants to sign up to help anytime!  Charlie got to play with a Wire Haired Fox Terrier and he was his usual goofy self–running around, chasing, being chased and checking every corner of the yard. 

Thanks Kristina for a great experience.

Huh? Am I under attack?

Whap, whap. 

WHAT!  What’da ya want?

Whap, whap, whap! 

Followed by whineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

For crying out loud!  I’m single.  I should be allowed to sleep in, don’t you think?

Whinnnnnnnneeeeeeeeee…..

 Whap, whap.

 Zelda!  you whap me one more time and I’ll upside your head!

Just fine.  You guys think you got me up, but I wanted to get up, so there!  I’m meeting Butch in Rosaryville at 8am-ish to track, pffffttttttfff to you two.

They exchange smug glances that smack of “yeah, right… you wanted to get up…. cough, cough”…

We are on the road by 7am, coffee in hand, gear stowed, cool pads under each of the guys to help keep them cool and a snack or two for later in the cooler. 

 9am and Butch lays Charlie’s track… a straight shot with 11 or 12 articles placed randomly 5-20 paces apart.  No food, not even on the scent pad!  Considering Charlie is not used to anyone else laying his track, he did ok.  Not spectatular, but good.  He tried to walk one article and I corrected him with a platz… he downed.  He did a slightly crooked platz at the next to last article and was one pace to the right of the final 10 paces of the track.  I didn’t realize he was off the track until he got to the end, took a step to the left and platzed on the article… 

Butch said we need to do tracks like this one (as it turns out he meant every 7-10 tracks, not every track which I found out when we did the same type of track on Sunday and it was a disaster!).

At 11 am I got a call from a friend…  She can’t get down my street because it has yellow police tape across it and according to her, there has been a homicide!   I’m thinking, in my quiet neighborhood, on my drowsy street?   With my house unlocked for my friend, I decide to haul butt and get home.  What if some crazed loony is holed up in my house feeding bon bons’ to my dogs. 

Arrive home.  Nothing.  No tape, no police, no crowds, no dead body, no chalk body outline…  I talked to Margaret-my neighbor and she is clueless.  She decides to go up to Eddies and get the scoop and I decide to take my guys for a walk.  Home after the walk only to find a dead squirrel in the road. Baltimore City has been poisoning rats and I don’t know if the poor thing has been poisoned or hit by a car.  Either way, it is dead!  I go get a bag and a shovel and with Margaret’s reluctant help, we clean up the dead squirrel…  Yuck. 

Zelda is in the front yard and amazingly quiet. Taking advantage of the quiet, Margaret begins her exposition on the alleged Deepdene homicide.  In mid-sentence she stops and points over my shoulder. 

“What is Zelda doing?”  

I turn.  Zelda is staring intently at something on the ground.  She has her Snoopy vulture face on and is sitting and staring. Her interest is all encompassing and she ignores me as I approach (something she only does when she is having fun doing something she shouldn’t be doing).  I get closer and see Zelda is pouncing on a half dead rat I think has been poisoned.  I shriek for Zelda to let the rat go.  She does and it doesn’t move except to shake.  Taking Zelda by the collar, I put her to the house and cover the rat with a bucket.

This dark comedy continues when Margaret and I decide to put the half dead rat into a bag and put the bag in the trash.   We get a shovel, a few bags and when ready, I uncover the rat only to have it jump up and dart into the bushes.  Margaret reacts with a scream that rivals the scream Fay Ray made as King Kong carried her up the side of the Empire State Building.  It is a scream that sends both me and Zelda looking for cover and nearly knocks the rat back a foot.  It also brings my other neighbor, Jan, out of her house to see what is going on.

Picture this if you can.  Three women in their fifties, Jan wearing a moo-moo and wielding a huge butcher knife the size of my forearm—she wants to put the rat out of its misery;  Margaret banishing a shovel; and finally me, armed with two dowel rods.  We approach the bush and for the next half hour poke at the rat to no avail.  We are unable to get it to come back out in the open (well, duh) and we can’t cover it with the bucket while it is hugging the trunk.  We poke, prod and slap the ground with the shovel, all the while apologizing to the rat.  Jan has begun to call him Willie.  I give up and go back to work with all three of us promising to meet in my yard when I get home.  We hope we will find the rat’s remains waiting for a proper burial. 

My work day ends around 7:30pm and my step is not all that lively.  After parking my car, I call Margaret (told her this was a joint project).  She comes out and we both beat the bushes looking for the carcass … to no avail!  We need a nose and Zelda is elected.   With Zelda on a leash, I tell her to “check it out” — her command for looking for a ball in a specific area.  She jumps right into the bushes, checks and double-checks and comes out with an old tennis ball, but no rat carcass…  Willie, the rat, has beat feet. 

Never-say-quit-Margaret goes into her back yard and begins her rat search anew.  She asks me to check the bushes in my back yard…  By now, Zelda is off the leash and chewing on the ball in the front yard.  I trudge into my back yard with Zelda trotting behind.  I beat and I prod, nothing. Zelda watches with amusement, until suddenly she takes note and goes on point  staring intently through the fence into Margaret’s yard.  She would have been the envy of any English Pointer.  Margaret beats and she prods and nothing…. I hate to give up and leave a poisoned rat to die knowing another animal might find it–eat it–and die.  With that in mind, I go over to Margaret’s yard with Zelda trailing behind.   As I approach the bush, I’m thinking I should put Zelda back on her leash.   Too late! Zelda is in the bushes, leaves flying.  All we can see are branches flailing and a Zelda-butt weaving left and right.  Just then a loud squeal announces Zelda’s find.  Immediately I yell for Zelda to come.  I poke her butt with the dowel rod.  She comes out looking confused.  She did exactly what I asked her to do and I end up yelling at her.  I take her home, praising her and checking for rodent bites.  She could care less.   She had fun.  

By now two more neighbors have joined the fray, and I hear yelling and whacking noises all coming from Margaret’s back yard.  It’s a zoo!  I’ve had enough and stay in my yard, awaiting the final outcome.  In the end, the rat is dispatched to rat heaven and Deepdene returns to tranquility.  I want a drink and head inside!  Zelda will get a big dinner as her reward.

As for the homicide that brought me flying home earlier in the day, it turns out someone left a briefcase by the pet store at the end of my street.  The bomb squad was called and they were just about ready to take the briefcase to be blown up when some guy appears with a “Hey that is my briefcase; I just forgot it on the sidewalk!”   

It appears the only homicide on Deepdene today was the demise of Willie, the Rat.     

 I wrote this in 2000 and it is about me and about one of my heart dogs, Lizzy. 

ENJOY!

My parents had dogs before they had children, so dogs, Dobermans in particular, and dog shows have always been a part of my life.   While some people dream of running marathons or climbing Mt. Everest, I used to dream of showing and winning with my own dog.  I think I always wanted to have an American Kennel Club (AKC) champion and I always wanted to show a dog at the Westminister Kennel Club Dog Show–the Kentucky Derby of dog shows and my personal Everest.  But showing dogs in conformation is very competitive, made even more difficult for me, as an owner-handler, because most of the top-winning dogs in the country are shown by professional handlers.  They make their living showing dogs and they are good at it.

Zelda knows I am awake.  I have yet to figure out how she does that.  I haven’t opened my eyes.  I haven’t gotten up.  Does my breathing change? 

I feel a cold, wet object poke my face, followed by an assault of hot breath on my cheek and the smell of dog in my nose. I’d like to describe the dog smell, but the only thing that comes to mind is “dog”.  Not like the smell of wet dog fur, no, this smell is a welcome, comfortable smell, like the smell of a baby or the feel of a warm breeze carrying Spring on its wings.  A good smell.

I know if I don’t reach out and scratch the head that is attached to the breath, I will feel the whack of a foot upside my head.  I sigh, take my arm from under the warmth of the covers and comply.  I could yell at her to go back to sleep and wait for first dawn.  I tell myself, don’t open your eyes and she will relent and give me another 10 minutes, maybe 20.  Please don’t wake up the boy.  The game is over once he enters the picture.

Somewhere under the pile of dog covers, my sheet and my bedspread you will find me.  I wallow in the warmth. Even with the threat from Zellie’s whacking foot looming, I don’t want to get up. 

The dogs add their own body warmth and at times I sweat, sending blankets and dogs flying—one of the joys of menopause.  Usually, when the blankets and dogs are given the heave-ho, the match, game, set are over and I’m well on my way to getting my butt outta bed. 

This morning was no exception and I found myself out walking the Friends’ School grounds with the dogs by 6am.  The air, still cool from the night, was envigorating and both the dogs and I romped our way across the field, into the woods and around before returning home to begin the day with coffee, breakfast and a good belly rub. 

I hope the promise of the morning carries through the day!