Working that nose!

Hokey and I have been working hard at tracking. Actually HE works hard - I try not to get in the way!

For tracking, the dog follows a path walked by another person anywhere from 12 to 5 hrs earlier. Along the way, they leave a couple of items which your dog must find. Dogs love the sport as they are in control - after all, they have the great noses! They work on a long line (up to 40 ft) and we humans simply follow behind.

All of our dogs love tracking. Dani, my older Terv, has her Champion Tracker title as does my daughter Kate's older Corgi. while they did their top tracking as older dogs, puppies and young dogs love to track too as it is a natural behavior.

Hokey is working towards passing his VST or Variable Surface Tracking title. He has to work on nonvegetated surfaces (so blacktop, pavement, cement, etc) as well as grass and often in and around buildings. This is difficult and so far only about 220 dogs ever have passed this test in AKC.

Last weekend we were at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass but had no luck. Hokey started strong but got muddled up partway through. I do have to wonder if his snuffling at the broken vodka bottle along the way was a factor :).

This coming weekend we will be at the University of Vermont in Burlington, VT. This was a fun test last year even though it rained and I had no passes. Lovely campus.

The photo, taken by Ed Presnall, shows Hokey working at a training camp on the SUNY Geneseo campus in upstate, NY.

From Hokey:
Man, I LOVE to track! Sniffing is fun & when you find articles, Deb gives me great treats in training! I love to eat too! I don't understand why I have not passed yet - I guess I get distracted or something. I hope I am a BIG star this weekend & then I can get steak treats for a WHOLE Week!!!