Today reminds me to trust change. I loved the old tracking test site so much and worried that the new site could not possibly compare but instead I discovered yet another amazing place in Montana. Wowza.
But let me back up a bit to April.
As you may recall, Claire had a very successful National Specialty — but she did not pass the Specialty TDX test. Although she did well and made it almost to the end, I did not think her track commitment was strong enough and that meant I wasn’t super confident in her.
And so on my long drive home I devised a plan — it was back to Tracking Kindergarten for us.
Claire and I have tracked almost daily (except when traveling, of course) since we got home from the Specialty. I went back to a single straight leg to start our remedial program — not aged at all. I included lots of food drops and articles, and the usual amazing covered meal at the end (Claire loves fried eggs 🤷🏼♀️). My goal was to make staying on the track super easy and heavily reinforced.
Practice track
After that was going really well I added turns, gradually building up the number of turns and the length of those daily well-reinforced tracks. Laying all of my own tracks gave me a lot of practice in learning to read Claire better and to understand how she tracks — that has helped my confidence in her.
Towards the end of May I added aged tracks back into her training. I did not do this gradually but rather went directly from fresh tracks to tracks that were three hours old BUT I went back to just a single well-reinforced no-turn track at first.
Practice field — so so beautiful
As I expected, adding age wasn’t an issue and in the past 2 - 3 weeks Claire has been doing almost daily tracks that were aged three hours. Sometimes these had one turn and sometimes they had 5 - 7 turns but always they were reinforced with articles and the covered meal at the end 🍳 🍳
One of the last training tracks ❤️
I tapered her training last week — on Wednesday she did a track with one left turn and on Thursday it was just one right turn. She rested on Friday and Saturday — and today we were ready!
I put on the Luckiest of Lucky Socks this morning — the ones my sister knitted 🍀🍀 I was wearing them when Claire was High in Trial at the Specialty.
🍀
I add the tie-dye shirt I had made to wear on obedience day at the Specialty — why mess with success?
I wasn’t stoned — really!
OH NO!!!
I could not find my Lucky Happy Hippie Heart to carry with me, and I had to leave without it this morning 🥺 But as I was walking through the fields to take photos of the dogs and tracks before mine, I found this…
🤯
I knew then — Every little thing gonna be all right
And it was.
Getting directions about how to walk in to the start
She’s off!
Claire checking out the people and then…
…right back to work.
Seven turns, a jaunt through a forested area where I thought one of us might lose an eye, cross tracks by humans (planned) and deer (unplanned but it’s Montana), 830 yards, multiple articles, and 12 minutes later — she found the final article.
So much gratitude to Suzanne for providing support and taking the awesome photos ❤️❤️
A TDX is a Big Deal. It is a tough title to earn for all kinds of reasons.
And Claire did it.
That title also made Claire a BMDCA Versatility Dog Excellent — another Big Deal Accomplishment.
I am so darn proud of this dog ❤️⭐️
GCH Kaibab’s Justifiably Bright TDX CD RN DD BNDD.
I love her ❤️
