Starry's Excellent Adventure

Starry and I (plus Capella) headed up to Montana for the Big Sky Tracking Dog Club of Montana’s annual VST/TDU test.

Starry

It is held in the wee hours of the morning at the University of Montana.

The bears took the day off but there were so many deer!

Starry drew the first track, which meant her track was off campus at the family student housing complex. Not the option I would have chosen as it is a tough place to track. Starry said, “Hold my Egg McMuffin” and went to work on this track.

Four articles, three hours old, four different surfaces, six deer, one giant red ball.

She did it. At 14 months. On her first attempt.

The pass rate for AKC VST tests is less than 10% 🤯

Starry’s great-great aunt Asia was my first VST dog (and Champion Tracker) so I have trained to this level before — but the value of experience is knowing there is always so much to learn. Being unteachable is where and why people hit failure — and stay there.

Early in Starry’s training I reached out to Phil Atkinson to pick his brain for new ideas to add to my training toolkit. He has been generous and supportive in Starry’s tracking journey, and I am so grateful for his contributions to her success and skills. Much credit goes to Phil for Starry’s early start on non-vegetative surfaces. Thanks to him, and to Starry’s dedicated tracking friends — you know who you are ❤️

And then the dogs and I floated home.

Wow.

⭐️

From the Inside Space

One of the most valuable things I have learned from the past few years is the importance of a pause.

Unless it is a matter of safety, there is usually no reason to instantly react.

So much better to experience the thing, and then go into a mental/emotional space to consider both the meaning of the thing and how we want to react.

Artist: Berkeley

Over four years ago, I discovered that my then-husband had a collection of child sexual abuse material (aka child porn). In response, I did what I believed a Good Human should do under those circumstances.

This is a decent representation of what happened to my life as a consequence of doing the right thing.

I haven’t shared much about what has happened or what I have experienced in these intervening years. I couldn’t — for several reasons, including the ongoing investigation.

A few weeks ago, I finally got the call. I settled into a pause space with the news, trying to understand what part of this is my story to tell — and why telling it matters to me. I am still sorting all that out.

But I want to say this about that.

No, I wasn’t lying.