Selsdon and I enjoying some variable terrain tracking training, we are just checking both ways to make sure it is safe to cross the road. 
Our introduction to Variable Terrain tracking.
21/11/09 - WOW have Selsdon and I had a fabulous morning. It was my turn to organise todays tracks, 7 in total, and while I also the tracklayer for 4 of them, I also worked Selsdon on the first one of the day.
He started off in the car park of our local shopping centre, where heaps of car and people had driven all over his track this morning. What can I say, his start was terrific, over the carpark heading for the shops, and travelled along the L shaped verander back into the car park and off onto the streets. If he had gone a couple of feet past the first corner I would have been amazed, head up indicating loss of track, came back and once the road was clear then over the road he went. This sure set the tone for the rest of his track, beautiful corner and there sure were alot of them, over parks, down a hill which was next to water and a tunnel to one side, did not even look like he was going to take the wrong direction. Down lane ways, with some very load dogs barking at him, a very game cat decided to come out and see what we were doing, but Selsdon was just focused on the job in hand.
A very long track, the longest he has done on the roads, a couple of Km's easily but handled it all very well. While it was hot working at such a good pace, there was a nice cool breeze which we both enjoyed.
Absolutely thrilled to bits with his work today, but then I am always impressed with what he does. Looking forward to our next one in a couple of weeks.
31/10/09 - Now that tracking season has ended, we have decided to go back to training in the suburbs, where hopefully we wont run across any snakes.
Up early Selsdon and I were, to get to Noranda by 8 am. Nice cool day with a gentle breeze blowing to keep us all nice and cool. To say it been almost 12 months since Selsdon has worked on the streets, it was like it was only yesterday and did very well. It was almost like he was off for a Sunday stroll and on one leg he was walking up the middle of the road, now I am sure thats not where the tracklayer walked but he was not having any problems working out where they had gone. He does prefer to work with a lot less scent I have to say, he was confident he knew where he was going so I was more than happy to follow him. Lesley had said it was one of the harder tracks with alot more corners and she forgot to mention the roundabout we had to negotiate, never mind the cars that were driving all over his track. I need not have bother one little bit, he knew exactly where he was going and was quite happy to sit by my side while we waiting for the 6 or so car to go through the roundabout and we were off again. No sooner had we seam to have started and we were at the end finding our "lost person". Looking forward to our next training day.
17/8/09 - Selsdon was entered in his second TSD trial yesterday and for some strange reason followed the diversion track layer, so we got called off. Odd as he has never showed any interest in cross tracks before, but guess there is a first time for everything. So today Anne layed him and track and I was the diverson, his track also crossed the road that we have just driven over, plus 2 other people, so could be a good distration I thought. I walked the first 50 metres along side Anne then peeled off while she continued on, she was gone for a very long time and I was just thinking we would have to go find her when I saw her returning in the distance. We went off and did a couple of other tracks for our other dogs while we let Selsdon's age a couple of hours, time to start, first leg going down a little hill, he did the "free quartering start", picked up the track, I called him back and attached the lead to the harness and we were off. He flew down the first leg, taking no notice of my scent what so ever, turned left at the sand track, coming up to the road I watch like a hawk to see if there was any recognition we have all gone over, but not even a flick of the head it was like we had never been there. Up to the next corner rechecked he was right and off down the next leg, it was nice when he found one of his articles so we could have a rest. Few more corners then up the big hill but he was still powering along, so I was actually pulled up the hill but the worry was going down the other side, he was full speed ahead so I had to dig my heels in so that I would not be either pulled flat on my face or side down the hill on the seat of my pants. He stopped for his last article so I gave us both a drink and asked Anne to go to the end of the track for him to find someone which she did. I think that was a mistake because I would have thought he would be too tired to go any faster, was I mistaken, once he started again we just flew the 100 metres or so to the end of the track, I ended up letting go of the lead he was pulling so hard.
Just fabulous having such an enthusastic worker.
Anne and I both agreed we needed a rest after that as it must have been over 2 Klm's we did at high speed. So once we got back to the car we sat and had lunch and a well earned rest.
17/7/09 - While there has not been any organised training for our dogs working in the Tracking Search Dog titles, I have been laying a few tracks for Selsdon to keep is "nose in". Sure loves to tracking and keen as ever doing everything at a 100 miles an hour. Anne layed an all ready mapped out training track today, mainly all over sand, but that sure did not bother Selsdon, up the hill at a great rate of knotts. Finding a mobile phone, hair brush, water bottle, little packet of tissues and what surprised me most was a little plastic contact lens case, how good are their noses. Well prepared for our first trial on Sunday, fingers crossed for his first pass.
8/5/09 - Was the day for the WA judges to do their practical exam on the new Search Dog titles and I as asked if Selsdon and I would be available, so I said yes, always good for a bit more training under trial conditions with not quite the amound of pressure of an actual trial - or so I thought. Boy was I nervous to start with, but once Selsdon set on his first track I forgot all about being in front of all our judges.
His first tracks was a Test 2, where there is a tracklayer and 2 diversion tracklayers, one of the diversion walks off with the tracklayer for about 50 metres then turns off at a 90 degrees, 30 minutes after that the 2nd diversion it which was talked parallel (about 20 metres to the side) to the original tracks and about 150 metres crosses over the track. At the apointed time I put his harness on, attached the lead to his flat colour, gave him the scent and on a long loose lead sent him off to find where the tracklayer had gone, he gave me a very clear indication of where the track went, so I called him back to me, attached the lead to his harness and we were off and running. He took no notice of either of the diversion tracks worked his corner beautifully and race off to the tracklayer. This was only very sort tracks as they judges were really being tested on the start and the actually setting of the beginning of the tracks. The judge who was following us said how good he was giving clear indication of lose of scent when I over shot the corner (going to fast ) then how well we casted around to pick it up again, also what a pleasure it was to see a dog so enthusiasic. I was very pleased with how well he did. We went back to the car for a drink and then to watch Sue and her dog Barney work their second track.
Selsdon second tracks was for the Test 4, where is says that the tracks should follow a dirt road or trail for part of the distance, have at least 4 turns and generally meander as a lost person may do over varied terrain and vegetation. Lesley had layed this track earlier and told me afterwards it was 3 and 1/4 hours old when we worked this. For this start we did the "free quartering" one, dog has the harness on, but is allowed to search for the start without been attached to a lead, this I love watching him do. I can call him to me, but I can not direct him to an area to search. He was a far over to the right I thought at first, so called him back and sent him off again, this time he worked more from the centre to the left side of the marked search area, sure enought when he got to the left flag of the start line he picked up the scent and he was off, so then I called him back, attached the lead to the harness and it was all go from there. He worked really well over a very sandy area, picked his corner really well, there was a track there that meandered around trees etc and he was hot on there, following the track with very little drifting off the track. After we had been going for awhile I was thinking that was a long track as I was expecting a short version, but no it was a full 800 metre tracks, so fabulous practice for us. We were going along a sandy tracks that was up a slight hill and I was beginning to think "I need a rest" when the judge called out to stop, thank goodness I thought. Lesley wanted to go into the hide so that Selsdon would find the tracklayer and she needed to get past us, I was really please for the rest but boy was Selsdon even more keen once he got a sniff of Lesley's fresher scent and powered on even more to the end of the track. I was absolutely thrilled to bits and very proud of him he worked beautifully. So roll on our first trial, I will be very interested to see how he goes.
That was his first day back at tracking in the pine forest for this year and boy was he excited to be there.
6/2/09 - Well Brad Pitt move over, here comes Selsdon, one of the stars of the DVD that was produced for training our judges in Australia on the new Tracking Seach Dog Titles.
Lesley Watson, the force behind getting these new titles up and running was asked to run a seminar for the judges over in Melbourne and also our judges here in WA, so she decided to also vidoe a couple of the dogs working on the new tracks and I was thrilled to bits when she asked would Selsdon and I like to be part of it, Mara with her 2 GSD was the other team. The day that we had arrange to be filmed had been forcast to reach 39 c so we decide on a really early start. Have to say it was great fun and now we know just what the movie stars have to put up with all the stopping and starting, retakes etc. Matthew, Lesley nephew did the filming, he is currently at Uni working toward at degree in film production. I had warned him before hand how fast Selsdon was, but I really dont think he was fully prepared for just how fast he was. We got stopped heaps of times and I was beinging to worry if this would effect Selsdon or not, but no need to have worried, seemed the more we stopped and started the keener he got, he just amazed me.
His first tacked was in a little bit of bush not far from home, and there was different surfaces for him to travel over, he worked his start really well and not far down the first leg we were asked to stop with the film crew caught us up. Even when Matthew was in front of us on the track filming us Selsdon went passed like he was not even there, felt sure he would stop for a Hello, but no, he was a boy on a mission.
Second track was variable terrain track where he free quarted the start off lead and as he got to the start line he had to cross onto burnt surface, even I could smell the burnt ground, and I thought he was finding it a bit hard to find the tracks so as he had not gone across the start line I resented him and he picked up the track no problems at all, so called him back attached the lead to the harness and we were off and running.
The third track we did the following Monday. He blew me away with his start on hard surface (first time he had every started on a hard surface), our local shopping centre near a taven with alot of containation, he worked it out very well and he was off, taking no notice of people when he had to squeeze between and man with a wheel chair and 2 children with bikes, it was just like there were not there.
I was very proud of the terrific job that he did on all 3 tracks, and Matthew has made me a special DVD of his 3 tracks, and when I get some free time I will work out how to load it into the video section for you to check out. Hope you enjoy watching it as much as we did making it.
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8/11/08 - It was my turn to map out tracks for us all to work our dogs on, so with the help of Lesley they were all done around the suburb I live in. We had a terrific morning, cool to start with but warmed up very quickly. Michael was up first as he has the more experienced dog and we were starting in our local shopping centre, a great team and they worked the start very well. I took a video of the start if you would like to check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWEsPzvtx4
Brendan and Alex were our track layers and did a fabulous job, 7 tracks were layed at around 1.2 Km long. Selsdon and I were on track 6. His start was in a lane way, gave him the scent and he was off. He worked beautifully and we had to cross a very busy road, but managed that very well and he was not bothered by all the cars that were zooming past us either. Ignored the cat that strolled across our track which quickly hopped over the fence when it saw us. Across more roads, round corner, down lane ways we went, never a foot wrong. Then into a park to find the Brendan our tracklayer hiding behind a tree. Another fabulous day out there with Selsdon doing what we both love ..... tracking.
There is now a vidoe of Selsdon working about a month ago, check it out on the video page.
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25/10/08 - Another exciting day out on the roads doing our search dog training. Rain was forecast but it stayed away, nice cool breeze for part of the morning, but sun quite warm when it peeped out from the clouds. No a bad day for tracking out there with my best friend Selsdon.
He was on the second track which had been layed by Lesley our trainer, starting on the grass along side a road. We were on the left hand side of the road, but he decided to change over to the right side after we had been going a short while, now we were off and running. We turned right at our first corner crossing over the road to travel on the left side this time, then we arrived at a parking area that looked surrounded by fence, he went and check along side the building then came out into the carpark, heading off towards the fence as I looked up I notice a small opening and sure enough that was where he was headed, I thought he had got it wrong for a minute or two, but no he was right, thru the opening, then he got him to sit and wait as there was a very busy road in front of us to cross. He turned right and headed into a park, cutting straight across, now dipping his nose a bit more often, so felt confident he was correct, Michael who was reading the map said afterwards he thought he should have followed the path around but Lesley said no, she had cut across the park.
We had track a fair way and we were coming down one road and I just had a feeling he should have been on the left side, the road curving to the right and he had gone to the next corner but then indicated lost, so I backed him up to where I thought he was right and we had about 3 options we could take. One being a park on the same side of the road as us which he had gone in before to check, so he went in there again, but came out, obviously not right. He then crossed the road and went over to street that had a "no thru road" sign on it but that does not mean there would not be a way for us to get thru, but he had a paddle in the puddle to cool his feet came and headed back down the way we had gone but on the other side of the road. Only gone a couple of metres past the first house and there was an alley way he turned was in there like a shot, yes it was right and he was a boy on a mission. This twisted and turned a bit but came out on another busy road where we waited to cross. Turned to the right and entered another park, well he certainly picked up his speed and headed over to a thick bush so I thought Lesley might be hiding in there, but no, then he shot around a huge big water tank and sure enought the tail was now going a hundred miles an hour and I could hear Lesley talking to him. Yipee he had done it again, he quite blows me away with how well he does it.
Talking when we finished one of the girls asked had I noticed how he tried to short cut through a school which was all fenced in? I said while he was really keen there I just thought it was because the scent would have blown in there but no Mr Smarty Pants was trying for a short cut to his next leg, which is allowed in competition as they as suppose to get to the lost person by the quickest means possible. Lesley asked how we went and I told her really well she said it was one of the harder track, so very proud of Selsdon.
Out next training lesson is going to be in the couple of week and at night. Very excited about this, not done one at night before so going to be interesting to see what he does.
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11/10/08 - Back on the streets for some more search dog training, getting too hot to be in the bush with the snakes. Ideal morning for the dogs and handler as there was a nice gentle cool breeze blowing. Mara had organised the tracks and her 2 grandsons were are tracklayers again, they sure did a fabulous job. Selsdon and I sure joined by Sue and her GSD Barnie, Jetta and her GSD Nips, Pam with Axle also a GSD and Jim with his Rotti Juno. Michael was there busy keeping an eye on the traffic while also taking video's and photo's of it all. Lesley gave us all a safety lecture to start with making sure we kept and eye out for each other with the traffic and any other hazards that might happen along. Hard to believe that is has been almost 12 months since Selsdon has been on this sort of terrain and he was just fabulous, even though he did take a short cut down a lane way, rather than going all the way around via the streets. Must have been thinking of my tired legs, still its allowed and he had not problems picking up the scent on the other side. Except for Sue and I it was the first time for the others and they were amazed how well their dogs did, they were all terrific. For the last track of the day, three of us followed behind each other, Selsdon being the last dog to set off. He had a fabulous start and was out of the park, across a road and up the next street before we knew it. No short cuts on this track and he was just excellent, he quite blew me away, Lesley and I both agree this sort of tracking sure is Selsdon's "thing". Looking forward to our next training day and hopefully the weather wont be too hot.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Training 2/8/08, Lesley was getting some tracks layed down for the search dogs to work on after morning tea, so I went off and did some work with Taylor first. Seams the others had done their tracks by the time I arrived for morning tea and it was just Selsdon and I to have a go on a aged track. Turns out that Selsdon track was 4.1/2 hours old, now there was a challenge, but happy to say he handled it very well, in fact I was very impressed. Walked him over to the article lead attached to his flat collar and harness fully on, gave him the scent, undid the lead and told him to find. Free quarted to the right, dashed over to the left, back again during one of these passes he did dip his nose in one spot, I remembered that area, and then on one of his sweeps he took the line he had indicated, so thought that has to be the track as he had travelled up there a couple of metres. Told him "good boy" and called him back, as he was coming in asked Lesley if he was right, yipee sure enough he was. Attached the lead and we were off up the first leg. Now this was interesting as not only had the track layer walked the first leg, but so had another person about 30 mintues after the tracklayer, the second person, then crossed over the track and diverted off (cross track) to the right, Lesley said he did not even bother about where the person had crossed his track. First corner he had a bit of trouble with but I cast him around and after a short while he found it and down the next leg, a mob of Kangaroos passed across our track, I did not even see them as I was just watching my dog the whole time. He went a bit off to the right and we think that he was following the Roo's but worked his way back on and up a very slight incline to find the track layer. He worked very well on the oldest track he has every done, and as usual I was very proud of him. Now looking forward to seeing what Lesley has in store for us on our next training day, its just so exciting to watch the dogs work with this new freedom.
------------------------------------------------------------ Training after our trial on 26/7/08. Lesley asked would I like to do some training on starts with Selsdon as we got the rule slightly wrong the week before. Seams that the dog may go over the start line, but not the handler until such time as the lead is attached to the harness. Good news, as it was getting a bit difficult to stop my fast dog before the line and sometimes I was not quite certain he had picked up the line. Out came Selsdon, ever ready to be working. First go was with the lead attached to his flat collar untill he was on the track, lead must be loose and handler not allowed to be seen leading the dog, yep he was soon picked up the track, stopped to put the lead onto the harness and we were off and running. Start No 2, while his harness was on correctly I walked him to the scent article on his lead which was attached to his collar. Once he had a good sniff of the start article, unattached the lead and allowed him to fee quarter the start , waited while he gave really good indication he was on the track, probably travel a couple of metres, told him good boy then called him in to get his lead and me attached and he was off once again. Stopping and restarting him just seams to make him all that much keener to go, not that it was ever a problem before, always enthusiasic to be working. Start No 3 was really great as well, and I found it much easier now that I did not have to stop him if he crossed over the start line. These starts had been done on very fresh scents, so as Lesley said its going to be interesting to see how thedog would go once we start ageing the tracks.
---------------------------------------------------------- The last 3 weeks we have started on the Search dog training. The week of19/7/08 was our first week and Lesley had us working on the starts. Similar to a test 6 start where there are 2 markers placed about 20 metres apart and this is the "starting line" which the dog and handle may not cross unless the dogs have their harness on and attached to the lead. Lesley had gone off about 1/2 hour before and layed a short track in the shape of a U, I was allowed to put his harness on but not done up, and the lead attached to his flat collar, cast him out and keep my eye on him for any indication of where the track started (for this training I actually knew where Lesley had gone), as soon as he indicated the line, without either of us crossing the start, I called him back to me to do up the harness and attached the lead, well he sure had other ideas and before I knew it, he wriggled out of his flat collars and down the track all on his own.
So called him back and start No 2, and because he was so fast decided this time I thought I would actually do up his harness to save time, we did the same thing, yes got the line, so called him back actually got the lead attached to the harness but in my keeness must not have done harness up properly and here he was down the track with out his harness on again. He is always keen to get going and works very fast, but this was just amazing. Try No 3 and Lesley got Michael to lay another track and we started with lead attached to the harness this time, and I just cast him out, and he picked the line and we were off and running.
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In Australia once our dogs have attained their Tracking Champion title they can no long compete in trials. However this year our State Tracking Committee put forward a proposal which had been put together by Lesley Van Rhyan, Trackwests training co-ordinator, for some new and exciting tracking titles to be approved by ANKC, we currently waiting on the final seal of approval.
During our training season last year Lesley introduced some of our club (Trackwest Inc.) members to some really different methods of tracking with our dogs. For competition tracking the dog must not air scent but with Search dog tracking is air scenting encouraged so that they find the lost person in the quickest time and method available.
In December 2007 Selsdon and I were invited to join a group to try our hand (paws) at variable terrain tracking, where the dogs got to work over a variety of different surfaces. We arrived at the meeting place to find out we were the only non GSD, I asked Selsdon did he slightly intimidated as all the others were either Tracking Champions or had been involved in SES work, we were the real novice of the group. Have to say we really enjoyed it and Selsdon in his true style took to it like a duck to water, we had a ball. Across very busy roads, in peoples gardens, over wooden and metal bridges, parks, across a drive way with children playing basketball but he was not put off by any of it. One thing I did notice was he did very little of his usual drifting over this track.
A couple of weeks later we had our second attempt, this time we were finding a young boy, we started of on a small park on top of a hill where it was very windy. He came down the hill a bit as I guessed the wind would have blown the scent into the garden that surrounded the park, but he worked around and found the track and we were off and running. We were in one of the northern suburbs of Perth and area unknown to both of us but Selsdon was not fazed at all and worked really well over the different surfaces, across busy roads, and when we were comming to the end of our track we crossed over into a park area that had a huge lake. He headed for the water, so I thought that would be right, thinks he is going to have a swim.... loves the water, but no sniffed out the bushes that were on the edge then on the path and followed it round, up a hill and there laying on a park bench was the boy we had been following. I was astounded how well he tracked on all these different surfaces when we had only ever tracked in the bush before. Very exciting.... check often for more news.
