Selsdon at 9.5 years old.
Selsdon is a very handsome liver Flat Coat dog, who gives more than 100% to everything he does.
Selsdon was shown for a limited time, until we both thought it was a bit boring and went out to find more exciting things to do. While he knows all the basic obedience and a bit of the UD excercises we have not bothered to compete, not really his thing. However, we have competed in agility, where the tunnels were like a giant vacumm as there was just no way that he could pass one without a run though, even if that was not the next item on the course. I decided to give that away when they made changes to the equipment and I thought it was no longer save for a large dog, and I did not want him to be a cripple in his old age.
So then we went off to tracking, and I have to say this sure is Selsdon's "thing", he loves it. I am very proud of him as he was the first Flat Coated Retriever to ever hold a tracking title in our state of Western Australia. In 2006 he passed Test 1 & 2 to get his Tracking Dog title, also passed his Test 3. 2007 we had a few interuption to his training and trialing, but he passed his test 4 then on the very last trial of the year passed Test 5 to get his Tracking Dog Excellent title, a very exciting day for us both. Not bad for a novice handler and dog, I thought. 2008 started off with a BIG bang, on our very first trial of the season I had entered Selsdon for his first attempt at his Test 6 which is for his Tracking Champion Title, and my wonderful boy did me very proud with pass. It really did not have time to sink in that day as I had also entered Taylor for her Test 1, and she was on straight after, and not one to be outdone by her big brother she also passed.
One of the great highlights of his tracking career was when the Flat Coated Retriever Association in Australia awarded him with Tracking Dog of the Year for 2006.
We have had a couple of tries at variable terrain tracking which is done around the suburbs of Perth, much different to our normal tracking which is done in a beautiful pine forest. VTT is much harder for the dogs, but in true Flat Coat style he took to it like a duck to water. This is now part of our new tracking titles where Tracking Champions can now compete for Search Dog titles, so stay tuned to see how we go with the new adventure. Check out how our training is going on the Search Dog page.
6/2/09 - Movie "STAR" Selsdon doing some tracks on Search Dog, so check out the details of the DVD made for our judges training here and in Victoria, he sure did his breed proud. Thrilled to bits with him. Watch out Brad Pitt!
19/7/09 - After a break of 14 months from tracking trial, Selsdon was entered in the new Tracking Search Dog titles trial and gets his first pass. Yipee
25/11/09 - Well its hard to beleive but Selsdon is 9 years young today, where has the time gone, only seems like yesterday that I brought this cute little bundle of fluff home. Very happy 9th BIRTHDAY.
30/5/10 - Months have gone by and no updates. Selsdon had a bit of a health scare a couple of weeks back, he had a lump on his side which the vet said was a fatty tissue and had it for quite some time, but then all of a sudden it increased in size, so we decided to have it off. I was very relieved to get the Biopsy report saying it was a Fibrolipoma and should not return, thank goodness. That out of the way and this last week or so he has joined in the tracking tracking full of enthusiam as usual. So looking forward to trying him out at the next lot of Search Dog tests at the end of next month.
