Yesterday afternoon, Kip and I drove to El Paso for the Tracking Club of El Paso’s 12-dog TD test. I’ll do a second post with photos of the sky and mountains — what a glorious day for a drive!
The weekend started on Friday when I went to get a haircut and was driving directly toward the fattest rainbow I have ever seen. It was so brilliant that even the purple edge was clear (No, I did not have my camera and even if I had, I was on the freeway).
We arrived at our motel yesterday around 5:00 — a spotlessly clean LaQuinta (that’s always a good omen), then club members, judges, and a couple of exhibitors (I was one) went to Olive Garden for dinner. Lots of good tracking talk — normal dog event dinner.
This morning I followed our judges to Fort Bliss where the test is held. All twelve slots were filled, with one alternate. It was a stunning day (as I said — photos in another post). We drew track #6, so hung out and cheered for the first five teams, all of which passed. The sun was a little strong for a black dog, but our Kip got down to business. Below is a map of our 450 yard track — TCEP member Marita Patterson made the stickers that embellish it. The Judges and my tracklayer signed it. Cool, huh? We’ve been training for VST so Kip got really happy when he found a beer can — unfortunately, he had to trudge another ten yards to the leather glove.
After all tracks were run (11 out of 12 passes, plus the alternate track was a pass — though that last one isn’t a title), the El Paso Club fed us homemade lasagna, and salads, and great homemade desserts. The Judges, Leslie Swisher from Albuquerque, and Jeff Shaver from Houston signed all the gloves and all the maps, gave out big green rosettes and we had photos taken. An 8 x 10 photo was the prize. The photographer took a couple of photos with my camera for the blog — later.
So, Kip says, you can talk to the glove! Yippee! AND HERE IT IS! He’s now Arylan First Edition CDT CD RN TD (AKC no longer combines the title abbreviations)!
