Well shucks! The dog was ready, I thought I was ready. It was cold, but beautiful. The first two TD dogs passed. We had drawn track #3. Kip took off from the start flag like he meant business.
There is a black and White Cardi at the end of that lead
Isn’t this a Beautiful Tracking Area?
Kip was workmanlike through three legs. At the third corner (an open turn), the line tangled on some low branches — twice — I unwrapped it, and thought we were on our way when one of our local jackrabbits (every bit as large as a Cardi) leapt out of the brush right under Kip’s nose. Kip sat up on his haunches. He really wanted to pursue. I watered and rescented him, but the rabbit was his excuse to stop tracking and just dink around. I thought he had finally committed to a left turn, but he really should have gone right — WHISTLE! We put him back on the track and he went straight to the glove. We had one TDX pass and the dog that ran the alternate TDX track passed (but no title, of course). So, tomorrow I’ll FedEx our entry to El Paso for the January 25th test down there. I have to figure out what to do with the other dogs because Kip needs to be THE DOG for the trip so his confidence is up there. . . . and I really believed!
Tom says “I’m not sure why anyone wants to do this.” I told him that it’s to develop patience.
Darn jacki-rabbits, deer, geese, gray-diggers, and all of the other things that are out there that are way more interesting.
Darn Rabbit. Hopefully next time will be a beautiful track, with no rabbits in the way.
If only I could say “Another day, another dog show”, but it doesn’t work that way with tracking 😉
It’s a shame he had such a GOOD start, but flopped in the middle. Ick! Good luck next try!
It sounds like he was so very close to passing this time–I bet the next time he will! Good luck!
Oh bummer. It looks absolutely beautiful there!