On Saturday mornings, at 5:30, three normally markedly more nocturnal creatures rise from their slumber, and head for a congregation of like minded people in one field or another.
Mornings are simply the most beautiful part of a day. The world is fresh and new, seemingly sparkling with delight in the soft sunshine.
But we are not out here to admire the beautiful morning, no. Well, not entirely. We are here to plant a pole in the ground, and armed with a chunk of raw animal, walk away from that pole in strange patterns, carefully counting out steps as we go.
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| Look carefully, and you can spot the human walking in a straight line away from the pole, laying a track. Tip: She's in front of the mine dump. |
At the end of your particular pattern, which, for those just starting out is a straight line, but for those quite advanced can be an 'R' shape, an 'h' shape, or even the infamous 'B', you commit your chunk of animal to the care of the grassy field, step over it, and carefully walk back to where the cars are parked and the dogs are waiting eagerly. Beginner dogs will set out nearly straight away, but more experienced dogs can wait for a long time, sometimes several hours, or even a day, before they are asked to follow their track.
Kira is not one for overt shows of excitement. Sure, she likes treats, and she loves belly rubs, but aside from the most wonderful dance for her daily walk and the occasional bone, she maintains an air of stoic dignity. Not so at the tracking fields. Impatiently she barks at you from her crate as soon as she becomes aware of your approach. She can barely stand still for her harness to come on, can barely contain herself as you clip the ten meter long line to it.
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| C'mon Nina! |
Impatiently she jumps up at me, prompting me to get to the starting pole faster, faster.
When we reach the pole, magic happens. You approach the pole you planted and touched, and Kira changes. Her whole self awareness shrinks down to her nose, and after what seems like the briefest of sniffs at the base of the pole, we're off. I let the line play out until she's about seven meters away from me, enough distance to let her work on her own, but close enough that I am there, performing my duty of marking the last known point where she was correctly on the track. Mine are small dogs, Kira nearly disappears into the summer grass.
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| #smalldogproblems |
Following an invisible path through a field, one consisting of your scent only, that your human eyes cannot see, that you have only the barest of remembrance of exactly where you stepped, is a humbling experience. Kira tracks well over 300 meters, and while I definitely have the general gist of where I went, she can tell me where I stepped and how long I lingered there. Halfway along, her track veers sharply to the right - we are teaching her to do corners, is the official reason. This seems absurd, though, when Kira takes the corner without stopping, without hesitation. She just smoothly turns right and continues. Teach her this, this skill that is as basic to her as breathing? We are fooling ourselves.
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| Om nom nom! |
Of course, this whole adventure is hardly humbling for Kira, who delights in forging ahead at great speed, occasionally looking back with a grin as if to laugh at me and my inadequate senses.
Sooner than you think, Kira is upon her prize, and while I sing her praises she eats it.
Where Kira is just amazing at tracking, unstoppable, unflappable, and with a confidence and accuracy that belies her short career, Talos is not. Compared to Kira, to me, Talos seems downright slow, but in all fairness, she is about average at this tracking game. Slow, methodical, and insisting upon dead silence while she works, where Kira could not care less if you were to pull out a marching band and dance a can-can, as long as you walk faster, already.
Talos also nearly disappears into the lushness of summer.
Talos tracks a hundred meters, despite having been at this for much longer. But I am proud of every step, because malicious rumour has it that pugs cannot do this. I can truthfully say rumour is false, that while Talos is average, she is as good as any other average dog. I am quite sure there are pugs that are better at this, with more focus for this kind of task, as I am quite sure that there are fairy-headed basset hounds that will be quite inept, though I suspect both cases are about equally rare. Either way, learning independent working, and learning to both use, and trust their nose, is a great skill we must encourage in our dogs - most especially those who tend to ignore it!
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| Good pug. That will most definitely do. |
This does not take away from the fact that my little pug sniffs her starter pole, and sets out on her invisible path into the field, leading me to the prize. We are developing her confidence, as you can see, we crossed a footpath this morning - difficult for many dogs, they tend to follow along the path in stead of sniffing out the fainter scent of their own human leading back into the brush. But no problems here, slowly, carefully my puggy lady sniffed my trail, and slowly, carefully she sniffed the path, before moving right over it and back into the tall grass.
Hers was a very well earned reward at the end, today.
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| Talos is never one to let an opportunity to have fun pass her by. |
Afterwards, what would a good morning be without some frolicking in the grass?
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| At tracking, the silly side of Kira comes out, and she happily bounds through the tall grass, chasing fairies that only she can see. Undoubtedly the star of the morning, her normally reserved self just can't help it. Whee! |
With this in mind, do consider giving tracking a go. Unlike many dog sports, you need next to no equipment, and while handling a long line and learning to read your dog's body language take a bit of finesse, both are easily learnt with a bit of practice.
You will need a long line, which is quickly made out of some rope and a clip, a harness, which you likely have already, and a chunk of meat from the butchery. These are easy and useful things to have anyway, and while you can often borrow one, the pole is little more than a broomstick with a spike on one end. In our experience, the trainers gently, slowly, encouragingly coax your dog over time - you cannot force a dog to track.
The activity is suitable even for physically less strong dogs, like Talos, they merely need to be able to move forwards (though, if like my two, you will track through tall grass, some fitness may be required for them to keep bunny hopping for 300 meters, like Kira tries to do).
It's really hard work for the dogs, despite the relatively physically undemanding nature. Both of them sag down into their crates when we head home afterwards and are completely out for the whole drive and for most of the rest of the day. Well earned sleep, I say!
To recap, the good and bad of tracking:
Good:
The sheer magic of 'seeing' through a dog's nose
Really easy to get started
Little to no equipment needed
Physically relatively undemanding for both dog and human - both must be able to walk for moderate distances
Encourages independent thought and confidence in a dog
Safe even for dog/human reactive dogs - dogs are on lead, and widely spaced in a large area
Bad:
Early mornings
Involves some travel to get to large open spaces
Can be very slow paced
Lots of exposure to ticks
