Gesundheit

(Cottonwood, AZ) We got up bright and early....okay 8:00am...so that we could get ready and head over to the agility field. There is a person in town that has a huge yard. A portion of it is set up as an agility ring, there are two obedience rings set up, and there is lots of empty land to do other various activities. If you join their club then you can practice as much as you want for the year. Even though we are only in town a couple weeks a year, we sign up each year.

We took Sparkie, Wazzu, and Boogie with us - Wazzu came along just because she wanted to be with me. Sparkie and Boogie got to do some agility practice but Boogie got too hot in just minutes. (Guess we'll have to come even earlier tomorrow morning so Boogie doesn't get so hot.) So I laid a few tracks for Boogie to practice his tracking.

The ground material was shorter, mostly dead, grass. There was a little breeze but you really had to take notice to know it was there. I decided to set shorter tracks today as I was going to age them and not let him watch them being laid.

Boogie started out great! Look at his little nose right to the ground.




He was perfect, leading me right to the end. Whoops, he went right past the glove. He had his little nose way down in the dead leaves. I could hear him sniffing. He finally found the glove and gave it to me (you can see it under my arm) so he was getting lots of treats.




But then the trouble began. He must have sniffed really hard and got something up his nose. He couldn't stop sneezing. These sneezes were so violent they would knock him over.

So while he was sneezing, I set up another track. He didn't do so well on this one. I'm thinking he couldn't smell because he had something up his nose. So we let him rest for close to an hour before he could stop sneezing. Then I set one last track.

This one wasn't long (neither were the others) but as I was setting it I realized it was going to be very hard. I had to go right over gopher holes and next to a fence where dogs were barking furiously at me.

I was so proud of Boogie on this track. He stopped once to try to dig up the gopher. I let him dig a few seconds then said "Go Track". He immediately stopped digging (wow, that's a first!) and started tracking again. We had about 15 yards to go when one of the barking dogs came under the fence, barking and trying to follow Boogie. He was within two to three feet from Boogie but he didn't pay one bit of attention to the dog. He was completely focused on his track and found the glove perfectly. Good Boy!

2iggie has been learning so many things from the other four dogs. But I noticed that Boogie has picked something up from 2iggie. She always stands with one paw up when she is the slightest bit interested in anything.

So now Boogie is doing that.




Oh, I forgot! Over the weekend at the agility trial in Boulder City, NV, Boogie reached a big milestone. He earned his 2,500 NADAC point award.

Debbie
3/16/10