Another wonderful day in the big forest

Early morning departure... we were all going to meet in the middle of Rold Forest at 9am. This time I remembered to bring a LARGE lunch packet and lots of tea - all that fresh air makes you hungry.
Today the tracks had to be official test quality: 400 m and rested for 4 hrs. So after laying the tracks we went back to the hunting hut and later we all went for a fun ride on a cart through a small part of Rold

By the time we were back the tracks were ready and we went out to see if the dogs had improved since last time... Some of them are becoming pretty stable trackers and Sammy did a not bad full test size track - she lost it once, as she just HATED having the wind right in her face and it confused her no end, but she was very enthusiastic and worked hard, so it was a real please for both of us to do it.

Puppy puberty.... phew

Funny, my beautiful, sweet, easy going little puppy has disappeared...... instead has arrived a long legged monster, suffering from attention deficiency and hyper activity. She is testing her limits continously: for how long can I bark at Yankee before he gets annoyed? how much can I bite Sammy before she beats me up? will mummy REALLY scold me if I chew this? or that? or perhaps this?
sigh..... I KNOW ... it is a passing phase... necessary for any youngster to find her place in the pack, learn to behave, etc, etc..... but, I do think we all look very much forward to it being over again.

Tired dogs..........

Tracking practice today - no point in driving up to the forest once a month if the dogs are not trained at home. Thawed the blood, found the legs of deer (the treasure the dog finds at the end of the track) and went out to lay the tracks - an easy one for Funny and far more complicated ones for Yankee and Sammy.
Hours later - the difference in the ability and experience between the three dogs is astounding: Funny, happily sniffing from blood spot to blood spot, but not really getting the idea about forward motion or that a great reward is waiting at the end, and just as happy going backwards as forwards - Sammy, eons better, strong forward motion, a few insecurities mainly due to human errors, finding her leg smoothly even through the last bit of wet black bog water.
Yankee - the professional - full line, full speed, no errors, taking the turn in the same speed as the straight bit, doing his track in less than half the time it took Sammy - and proudly carrying his leg all the way home.
Now they are all asleep, also Eliza who had her nice long walk - the RRs are so tired that they hardly stirred at dinner time - using your nose is exhausting business