weekend gone to the dogs

This weekend has been all dog - yesterday, while the weather was still fair, the girls: Sammy, Funny and I went north to do blood spoor all day. TO my great surprise Funny, my scatter brained little blondie came out of it best, she is by no means fast, but she finds every drop of blood and sniffs it for a looong time - almost as much reward as when she finally finds the leg of deer hidden for her. Sammy on the other hand was "lucky" enough to have her tracking area taken over by a large heard of deer in rut.... they ran off when we came but the smell between the trees was dense and much more interesting than the 3 hour old human laid track. At one stage she walked on her hind legs looking up in the trees..... the smell must have been still lingering in deer head height.

At the very end I was lucky enough to be invited on a real search - a hunter in the forest across the road "might" have hit a stag and as it is important to make sure no wounded animals suffers in the woods, Rod, a professional, certified "Schweiss" dog (AND the top show dog in Denmark too) was put into his pretty red harness and put to work at the place where the herd had been seen last. It was amazing to see him work, his strength and determination carried him through the thickest brush and his owner and the rest of us just had to follow regardless of branches, water and brambles. However, to Rods disgust and the deers luck, it turned out that the deer had only been superficially grazed and was already far away with its herd, so he didnt find it.
Today was trial day - Funny had to pass her Junior obedience examn and Sammy and Yankee were both entered in Rally-O
I am happy and proud to say that all three passed with a first! Funny got full marks in everything apart from down stay (we didnt even attempt that) and both Yankee and Sammy got many praises from the judge who said that only human errors prevented them getting full marks.