I just had the most amazing weekend of my life.
On Friday afternoon I left to go to the Greater Kansas City Dog Training Club’s double trial on Saturday with Rick and Riva in tow. I got down there Friday night in time to do the training match only to discover that I had left Rick’s dumbbell at home. This was a first in 35 years of showing dogs :-) Several kind souls offered up various dumbbells for Rick’s use, and after a few practice throws, Rick decided the replacement was ok :-)
Rick went in to the weekend with 96 OTCH points, so a couple second places would do the trick. He placed second in Open at the first trial with a 197 ½ for two points, so we only had two points to go! At the second trial, Rick won Utility with 198 for ten more points, and finished his OTCH! Good Boy Triple Champion Rick! The GKCDTC really knows how to put on a show, Rick won a bunch of goodies including a gas card for first place, and a utility bar that people signed like a MACH bar, what a cool idea!
Newly crowned OTCH Rick, Riva, and I left Kansas City on Saturday night for the five hour drive to Tulsa, where Riva was entered in a VST (Variable Surface Tracking) test on Sunday. We didn’t share that information with very many people, as I wanted to just travel under the radar. Sunday morning dawned sunny and WARM. We were lucky enough to draw Track 2, before the sun really kicked in.
The track started on grass. Riva started beautifully, and shortly down the track, a neighborhood boxer charged the fence barking at Riva, which badly startled us both. Unknown to me at the time, that happened close to the first turn (a short first leg.) I thought the first leg would be longer, and when Riva went down the second leg of the track I wondered if she was just trying to get away from the barking, snarling Boxer. Since she seemed to be tracking, I made the (good) decision to go with her. Riva then entered the opening to a covered parking garage. As she went in to the garage, her nose turned to the left, and she then continued forward, all the way through the garage and out the other end. When she came out of the garage, she cast around a bit but didn’t commit, so we backed up and worked our way back in to the garage. Riva went down the second half of the garage, then broke off and came back, and we worked our way back towards the original opening. Riva’s nose then snagged on the crack in the pavement, and off she went, and we soon spied an article ahead of us (a crushed wire basket of some kind.) GOOD GIRLIE!
Off we went after the article, and the track came out of the parking garage and after a little casting, Riva hung a right. We then went through some sidewalks and other areas and came to the corner of the building, where Riva turned hard left. Over sidewalks, grass, bricks, and to another article (bandana). NOW I was getting nervous.
After the second article, the track crossed a road and went in to a grassy area. Riva showed loss of track and went left. As I followed her I questioned her whether it really went that way, and she broke off and turned around and went right. Now I knew we were on the last leg and my heart was pounding. After our near miss at her last test in October, I didn’t think I could take that disappointment again. Riva too knew we were at the end, and she was diving on every piece of trash she could find that might be an article. Her tongue was hanging out and she was getting HOT. Finally, ahead of us, was a plastic article with the coveted number four on it, and our long training journey culminated in a PASS, a Tracking Champion, an AKC Versatility Champion, and now a QUINTUPLE Champion (Riva is now a conformation champion, an agility champion, an obedience champion, a herding champion and, finally, a tracking champion.)
Just like the obedience club the day before, the Indian Nations Tracking Club knows how to do up a tracking test, with a beautiful plaque customized with Riva’s name on it and a place for a picture, and longtime INTC member Ruth Harris donated $100 per pass so each passing team received their entry fee back. Wow! There was also another pass, a 12 year old Border Terrier, who had had some of the same “near misses” at previous tests that Riva had had. A very exciting day for the old girls (and I mean the dogs, not their handlers <g>)!
An OTCH on Saturday and a CT/Quintuple CH on Sunday, oh MY.
I have many people to thank, and I hope I don’t forget anybody. First of all the biggest thanks goes to my long suffering husband George who had to listen to more whining then anybody else and deal with the occasional tears after the flunks. Thanks to my friend Dee Nelson who started the VST journey with me and laid MANY MANY tracks for Riva. I especially remember one day that Dee and I tracked with Riva and Powder in the rain at Iowa Western, and we marveled at what our dogs could do. Also thanks to Dee Dee Rose who turned me on to Steve White and the HITT tracking method (Hydration Intensified Tracking Training). Thanks to my friend Sharon Brewer for the many, many hours spent discussing tracking, VST, and various other subjects <g> often over a bottle (or two!) of wine. Thanks also to Bert, Linda, Pam, Deb, Norine, and Peggy for listening for literally years about this tracking thing I wanted so badly. HUGE thanks to Jerry Lewis for his inspiration, his positive energy, and his constant belief that Riva and I could do this. Thanks to Vince Ramirez for the training advice over the years, and who said to me as I went out on Riva’s track Sunday morning that my dog DESERVED to pass. Thanks to Dian Quist Sulek who told me to NEVER give up, and who laid many tracks for Riva and offered up much advice and encouragement. Thanks to the judges Carol Clark and Charlene Dunn, who plotted a fair and doable track, and then gave Riva and I the time and space to be succesful. And thanks to the Indian Nations Tracking Club, especially Bob and Gail Brown, for their hard work and wonderful hospitality.
Obviously, it takes a village to earn a VST :-)
This is truly the HARDEST thing I have EVER done in dogs, and this is spoken by the person who was the world’s biggest herding idiot ten years ago. What I went through to get the VST made the HC’s look easy :-)
But the biggest thanks of all goes to my wonderful Riva, my best girl friend and my constant companion. Riva is almost 13 years old, and what she has accomplished is nothing short of incredible. George and I shared a bottle of wine when I got home late on Sunday night, and we talked about how the time had been growing short for Riva to earn this title. I told George that I would have walked away from the quest in a heartbeat, but not once did Riva ever say to me, “You know, I really don’t care to do this any more”. She was ALWAYS up and ready to go when I said “Do you wanna go track?”
And of course the excitment and elation is tinged with a hint of sadness, as the training journey really has come to an end. How lucky was I to have met up with this incredible animal. I hope that she feels the same.
Gerianne and Quintuple Champion Riva
I've seen and recorded dog trainers for years in the process of producing our award winning instructional titles and as the trends in training have leaned toward more "clean" techniques, the question of whether people use markers is asked more and more often. The answer is almost invariably yes. When asked what is used as a marker, the most common response is the word "yes" or "good". Here's the hitch. When many trainers claim they use markers, and I speak from having watched countless hours of video footage of it, they actually don't. What often happens is that the verbal marker is changed, the inflection of it's use varies and it's appearance in training is very inconsistent. BUT....some is better than none. The majority of trainers are using a reward based system for teaching and shaping new behaviors and providing some level of feedback to the dog! Even if a dog is trained with nothing more than leash and collar, it's better that he at least be told when he did the right thing than simply be punished for not doing it. He would have a chance...