K9 Leadership

13/08/2024

Don’t tell the dogs, but back to school is right around the corner!

Take a look at our Fall 2024 schedule! We like to keep busy 😌 Subject to change and puppy classes will be added, too!

We are so looking forward to getting back to our regular schedule for group classes.

Send us a message or book in through your online account.

Hope to see you there!

09/08/2024

Did you hear? We’re revamping our website and are looking to share testimonials from past & current students. Did you enjoy a class with us? Did your dog? How did it affect your relationship and what changes have you seen?

We would love to hear from you!

You can leave us a Google review, or send feedback to Matilda at [email protected]

The K9 Leadership team thanks you!

14/06/2024

A huge 🌟 Congratulations 🌟to all the successful teams of the recent CKC Urban Tracking trial!

Featured in the pics are our 2 new Tracking Champions Diane with Hazel and Janel with Draco! And we are so proud of Corinne with the small but mighty Annie who passed their UTD!

We are so impressed with these teams for putting in all the hours and hard work it takes to get to this level of efficient teamwork. It’s no easy feat!

A huge THANK YOU! To Donna Brinkworth who made the trek out to judge for us. Thanks to Donna, Deb V was able to complete another assignment for her apprenticeship. Soon we will have another local judge!

Last but not least, thank you to all our track layers. You gave up your weekends to give back to the tracking community and we appreciate you all very much!

02/05/2024

My little night owl is only interested in training at night.

02/05/2024

17/03/2024

A whole bunch of successful Dog Leadership Level 1 students!

These guys worked hard for 6 weeks and boy, did it pay off! Such huge improvements across the board.

But, the work is not finished yet! On to Level 2 starting next week.

14/03/2024

We’re hosting a seminar!

K9 Leadership and the Western Great Dane Club of BC are teaming up to host a one day seminar on scent theory and its application to tracking.

All proceeds from this seminar will go towards fees for bringing out tracking judge Donna Brinkworth for the Great Dane Club’s upcoming urban trial.

This will allow several of our students to complete their TCh (Tracking Championship). We hope to be able to bring her out in the fall as well, which will help our newest judge, Deb V, complete another apprenticeship.

When:
• April 7th
• 9am - 1pm

Where:
• Indoors in Central Langley
• We have been invited to use a boardroom of Barb of the Western Great Dane clubs husband’s business

What to expect:
• Coffee, snacks and lunch
• Great theory from Teri
• Applied theory from Maureen, track laying examples
• Time for questions and some discussion at the end
• Theory only, no dogs this time!

Registration can be completed by emailing Barb at [email protected]. Send her your name and contact info and she will send you instructions for payment and an address. Each spot is $65.

It should be a great day, we hope to see you there!!

11/03/2024

Team Michel + Skyy and team Jeff + Mello both did awesome work at the recent trial!

These two teams got their start with Laurel in Odour Detection level 1 & 2 and have kept working to become trial-ready!

Way to go teams!
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24/02/2024

Have you heard about Wilderness Search?

This is a fast, fun filled course where dogs learn to search for a person hidden in the woods!

Once they find the person they are taught to alert their handler and stay with the person

This differs from tracking as the dogs are relying on air scenting to locate the subject

Bonus: we often find this class ends up helping with greetings and building recall!

Now booking the next 3 sessions. Send us a message or book online through your account.

23/02/2024

Puppy Kindergarten Grads!

We had so much fun watching these pups grow up and we’re looking forward to continuing on to Puppy Level 1!

19/02/2024

Another Tracking Success!!

Maureen and Hugo passed their TDX in Camas, Washington last weekend.

Hugo is an RCMP call out who Maureen has been working with for many years. They have had TDX attempts before, but never quite got a good shot at it. With Maureen judging all of our local tracking tests, they don’t often get a chance to enter!

So the two of them (with Kenya in tow!) drove down to Southern Washington to give it their best shot, and that they did!

Hugo motored through the track as his usual self, circling at the corners and not batting an eye at the cross tracks.

They worked through their obstacles in a very wet, muddy field, all the way to their end glove.

Way to go team Hugo!
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09/02/2024

We are now booking Tracking Classes for Winter/Spring 2024!

We love tracking for so many reasons:
• Improves your relationship with your dog
• It’s a great outlet for your dog to work their nose
• Builds confidence
• Provides much needed mental stimulation for a happier, calmer dog

We have both Urban and VST classes. See post for more details.

There are still a few spots in the upcoming round, so send us a message or book in through your online account ✨

05/02/2024

Another Tracking Success!

Our very own Maureen & Kenya passed their AKC TD today down in Bow, Washington!

After having been out of the country for 3 weeks, it was a very quick turn around for Maureen to get home, get down to Bo and pass a TD! No time to get over jet lag or even a chance to practice! Pretty impressive, both of you!

Way to go team!!
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15/01/2024

Some grads from the last round of our new class, “Trail Manners”!

We had a blast working on the trails, teaching recall, new positions and management strategies! Great work teams!
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08/01/2024

A great pic of a few of our instructors from our get-together over the holidays!

From left to right: Kayleigh, Teri, Maureen, Allan and Dave

Missing a couple faces: Laurel, Corinne, Matilda and Ellie!

And of course the dogs!!
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08/01/2024

Congratulations Kayleigh and Splicer!🥳🎉👏
After an amazing weekend RBR's Welcome To Rapture AKA. Splicer is now an IABCA-International All Breed Canine Assoc., Inc. IntCH.

Not only did we pick up a new champion title we also won 2 of our groups and came second in another one. I would have been thrilled with that alone but the cherry on top was winning a BIS, and Best of rare breed. With so many stunning dogs and incredible handlers there to say I feel blessed that the judges found us in the line ups is an understatement.

Splicer was definitely tired today but every time we went into the ring he gave me all he could. He was happy, ignored the other dogs even when super close, and stacked nicely for me. His gaiting left something to be desired today at times, he was pretty sprinty so our loose leash disappeared and we did some lovely sidewinding (we didn't even place in our 4th group because the judge couldn't see his movement properly at any point with the excited sprints and pulling, he was very kind and gave me some excellent tips for working on this. 😳😅 ) being in a riding arena he was a little sniffy today when we tried to slow. The gaiting is mostly on me though as I haven't practiced gaiting with him at all since our last time in the ring last March

Overall we made 14 ring appearances within the two 8+ hour days. Even if he hadn't shown as wonderfully as he did I still would have been proud and considered this weekend a win. He crated next to some very loud dogs, with two in heat females right next to us (1 right next to us about 10ft away and other across from us about 30ft). He took it in stride and was able to settle in his kennel super nicely all day Saturday. Sunday he was a little more whiny so we spent a few hours sleeping in the car between shows. But all day crate settling in a crazy environment and being so wonderful while out and about made me so happy.

We learned so much and I definitely have TONS of things to work on handling wise but he worked so hard for me and I couldn't ask for a better boy. ❤️

02/01/2024

Peggy and Everest ASCA Urban Tracking Test Dec 17
Here is Peggy's account of her TDU with Everest at the ASCA Test Dec 17. It is a great one to look over if you have any interest in pursuing urban tracking in the states, or even over on the island. The description clearly shows the difficulty level and challenge of working in a more contaminated environment, and also, the complications in scent in such an open terrain in an urban setting. Students have had challenges over on the island, and Peggy's story really brings it all to light.
I commend them for this great effort and a very near pass! Maureen

ASCA TDU tracking test - Bow Wa - Dec 17/2023

Everest and I have had a successful 12 months tracking where he successfully completed his TDs in CKC, AKC and ASCA. We have been focused mainly on urban this Fall after our tracking break over the summer. My little red Ferrari, as Maureen calls him, hates to track in any heat so we do take a 4 month break each year.

At last year’s ASCA test, we all tested in a snowstorm where the tracks were completely buried by the time they were run and there were no passes that day. So I was happy to see no snow in the forecast but it was a very frosty and cold day.

For those of you who haven’t run an ASCA TDU, typically they are held at schools. ASCA TDUs have a lot less hard surface or variable surface than AKC or CKC (only 10-20% hard/variable surface so most of it is on grass). There is a start flag and 30 yard flag so you know the direction. There is a start cotton article and there is no intermediate article and the end article is a glove or leather wallet. There could be a playground involved too so Ever and I have been practicing on barkchips. The scent seems to come off barkchips a bit differently so good to practice. The other thing to know about ASCA TDUs is that all corners are on grass.

So back to the test. We drew urban track #1. There are so many nice rural school properties around Bow that we’ve been practicing on preparing for the test but we drove past all those schools to a park I’ve never been in. When we arrived the tracklayer said to wait as they were trying to get an off-leash dog off our track. 🤣

Once we were cleared to start, Everest pulled me to the first flag and was definitely ready to track! He looked great going past the 30 yard flag and about 25 yards after that he stopped. And then the p*e-fest, stamping his feet and smelling all of the dogs that had been there started (I was told after that while track-laying the day before so many dogs had been in this field). He thought those dogs smelled mighty fine!

I patiently continued to get him back to tracking - re-scenting him with the start article a couple of times - and then he would find another interesting smell. The best thing about Ever is I always know when he’s tracking and when he isn’t. We stayed on the first leg for what felt like forever. Most people likely would have called it but until I hear a whistle or Ever completely stops working and I get called by a judge, you’ll never EVER hear me call it. And I whizzled and twizzled 😁 just like Maureen taught me to keep Ever moving without “guiding”.

Everest finally got onto the 2nd leg. I could actually see it when he took it because it had frost on it in a straight line. We then moved between 2 trees (which again Ever p*ed on multiple times) into a parking lot with what I’ll call berm divots throughout (gravel then grass than gravel then grass at different heights.) Although I didn’t realize it at the time, Ever took the 3rd leg but then a truck started (on his track) and left and I had to call him back.

Everest worked so hard! He got whistled when he forged from the third leg pulling me towards the glove which we believe he air scented, missing his last corner. He was so close which you can see on the map.

I was so so proud of him. He worked through so much contamination for quite a long time and in cold temperatures and truly deserved that pass (which of course he has no idea that he didn’t get because we celebrated hugely when he found the glove.) Ever was smiling ear to ear!!

There were no urban passes on this date.

The absolute best part of this test day was getting to support Jennifer and Tavi, Maureen and Kenya, Maureen and Hugo and Leila and Riddick with some lovely passes and teamwork with their dogs. I love my tracking family and would do absolutely anything for them.

Everest and I will be out and about getting ready for some upcoming tracking tests and having fun in my favourite sport and his 2nd favourite dog sport (close 2nd to nosework). Independently working and using his nose and getting treats are Everest’s favourite things!!

Looking forward to spending more time with my tracking family in 2024!

31/12/2023

Jen McNichol and Tavi ASCA TD 🥳🤩👏🙌👍🏼😁

31/12/2023

Jennifer and Tavi ASCA TD

I was really excited about going to the tracking test in Bow this year, in fact I have been looking forward to it since last year! ASCA is the only organization as far as I know, who will let my dog play, so it was a big deal to make sure I didn't miss getting my entry in and have to wait another year to trial. I was so grateful to Peggy for keeping on top of the trial dates and making sure that I got all the things needed to be able to send it in - going so far as to get American cash and hand deliver it too, lol! You are amazing Peggy! ♥ I managed to get down to Bow for a lesson with Sil beforehand, which was great and helped get us more familiar with the fields. And Maureen organized certification tracks for us too, which was awesome! Matilda was the voice of reason, support and sanity in my head, lol! It was definitely a team effort. 🙂
The day of the test, I was incredibly nervous. I had arranged to have my other dog picked up in the morning because she doesn't handle being left very well (she is almost 15) so I was worried about her, along with the regular worry of getting across the border. Luckily all went well and we made it early much to my relief! I had never been to the drawing of the tracks before and the ASCA club had done a great job of organizing, with so many really thoughtful details. They had little wooden ornaments that you could choose from, with felted animals on them - super cute and such a good keepsake. We ended up with the 3rd track, which was perfect - not first and not last...phew! However, we ran after the Urban tracks, so ample time to get extra nervous...lol!!! I was so anxious about the track and being prepared for it, it was ridiculous!! I was beyond grateful to have so many awesome people there - Leila, Peggy and Maureen were fabulous and had so much knowledge about everything, from the rules, to the fields, to the history of the tracks. I learned SO MUCH. We went right after Maureen and Hugo, who had a beautiful track and the first pass of the day.
Peggy was able to drive to the field and take video for me, which I appreciated SO much. She also managed to keep me almost calm...lol! The fields were beautiful, the sun was out, and for once everything just went smoothly at the start and I remembered all the things - like getting my hair up and gloves. Tavi was his completely calm and relaxed self and occupied himself marking the grass while I got myself together. The judge was also really supportive and lovely which helped put me at ease. We lined up nicely going in to the track and I remembered all the instructions - line out, pick up the bandana, pause, landmark - which felt so good (thanks Matilda!!!!) Tavi was immediately focused and super confidant in the track, tuning out all the distractions. I could see a bit of the track on the first leg and that totally helped me relax and start to enjoy it. Tavi paused at the first corner and then made a beautiful turn with his ridiculous cartoon corners. I was still a little nervous so asked him a few times if he was sure, by putting more tension on the line, and he answered yes, by digging in harder. After a couple of times of this on the second leg, he turned and looked me in the eye to see if there was something more I wanted, then humored me by doing a circle and returning directly to his place and continuing the track. This moment of connection and certainty from him was so beautiful and such a testament to our relationship, his work ethic and all of our training together - this was clearly something that we were in together and which I 1000% could trust him to do. The rest of track flowed by and I have no real memory of it - just of watching Tavi, his perfect corners, his steady pace and marveling over what an amazing dog he is - I was actually a little teary it felt so perfect. Apparently we passed about five feet from a big goose decoy which I totally didn't see, and apparently Tavi took no real notice of... My heart stopped though, when I saw the glove about ten feet away and Tavi stopped dead and started to nose around in the ground off the track and then eat something, likely mouse bits. I thought 'omg, we can't stop here!!!' After a minute, I told him to leave it and he DID and walked the remaining ten feet to the glove and lay down. And just like that, we got our TD!!
The judges were so lovely and remarked what a joy he was to watch track, and that it was clear right from the start that he would have no problems - what a nice dog he was. One judge said that in her career, she has only ever judged two siberians, with him being the second, and both passed. ♥
I was unbelievably proud of him. Working with siberians can be so challenging, but the rewards are honestly monumental. It is all about honouring who they are, what they need, and finding ways to incorporate yourself into their value systems. I have worked so tremendously hard with Tavi on focus and teamwork - his whole life all his treats just come from me, and that has worked so well with him. He LOVES to work and finds huge joy in tracking and in doing things together - his focus is incredible. He is such a serious old soul and he shines in tracking. I am so grateful to have found something that we both love so much, and a wonderful family of people that have supported us along the way. ♥♥

I edited a copy of our track, but got stuck with the free watermark. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUuK5IXtbkA

ASCA Tracking Test, Bow Washington, December 17th, 2023

26/12/2023

Another wonderful year of tracking with huge congratulations going to these teams who earned titles at tracking tests in 2023! What a great year of wonderful memories and so much progress for so many teams working with myself and Matilda! Looking forward to more fun in 2024! 🎉🥳👏👍🏼

24/12/2023

Hello all Tracking Enthusiasts!
Please take the time to read this amazing story of Leila and Riddick and his tracking journey. As a very fearful rescue, tracking became the only thing that made any sense in this crazy human world, and to read about their journey together to their first tracking test in a totally new area in Bow, Washington at the ASCA test, a place he had never seen or smelled before, with new scary trolls in the field, (the judges and track layer) and track with joy and confidence, is truly the best Doggy Christmas story this side of New Years!
Huge congratulations to Leila and Riddick, my heart overflows with joy! This is what it's all about!
We also wish to acknowledge and thank ASCA, (the Australian Shepherd Club of America) and many AKC clubs who welcome mixed breeds and unrecognized breeds on an equal playing field, giving dogs like Riddick a chance to show their talents!
Merry Christmas All!
Maureen Fielding

RIDDICK’S JOURNEY TO HIS FIRST TRACKING TRIAL

Riddick and I started tracking to help him conquer his fears and anxieties about the big old world past his doorstep and the scary people who live in it. Before Riddick and I started tracking, he had already conquered some of his fears and anxieties…. fear of getting in the car, fear of walking on the street, fear of my hands, fear of standing on things, fear of the neighbours making scary noises. I am sure you get the picture. But there were still so many things he was still uncomfortable with one of them been that scary new thing over there. That scary thing over there was often a human. We were kind of stuck on that “scary thing over there”.

Over the years, I had learned that if one can find something a dog loves to do, like let them use their nose, that it can help overcome their fear of the big bad human world that just doesn’t make sense to them. I couldn’t do nose work with Riddick because he wouldn’t go into a building without following another dog in. But he had always loved open fields and wooded plains. It seemed natural to levitate towards tracking because it was always outside.

I started training Riddick on my own for the first few months. Then I found Maureen and Matilda.
Riddick seemed to love been out in the grassy fields (not so much in an urban environment). There were things he had to overcome like accepting a person walking behind while we tracked. Sometimes there would be more than 1 person walking behind us. Oh boy!!! That was scary.
As we grew as a team and learned to trust and read each other, Riddick began to accept other people who would toss him treats and lay tracks for him.

We have been tracking for 2 years now. December 17, 2023, was our very first test. I didn’t want to do it, but Maureen said to me that I should use this as an opportunity to find out exactly where Riddick stood in his fear and anxiety of new places and new people. We would never know unless we tried. Would tracking in new place have a high enough value to Riddick that he it could outweigh his fear of new things?

We picked the last position to track. We were 6 which kind of sucked. When it was finally our turn, Jen our friend, came with us in the car to film us. Riddick was so excited because he knew Jen. She tossed him treats and he loved to lean into her. This was good. She provided continuity and predictability for Riddick. We get out of the car and get to the start flag, I let him out and waited to make sure he was confident. He was and I followed my dog. Okay the whole thing wasn’t always pretty and couple of times, near the end, he looked back and stood up straight and looked at those people in the field. But it was just a few seconds. Riddick kept on working and I kept on following him. We managed 3 turns I think but lost the track for the 4th turn. The whistle blew which startled Riddick. We stopped and I knew it was over. You know what I did, I called my dog to me and hugged and squeezed and played with him. He ran zoomies around me and did play bows in response until I realized I needed to get control of my very happy dog. I was ecstatic. I didn’t care that we hadn’t passed the test. My boy was not afraid. He was not worried. He knew what his job was, and he kept going. What a win!!!

Riddick, Jen, and I drove back to the main operations area. We met up with Maureen. I told her what had happened. I said I had never been so happy at not completing a test. I was so excited that my puppy boy did it. He did it!!!. Maureen and I hugged, and we shed tears of happiness in our excitement and happiness for Riddick’s accomplishment.

Tracking has made the world of difference for Riddick. He associates tracking with positive things and one of those positive things has become positive people. I can now add that going to new places is now possible. Maureen once told me that Riddick does so well at tracking because he needs it. She is so right!!! What a glorious day. Thank you Maureen and Matilda for been patient with us and getting us here.

19/12/2023

ASCA Tracking Test Bow Wa Dec 17 2023
Kenya was TD Track 4. This was her Debut Tracking Test! I thought ASCA would be a fun way to test her out, as we know, she is a bit wild still! And with a young dog, you never know really… she can track well for sure, but environmental distractions can be very big and real for young dogs, and they need time to mature and generalize to new places and circumstances. I was very touched to find that I was instructed to park in exactly the same spot as I parked for Griffin’s Debut Track in Bow so many years ago, with Kenya’s track waiting for her in exactly the same field! I could feel Griffin with us, and I knew we would have a good run. The field was beautiful, and not a swan or bird to be seen, no dogs in yards, or anything that might distract her. I could see Jen and Tavi working TD Track 3 with my binoculars, and Tavi worked beautifully and I cheered from my truck on their success, which I won’t divulge the details, so Jen can do that!!
We headed over the road to the field, past the judges, and was very pleased that she didn’t assault them too badly at all. She was mostly excited to get to the track, slightly delayed as I got the line caught under the judges’ car tire. GEEZ. Anyways, then we headed to the track. Judges always ask if you see the 2 start flags, and I did, so I lined us up. I could barely get the line off her collar and onto the harness and she was off. I managed to pick up the article as she sped past it, and got it into my vest, and the rest is kind of a blur of whiplash head turns and sp*eding Ferrari corners with a furry of feeding and gathering line. I was aware that we were running a chair design, and the last long leg back to the road was swift and by this time my lungs were complaining, and I wished I had worked more on cardio as per Liz Joyce’s instructions. 3 minutes and 3 seconds and it was over. 480 yards. Judge Francis Keyes was very amused and said she had never seen a dog ‘bank’ at a corner before! LOL! Sarah Kahn wrote on her glove, ‘Run, Run!’
Kenya TD! There is nothing like the first TD! Always the most fun! Love this girl and can’t fault her for enthusiasm! XX
What a great end to 2023!
Cheers,
Maureen and Kenya and Hugo XX

19/12/2023

ASCA Tracking Test Bow, Wa. Dec 17 2023
Hugo ASCA TD
Yesterday was a big fun reward day for me after a long season of judging 5 tracking tests for others! ASCA is a fun playground for Tracking, with relaxed rules around mixed breeds and unrecognized breeds as all are welcome! I am grateful to this club for hosting these tests every year! Thanks go to Jan Wesen for hosting, and judges Sarah Kahn and Francis Keyes for working so hard to plot all the tracks, and all the track layers who gave up their weekend so we could play!
I got both Hugo and Kenya in for a TD track yesterday.
Hugo got to go first as TD track 2.
Hugo started the track like a pro, and ran through the track in his sure tracking style nice and clean all the way to the glove. I was so confident behind him, as every corner was a good circle or quarter circle, and every line out sure. The track was not predictable as it was in the middle of a large field and felt like every line was on some kind of angle, nothing to orient myself with other than some obvious landmark that he was tracking toward. So just trusting, feeding out line, checking, and following and gathering back line was the way we worked through to the end. I love tracking with Hugo, bless his heart, I am in love with this guy, and am grateful for the opportunity to work with him all these years. He has taught me much! XX Woohoo! Hugo ASCA TD! Now, if we could just get that elusive TDX!!! Let’s Go After It Buddy!

22/11/2023

Cricket UTD & Hacker not today! Great Dane Urban Tracking Test Nov 19

Track recap

I didn’t sleep well last night wondering why I thought it was a good plan to enter both my dogs today, Cricket for UTD and Hacker for UTDX.

I arrived nice and early to the draw location and was happy to see lots of friends there. I sure do love our tracking community!

I drew first and got track #2 for Cricket. I drew third for Hacker and got UTDX #2 for him. Tracks #1 and #2 are my favourite to draw so I was off to a great start!

Headed out to Cricket’s track and was given the start article. Things to remember, get the scent article out prior to getting to the start line! Cricket was tracking her way in, heard the crinkling of the bag the article was in and turned around expecting cookies! She was a bit disappointed with the lack of food from the bag and no food when she nicely showed me the start article but off she went down her track. She was very unCricket like fringing a bit, checking to see if it went across the road, checking the bushes, finally deciding she really did need to p*e, and have a snack of rabbit poo, and then getting down to tracking like her usual self, nose down and motoring along. We came to a driveway crossing where she had a bit of a bow off the track towards the chainlink gate and then straightened out and got back onto grass. Much to her delight she found a treat on her track. I told her to leave it she took a couple of steps but obviously had something in her mouth so I approached her and pulled a chicken bone from her mouth. Luckily she just looked disappointedly in the direction the bone was thrown and went right back to work with an almost immediate left turn through the bushes into a parking lot. Cricket very confidently worked up the slope but started to circle off, of course I’m overthinking it and was thinking it must go to the sidewalk by the building when she all of a sudden she did a beautiful head snap and pulled down her leg to her first article. She started off from the article beautifully but veered a bit to the left and went down some stairs. At the bottom of the stairs she went right, back up the hill, p*eked through the shrubs, turned around, came back down the hill, turned left and motored along her final leg to her final article.

So proud of the little dog that could!

Hacker’s near pass!

Hacker is my critter dog, never one to give up an opportunity to find a bunny, squirrel, coyote, dog, bird, basically if there is hunting and multitasking to do, he’s game. I entered him for a UTDX knowing that if he passed although he’d have all the titles for a tracking Champion he wouldn’t get it as he has received his other three titles under Maureen, but he is almost 8 years old and I wanted to give it a try and we are such a better team now that I knew we could do it.

The track started off on some nice grass but on the woods side of the road, and someone had just walked down the sidewalk with their dog, okay, not our best position to start from but I took a deep breath and told him to get to work. He bounced his way down the first leg consistently going across the sidewalk to check into the woods to see if there was anything more interesting. He showed me a couple of times that the track went across the road but not yet. Finally, after what seemed like an age, he did a beautiful head snap and pulled across the road. A quick stop for a p*e and straight up the stairs into a parking lot. He quickly went left and looked into the shrubbery. I told him, back to work and boom back onto the sidewalk, and his article! Disappointment that there were no cookies but he got back to work. A quick check on a grass island, back to the pavement and a beautiful turn out across the sidewalk, it was like he was on rails. At the bottom of the path he took a right and started to work down the boulevard. I questioned whether it went down there but he was determined. He went in and check a couple of driveways and alcoves. He did look across the road a couple of times but kept on pulling forward so I went with him. After a tiny bit of searching he turned hard across the road. We searched a bit and made our way back a smidge but then he said, no, it goes this way. At this point Maureen approached me and told me we’d missed an article but to keep on working as he was working so well and he was right by his corner. He found his corner and went down a driveway. By this point he was wanting confirmation he was right so started article shopping. He showed me a lovely piece of cardboard that I thanked him for and put in my pocket. He checked out a piece of styrofoam a bit further along but kept going. A beautiful right hand turn and well, he found article heaven and showed me a nice pile of clothes, and surely one of those was his article. But he kept searching and moving down the parking lot until finally there was the leather! Huge party for him and he was so pleased with himself going back to the car. Sad as I am that we missed the article I had so much fun tracking him today and know we’ve got the skills. I am so proud of the team we have become, we had many a time in the past where we were butting heads, me convinced I knew more then he did. Today I trusted my dog and he showed me that a UTDX is going to be possible! I can’t wait to try again!

Adele, Cricket UTD and Hacker not today!