Mission Kennels

Mom is walking sort of weird. First she takes a big hop (you'd have to be there to appreciate just how this looks) and sticks a flag in the dirt. Then she walks around a bit in a square, and it looks like she's planting something--hotdogs? Does she think hotdogs grow on trees? She jumps away from the planted hotdogs--oh, don't fall!--and does this again. By this time I'm crying and wiggling to go get those hotdogs...but this woman won't let me go.

Mom comes back and sticks me into a weird collar with extra pieces--it goes around my front legs instead of my neck. She takes me to the first flag and says "find it" (well, duh!) and I see that she's planted hotdogs for ME! Mom kinda stands around, telling me how smart I am, while I vacuum up the hotdogs. When I'm done, Mom leads me off and tells me I'm smart again...and then we go to the next flag for a repeat! Now I know the rules...It's not that hard--I just follow my nose. When I don't smell grass and weinies, I know I'm in the wrong spot.

Now that weird chic is coming to get me again. Sigh. Mom takes another leap, nearly breaking her ankle! Oh no! But she recovers her balance, and she plants another flag for me. This time she makes a smaller garden of hotdogs, and the woman holding me puts me on the ground and tells me to "find it." No problem! I snuff up all the bits but Mom is walking backwards, dropping more weinies for me. I'm only too happy to follow along. After a while, Mom drops a jackpot--a whole pile of hotdogs! WhooHoo! Then she picks me up and tells me I'm a genius. I can't argue with that.

Day 2: Mom meets the weird lady again, and we play some more! This time I hear them call the hotdog garden a "scent pad" and Mom makes up a couple for me. I know the routine, so I very carefully work the whole pad so I don't miss a bit! Then we do a couple of "follow the leader" tracks, where the lady holds me, and I follow Mom, who is dropping weinies for me. This is pretty cool.

Day 3: OK, I guess we don't need the weird chic to track...Mom loaded me up, grabbed some hotdogs and my harness, and I'm sitting her in a crate watching her walk away! Did she forget to bring me? Oh, guess not. Here she comes, and she's getting me dressed. She's putting a kid's t-shirt on me--says maybe it'll stop my armpits from matting. Then the harness and line and we're off! Mom tells me to "find it" and I find the scent pad. It's smaller than it used to be, and there's not as much stuff...but I find all the hotdogs :) Then I follow the path of her footsteps down the track. Most of the time there's a hotdog in her footprint--sometimes there isn't but maybe the next one! And the end has a big pile o' weinies! Life is good.

Week 2: We do a lot of tracking by ourselves...sometimes the tracks are real short, and sometimes they're longer--it's hard work...but very rewarding! My Mom thinks I'm smart, and I get to eat hotdogs (chicken usually...my favorite!). Today it's raining and the weird chic is here again. I'm starting to like her--because I *know* we're going to do something fun with food when she's around. Sometimes she brings her dogs and tracks too...they do big, long tracks and she leaves stuff lying around for them to find. Not sure what that's all about. But back to today. It is *pouring* now, but the hotdog lady says we'll wait it out a bit and the tracking will be better. Hmmmph. Sure enough, out I go into the cold, wet rain...and there's those flags! Tonight I do some longer tracks with different sorts of grass (I prefer the clover...some of the other stuff is hard and pokey!) and I tracked the hotdog lady too! Like I can't figure out a track laid by somebody else--c'mon now! I'm soaked, but I had a good time.

Week 3: My tracks are getting harder and there's not as much food--but you know what, it's still fun! It's kind of a challenge, and I'm pretty much on my own because my Mom doesn't usually know where her tracks go by the time she gets me ready to work them. That's okay, I know where they go. Sometimes the hotdog lady yells at Mom and tells her *I'm* right. That's usually when Mom thinks a track is one place, but I know it's another. Mom is getting better at aiming for things when she walks...not that I'm looking. But I can tell 'cause she's not wandering all over the place.

Week 4: Tonight I get to do my first dogleg. I heard this from Mom, and I'm not sure what it means. She says the hotdog lady is kinda picky about tracking style 'cause she tracks for something called Shoots Hound. I don't like the sound of that--but I guess if Mom trusts her, it's okay. Anyway, we're finally ready for a dogleg according to the hotdog lady. So Mom lays a few tracks and lets them sit awhile. She brings me out to work the first track, and it's pretty easy. Different sorts of grass...and this time I end up in a different direction from the way I started. I hardly noticed, since Mom has a tendency to stagger anyway...so I guess that's a dogleg. What a nobrainer--I thought this was 'sposed to be tricky or something?

We do another track, and Mom is so far off it's ridiculous! As if I don't know better than she does. Finally the hotdog lady yells "I think she's right!" and Mom lets me work the track... sure enough, there're the weiners. Later the hotdog lady says something about following the brown "O" and Mom laughs. The next track is better, and she lets me work it. I think she threw in another dogleg, cause I'm ending up pointed in a different direction than I started. I hardly even notice...just let my nose take me where we need to go.

Week 5: Tonight we are doing something called a serpentine. We go to a special field that's just dirt to learn how to do this. The hotdog lady handles me this time, 'cause Mom says she wants to watch. This is way different on dirt...but still fun. It's a little tricky, 'cause if I don't pay attention I get off the track and run out of hotdogs! Before I knew I could just keep charging ahead and I'd run into treats, but there's no cheating on this track!

To Be Continued...