The Tracking Bichon

    Nearly two years ago when I returned to Florida from vacation my dear friend, Kathy Brown, told me that she had started tracking with her Papillon. The more I talked to her, the more interested I became. My love for tracking had begun.

     My Bichon's name is Trevkin's Waytogo Kami and she was just 2-1/2 years old when we began tracking. Our instructors were Dutch and Diane Schultz. Our first class Diane began by rubbing a hot dog on the bottom of her shoes  and then scuffing the ground by the start flag. We did several tracks that night. She put a flag at the start and the end, making the tracks progressively longer, leaving a flag approximately every 10 feet. I put Kami in her harness with a long line attached and took her to the start flag. I got her to sniff the ground by the flag while I counted to ten. Then I pointed to the grass and said,"track." She followed the scent of the hot dog to the next flag, and turned to look at me. On instruction from Diane, I stopped moving and told her again to track. To my surprise she went right back and tracked to the end, finding the rewards of a glove and a hot dog. Kami did better with each track and we both had fun. Her attitude was so happy and being outside in the fields was a special time. I went home that night very pleased and excited. I then made up my mind to stick with it and work toward the title "Tracking Dog."

      We were tracking several nights a week that summer and having a great time.  We progressed very quickly to no food on the feet, double-laying the track and then single laying the track.  We worked alternately on distance and time.  For a TD the track is 440-500 yards long and aged 30 minutes to 2 hours.  Progressing to this time and distance is a slow progress.   We were also learning turns,wide angles at first, and making the turns more acute as we went along.

      Teaching the dog to follow scent is simple.  The challenge comes in keeping the dog on the correct scent.  There are always other animal scents in the fields, some very intriguing to the dog. This is when the dog would rather leave the set track and go off on the tangent smell of the wild.   Learning to "read" your dog and tell when he is tracking the given scent as opposed to other scents is a challenge.  Kami was very good at making me think she was "on track" when she would be leading me on a wild goose chase.  I had to learn to read her body language to tell when she was tracking the given scent.   Some dogs give indications of behavior change when the scent changes and the handler can stop moving until the dog returns to the track.  Reading Kami became a major challenge and I had some frustrating times learning the skill.

      Everything was going along pretty well.  We had our good days and our bad days,  But when Kami came in heat, these were the worst days.  She totally lost all of her ability to smell.  But this was two weeks before she actually came in heat so it was not really clear.  Having her come in heat was such a relief because we knew why she had not been able to scent.   After several classes and no scent, we took some time off.

      By the time we got back to tracking the time changed and it was getting dark very early. I work full time, so by the time I left work, picked up my dog, and Kathy and I got together, drove for an hour to the tracking fields, it was pitch black outside. We tracked in fields in the middle of the state and it is much darker than around big cities. Many times the stars were so bright and the moon so gorgeous, it was the highlight of the week. We came to love our time in the fields with our friends and dogs, doing something we were really beginning to love.

      Tracking is a challenge, but tracking in the dark is a bigger challenge. Dutch and Diane used reflectors instead of flags for marking tracks, and they walked behind us with big flashlights.  They would keep the dog in the lights and we would follow along, trusting more than ever that the dogs knew by now what they were doing.  As we followed each other we were learning as we went.  Learning the body language of the dog and how to handle the dog.  When we would finish the track we would walk back to the vans in the dark, letting the dogs run and play as we went.  This was such a special time in my life and one I will always treasure.

      When we could, we would track on the weekend so we had some daylight experiences.  The fields were growing up and sometimes the track would run through a lot of weeds.  When we would finish, my Bichon would be dirty, tired and happy.  Many nights I would have to bathe Kami when I got home before going to bed.  Occasionally we would have burs in the grass and I would spend my night combing them out of her hair. We would come home messy,but Bichons do clean up; it just takes patience and time.

      In the fall I called the Bichon Frise' Club of America and learned there had only been one other Bichon to earn a Tracking Dog title.  She was Dibett's Kiss me Kate CDX,TD.  Kate belong to Priscilla Roper from Walla Walla, Washington and earned her TD ten years ago at the age of ten.   She has since passed away.  I have talked to Priscilla several times and she has encouraged me greatly to pursue the sport of tracking.

      A year-and-a-half went by and we were prepared. December 7, 1997,came and the tracking test was upon us.  It was cold in Orlando that day, 45 degrees, sunny and clear.  The cover was short grass with cross tracks from vehicles.  Twelve dogs were entered, only four would pass. Every dog gets his own track in a field big enough to get in the yardage needed.  Each track gets only two flags, one at the start and one thirty yards out.  As each dog is finished with his test, the group of entered dogs, owners and test workers moves to the next field.

      It was our turn.  The tension was great; this was something I wanted very much.  I harnessed Kami up and we went to the start. I held Kami at the start so she could get the scent she would be following.   I told her to track, and track she did.  She was flying across the field, taking the turns and ignoring all else.  There was a flock of wild birds in the field making all kinds of noise, but Kami was on a mission. She never picked her nose up and never stopped. The track was 455 yards long and she did it in six minutes.  She found the glove, indicated it to me, and stood over it.  What a thrill! I bent over to hug her, tears flowing down my face.  The crowd on the road was screaming and the cheers sent new chills through me.  The judges were thrilled and we all exchanged hugs and congratulations for Kami and me.  The judges later signed the glove from the end of the track and that is our trophy.

      Kami was the smallest dog to pass that day, a very unusual sight to see a Bichon in the field tracking. We had earned the respect of many people; what a great feeling. Everyone was raving about this great Bichon, now a Tracking Dog. It was the thrill of my life, doing our best, listening to all the cheers from my friends, an to gain their respect. This is a very special breed, capable of doing many things, and I was proud to have been an ambassador that day, showing the world of tracking my Bichon.