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by Cindy Pischke As many of you know, I put a TD on a dog in 1989, but that was simple as the dog was one of those that just dragged you down a track so I learned virtually nothing about tracking, but to hang onto the lead. My present dogs are much different. I started training both Sabrina and Bertha in 2002. Sabrina seemed to be doing so much better at tracking and Bertha was just acting like a silly puppy who was so unsure of herself. So rather than get frustrated with her, I gave up tracking her. After a year or so of tracking Sabrina, I then decided to try Bertha again and was so pleased that she pulled in the harness so strongly, but MAN could she overshoot corners and then loose herself. Also all my dogs rely on me as the mistress of the household so they would come back and say help me momma! That created some issues for tracking and thanks to some help from Ed and others, I was able to overcome those issues, such as getting Bertha to think tracking and not obedience, and learning not to tie the lead up around my ankles. I think these two lessons especially were just recently learned. Bertha's first attempt was in October 2003 at our Golden National Specialty where the cover went from mowed grass to over my head, then back out to the mowed grass. I turned around to look where we were and heard the whistle! The temp was 85 degrees that day and the walk to our track was 1000 yds to the start. Her second attempt was in Lansing MI in November when she was in heat and being bred. That day she walked to the start flag and felt that munching grass was better than tracking. Walk 5 steps, eat grass, walk another eat grass - agh! Whistle. Her third attempt was in Illinois at Champaign Urbana where she started out great, even though the judges told me that the track layer had entered on the 2nd flag not the first but when she found a deer trail, it was all over - whistle!! Sunday at the BMDCA test was her 4th attempt. As you know, it had rained all week and the weather cooled down from 70's to the 40's for the weekend. Our kind of weather. It was sunshine, and cool, who could ask for more. The track was by the snowmobile trail, a short 40 yd walk from the road. I had reminded myself NOT to talk to her as I can easily mess up my dogs with my panicky voice trying to push them down the track. As I approached the starting flag, I put on her harness, grabbed it and walked her to the track. Her head was down and she was sniffing, all looked good. Well Bertha took off down the track, got between the 1st and 2nd flag and stopped, shook and circled back to me! My heart was in my throat and I am thinking, NO not again! I gave her a low, soft "where's your track" and she took off again to the 2nd flag, and stopped again, and shook. Again, I give her a soft "where's your track" and this time she got into her tracking cadence, put her nose to the ground and never stopped. At the corners, she never even wavered and I had to cut corners to keep up with her as she was going. I got to the last leg and now I am softly saying to myself, thank you God! as we are heading down the 130 yd last leg. I am starting to slow down as we are heading toward a woods and I'm saying to myself, I know it can't be much farther, there is a rule about woods and how far you need to be. There are deer trails, or so I think that are crossing that last leg, gosh, hope it is not another turn and she is missing the turn. And we are getting closer and closer to that woods, when she steps off the track by a foot and downs! Her article indication. I walk up to find a glove in her mouth and I am happy! Wave the glove over my head and hug her! The judges walk up and tell me that is not the glove, but I had gone the distance, she had found a glove so I pass! You should have seen the look on my face when they say that is not the glove, I thought I was going to die. But when they said we passed, they asked me to put her back on the track to see if we could find the glove. The tracklayer was convinced we had already passed it, but I put Bertha back on forward and 10 ft more she found the glove, another solid down. At this point we are at the edge of the woods. So not only did we find one, we found two and I kept them both. They will go in her frame of the map. What a thrill to FINALLY GET THIS TITLE! (photo above) Cindy Pischke's Bertha (Cima’s Mind Yur P’s and Q’s, CD, NA, NAJ, TD) earn their TD title at the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America on May 16th, 2004 |
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