VST Tracking

Since I didn't get into the last TDX of the season, I decided to start working on Variable Surface Tracking, VST, since they have some of those in the summer.  The bad news is all the ones around here are all on the weekends I have to work!  Still, maybe there is one within driving distance in a different state that I can get into.

Yesterday after the agility trial, I tracked with Dottie in the asphalt parking lot.  I knew if I could convince her to try, she could do it.  We started in the dirt planter and made a turn, went down the curb, and then went straight for a while, and then made a 90 degree turn to the thin black leather article.  I guess she really was tracking because at the turn, she clearly indicated she lost the scent.  I asked where it was and she put her nose back down and made the turn and continued.  I'm not 100% sure she was really doing it and I wasn't accidentally guiding her, (because it seems to good to be true) and wanted to try today again.  But it is very windy today so I guess I'll wait until it calms down a little.

If I try again and she really does "get it" that is pretty exciting!  However, how a dog is supposed to follow a scent 3 hrs old on concrete is beyond me...