The Spaniel Annals

The wonderful news is that Reardon has been certified for entering tracking tests, and our first test is tomorrow up in Bow, WA.  Tracking tests only require one pass to earn a title, so tomorrow could signal a new title and a step forward in our training, or it could mean a long wait for the next test.  There’s another one in Eugene this spring, but I’d have to do some major re-arranging of my spring dog budget to make it happen.  Otherwise we wait until fall.

The bad news is the state of my nerves.  Forget mental management, forget staying focused the process, I’m NERVOUS.  I can attest to the fact that it’s very difficult to run a track when you’re hyperventilating, but that’s probably what I’ll be doing tomorrow.  I did it with Hank’s TD, and I did it with Reardon’s certification.  As long as I don’t pass out, we’ll be okay.   Tracking is just too new of a sport for me to feel otherwise.  One worry I have is that Reardon is much more tuned into me than Hank was while tracking; it’s worked well to smile at him if he looks back at me (again, a difficult thing to do when hyperventilating)…

I really just need to view tomorrow as another tracking experience.  I’m planning on continuing to track with Reardon on the TDX level, so we’ll be going on with training anyway.  But it sure would be nice to get that title….(process, Laura, process!)