SAR and tracking

In the photo above, River (on the left) and Caden, her best buddy, to the right, are following a track I laid at my friend Nancy's two weekends ago. I was so happy to be out at Nancy's - she has 20 acres; great for tracking!

I have joined the Canadian Search Dog Association and am busy training Caden to become a SAR dog. He has a ton of drive which is no suprise considering his European herding and working bloodlines. Since River is 8 years old, she won't do SAR but she still has a fantastic nose. I laid a track for her a few weeks ago, and let it age until it was 17 hours old, then ran her on it. It was an urban track, with field, gravel, ashpalt and concrete, along with a building, parking lot, road and pond along the way. River simply nailed her track. I will always be grateful to her for introducing me to urban tracking and for her enthusiasm and passion for tracking. She loves nothing better.

Caden is a bit behind in his training, due to my big move to Alberta. I started him as a wee pup on hard surface tracking, and he certainly knows what it is all about. But he is not where he should be if I had been at home and on a schedule. At SAR training, he has played the runaway game and shows great desire to air scent.

However, I have decided that based on everything I know and all that the people I respect tell me, I will teach him to track or trail before I let him hold his head up. I know he can easily switch to air scenting from tracking but I am not confident of the other way around. Teaching him to track with confidence will take me from now until Christmas...6 weeks of regular training.

Now that I am settled, I plan to buckle down with everyone! I miss the routine of tracking, and will begin to chronicle the progress I am making with Caden von der Kleinen Wiese. He is a fabulous pup, with a wonderful personality and temperament. For those of you who knew my dog Hawk, Caden is like Hawk's ghost - he reminds me so much of that great dog of yesteryear. I thank Sandy Wilson for putting Caden in my hands - her website is linked in a sidebar menu to your right.

Here is another great shot of my new boy, Caden...