Shaq Attacks a Track

When Shaq joined our household last April, right before he turned 18 months, we told him he was going to get a chance to be a tracking dog. Unfortunately foxtail season was about to start so we couldn’t proceed as soon as I would have liked. But over the summer we put down some short tracks in our yard and in some irrigated sports fields and realized that this was something that he was going to enjoy immensely. Once the rains returned in early November, we were able to get our “trade a track” group going again in a local wildlife refuge.

Along with the usual protocol of adding turns, adding distance, adding time - we also were able to incorporate all sorts of challenging elements: bunch grass twice as tall as he is, vernal ponds where we had to break through the ice as we were laying the tracks, weeds white and stiffened by ice fog, hillsides by the ponds which were frequented by two- and four-legged visitors, gravel roadways and picnic groves.

In early January I asked one of our training buddies to put down what could be a certification track in a county park - just to see how far along we were. In order to fit the space available, she had to toss in some elements not typically in a TD track: making turns in water-logged grass, crossing over a pair of paved roadways in and out of the park, and fringing the pavement next to the rest rooms. Shaq put his nose down and motored his way to the glove.

The next issue was getting into a test. Our Kennel Club is holding a TD/TDX the end of March, where I could have used my worker option certificates, but I have so many duties that it would have been pretty much impossible to show my own dog. There is one test in Oregon after ours - but depending on how many people certify at the end of the season, he might not have made the draw. So we looked to California, where he was fortunate enough to be the 6th dog drawn for a 6-dog test.

January had been relatively dry - but in early February an atmospheric river turned its hose on the Pacific Northwest - bringing flooding rains to the Sacramento area and snow to the passes we have to cross in order to get down there. By some miracle there was a break in the weather just in time for us to make the trip.

The test itself was held on fields of an abandoned Air Force Base. The cover was rough, ankle-high grass just starting to green up. It was slightly above freezing, and there was a slight air movement by the start flags. Shaq drew track 5, so there was a long wait.

Finally it was his turn, and he was off at a steady pace. I was so focused on watching him that I was truly the dope at the end of the rope and had no idea as to the shape of the track until I saw the judges’ maps. He found the corners, and when he turned I would glance up to get a new focal point to confirm he was going straight. He crossed over a dirt roadway in two places and he waded through mud - totally unfazed. As we approached what turned out to be the last corner, I noticed a pond or huge puddle ahead and said to myself, “they’re probably going to turn before that”. Sure enough, Shaq showed me that the track went next to it then up a slight hill - to where I could see something brown just ahead - the glove that made him Samamari’s Shaq Attack, TD!

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