Tracking at the ESSFTA Nationals

Magnum, my 17-month English Springer Spaniel, and I have just gotten back from the 2012 English Springer Spaniel Field Trial Association’s National AKC Event held at the Purina Farm outside of St. Louis.  On Sunday, Sept. 23^rd, Magnum completed his first Tracking Dog test after being certified in tracking in August by Tracking Judge Steve Ripley.   I am very proud to say that he passed the test and completed the tracking test in less than 5 minutes.  He is a very fast and accurate tracker.  One of the judges told me she had goose bumps watching him track.  I selected this venue because it is very difficult to get into tracking tests.  The Springer Nationals gave priority to Springers without titles and then Springers with titles.  I got to watch all the other dogs – 3 others attempted the Tracking Dog test, 4 attempted the Tracking Dog Excellent test, and 3 attempted the Variable Surface Track test.  Only 2 other passed the Tracking Dog test.  Thank you to my good friend Michele Johnson and her beagles for being our tracking partners and to my husband Alan for the many tracks he has laid and his encouragement.  This was the culmination of 3 months of tracking 6 days a week and aging tracks up to 2 hours.  I followed the schedule of Glen Johnson.  Some dogs might not want to track 6 days a week, but Magnum loved it.

Tuesday and Wednesday were agility.  Tuesday was all breeds and Wednesday was Springer only.  Purina has a wonderful event center.  Agility was in one ring, obedience in another, and conformation in a third.  This was my first agility trial with Magnum and my first in 3 years since Shadow went blind.  I was really nervous.  I will cut to the chase and tell you that Magnum came out with double q’s both days and first place blue ribbons for all runs.  He had a score of 100 for each of the four runs and was well under standard time.  Magnum was awesome!  He was completely focused and ran fast.  I had not expected such focus and accuracy.  Now, I know that it is much easier in Novice and Open to get a first place blue ribbon than in Excellent, but I am relishing this first time out performance.  Alan says that it is so much easier for the long ride home with your partner when your dog has exceeded all your expectations. 

Will We Ever Get Out Of Dayton?

I had been standing in line with Alan at the United Airline desk after the plane taxied back to the terminal due to mechanical problems.  It seemed like we waited almost 45 minutes until it’s our turn.  We are told that all planes for Chicago have left and we will need to talk with American Airlines to see about a flight for the next day.  We have missed our international flight out of Chicago for London Heathrow.  We are tired and totally bummed.  No one is at the American Airline desk and I am told they have gone home.  I get the 800-telephone number for customer service and call to request assistance.  We are able to schedule a flight for 6:30 the next morning, a flight to London around noon, but will need to stay all night in London and fly into Glasgow on Saturday.  Oh boy, we have already paid for room, dinner and breakfast in Glasgow – and it looks like we will miss our coach taking us to the highlands and Aigas Field Center. 

We head home, tired and discouraged.  The day started so lovely.  We walked the dogs and then took them to the kennels.  Everything goes wrong once we get to the airport.  Our flight has been cancelled by American Airlines due to thunderstorms in Chicago.  There is a delayed United Flight that we are rescheduled to take.  The United flight keeps getting delayed.  Finally we board the plane, get buckled in, and hear an announcement that there are mechanical problems so we need to get off the plane.  We wait in line for half an hour or so and learn there is another flight and the airline will reserve seats for us, but they hope to get the plane fixed and hope we can leave on it.  We wait and wait.  We are told we can get back on the plane.  We get buckled and the plane taxies to take off and then we get another announcement from the pilot about additional mechanical problems.  By the time the plane is back in the terminal, all flights have left for Chicago.

After talking with the airline, I call Road Scholar’s 24-hour line and tell a nice man that we missed the international flight and won’t get to Glasgow in time for the coach.  I ask for help getting a room at a hotel in London.  No problem booking a room at an airport hotel and he says he’ll send a message about missing the coach.

We go home for the night and have about 3 hours to sleep.  I discover that maybe it was good we had to come home because I forgot to leave food out for the cats.  Their friend Diane isn’t scheduled to come until the next day.

Everything goes well on Friday and we arrive at London Heathrow.  While there, I check on trains to get us from Glasgow to Inverness, Scotland.  It is then about half an hour to Aigas.  On Saturday we arrive in Glasgow about noon.  We make our way out with our bags and a friendly man dressed in a navy suit holding a printed sign with our names greets us.  His name is John and he insists on taking all of my bags.  He takes us to a new Mercedes and tells us he will drive us to Aigas Field Center.  He takes the Carriageway and gets us there in about 4 hours.  During the four hours, Alan tries to keep him talking and learn his views on the vote in 2014 on Scottish independence.  He has quite an accent and we learn that folks from Glasgow are the most difficult to understand.  They seem to struggle with our accent.  He pulls up to a very large, grand Victorian home with is at the end of a mile or so long drive.  We are greeted by several friendly rangers and invited to relax and have tea.  They will take care of our bags and take us to our lodge after the others have arrived.  Wow, we have beaten the coach.  The others arrive and we meet our 14 other guests.  One of the guests later tells me he thought I was Lady Lucy sitting having tea because I looked so relaxed and comfortable.  The picture is the home of Sir John and Lady Lucy Lister-Kaye.  All our meals, tea, and some of our briefings are held in the great room, common room, library, or drawing room.  More to come.