Pie, 6.5 years old, is a daughter of Owl.
While I am posting new photos, I will tell the story of Pie earning her Tracking Dog title.
Pie was only seven months old when she passed the Tracking Dog test. It was the first tracking test for both Pie and her handler Julie Stock. An interesting thing happened on Pie's track during the test. Some men working on a little bridge in the area drove their construction truck across the third leg of Pie's track. They were headed back to the equipment barn and had decided to take the shortest route which was overland!
Pie, already on track, had done some zooming around at the start, as puppies often will. When she settled down, Pie leaned into her harness and became all business. She made the first two turns flawlessly.
When Pie arrived at where the truck had gone diagonally across the track, she began drifting off track in the direction the truck had traveled. We who were up on the road watching and pacing like crazy, had a few seconds there where we stopped all motion and willed Pie to correct herself.
She did! Good little tracker that she is, Pie quickly realized that she was not where she needed to be. She went straight away back to the actual track, made the third and fourth turns easily, and indicated the article at the end of the fifth leg. Julie cautiously crept up on her, saw the article, picked it up and waved! Yaaaaay, Pie!
The judges came up to Julie and heartily offered their congratulations. One of them, who tracks German Shepherds, commented that Pie had looked like a "wiggle in the grass." Ha ha! It was a memorable occasion.
Back to the present, here are some photos of Pie taken by her owner this week.
Like so many longhairs do, Pie loves snow!