Peninsula
Australian Shepherd Association put on its fifth annual ASCA sanctioned
TD and TDX tests back to back over Presidents' Weekend at Fort Ord, an
enormous parkland developed from a decommissioned military
base,
just inland from Monterey, California. The TD test was plotted on
Friday and run on Saturday. There were five entries, and all five dogs
passed! The TDX tracks were plotted on Sunday and run on
Monday.
Five dogs were entered. There were no passes, but my co-judge Carol
Pernicka and I saw some excellent TDX work.
The Fort Ord
site is hilly but gorgeous, and this year the cover was lush and ankle
deep. PASA has obtained special permission from the BLM to use a
portion of the park that is closed to motor vehicles, so the space is
quiet and pristine. Later in the season the slopes will be grazed by
flocks of sheep.
The tracks were plotted and run during a heavy
winter storm that provided plenty of much needed rain over the course
of the weekend. Rainfall was light and intermittent during the TD test.
The TDX tracklayers got drenched, but the storm abated briefly while
the TDX tracks were being run.
Passing TD dogs were:
Argent's
White Wolf Wild Time, a two-year old Samoyed dog owned by Ann and Jan
Schlobohm of
Fresno, CA, and handled by Francis Keays. Shown with
co-judges Carol Pernicka & Anne Hershey and apprentice judge,
Rita Crawford
Timberland Northwood Twilight, a ten-year-old Golden
Retriever dog & Northwood
Merry Moonsprite, a five-year-old Golden Retriever bitch
both owned and handled by Deborah Best of San Leandro, CA.
Pictured are judge Carol Pernicka, Deborah,
tracklayers Linda Lang &
Michelle Pressel, apprentice judge Rita Crawford and Judge Anne Hershey
Nightwind's
Piece of the Action, an eight-year-old Rottweiler dog owned
and handled by Francis Keays of Half Moon Bay, CA. Pictured
with
judges Carol & Anne, tracklayer Liza Buckner &
apprentice judge
Rita.
Tower of Power, a two-year-old
Rhodesian Ridgeback dog
owned and
handled by Joan Carpenter (on the right) of Pacific Grove, CA.
also shown are Judge Carol Pernicka, tracklayer Linda Lang
and apprentice
judge Rita Crawford and judge Anne Hershey
Entered in the TDX
Test were two Australian Shepherd dogs, a Japanese
Kai Ken bitch, a Shiba Inu dog, and a Rottweiler dog.
.................................................................
Donna
Highstreet served as Test Secretary and as Chief Tracklayer for both
tests. She and her husband Ken Highstreet parked their motor home at
the staging area, and invited the workers into it for shelter from the
storm. We could not have put on the test in that weather
without
the motor home. Corn chowder, chicken tortilla casserole, hot drinks,
apple cake, carrot cake, vegetable soup with sausage--- just a few
highlights of the weekend hospitality provided by Donna and Ken, Mona
Nichols, Warene Waters, Marcia Hodes and others.
Many thanks to
our outstanding TD and TDX tracklayers: Sue Rush, Liza Buckner,
Michelle Pressel, Linda Lang, Doug Nichols, Susan Roberts, Joan
Carpenter, and
Linda Knowles. Thanks also to our intrepid drivers Janet Massolo and
Mona Nichols--- those wet dirt roads were pretty slick!
As
always, it was a pleasure to work with my co-judge Carol Pernicka---
and to share the judging experience with apprentice tracking judge Rita
Crawford.
My only regret is that there were not more dogs
entered in the TD and TDX tests. This site is enormous. The wide open
slopes could accommodate twelve TD tracks easily, and there is plenty
of
more challenging terrain available to plot a full six TDX test later in
the weekend. ASCA tracking tests provide titling opportunities for rare
breed and mixed breed tracking dogs, and wonderful opportunities for
handlers of all breeds to continue to train and exhibit their tracking
dogs in new and interesting environments.
Think about it for Presidents' Weekend, 2010!
Anne Hershey
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