Wild West Weimaraners

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Canyonlands Canine Association

A big "Wahoo!" for Lottie's successful weekend at the spring UKC conformation show. Lottie not only took Best of Class, Sex, and Breed, but she also won 1st in the Gun dog group and then went on to finish her championship by taking home a Reserve Best In Show. A huge THANK YOU to not only our friend who handled her during breed, but also to our judge, Mr. Keith Kozakiewicz, who selected our girl. Lottie will now be working towards her grand and I'm so excited to see how she progresses.

Not all who participate in conformation believe that UKC holds a lot of ground in their judgements, but what I really appreciate about UKC is that it's given us an opportunity to learn by doing without the pressure that the AKC rings bring. I'm extremely grateful for all of the advice, the tips, the tricks, the confidence, and the practice that we have received over the last year and a half while participating in the UKC shows. I also have to give a big thanks to the club and the members who run the whole show. Between the organizers and the participants you can't find a better place to enter the show ring.

We're kicking the year off going back to the basics to really hone in on our tracking skills. The image below is a very basic 50 yard track in flat grass with about a 2 oz of blood and a thawed deer hoof.

We're still building a routine for when we track and working on pulling together the right gear for when we're on practice tracks and the real thing. Our goal is to have every track start the exact same way so Lottie, or any other dog, can pick up on the task at hand. For this particular track Lottie and I were focusing on keeping our nose low and to the ground while maintaining close proximity to the track line itself. She really does track well and stayed right online the entire time, but sometimes those basics come in handy when we're out in the field and I need to have that trust in her that she is following the scent trail even if it's not visible to the naked eye.

The best part of the track is rewarding her with the deer leg at the end to let her know that she has successfully tracked what we are looking for. She LOVES deer and you can see her excitement as she chews on the end of the leg.

To watch a fast forwarded clip of her track click the link: Tracking Training