Our adventure with tracking begun because of Hania and Jurek. “Do come for tracking workshop! You’ll love it! And if not, well, the place is really nice, people are friendly, so you can rest and socialize…” – that’s what they said. So I allowed myself to be persuaded.
It often happens that an animal is hit by a bullet but manages to escape, bleeding. In order to find and kill it, a skillful dog is needed, who would follow the animal’s track from the place where it has been shot. In training, the track is laid artificially – by dripping the animal’s blood from a bottle. You can imagine that I had mixed feelings towards this kind of training... Still, I decided to go. I borrowed a special collar for Una and led her to the beginning of the track. And immediately I changed my mind about artificial tracks, as Una started wagging her tail like crazy and happily and without hesitation followed the scent. It was amazing! It always surprizes me how dogs can follow so confidently something which human can’t see. And the happiness on her face... just amazing...
Summa summarum Una turned out to be quite a good scenting dog, though a little bit overenthusiastic, which makes her tracking not so stylish. And as for myself... well, I just fell for the enthusiasm on her face, though I still think that laying a track is disgusting ;)
After the training we participated in International Tracking Trial. It was very adventurous, but that’s another story. All in all, Una got her 1st grade diploma (which is equivalent of excellent), and we’re both really proud of that (see utility certificate).
