PUT YOUR NOSE DOWN AND YOUR TAIL UP!
Dogs are blessed with the gift of actually enjoying repugnant smells, and it?s good for us that they do. For centuries, their exquisite noses have saved the lives of countless people who were lost, kidnapped, trapped or trying to survive in other precarious or life-threatening situations.
The Kentucky Horse Park is pleased to once again be the site for Dog Tracking, November 4, Sponsored by the Lexington Kennel Club, which will pit some of the country?s best noses against one another in a friendly but important competition to determine the best trackers.
All of the dogs are already certified trackers. They have been narrowed down from entries all over the country. One interesting aspect of this competition is that a 5-pound Maltese can successfully compete nose-to-nose with a 150-pound Rottweiler. It?s all in the nose.
The dogs will be competing for three titles: Tracking Dog (TD), Tracking Dog Excellent (TDX), and Veriable Surface Tracking(VST). According to the American Kennel Club, the fundamental features of a TD test are the dog?s ability to follow a track laid by a person under a variety of conditions on moderate terrain and to find an article dropped by that person at the end of the track.
The fundamental feature of a TDX is to show unquestionably that the dog has the ability to discriminate scent and possesses the stamina, perseverance, and courage to do so under a wide variety of conditions. A TDX test presents difficult challenges. Judges are to plot tracks as challenging and realistic as the terrain will permit, while maintaining proper concern for the safety of the dogs and handlers.
In the real world, dogs track through urban settings, as well as through wilderness. A VST dog has demonstrated this ability by following a three- to five-hour-old track that may take him down a street, through a building and other areas devoid of vegetation.
The fun begins at 8 am on Sunday, November 4 at the Kentucky Horse Park?s Show Office (just follow the ?Tracking? signs).
For information, call Billie Kovacs, 859-299-7184 .
