We earned our TDX title on October 2, 2022 at Fair Hill in Elkton, MD, at the West Highland White Terrier Club of America National Specialty combined test with judges Jack Sappenfield and Stephanie Crawford and tracklayer Alice. Key's formal name is now BOSS GCH CH Turicks Wakiya UD TDX HSAds HXAds BCAT TT DS CGC ROM I.
Fair Hill is a 5,656 acre Natural Resources Management Area about 2 ½ hours from Finn Road Park, bordered by Pennsylvania to the north and ½ mile west of Delaware. William du Pont, Jr. (1896-1965) had acquired the land in order to enjoy riding as well as fox hunting, and the vast grounds were purchased by Maryland in 1975 from Mr. duPont's estate. The Fair Hill fields are spectacularly beautiful, with lovely cover.
This combined test had 3 TDU, 3 TD and 3 TDX tracks, and there were two passes for each type of test. The draw for TD and TDU was at 7:30 a.m. at the Cockerham HQ in the field; the TDs ran first, then the test moved down to nearby technical school for the TDUs, and returned back up to the fields for the TDX draw at 10:15 a.m.. (One non-Westie alternate ran in each of the TDU & TD tests, and two non-Westies were in the draw for the TDX test.) It had rained the day prior and overnight as Hurricane Ian had come through, and on test day it was overcast, cold, with a slight wind and periodically rainy. Perfect tracking weather that was also perfect for turning wet human beings into popsicles!
TDX 1 was a Westie and drew the third track, while TDX 2 was a Shih Tzu and drew the first track. Key was TDX 3 and had second track. There were 5 alternate TDX entries.
Our turn began with a short drive from the high ground of HQ to an area a bit lower, about a half mile away. After we arrived, I got Key out of the car, had him pee (again!), put his harnesses on him (he hates waiting at or near the flag to start, so I put it on well before) and headed to where the judges and the tracklayer were waiting. They led us into a field and pointed to the tall flag. Key was eager to get going, and, as is his custom, dragged me (on his collar) towards the start flag. About 15 feet away I switched the line over from his collar to his harness and whispered his tracking command, "seeking." He darted right to the start flag, then backtracked (presumably to where the tracklayer had come through the woods to the start flag), and then headed out up the field. I like this offered start behavior since it gives me a very clear indication of the direction of the first leg. Although Key usually retrieves articles to me, this particular start article was a synthetic sock, and he doesn't care for synthetic fabrics. So he just gave it a poke with his muzzle instead as he started on the track. I picked it up as I passed the flag 20 feet later with only a bit of panic, since the sock was tied with a knot into a circle around the pole, and I had to lift it over the top of a 4' tall flag (or pull out the flag).
The first leg went uphill a tiny bit diagonally across the field, and after the first 20 yards or so, Key started pulling harder. I looked up and noted a landmark we were headed directly towards. The next thing I knew Key did a gorgeous ninety degree turn to the left, and I swung in behind him for leg two on a part of the field that was more undulating. In what seemed like no time at all, Key made another beautiful ninety degree turn, this time to the right, for leg three, and we went uphill again, with the top of a large tree on the horizon directly in front of us. Shortly after that turn Key slowed down, stopped pulling quite as hard, and then I saw him look down to the ground before picking up speed again. As I passed that same spot I looked down, too, and saw … an intermediate article! (A synthetic knit hat. Did I mention Key doesn't care for synthetic fabrics and so doesn't retrieve them to me?) I stopped, picked it up, raised it high to the sky so the judges could see and tucked it away. When I stopped, Key came back to me. I praised, sorting out the line, gave him water, and then rescented him and off he charged. (He'd really rather not be stopped, but…) A bit further on he gave a head flick to the right but kept going straight, and as I passed that spot I looked hard, both right and left, but didn't see anything. Key kept pulling, harder than ever, and I followed, and then he made a third lovely turn, this time ninety degrees to the left for leg four.
Key has often circled at the turns, sometimes two or even three times after initially indicating the direction that he eventually took. Reducing and even eliminating circling was something I had been working on this fall, and here he had done three picture-perfect turns in a row!
Fairly soon after we started the fourth leg Key gave another head flick, to the left this time, and again when I passed I looked both ways, but didn't see anything. A part of me, far back in my brain, started to wonder if those were perhaps the two cross tracks, and if so, if another article might be coming up since often times judges put an article 30 yards past the cross tracks to "pull the dogs through." But I put that thought out of my brain, instead focusing on observing Key and remaining in the moment, with him. Also, on keeping myself upright, since Key was getting even faster! We had kind of gone into a depression at this point, passed over a dirt boot-wide footpath and an almost ditch, and then, boom, Key made a fourth ninety degree turn, to the right, cleanly done again, and we were heading back uphill on the fifth leg. Key was pulling harder than ever and then he grabbed something in the tall field grass and raced back to me with a second intermediate article: a very cold and dripping wet blue cotton bandana. I lifted it high, praised Key, straightened out his line, gave him water, rescented (using the bandana this time!) and then…huh? No Key racing off on the track? What's wrong? I repeated our post-finding-an-article routine (praise, fix line, water, rescent) and this time also added in Key's "seeking" tracking command. And off he went at a more moderate pace. I could see that there was a small road ahead and when we got there Key went right across. I stayed on my side of the road, standing still, and gave him line as he investigated on the far side of the road, first to the left for perhaps ten yards and then about the same to the right. He discarded both of those options and continued straight ahead through a small wooded area, and I followed as he pulled me up a small embankment into another field.
Very quickly after entering the new field, Key circled once, to the left, and then made a gentle turn that direction with me swinging in behind him. This was the sixth leg, after what afterwards I found out was an open turn, and it wasn't very long until he made a sharp turn left onto a seventh leg heading back towards the road we had just crossed. From the field we were in now there was a fringe of trees before the road itself, and when Key got to that tree line he turned right and followed it. However, he wasn't pulling hard at all; it felt more like an "investigation" than "tracking," so I held my ground and gave him line (my line is 35 foot as I was at the end). I remained on the track he had left, facing the direction he had been going while he went up and down the tree line, and making big circles always to my right. I finally told him to "get back to work." (Afterwards I found out from the tracklayer that when she had put in the track, there had been "a whole herd of deer there.") Finally Key came back towards me next to the tree fringe, and when he hit the track he had been on before, he immediately turned right, going fast through the tree fringe, down and up a small ditch, directly across the road, and then barrelling into the next field like a freight train. I crossed the road behind him. He was pulling like gangbusters and the next thing I knew he grabbed something, raced back to me, and I could see he had a glove! When I went to take it from him in order to hold it for the judges to see, I promptly tripped on something and fell over face down in the grass, One of the judges was running up to me, anxiously yelling if I was okay. When I sat up and yelled back I was, she told me that I was bleeding. (Apparently several somethings had scratched my face as I fell – no harm done, but there was rather a lot of blood!)
Key went from the start to the glove in 11 minutes. This was a wonderful day, one that was made possible by so much help from so many people in the tracking community. Frankly, it was also made possible by the times when even when we had been lucky enough to get into the draw, or to run as the alternate, we did not pass. All of these were learning experiences that gave me information on what to work on for the next opportunity. While I didn't enter a TDX test until I felt we were ready and could pass, I will also say that each time we were in the draw (which we usually weren't) we were MORE ready. It felt like it took forever for us to pass, but we started in April 2021 and finished in October, 2022, so it was really only 1 ½ years and we took off 8 of those 18 months off due to the seasons (winter and summer).
Two members of the Lenape Tracking Club deserve a very specal thank you: Renee Guyro laid cross-track exercises in front of her house for us last spring (boy, did they ever pay off!), and Gina DeAlmedia provided instruction and encouraging critiques whenever I asked. Team Key is so grateful for and appreciative of your help.
I plan on continuing on this tracking journey with Key and starting in with his grandpuppy, Kali, too. Happy tracking, everyone!
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