Submitted by Oriole member Kristi Eisenberg:
Oriole Dog Training Club held its annual AKC Sanctioned Tracking Test on Sunday, April 10. Thirty enthusiastic and dedicated Oriole club members and tracking students were on site at Fair Hill and surrounding locations on Saturday (weathering a flash blizzard) to assist our four AKC judges plot 16 tracks: 4 TD, 4 TDU, 4 TDX, and 4 VST.
On Sunday the team returned to welcome 16 exhibitors and a gallery of observers. At the end of the day we had four passes.
These were:
New Tracking Dog Urban (TDU) : German Shepard Wild Laelia von Sontausen BN RN TD AX MXJ XF T2B CGCA CGCU and Donna Morgan Murray.
New Tracking Dog (TD): Golden Retriever Topbrass Field Trip CD PCDX and Tony R Hinson
New Tracking Dog (TD): German Shepherd Osah of Sapphire Mountain and Marie Donahue.
New Tracking Dog Excellent (TDX): Golden Retriever Sunfire’s Unsinkable TD and Jean Farny. (Jean is an Oriole Club member who will co-teach a beginner tracking class this fall.)
The event was an amazing display of coordinated teamwork by staff and exhibitors. It was a wonderful, challenging, fun, and educational event, with moments of deep disappointment for dog-handler teams who did their best but didn’t pass, and moments of wild cheers of joy for the dog-handler teams who made it all the way to the finish.
Many thanks go out to judges Sue Ammerman, Stephanie Crawford, Allison Platt, and Jack Sappenfield. Much appreciation as well to trial chair Kristi Eisenberg, and test secretary Demarie Givens for all their hard work before, during, and after the event, the members of the trial committee: Joyce Lilly, Linda Miles, Linda Hulbert, Diana Reich, Tom Harding, Jean Farny, Sisi Smith, and Phil Kirby and all the tracklayers who came and lent their feet. Thank you everyone for keeping one of Oriole’s longest traditions and opportunity for canine camaraderie alive and well !
Oriole Dog Training Club 