Ginie from Georgia

We heard from Wayne Varnadore from Georgia, who has Ginie, a Billy/Gilda daughter:

Just wanted to give you and update on Ginie. We have been working her twice a week and she has been doing a good job. We have got up to doing the lines about 250 yards and we let it sit for about two hours. I am very pleased with her. I purchased a set of deer scent shoes from Alan Wade and looking forward to using them with her. She is growing so fast.

Patti and her sisters, Poppy and Paika

We got a nice update on Patti from Dan Davis from Wisconsin:

"Just checking in to let you know how things are going with Patti. Today we ran a 200 yard bloodline that aged 4 hours. This is the second one of these we have done. Last week when we tried the same set up, she struggled staying focused after the first 50 yards or so. She drifted pretty severely and eventually got to the end, but was not at all precise. Today she did much better. I believe the weather played a part as it was much cooler today than it was during last week's track. I put some treats on the line and offered more encouragement. That might have helped some too. She went past the one turn in the line, but corrected herself and picked the line back up. Just for fun I took the very end of the line across a paved walking path with a lot of blood all of the way across. She was unable to make it across the path and it seemed to break her concentration because I had a little trouble getting her focused once we picked the trail up on the other side. I realize what I was asking her to do, but just wanted to see how it would go. Overall I was very satisfied with the track.

We're still not doing great with the house training, but we're trying. We can tell when she has gone in the house based on her body language when she comes around us so we are hopeful that is a step in the right direction. Guess we need to watch her closer even though several times we have taken her out only to have her go shortly after we bring her back in.

We feel like you did a great job fitting her with our family. Basic obedience is going well and she has been very easy to care for. Bow season is only 7 weeks away, we should be able to get her out on some real "tracks" and are excited for that!"


Yesterday we worked a blood line with Poppy, and the video clip showing it is posted here. Few days ago, when Joeri dispatched the woodchuck we trapped in John's garden, we used it for doing a drag for Paika. It was a long drag, over 200 yards, and we worked her on it 12 hours later (overnight). She had problems with picking up the scent at the beginning, but once she recognized it, she followed the drag without any problems. Today P-pups are 16 weeks old.

Poppy with a dead pigeon placed at the end of blood trail.

Few pictures of Poppy

Today I snapped few pictures of Poppy. The first one shows her with her mom Keena.

Poppy is getting better with every day so we probably just should assume that she has not been as precocious as her littermates. We will hold on to her for a while longer as we are really enjoying her, but there is no way that can keep her permanently as Paika is the one who is going to stay here. Decisions...decisions...decisions...

Update on Petrus (now Sam)

Last night we received a nice e-mail from Licoln Anderson, owner of Petrus, whose new name is Sam.

I just thought I’d give you an update on Sam. I ran two blood lines from 60 and 100 meters with two turns in each blood line. My third and fourth line were liver drags, one at 120 meters and tonight close to 200 meters. I have to say that Sam is right on the button. When he comes to a sharp turn in the blood trail he will circle around for a second and when he picks up the sent he looks back at me as if to say - let's go I’m back on track. Today I dragged the liver through a fresh deer bedding to see how he would react. So far Sam does not lose his concentration on a blood line but I’m sure there will days he’ll be distracted by fresh rabbits, deer, moose tracks.

We were in Sudbury, Ontario on the 4th of July for a family reunion and he loves the water and gets along great with young kids, other dogs and the adults. As I mentioned the other day on the phone he loves to dig holes, eat my flowers, lettuce and cucumber plants, munch on water bottles. Here are a few pictures of the blood line I did today and some pictures of Sam in a swim meet.