cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alice Makes Me Look Really Good Well this has been one hell of a weekend so far, and it ain't over. I'm sitting here at my desk on Sunday evening, waiting for my new group of students to arrive for their first class. I spent all day running around in the woods helping a couple of my students from the last class to find a deer that one of them had shot at yesterday. Alice came with me and she was the star of the show. She did in fact pick up the trail and took us right to it once we'd put her on to something reasonably fresh. However, it turned out that the deer had only been more or less grazed by dude's shot. We pushed the doe for several miles up and down hills and through thorns and over creeks before deciding that it was time to call it quits. There was no way in hell that we were ever going to ever catch up to it. She was really impressive today, seriously. I think there was initially some doubt as to her abilities, especially when I warned that working with her would require placing total faith in her abilities. That means that even when you don't see a spot of blood on the ground during 5 minutes of running flat-out through the thickest crud imaginable, when the dog is taking us over terrain that you don't think the deer would ever have dealt with in a direction that makes no sense, you just accept it. Because inevitably, you will suddenly look down at the ground and clearly see a few spots of blood while racing by. That was what finally happened and now Alice has another pair of total devotees. She was FURIOUS when we decided to call off the chase. She was perfectly prepared to keep going as long as it took to catch up with the deer. Alice has a pair of total devotees now. They were majorly impressed with her, as was I. It is amazing to watch her work. The sheer speed with which she can follow a scent and the complex tactics she uses to pick it up again after losing it are inspiring. Her tenacity is incredible. 5:34 p.m. - 2009-11-15 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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