The Countychampionships  in tracking sept 2007         

 
Tuvas and me red arrow

In 2 September 2007  Tuva and I had the honour of participating in the Wildtracking Championship of our County Jönköping.
There were totally 12 dogs. The participants are Clubchampions in their own district. Also they are hunters and all the other dogs are hunting/trailing dogs.
The competition is in 3 parts, including tests of the handlers/hunters skills and knowledge.

First
the dog has to do some real difficult tracking.  The bloodtrial is 24 hours old and there are som real tricky parts in it.

Second
the handler has to indentifie the content of small boxes. There are small animalparts like hair, bone and maybe some muscle, lung, or liverparts and so on. You have to tell where the Elk/Deer has been shot.

Third
there is a questionaire with 20 questions to be solved, about the wildlife and hunting.

Tuva did great even if she has no big routine. She made some small misstakes but finished the track and picked the Elkhoof in the end!
I managed to get 5 boxes right of 6. The 20 questions were VERY difficult for me since I'm not a hunter. I had 12 points out of 20.
We finally became n:o 6 of 12 dogs. I am very pleased, in a competition with the best dogs and hunters in our County!
Specially I'm proud that a Thai Ridgeback Dog made it all the way!

Trailing dogs.  The honor code of Sweden requires that injured game is found, whether dead or alive.  As a wounded animal can often travel for days, at great speed initially due to adrenaline, a talented dog is required to find and stay to a trail that may only have a drop of blood every few yards.