Having just completed Roso's certifications in Area Search and Cadaver, I decided to start him right away in Trailing. Traditionally, we start dogs in Trailing with short "run-away's", where the dog sees the subject walk away, a scent article is presented to the dog, the command to search is given, and the dog learns to follow the trail to the subject. Since Roso is normally very ground-oriented when he does Area Search, I decided to experiment with skipping the beginning steps and run him on a normal practice trail, for which a couple of people thought I was crazy. I figured that if he got totally lost and didn't know what to do, I could then start him at the beginning and it wouldn't mess him up that much.
The trail that I set up and ran with Roso started from approximately where I was standing when I shot this photo and went through the snow, which was covering the ground at that time and was Roso's first experience in show, on an animal trail that didn't have any snow on it, over to the trees on the middle-right. You can see Sandy and Marley (if you look hard) on their way back from the subject, having completed their Area Search problem.
I was blown away by how well Roso did, completing the whole trail as though he'd been practicing for months! And this was without any training whatsoever. His nose was to the ground and he never left the trail for more than six feet, the whole way to the subject. When he arrived at the subject, who was hidden in an opening in the trees, about six feet off the trail, he stopped immediately, turned to his right, looked up, wagging his tail continuously, then went in to him. This was such an impressive performance for a first-timer! On our way back to base camp, I set him loose and he had a whole lot of fun running in the snow.
Later on, after most of the snow had melted, I noticed how beautiful the scene was, with golden light reflecting off the boulders on the hill in the distance. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with me, because the weather said that there was just going to be rain. I did have my iPhone with me, though, so I thought that I'd give that a try. Except for losing all the detail in some of the clouds, which I partially fixed in Photoshop, by cloning other clouds on top of the area, it came out pretty nicely, I think, especially when viewed in Light Box View.
I do love the way the position is automagically and accurately located on the map when I post pictures from my iPhone to Flickr. If you click on the map link (Los Terrentos, California) then click on the "View on Larger Map" link, you can see the animal trail that I set up the problem on. The subject was just inside the trees.
Tags: Roberts Ranch San Diego County
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Just before I shot this, I had been trying to capture Roso in an alert profile, but whenever I lifted the lens, he would either run toward me or pose for me in an awkward position. Eventually, I moved on to other things and stopped paying attention to him.
Imagine my surprise and delight when I looked down an saw him like this, locked in a point. Roso is our fifth Vizsla, but the first one with such an intense point. Last night was the first time that I've seen him do this and what a treat it was! It almost made me want to take up hunting with him, but what with SAR, agility, obedience, and exercise (which I already don't do enough of with him) we pretty much have a full plate of activities.
Tags: Roso Sabroso Vizsla Pointer Search dog www.southwestsearchdogs.org SuperShot BlueRibbonWinner FlickrsPortal NaturesElegantShots TopShots COTH mywinners
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This guy was cool, although somewhat uncooperative. Whereas most llamas that I've encountered are a little timid and aloof-appearing, this one was very curious and wanted to check me out up close. Whenever I'd back up to frame him better, he'd walk toward me, with his nose outstretched toward my camera. When I moved to try to get better light in his eyes or to get the fence out of the background, he would also move to ruin the shot.
Finally, I managed to catch him watching some of our SAR dogs and trainers off in the distance. His eye is too dark - well, he does have dark eyes, but I would rather have had a better reflection - but I guess it was too late in the day for that. It was nice light, though.
I'm thinking about getting one of these to haul my camera gear around. ;-) Come to think of it, they're probably smart enough that they could help me with lens choice, settings, and flash decisions, too. Don't think they could handle post-production, though. That's over their heads.
Tags: Llama Lama glama (Who made up that name?) mywinners NaturesElegantShots TopShots SuperShot
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Tags: Llama Roberts Ranch San Diego California SuperShot COTH mywinners
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Tags: Wildflowers White Lupine Lupinus albus Roberts Ranch San Diego County California
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