Needle in the Grass

A trained dog. Quite a necessity some would say when going on another Dog Tails adventure.

Others may say that two trained dogs would be even more appropriate, based on the number of dogs we have.

I’m not going to argue; both statements are equally valid. But how about a dog with a purpose?

Although another demographic of people would comment on the fact that Oshy already has his hands full with barking, chasing birds, barking, panting a lot, and barking.

As for Rusty, well, basking in the afternoon sun while waiting around for treats does amount to a busy day.

But there is always room for improvement, which leads us neatly to a new dog training course we’ve come across. We’ve recently begun educating Oshy in the skills of tracking, which as it turns out, has been full of loads of interesting facts:

• Bloodhounds can track someone up to 28 days after they’ve been somewhere
• Dogs can detect up to 3 million different scents
• Tracking dogs can be used to seek out noxious weeds for removal, such as Chilean Needle Grass
• Oshy barked through the entire 40-minute training session
• I was ‘that guy’ who brought the barking dog.
• Facts are great for padding out blog posts

Ignoring those last two facts, it is quite surprising what these canines are capable of achieving. Not entirely sure how many more steps are required before they can search out and remove their own crap from the garden, but maybe if they defecate next to a noxious weed, then everyone’s a winner.