I’ve been watching TDX videos this rainy morning

And watching them is making me wax philosophical. I think you all know I ruined my first TDX dog. I was SO focused on attaining the title, my training was SO structured, I was SO determined to do it….that for a variety of reasons, one day she flat out refused to track. I had 12 entries in. It wasn’t a one-of. She was done, would not put her nose down for anything. Yes, we fixed it, over a year. And yes, we did earn our TDX….but more importantly, yes, I was able to find her joy for tracking. Cuz her skills were installed….it was lack of joy that made her quit.

TDX chooses us….bear with me here… we take the dog on a training journey to learn an infinite number of new skills. We (the dog and the human) revel in figuring out how to both train (human) and perform (dog) the new skills. IF, as the journey progresses, the two of you find you are “there”, then you start thinking, “oh, maybe we will go for a TDX.” So start with the joy of teaching and maintaining your partner’s joy in learning, in solving problems….and see where that takes you.

TDX is about skills, yes. BUT, it’s not about turns✅; cross tracks✅; woods✅; age✅. It’s about maintaining and building the dog’s enjoyment, their joy, in solving tracking puzzles. Many things are going to happen during TDX training that you didn’t, and can’t, plan for. The single most important concept then is “how do I help my dog not only do this ‘correctly’ but feel powerful when he solves the problem? Because, the single most important quality in a TDX dog is that they LOVE solving the puzzle. They have to know, in their little doggy brain, that they own this, and they can solve anything.

So, when you go out to put in a track, think about this. Your dog knows how to turn. Can he turn at a fence? At the tree line? at a stream edge? on the side of a hill? Again, these aren’t boxes to check….these are problems you offer the dog the opportunity to solve. You design the track so they WILL solve it. So every track introduces something new for them to solve. You ARE going to walk away some days thinking it’s not going in the right direction—that’s part of the process. And then, one day, when there’s a herd of deer on your first turn and you freeze…your dog will gleefully chase them off the turn, do a victory circle, put his nose down and he will show you the next leg. And then you know….you’ve taught him well.