Tracking Jackrabbits in the Desert

We took Artus out a couple of times this week. He's learning to adjust his search patterns based on the terrain we are working in. In the trees he sticks closer to me and when we are out on the desert he ranges out farther. Nothing I've done has taught him this, he just picks it up on his own as he gets more exposure.

One part of the VJP (the spring test for Drahthaars) is the hare track. In it, your dog is judged on how well it tracks a rabbit. We took Artus out yesterday and luckily found several. This was his first time tracking them specifically and he did good. It's fun to watch him work the track out and when he hits the scent he really takes off. It was about 75 degrees and a wind was blowing but he tracked well despite that. We'll work on ranging out farther as we continue to train. He was overheating by the time we were done but would still get up and go when I asked him to. I admire the drive in this dog.

It's hard to get good pics of him with my cell phone camera but here are a few. I'm also posting links to several videos from when we worked in the water last week.
I haven't figured out how to correctly post links from my Photobucket account to my blog using my phone yet so for now, the three boxes with question marks in them will have to do. They are the video links.















Here's a few of him just being a puppy around the house.