Brambledale Bright Spot and his French owner, Stephanie Favre, certainly have a very versatile partnership. Having done well at agility and shepherding, they have now turned their attention to tracking and I was delighted to have this message from Stephanie last week:

"Last week, Spoty obtained his mantrailing certificate. As usual, he worked very nicely, despite a hare on our track! He was able to concentrate again very quickly, and the group of spectators  following us was very impressed.
In France, the mantrailing certificate consists of finding a missing person, an hour and a half after the trail has been laid.
The track is 700 m, 5 objects are lost along the track (the dog must identify at least 3).
We have  30 minutes to find him.
Before the track the dog is subjected to the test of gun shot: a shot is fired in the air (with a gun 6 mm or 9 mm)  approximately 20 m from the dog. The dog should not panic."

Here is a link to photos of the event :

https://picasaweb.google.com/111866520048969564465/BrevetRechercheUtilitaire?authkey=Gv1sRgCKX4q_GK__-JHw#

Congratulations to Stephanie and Spot!