Page 68 - WUT Magazine

Special guest, Delbrügger’s Ottocar
and helping hands were split up among many SUV’s, and we went with lots of speed on bumpy roads to the trial ground. Of course, being in Russia things have di erent dimensions, and after more than one hour drive we could not help wondering how far we had left civilization behind and... would we every return back home? Af- ter some brave and skillful crossings of moors, small rivers and nar- row passes, we finally arrived at the basecamp.
Not wasting any time, the call came for the first teams to be ready. Olga with her black and tan SS male and me with my Nixe had to start, as well as the team for the 40 hour line. For safety reasons and reassurance, we got GPS trackers, to be located in case we got lost. One by one we were brought to the start of the individual line and received the last instructions. My Nixe was very much interest- ed in the prepared elk hair at the starting point and immediately concentrated on the blood line. To be honest, I felt big relief, as we had never trained our dogs with elk blood. But mom’s words “blood is blood” proved true. Behind us we heard the “beep” of the stop- watch, from now on the time was running! Ninety minutes! Thor- oughly, my young bitch worked the blood line, marked by visible and invisible bloodspots. Just as thoroughly I marked the line with red paper ribbon, in order to take her back if necessary.
After a turn, we both stood rather astonished in front of a huge heap of... elk poo; next a single fresh wild boar track crossed our line. Nixe worked calmly and concentrated onwards, rounded a
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