Tracey’s ocean loving family has two rescue hunting dogs; Lord Nelson, a German short hair Pointer named after the English naval commander, and Brenna a five-year-old Vizla and Pointer mix named after a “mermaid” in The Secret Life Of A Mermaid movie. Their family also includes two cats, Surfer and Windy.

After the family’s previous dog died, Nelson was in as much grief as his human family so Tracey took him to dog foster homes to pick out his new sibling.

“We walked into a room and saw a terrified Brenna hiding behind her foster mother,” said Tracey.  “She was in a fight or flight mode, growling with her hackles up. Lord Nelson took one look and scented the air revealing that Brenna was female, young, not a leader and scared, so he acted appropriately.  He calmly walked over and submissively laid down in front of her.”

There was no fight, growl, or chest out like one might expect from an alpha dog. The stately Lord Nelson simply fell at her feet in love. When Nelson lowered his head, she came out from hiding and nuzzled his nose. She sniffed him from stem to stern, while that big ol’ oaf just laid there. Once he got up, the two dogs started playing which translates to “affection”. He had picked his mate, Lady Brenna Nelson.

Brenna had never been in a car, so on their way home she climbed on top of Nelson and he patiently let her stay there for the hour drive!

“When Nelson was a year old he treed his first bear and soon after fought off three coyotes that circled us on our walk,” explains Tracey. “Now on our daily hikes both dogs have large-noisy ‘bear bells’ dangling from their thick collars alerting wild animals to our presence.”

Pointers smell things over a mile range, so the bells work wonders for dogs that go crashing off forest trails after a scent. Tracey can hear their location and because bears aren’t adorned with bells, hikers are happy that it’s dogs making the noise and not charging bears.

Tracey blows a whistle when it's time for her dogs to return. During winter months their sharp ears hear the whistle over howling wind, rain and rushing water.  It is a good idea for hikers to carry whistles in case of emergencies to alert others you need help and your location.

Tracy’s dogs attended a dog obedience and training club and learned about boundaries, tracking and field work, agility, freestyle, scenting, Rally-O, and circus school. Then, she  taught them to jump onto logs, benches, and rocks on the command "up" so they can safely “share the trail” with hikers and mountain bikers.  The command “up” is also a mental exercise, teaches rules, and affection because the dogs are rewarded with a treat. This trick is how we scored on the wonderful photo above!

But during an agility competition things did not go as well. Hunting dogs do not care about speed because they are all about scent and sight. On command Nelson began running the 12 stations marked with bright-four inch orange cones: up and over the jump, around the poles, up the ramp, down the slide, up the ladder etc.

The last station was a big ring with a long sock.  Nelson noticed its orange cone and being a flusher he grabbed the cone, ran through the sock, popped out the other end, and ran to the finish line still holding the bright cone.  The audience erupted in hysterics. Nelson did not win because “proudly grabbing the cone” was not part of the competition.

“I still have lots to learn about dogs as trying to meet their needs while having fun,” said Tracey. “At the end of the day in our ‘den’ we two humans, two dogs and two cats contentedly curl up in our king bed under the covers.”