Field Tripping

Today we met Grafton and Mary before it got too hot, for a 4.5 mile walk.  We'll do it again tomorrow.  Those two sure have fun running and playing together.

Later I had to go to the library, so brought Gimme along to squeeze in a nosework field trip.  We did three separate searches, three hides each.

The first search was in an alcove outside the back door.  One hide she found near instantly.  She must've smelled it from thirty feet away, because she made a beeline for the spot where it was between two dumpsters.  The one I put on the gate proved to be more challenging than I expected.  The way the wind was moving, I expected her to be drawn right to it when she found the first one.  Instead the scent was pooling against the side of the dumpster and then spilling from there in a curly motion along some vegetation.  When she finally found it, she was in a spot that was the last place that I expected her to catch the scent from.   In hindsight, part of the problem may have been the proximity of a book drop, that essentially made the odor's location in a corner... so she was rounding that corner.  Obviously we'll be doing more corners.  The last hide was in a vent that was sucking air - I was trying to replicate what we did at Lowes the other night.  It was actually harder than Lowes, since there was no return air, so she had to be right on top of it to find it.  She'd catch little drifts of scent, but had a hard time following them back to source.

The second search was on the opposite side of the giant air conditioning unit where we'd used the sucking vents for the other side.  The air was blowing out, but more of a soft drift.  Gimme found that without too much trouble.  I set another hide under a leaf and her snap back was so dramatic its a wonder she didn't hurt herself.  I noticed that she sniffed all three things I touched with the tin to see if I could stick it to them with the magnet.  That's a really tiny amount of residual odor and yet she picks it up.  The third hide was at the bottom of a sign pole sticking up out of some vegetation.  I'd stuck the magnet to it about 18" up and then slid it down below the vegetation.  Gimme went past it a million miles an hour, snapped back when she caught odor and then tramped in a direct line through the plants.  When she got to the pole, her nose homed right in where I'd stuck the magnet and then slid right down the pole just as I had slid the tin.  Too cool!

Our third search was a strip of grass and sidewalk along the street.  She found the first hide at the base of the tree, hidden under an abandoned t-shirt immediately.  She went so directly, it was like there was a giant arrow pointing to it.  She went by the hide stuck in the edge between the sidewalk and grass.  The third hide was stuck to the bottom of a parking meter, well above her head.  She kept catching a drift from that, but was finding it hard to follow it back to the source - though she did.  The one in the edge between the sidewalk and grass she caught easily on our way back toward the car, since we were now coming from the other direction.

I just finished the book, "K-9 Trailing: The Straightest Path" by Jeff Schettler.  It was very good reading and one I'll read again when I get back to tracking.  One of the things I read today as I was finishing the book, actually underscored why Gimme had a challenge getting to the hide on the bottom of the parking meter.