Tracking Genius

Gimme is such a genius at tracking, she thinks she should start right out with a TDX Test.  Seriously, she is very, very good.

We haven't done anything with tracking for over 3½ years.  When we left off, she was doing 50-60 yard tracks and my records show she had at most 6 curved arcs, i.e. no sharp or even angled turns.  At the time there was a food drop every 10-15 feet and she was blowing past many of them.  She had only followed tracks I laid.

Today she did a track of 120 yards with two 90º left turns, two articles, laid by a stranger, with food drops every 10-15 yards.  She aced it.  Seriously she was so good, kept her nose down the vast majority of the time and really moved along smartly.  I was holding her back.  A couple of times she was distracted by something she saw off to the side, but once she checked it, she returned to the track and got back to work.

After Gimme ran our little track, Nadine ran all three of her girls on it.  She has an old girl with a TD already and she was focused and methodical.  One of her two younger girls was a little better than Gimme.  The other was coming in season and kinda flighty, so its hard to say how good she is.  After we ran her girls, we let Gimme run the track again.  She wasn't as good the second time around.  I think it was because of following the girl in season - so we won't do it after Sugar again again.

Her weakest area is the glove indication, so we'll do some work with this.  Some games to make articles more important.  Time for me to get out my tracking box and load it with stuff I need.  One of the first things I will put in it is my rubber wading boots.  It was a light shower the whole 2½ hours, so I was pretty wet by the time I was done.  Gimme didn't seem to notice.

I really think all the nosework training has taught her how to track a scent - so the time off certainly hasn't hurt any.  She has a lot of innate scenting talent.