We met last Thursday at Auburn's Game Farm Park. Our last time there Gimme's track was unintentionally aged too much, so we made sure it was only 35 minutes this time. The weather was just perfect - overcast, pleasantly cool with a very slight breeze.
I'd bought golf tees to mark corners, since you can't see them until you are within a couple feet of them and if we lose a few, no big deal. Plus we don't have to worry about them being an issue for park mowers.
This track is nothing complicated. The two rectangles at the start are two large cement blocks. The track started in an outdoor amphitheater and immediately went through an area with a lot of mole hills. Gimme was completely unconcerned about the moles. However she was fascinated by the squirrels. We figure there are 3 squirrels per tree and at least a hundred trees. They are everywhere. Gimme is convinced squirrels are just rats with better tails. The squirrels proved to be a very big challenge for her and its going to take awhile for her to learn they aren't part of this game. Her best part of this track was crossing the sidewalk, which is sometimes a challenge. She did well on leg 3 and leg 4, which were out in the open and so may have had less squirrel contamination. The last leg took us back into the trees. The final article grew legs and walked away, so Nadine reminded me to toss an article "ahead" of where Gimme was, when she wasn't looking.
Gimme was relieved to find the final glove, but she really thinks she should get a better-tail-rat for her efforts. Tomorrow we are meeting at Auburn Cinema for more urban tracking, then next week will be a field tracking week. The weekend of July 16/17 we will be up in Bellingham for an urban tracking seminar. Cross your fingers we do better tomorrow without so many better-tail-rat challenges.
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