Last Sunday I set another track for Gimme and let it age while I worked my Safeway store. It was one hour old, cool and damp, with no breeze. I started on the left side of the picture and went back behind the store and to a space in parking on the right side. Red line is the track and light blue is what Gimme did. Dark blue dots are articles.I wanted to try it again to see if what I saw the day before was really dependence on other stuff instead of following my track on hard surface, OR if it was because she was uncertain about following my track after so long. What I see is, Gimme is still tending to use grass and curbs and the edge of the building to find the track. If it weren't for articles bringing her along and the constraint of the area, I'm not sure she would have gotten to the end. It's also possible I'm unconsciously helping her.
We didn't have tracking this week because Nadine had a conflict. So tomorrow (Saturday) I'm going to lay simple straight line tracks in the parking lot behind Shopko. Its a very big space with no curbs. Thus, there will be nothing else for her to rely on. It's either sink or swim. I've seen her be able to do it when there are no "crutches" to use, so I expect she'll be able to do it there.
I think maybe we need to do this many times until she has confidence in her ability to follow those tracks and then maybe she won't be tempted to take the easy way out. Normally she loves a challenge, so I think she'll do it when she realizes it'll show off how smart she is.
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