Gimme did a decent job of it, though not as precise as her last track. She missed several drops. At times it seemed she was going too fast to bother and at other times it seemed the treats weren't worth bothering over. I usually use beef jerky and Nadine either uses my jerky or uses her Chinese pork. This time she laid the track while I was still driving in (traffic was unbelievably bad) and used some commercial treats. Gimme ate them, but I didn't get the feeling she was impressed with them.
On Saturday I met Jon and Stella to track at Flaming Geyser. Stella and I both laid tracks at the same time. Since Gimme has her TD and Heidi doesn't, we ran Heidi first so her track was the younger one. She had some difficulty getting started and as a short little Cocker Spaniel, I don't think she cared for the really tall-thick grass. Happily, once she did get started, she did well.
Gimme's track was 415 yards, cool weather (about 62º), wet grass and 65 minutes old. We had a start sock, end article and an article midway in every leg except the last leg.
Gimme was on fire and really thought we should run the whole thing at top speed. I ran with her for short bits from time to time, just to make her happy. However, even if I could run full tilt for a quarter mile, I wouldn't in this terrain. She was pulling really hard and was very enthusiastic. Under these conditions it must have seemed like a scent freeway compared to the urban work we've been focusing on. Getting a really fun track like this is good motivation for the girl.
We did have one little snafu at turn 3. The actual turn was 90º to the left, but Gimme only turned 45º left. She was pulling hard and steady, so I had no reason to think she was misbehaving. However, when she stopped briefly at a Ziploc freezer bag full of luncheon meat (red dot) and then kept going with another slight turn (dashed line)... I began to get suspicious. I knew there was another team tracking on the adjacent field and I thought maybe our tracks had overlapped and they were leaving meat baggies in lieu of articles. Now I think Gimme got to a point where she was circling at the corner and then got a whiff of the luncheon meat. Once she found it, she wanted to continue down their track to see what other presents they might have left for her.
Of course Stella ruined Gimme's little plan and called us back to the track. Once back on our track and re-scented... Gimme harrumphed "Dang, foiled again", and then motored down our track to the next article, right turn and then ending at a glove. She was paid heartily for those valid finds. I let her eat every last treat from my pouch at the last glove, to give her added motivation to find our last glove.
Clearly we have to work through the distraction of baggies full of luncheon meat and other appealing goodies. If we don't, she could easily be lured from her work by a half-eaten sandwich left in the bushes on a college campus. Just sayin...
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