Urban Tracking (50, 51 & 52)

Gimme's "mass"  Turns out Doc was exactly right about it being her bladder.  Gimme has a very bad UTI and it has actually infected the wall of her bladder, thus the thickening, from inflammation.  We won't get the culture results until Monday, so meanwhile she is getting tons of water/soup, so we can flush her out as much as possible.  I actually think she seems more comfortable with peeing (not dribbling and scooting off), so perhaps it's feeling better.  Or... it's what I want to see. 

I have three tracking reports to catch up on. 

Friday, 9/8 Game Farm Park

I asked Nadine to give us a simple track with lots of motivating articles.  It was aged 30 minutes, no breeze and about 70º.  The track Nadine laid was what I asked for, but it turned out to be a challenging track anyway.

She started out parallel to a sidewalk, going along behind some bleachers.  Gimme found the first article easily.  She had no difficulty finding the second article, but first had to go around the tree instead of taking the direct route.  Don't know why, but I'm sure she had her reasons.

At this point there was a lady with 2 small dogs coming up the sidewalk we'd cross (x-arrow-x), so I held her back to make sure they were well away before we had to address the turn.  Gimme stayed really distracted by the dogs and was sniffing all over in the area of the pink shaded circle.  From here to the last leg, Gimme stayed distracted, staring into space, marking a lot.  She found all the articles, but her tracking was all over the place.  Now I think she was reacting to her UTI.  I suspect she needed to pee and every time she tried it, stung - making it hard to concentrate.

Not quite the simple motivating track I was hoping for.  Poor baby.

Saturday, 9/9 Medline

I planned a simple track, with three landscape island crossings and an article after each one.  I spread the food drops out to 20 yards and put the final article up in the bark of the last island, covering it with leaves and debris.  It was aged 45 minutes, light breeze and 63º. 

As we went down the track, I kept seeing wasps on all the food drops (except 2).  Gimme learned her lesson from the last time when she got stung and I'd see her headed straight for a food drop and then from a foot away, curve around it and go on. 

I noted she seemed less confident and was taking a zig-zag path along the track.  By zig-zag path, I'm not referring to the wasp avoidance.  She was just not as focused as we'd been getting.  At the time I chalked it up to concern about the wasps and decided not to use any more food drops in the near future (wasps get aggressive toward the end of summer).  By the way, I made it a point to stomp the smithereens out of the distracted wasps and then picked up the jerky and gave it to Gimme along with her treats for the next article.  Of course now I think it more likely she was distracted by discomfort from her UTI.  

Thursday, 9/14 Auburn Cinema

I have received my new book Modern Enthusiastic Tracking, The New Step-by-Step Training Handbook by Sil Sanders.  If you are interested in tracking, this is definitely the book I recommend.  I helped by editing it, so I've already read it (and the first half twice).  Sil's plan is thorough, logical and detailed.  You can't go wrong here.

Nadine and I are starting where Sil said Gimme is, in section U2.  Today Nadine and I did the first session of parking lot tracks.  We are going to be doubling the parking lot sessions, since both of our girls are less confident on pavement.  Both girls do well on sports fields and lawns, so this will fit in well with our schedule.

Today's session called for three straight tracks, downwind (wind at our backs) without using curbs or islands, in 50, 75 and 100 yard lengths.  We were supposed to have 20 minutes aging, but it didn't work out, so Gimme's track was aged 35 minutes. 

I was able to do Cricket's tracks without any obstacles, but Nadine had to cross over an island to get Gimme's final 100 yard track.  Fortunately Gimme has done many landscape crossings at Medline, so they don't phase her in the least.  In fact, as I'm thinking about it, it might be time for me to turn at the landscaping next time we track at Medline, so Gimme knows to use her nose and not just assume she's crossing over.

She was again taking a zig-zag path.  She really only got focused for the last two-thirds of the last track.  With my knew knowledge, I'm blaming her condition.  While she wasn't tracking cleanly like I am used to, she did find all her food drops and articles.  And, did a very nice job on the last part of the longest track.

You have to love her persistence, even in the face of this personal distraction.  I just love how determined she is.  Something may throw her a little off her game, but she just never gives up.