Our tracks for this day were a long sequence of island serpentines, followed by a long track in the open with only slight turns. Gimme did as well as could be expected. Honestly she did better in the open than she did along the curbed islands. It's been a long time since we did island serpentines and she doesn't get her nose down along the curb like she did before. I'll have to plan a couple sessions to refresh her understanding.
Three days later Gimme started her false pregnancy. So it could have affected this session and more certainly affected the next two sessions.
Medline - On Saturday, June 9th Gimme and I went to Medline for the first time in two months. This will probably the last time on this site. They have fully fenced the property and have gated off the driveways, all working, except one. The security guy said, unofficially, that I can continue using the property until they get that last gate working. Sadly, I have to start looking for other places. It'll be next to impossible to find a site this good.
I couldn't access the main parking lot, so I went around to the back where there is a long, but somewhat narrow, area. I laid four simple tracks: start sock, 50 yards, left turn, 25-50 yards, and end article. It was cool (56º) and damp at the time and I planned to age it to 45 minutes. Right after I got back to the car a heavy rain squall passed through, dumping water all over our track for 20 minutes. Our actual age turned out to be 50 minutes.
There was almost no scent left, so Gimme was convinced I'd forgotten to lay the tracks. I helped her as little as I could, mostly by gesturing generally in the direction of the track and going with her when she went that way at all. She needed help with the turns on the first and third tracks, I'm sure she saw the article for the second track.
The fourth track was longer with an article at fifty yards on the first leg, then another 50 yards before the turn and 50 yards to the final article. While she led out more strongly this time, I really wasn't sure she was tracking. I thought it entirely possible she was smart enough to figure out to walk 20 feet in front until Mom helps again. She had her head below her shoulders, maybe elbow height, but not low like she usually does when she tracks. She passed the corner by about ten feet and then her head came up and she curled right, her usual loss of scent behavior. It took her seven circles to find the track. I kept seeing a tiny head bob as she crossed the track; I thought I might have imagined it. But then she caught the track and pulled steadily to the final article; she was definitely on the track. Yaayyyyyy!
I was thinking this session might be no more than an article zigzag. I was so happy to see my brilliant girl pull some learning out of this. I am blessed indeed to have Gimme and her abundance of natural talent.
Game Farm Park - Nadine and I met on Friday, June 15th. This track was 640 yards, longer than I wanted. It wasn't hard on its own and was only aged 1:15. Still I noticed Gimme struggled in places which normally would have been easy for her. I'm sure the false pregnancy was affecting her focus.
The first leg passed between a picnic table and BBQ. The article was right between them. To her credit, Gimme paid no attention to the BBQ. She got through the next three legs, but without her usual focus. Right after she crossed the paved path on the fifth leg, she saw two people walking large dogs on the path crossing the sixth leg. This was a huge distraction for her and she watched them for a couple minutes. She was finally able to get back to work and right after she did so, she came upon the next article. However, when she got on the sixth leg she was again very distracted by the smells from their passing. It took her a bit to get back to work on the track and right as she did, she was again rewarded by the next article. From there to the last article was uneventful.Soon she'll be out of the toughest part of her false pregnancy and then I expect her to get back to her usual brilliant tracking. Fortunately the timing will work so she'll be back to normal before the urban tracking seminar with Sil Sanders. We should have a few practices between now and then. She has barn hunt and nosework trials between now and then.
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