Urban Tracking (101 & 102)

Nadine and I met at Game Farm Park on Friday, August 17th. There was still some dew on the ground and I wanted to take advantage of the moisture for a fun motivational track. I asked Nadine to make a simple track with articles on every leg. I also gave her a squirt bottle with water, so she could add hydration if she went through a patch of dry yellow grass, dirt, or over pavement. The only place she used it was near the end when we crossed the sidewalk surrounding the play area.

It was 62º and the track was only 20 minutes old when we started. The track itself was really perfect for what I wanted. Naturally we had an unexpected challenge right as we were approaching the start, when a man with a small dog (line of pink dots) walked along a nearby path. He continued forward and then across our field of view, went by the first turn and moved roughly parallel to the second leg. I decided to wait to start, letting Gimme watch them until she was ready to work. She still struggled a little, but then got into it. I spent some extra time at the first mid-leg article to let the man and dog get past the second turn before we would get there. At that corner, Gimme jumped up onto the path and investigated a bit, then came down and got back to work on her track - a nice decision on her part.

She did well on the next couple of turns and found all her articles. The only other interesting bit was when we got to where the track went across the pavement next to the play area. There was a slight breeze coming from our left and some large flat boulders about 5 feet to our right. Gimme chose to go outside the boulders and then picked up the track after them. I suspect the breeze pushed the scent toward the boulders and it eddied around the far side. Overall I thought she did a good job and I was pleased. I've been trying to get an easy motivational track and this is the first one in awhile.

On Saturday, August 18th I took Gimme to Medline. I don't see any sign they are working on the big truck gate, so it looks like we'll be able to keep using this site for awhile. I continued as I've done setting 4 short, one-corner tracks. It's sooooo dry, so I carried the squirt bottle and hydrated the whole track. My trigger finger was getting really tired and it was hard to control the squirts... I think I might want to get a squeeze top for the bottle.

The track was 20 minutes old and the temperature was 67º. We had a moderate breeze, blowing generally from 10:30 (parallel to the first leg of the first track); then it turned, coming from 9:00 for the last track. Gimme was slow to get started on the first track, but then did well. The second and third tracks were solid.

I decided to give her a lot more leeway to investigate options on the fourth track. She investigated a little bit of stuff to the left of the track and then really got stuck on the two islands to the right, nearest and after the turn. She was really all over the first island and checked and rechecked it several times. Then she pulled me hard to the next island. I really didn't want her to get any further, since I know how well she can scent an article.  I wanted her to track to the article, not air scent to it. Then just as I was about to reel her in, she turned to the track, got her nose down into it and just hauled me to the final article. I was so proud of her.

Gimme has on several occasions taken me on a walkabout. It's always when the track is really hard and she'll just decide to go off on an angle, in a straight line. I can't reliably tell when she's pulling strong on the track vs. when she's pulling me strongly for a walkabout. She can be really convincing. This is why Sil suggested I need a lot more fully marked tracks, so I can see this difference.  I thought I saw a slight qualitative difference on this last track, but I can't put it into words.

Nadine and I were supposed to track this Friday, but my chiropractor wants to see me again (still trying to straighten out all my whiplash; I was rear-ended 12 days ago), so we had to cancel.

With all the fires in British Columbia and California, plus a few west of here, the whole state is blanketed in a thick haze. I am blessed to be unaffected and Gimme is also showing no signs of trouble. A good rain would be a great help, but there isn't any rain in the forecasts.  So this cancellation has the side benefit of not asking our girls to track when the air quality is so bad.  The current pollutant count is 176, which is "unhealthy".  

We do have a cooling trend, but it'll need to improve a lot before we get out for more tracking.  The air quality forecasts suggests it might be good by Friday, so we'll see how it goes.  She'd love to get out and do something.  Nosework has been cancelled yet again and we haven't been out walking much, so she is exceedingly bored. 
Just sayin...