Urban Tracking (105, 106 & 107)

On Thursday, September 6th, Nadine and I met at Auburn Cinema. It was a cool 60º. It had rained the day before, so we had some residual dampness. This track was only 25 minutes old. It started with an island serpentine, then turned left and then left again toward our cars.

Gimme did a good job, but she waffled a bit with the island serpentine. She was in season, so the islands were an attractive draw so she could leave calling cards. She says her calling cards are flower-scented; probably Snapdragons. Once she turned out into the open, then she worked better, solid and steady to the end.

On Friday, September 14th, we met at Game Farm Park. Nadine wanted to focus on inclines. The temp was a slightly warmer 62º and slightly breezy. It had rained for three days straight, so the grass/ground was very wet, but it had just been mowed and was really short. The track was aged 30 minutes. The pink-dotted lines show her deviations from the actual track.

The track started in the open, then went through the edge of the play area. Gimme tended to stay up by the rocks on the sidewalk, but then smelled the article and went into the beauty bark for it. There was a slight turn out of the play area toward the tree line and the next turn up toward the rocks on the "hill". Gimme had no problem getting to the rocks, but wasn't sure about actually moving into Stonehenge. She's been in there before doing parkour, so I think it was just an odd scent picture. She went in and then out on the other side, through another gap (not the one Nadine went through).

From there she moved left to get back on track. The track turned and followed the edge of cement path before turning left onto the raised path. She worked the first part in the grass and then made the turn, but stayed down beside the raised path for 30 feet (see picture - turn lower right of map).

She picked up Nadine's gentle turn off the path and dragged me behind the clump of trees and along a line of trees. Nadine had angled back toward the raised path to pass between two pairs of horseshoe pits. Gimme did check the nearest set of horseshoe pits, but then decided she'd rather follow the scent by the line of trees (15' away). This didn't keep her from veering in to get the article right after the pits. The next turn (left) proved to be a challenge. Gimme spent several minutes sorting it out, using her whole line forward, behind me and a large arc to the left, before deciding to make the turn. That large gray swath in the upper right corner of the track picture is a river about 50 yards downhill from where we were. There was a large path coming up from the river, so it surely affected the scent picture. Once she decided on the turn, she dragged me confidently to the final glove (see picture - final article under tree).

The next day, September 15th, I went to Medline and discovered they'd finally finished the last gate. Several months ago, after they fenced the property and gated the other entrances, I talked to the security guard and he said I could continue training there until they finish the last gate. I knew it was going to happen I just hoped it would take longer. I was driving toward town thinking about where to go, when I decided to use this spot just a few blocks away.

The dark gray rectangle is a paved area and the white is the gas station building. I parked at a turn-off from the road, starting the track nearby. The ground here is a mixed sand/pebble/rock surface; it's called glacial drift. Much of it has short sparse grass, but some places it's longer. The temperature was 58º and the track was aged 38 minutes. We'd had some rain a few days before.

To start we were in the sparse grass on sandy soil. Gimme quickly got up to and across the road. We continued on more sandy soil with even less vegetation. Gimme picked up the open left turn and crossed the blacktop and paved road easily. The vegetation on the other side of the road was taller, so she was inclined to run through it, but got slowed down by an article, another open left turn and a second article. Alongside the road was a line of landscaping. We turned left before it and Gimme thought the mixture of sand and sawdust was an interesting surface. She wasn't entirely sure about it until she got to the article. Our next turn was into the longer grass to find another article. This was followed by a right turn into sandy soil with no vegetation. Gimme went left and right before deciding to cross the road and drag me across more of the same to the final article.

Gimme did a really nice job here. I will keep the site in mind and go back there sometime. There isn't much room for a long track, though I could park in a different spot and get more length. Even as a short track, it makes a good opportunity to try out a different surface.