Urban Tracking (123 & 124)

On Thursday, January 24th, Nadine and I met at Auburn Cinema. She laid a track for Gimme using a somewhat different area. It was 42º and the track was aged 50 minutes. Breeze was negligible.

The start was a challenge. Nadine placed the start on the inside corner of an L-shaped island. Gimme went across to the other side of the island, which was very narrow there. This means she really didn't get her nose grounded in the actual scent of the track, thus she had difficulty with the first corner. Once she did get this first corner, she did well for the rest of the track.

The other challenge was all the trash in the landscaping on the last leg before turning toward the center of the parking lot (lower left of the picture). This proved very distracting - she finds trash fascinating. I just kept reminding her what we were there for and she did get back to work. Once she found the article on this leg, then she was all-in for the rest of the track.

On Sunday, January 27th, I laid a track for Gimme at Temple Baptist Church before going to services at my own church, right next door.

My goal was to revisit the area where she was so distracted by the woods. I also changed the track to not take her through the worst of the foot traffic coming out of the sanctuary. By starting on the left side of the main parking lot (on the other side of the curb so no one would pick up my start sock), we avoided most of the foot traffic since there was no sidewalk there. People coming out of the sanctuary would either turn right on the sidewalk and out into the main parking lot or go straight to the small parking lot. I also made sure I walked by the portico outside the little planter, so she had a curb to hold scent. I also thought it would funnel people into two small areas if they were going straight, instead of a broad swath of contamination.

It was 41º degrees, the track was aged 1:45 and there was a light breeze. Gimme did well with the start and even crossed the curb within a foot of where I crossed it. She did a lovely job in the parking area, so my strategy worked to limit the challenge to what I wanted. She made the turn left toward the grassy area easily. She was a little bit distracted by the woods, but nothing like what she'd experienced the last time we were here.  I'll never know what the distraction was.  She almost missed the article on the rightmost leg, but caught it herself and searched until she found it. The article right before the end article was at the bottom of a ditch/depression on the last leg.  (Sil would be so proud of me for crossing at an angle)  I covered the article with a large leaf, but she found it easily - almost standing on her head to stop for it. She found all her articles and for the most part, stayed on task.

She's such a good little tracker. She makes this look so easy.  I think we could be ready for a TDU test this year, if we can find one in Fall.