Urban (144) and Tracking (53)

On Friday, July 12th, Nadine and I met at Auburn Cinema. When I arrived she had a very large article circle set up using the entire south parking lot. Gimme was a little distracted to start but did well, especially since several cars drove through the area right before we started.

Then Nadine laid a simple track around the building for Gimme. We ran it when it was 45 minutes old. It was about 60º and no real breeze. Gimme started out well, crossed the road easily, but was completely distracted by the family of four that were coming to the theater and crossed her track right at the front of the building and just as we got there. Imagine a friendly wiggle-butt "Hello, I'm the Empress of the Cosmos." Once they passed she got back to work and did well around the rest of the front and side of the building. The corner at the back of the building (low right on picture) was kind of challenging. It took her several tries to figure it out. She overran the last 45-degree turn and had to work her way back to find it. Once she decided where it went, she had no problem crossing the parking lot and finding the last glove behind the bush in the landscaping island.

On Thursday, July 18th, Nadine and I met at Flaming Geyser. My intent was to keep the time short, since Gimme seems to be having a little trouble with the pollen right now, but the track ended up being 90 minutes old. They've been mowing and bushwhacking the underbrush, so we thought we'd try tracking up under the trees. It had rained recently, so the ground was damp. It was in the low 60's and we had an intermittant breeze (from the left side of the picture).

Nadine started the track heading up under the trees, but quickly discovered it was all prickly ground since it had been blackberry vines. They took away the vines, but there was still a lot of pokey stuff on the ground. Nadine quickly turned right to get out of the area. Gimme started well, but then got stuck in the prickly ground (pink dotted circle, lower right of picture). She really had trouble deciding where to go, since it all hurt her feet. I was about to have Nadine put a new start sock out for us, take her out and restart her, when she was able to pick up the track and get out of there. I was sure glad there was an article soon thereafter to reward her persistence.

She did very well on the whole next leg, but then really struggled with the turn. It was an acute angle turn, really sharp and nothing we'd see in a test. Unfortunately the breeze was coming from the left side of the picture and this part of the track is where the breeze was strongest. Gimme picked up several lines (the dotted fan lines at the top) and wanted to go in those directions. A couple of them could have been confusion from the breeze direction and the sharp turn, but mostly I think she couldn't figure out what to do and was inclined to take me on a walkabout. I kept restraining her from the walkabout solution and she finally found the track and then was quickly rewarded with an article. We would have flunked this, but fortunately we'd never see a turn this sharp in a test.

Shortly after the article, Gimme turned about thirty degrees to the left and was really strong. After about 40 yards Nadine called to me and said Gimme was too far left and going further because the track was headed toward the apple tree and there was an article in the open area to our right (dotted red line and circle). I pulled Gimme over and asked her to search in the area Nadine indicated. She dutifully searched it, but I noticed she gave me stink-eye a couple of times. As we expanded the search in the general area, Gimme managed to get over to the actual track which she'd been on and indicated an article in the long grass - it had been about 30 feet in front of her when I pulled her over to the area Nadine indicated. Bless her persistent little heart. She got a LOT of treats and praise for persisting despite my obstinate interference.

From there to the end of the track was easy peasy by comparison. After her persistence-success, it was almost an after-thought. This is the second time this summer she has insisted she was right in the face of my disbelief (first time was the track with Sil in early June).

I am really just thrilled to see her so willing to keep working in the face of such strong interference. I'd love to get her into a TDX this Fall, and she'll need to be able to overcome these handler-induced obstacles to be successful.