Tracking (55 & 56)

On Saturday, August 31st, I laid a track for Gimme at Flaming Geyser. By the time we ran it, it was 1:45 old, and the temps were 77º. There was no breeze to speak of. The grounds were very dry. I put flags out for every corner and every article.

I man with a small dog went by the start just minutes before I laid the track. Gimme paid no attention. She really did a great job on the track and nailed all the articles. The pink dotted line is where I saw a couple walk their dog across our track as we were running it. We had just passed the second article and were approaching the road when I saw them, so it was just minutes before we got there. Gimme was interested in the contamination, but left it on her own after she checked it out. It was fortunate that she got another article and all the rewards for it just after leaving the contamination. She aced the rest of the track.

I was going to lay another track for Gimme on Sunday, but it was just too dang hot.

On Thursday, September 5th, Nadine and I met at Flaming Geyser. Nadine wants to do mostly field tracking for awhile - so she can get Sugar ready for a TD test. We'll do field:parking-lot in a ratio of about 3:1. I laid 2 tracks, one each for Cricket and Sugar and then both dogs ran theirs. Sugar does really well, especially given how little experience she has. We just started training her a few months ago. She is very steady and while she's much more vermin oriented at home, when she is working, she's more focused than Cricket.

I told her this was the track I wanted and she was just finishing it when I arrived after horrid traffic (2 accidents). By the time we ran Gimme's track it was 2:45 old, 75 degrees and breezy.

Overall Gimme did a great job. I'm not sure why she was drawn out to the left at the end of the first leg. I'm thinking there may have been a breeze curling down the road off the clump of trees and pushing scent to the left. Once she got back to the track she actually cut the corner and got up the track easily. She crossed the road like it wasn't there. She did great with the rest of the track, except the last leg.

She took the turn, but didn't get the exact angle. There may have been some contamination we didn't know about. At one point she tried to angle over to the correct leg, but Nadine said I didn't cooperate. So Gimme came back to where she'd been and went a tiny bit further, then indicated loss of scent. We did some "search for it" circles and in doing so she was able to drag me over to the final glove.

Overall she did a lovely job and Nadine was suitably impressed. I told Gimme what a great job she did and about Nadine being amazed. Gimme said, "she should be..." She could be less boastful, but I love her 'tude, just the way she is.