Urban Tracking (150) & Field (58)

When I arrived at Auburn Cinema on October 3rd, Nadine had already set a nice article circle.  I had her lay a simple track for Gimme; I wanted the return leg to be "in front of the cars" along the strip.  When it was Gimme's turn, we ran the article circle and then her track.

Nadine's article circles aren't anything like the ones Sil Sanders has us do.  They are really more of a very simple tracking exercise with a lot of articles.  I usually have Nadine put an article on every leg for Gimme's tracks, but these have 2-3 times as many.  I'm always happy to do them, whatever form they take, since I can heavily reinforce every time Gimme shows me an article - keeping her article love STRONG.  They are very motivating.

There were two articles Nadine's girls had missed and Gimme found both of them.  She almost passed by one of them, but before I had to help her, she caught the scent and turned back to it.  She got even more reinforcement for that one.

I wanted Nadine to be right up next to the bumpers of most of the cars on the return leg.  I like to set up distracting or otherwise challenging things for Gimme to solve.  Having to be really close to a car or even having a car come and park on her track is a good challenge, since it could happen in a trial.

Since I wasn't clear enough about what I wanted, Nadine tracked well into the landscaping or on the sidewalk between the cars and the road.  It was still a challenge since there's a fair amount of traffic on the road, which could move the scent in different ways, as well as present a distraction as we were tracking.  Gimme didn't seem to find this difficult.  I think  coming right off the article circle helped, since she was mentally warmed up to tracking.

Yesterday, October 10th, we met at Flaming Geyser.  I laid tracks for her girls while she laid one for Gimme.  It was aged 1:55 and it was sunny and bright, but not particularly warm, around 60º.  This was a pretty straightforward track, nothing Gimme hasn't seen before.  She did turn off the track into the field at the bend right before the forth article.  Since I didn't go with her, after a couple of tries to convince me she came back and resumed tracking.  She pulled really hard and had this been a test, I wouldn't have doubted her.

We figure there were loose dogs playing there, since Nadine saw people walking dogs along the path where our track connected after the third article, and she thought some were off leash.  So we'll have to practice this distraction many more times...

Gimme is such a good tracker, she makes it all fun.

Nadine and I have revised our tracking plan.  We are trying to get in more field tracking, since she wants to get Sugar ready for a TD test.  Since I'm no longer teaching at Pawsabilities, we can track in the afternoon.  Nadine takes classes on Thursday at 5p.m. at Argus, which is really close to Flaming Geyser, so tracking there in the afternoon saves her from making that drive twice.  The first Thursday of the month, we'll be tracking at Auburn Cinema in the morning, so I can head home mid-afternoon and have plenty of time to get to my MCSA class.  And of course, flexibility is always in order as things come up.