I laid the same track as last time for Cricket, but in reverse. She did well with it, except this one area where a bunch of cars parked around the track, but not on it. Ordinarily I don't think it would be an issue, but there was a pretty strong and variable-direction breeze. So I think the presence of the cars combined with the changing direction of the breeze did strange stuff with the scent. Unfortunately Cricket doesn't have a strong search-pattern, so Nadine couldn't do a search pattern to help her find it. With a search pattern she could have taken her back to the last place where she knew they were on track. However, Nadine later told me she didn't really know where it was.
The track she laid for Gimme was not terribly complicated, but the breeze made it more challenging than it would otherwise have been. The temperature was around 50ยบ. It was very wet from all the recent rain, so the scent tended to hug the ground. Our track was 45 minutes old.Gimme started out well, with a number of diversions into the landscaping islands for potty breaks. She did a bit of pulling out to the right before we got to the road. I think she was still figuring out the breeze, which at this point was blowing from left to right. When we got to the road she pulled me across and into the grass. From there she went into the parking lot on the other side, where the breeze now came from our right. Gimme went up the wrong side of the islands to start, so when we got adjacent to the article, she had to really work to find it. This now put her on the correct side of the islands, so she did the rest of the serpentine nicely. It only took her a moment to decide to turn left out into the open.
At this point the breeze was coming right into her face from the parking lot behind the theatre. Gimme was going fast with her nose right down on the track and did a really impressive full speed snap-back to the article within a foot of passing it. It was a wooden popsicle stick! She did well with the next turn. The area of the next article proved challenging. The breeze had been changing direction from time to time, but based on her behavior, it seemed to be swirling. She found the article and we got past this area.
Finding the last article (in the grass just past the tree) proved very challenging. The breeze was now coming from our right - from where I'd laid the track Cricket and Nadine had run just 20 minutes earlier (lime green line). So the breeze was bringing in much fresher Nadine smell. Gimme did finally sort it out and find the last glove - for which she got a LOT of cheese.
It was an interesting change, since we haven't had much breeze all summer. So, while the wetness made it easier, the breeze brought a new challenge. Fortunately Gimme loves a good challenge.
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