Urban (153) & Field tracking (60)

On November 7th, Nadine and I met at Auburn Cinema for tracking.  It was cool and the ground was damp, with no real breeze.

I laid out an article circle. Gimme was a little slow to start, but then aced it through to the end. The second-to-the-last article was a plastic switch plate. Between the time Cricket ran the track and when Gimme ran it, someone ran over it and smashed it to pieces, spreading the pieces out. Gimme was only momentarily unsure about what to do, but then indicated the largest remaining piece. 






Nadine laid an elongated dog's head track for Gimme. In an aerial view it looks more like an anteater. When Gimme got to the nose where the track went forward the week before, she went across to check out the other side, but then came back and made the turn neatly. I don't know if she remembered or if she could still smell the old track a little. I do know when she was much younger she managed to find a pair of sunglasses on one of the Fort Lewis ranges, which had been out there for a couple of weeks, so I don't discount her smelling the old track a week later. In any case, from there to the end of the track she did a great job. She was very happy to find a toy as her last article - which she decided to keep.

On November 14th, we met at Flaming Geyser. Nadine wanted to try an exercise she'd done many years ago with Skookum. When she did it, she had a group of 8 friends follow her in a straight line from the start, then she turned 90º in one direction, while they all turned the opposite direction. The test was to see if the dog could still follow the original track.

For our track we both walked the first leg, me first, then Nadine. Then at the top and out in the open, I turned 90º right (red line) and she turned 90º left (green line). Cricket ran the exercise first and had no problem - she briefly checked a few feet down Nadine's leg, but then turned back and stuck with my track.

When Gimme ran it, she first tried to turn right. When I didn't go with her she continued to search around me in a circle and when she found the leg to the left with Nadine's scent she went with it - tracking to the end. Technically Gimme was correct to want to go to the right, since that track had newer-Nadine smell from when she ran Cricket on it.

We are going to do this exercise again, but will do two completely different track sets, so the dog doesn't get misleading training. I also think it might be a good idea to lay a track where the contamination layer joins the track a short distance after the tracklayer starts, so the dog has both the start article and a section of track to work from.