Urban Tracking (160)

On Thursday, May 7th, Nadine and I met at Auburn Cinema. We again laid a pair of overlapping tracks. Gimme's track was close to an hour old. There was a breeze, but not as strong as it was the week before. The first and last cross tracks had Nadine and two of her dogs' scent; the second and third cross tracks had Nadine and her three dogs.

I laid Gimme's track (black) and Nadine laid a track for her girls (red). I printed up a diagram for Nadine, but it wasn't clear enough. Intended her to turn and pass through one of the landscape islands, which would have put the leg for the cross tracks about 30 feet from our start and end. Instead she thought it showed her going around the landscape island, which had her cross track 3 feet from our start and end (dotted red line).

Gimme had a really hard time with the start, but didn't appear to notice the crossing at the end or the two other crossings. It took Gimme awhile to sort it out. While I didn't intend such a hard challenge, it was a good experience for her. As luck would have it, a guy parked on her track (white dash) and was busy compounding his vehicle. I thought this would be hard for her, but she went around the car without hesitation. Fortunately she then got right to the first article and was well rewarded for her efforts.

As I said, there wasn't any sign of Gimme noticing the other three cross tracks. She just motored through her track like a pro.

Nadine pointed out last week how Gimme's tail wags the whole time she is tracking and even faster when she gets to an article. I've been watching for it and have also noticed she speeds up and/or gets "busier" when she's close to an article. It's nice to have this tell.

I know she is sure happy to be back to tracking.