Field Tracking (66)

Nadine and I met at Flaming Geyser on Thursday, June 18th. We are normally there in the morning, but this time we didn't get started until almost noon. There was no breeze, but it was much hotter than usual at 75º, and Gimme's track was aged 75 minutes. It wasn't an especially hard track, but Gimme had problems with it.

She started out very well, without her usual zigzag on the first leg, and found the first article easily. She took a few moments to make the first turn. From there she only had 15' before the road crossing - she barely paused. She found the second article and then moved on to make the turn through the ditch into the grass. This is where she started having difficulty.

She missed the dogleg turn and got sucked to the green grass in the shade of the trees (red dotted line). She indicated loss of scent right where the red dotted line turned away from the trees. I organized her search, hoping to help her find the track. At the next bend she got serious about moving toward the real track and actually worked her way over the to the article. You know how she is about articles.

From there she couldn't decide what to do. I think she was confused by our backtrack on the track and couldn't figure out how to go up track. I did get her to go a little bit and then she indicated we needed to cross the road. As I followed her, it became apparent she was on the last leg of the track I laid for Cricket the week before - I could see she was dead on the final marker I used as tracklayer.

We took her to the midpoint on the second leg to restart and I slowed her down as she turned off the pavement. She actually rounded the dogleg (blue dotted line). She spent a moment searching for the article I picked up when she found it before. Then she moved on. She rounded the next turn, taking a pretty straight leg toward the mid-leg article. She nailed it from there to the end.

In her defense, Gimme always has a hard time through the summer. We've gotten good results from bee pollen, but I have no source this year. My honey guy lost many hives last year and has to keep/use all the pollen he has. I have a couple other sources I'm looking into. Cross your fingers.

As it turns out, we didn't track on 6/25. Nadine had a major flat tire and couldn't get out of the garage. There's always next week.

Nosework class (2/43)

This is our first week back at class. Actually class restarted two weeks earlier, but I misread the email. Don't tell Gimme, she'd be very annoyed.

NACSW has a skills program with video entry. Our class is doing the program and anyone who wants to participate can have their runs taped. I always have mine taped for my own instruction and my blog, so I thought I might do it. Then when I got home and looked at it, I decided it was too much money to spend for a "certificate".

The first three interior searches were about whether the dog had the skill to go to source.

Interior 1 video - Gimme zoomed right past the hide and went to the room where Dorothy stood. Of course, then she had to check it out - for 24 seconds. It took her just 9 seconds to get it once she left the room.  In hindsight, I should have treated this like I do at trials, waiting a little longer at the area entry, since this works well to draw her back to the threshold.

Interior 2 video - Gimme scans the area and hones in on the hide in 20 seconds. Seeing the video is very different from what I thought happened. I thought she indicated on the seat corner closest to where she stood, but in the video she indicated at the middle or just past it. I paid her at the wrong corner (where she moved to as she backed out to look at me); in reality she indicated pretty close to source.  I included a still at the end of the video, showing where she indicated.

Interior 3 video - Gimme zooms in the room and gets to the table-chairs combo very quickly. She indicates right at source (in the center, under the chair seat) in 19 seconds. Very nice.

The three container searches were to see if the dog could hunt at a distance from the handler. We released them from the startline and remained there while they searched. We could move to join them when they indicated. The hides were farther and farther away. It was hard for me to get there quickly from so far away and Gimme got more and more "vigorous" with each search.

Container 1 video - There were six boxes and the hide was in number four. Gimme indicated in 6 seconds.

Container 2 video - There were eight boxes and the hide was in number six. Gimme indicated in 12 seconds. No one in class has ever seen me run before, thus the background chuckling.

Container 3 video - There were ten boxes and the hide was in number ten. Gimme indicated in 7 seconds! She was ready to go into major box-bashing mode, until she saw me running toward her.

Clearly working at a distance from me is not an issue. She's pretty certain she could do the whole thing without me if I'd just let her wear the treat pouch.

Urban tracking (162) and Field tracking (65)

On Thursday, May 28th, Nadine and I met at Game Farm Park for tracking. It was cool and misty, with a very light breeze. Gimme's track was aged 1:10 - easy for her.

Her track followed around the bottom end of the two ball fields and Gimme did a great job at it. As we turned left, somewhat parallel to the ball field, Gimme stayed on the crest of the hillock. Partway down, the track bent to the left, but Gimme continued forward, bending slightly right (dotted black line). After we went about 2/3 of the way to where we would be parallel to the article, Nadine called us back to restart at the corner.

Gimme then turned a sharp right (red dotted line), crossed the paved path and went out into the field. She turned about 45º left until she got close to the wall, then turned 90º left again. It was on this leg where it became clear to me; I was being taken for a walk. So I took her back to the bent corner and encouraged her to sort it out. This time, while she still high on the hillock, she was a little bit down on the correct side of the crest. She bent stronger when she got close to the article and then turned the corner to go to the final article.

I think Gimme was originally following scent, possibly flowing up and over the crest. As is her way, she got highly perturbed when I pulled her off the track and took her back. So she says "Fine! You think you know so much..." and she takes me off on a walkabout. She's done this many times when she is unhappy with my handling. If we'd let her go, chances are she would have turned to the article when we got parallel to it. I may have Nadine lay this track again when we go back there. It may be awhile since their bathrooms are all locked up and we are there too long to do without facilities.

We skipped tracking on June 4th because Nadine had something come up.

On Thursday, June 11th, Nadine and I met back at Flaming Geyser. They still have areas set aside for migrating bird nesting, which limits what we can do, but at least there are toilets we can use.

Cricket missed the first article on her track, so I let Gimme recover it. She was perplexed to have such a short track, less than 100 yards with just one easy turn.

It was 61º and aged about an hour, with no breeze. Honestly, Gimme was so clean in her tracking, there is really nothing much to comment on. Perhaps recovering the missed article worked like a practice track.

She did serpentine briefly on the second leg, but once she got to the first article she was all business. I was particularly pleased at how quickly she decided to cross the road and how she instantly picked up the track on the other side.

All in all, it was a great track, nice and easy. I was glad she got to have a nice track after the annoyance of the prior track.