Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Tanks' Track Today

I recently found a newly constructed place that works great for short urban type tracks. I finally got there today with Tank; after quite a bit of rain, and some really big winds. This situation created some interesting changes with wind as well.
Tank is THE biggest puller and he was nuts to get going along our first leg. It was lovely new grass and it took me to this spot (above) to get the camera in place. He moved off the grass unto a new gravel roadway, and the left turn was in the middle. He did shoot over to the grass at the far side before indicating loss of scent and moving back to the roadway.
He's working great here...right along the track. My aim is to slow him down a little and more concentration on the track. I left the odd kibble along it but think he motored on past most of them.
He's lost the scent here, and is searching for the track.
It didn't take long, and he's back on it again. Beautiful new sod put down here, this leg curves over the stone riverbed.
He's moving right along the track, and funny thing, he jumped right over the rocks.
Tank has found his first article - wood. I left only two articles on this short track.
He has picked it up to show me.
We had the longer stretch of grass after the article then out to gravel and another turn. He went over to the building entraceway after making the turn and checked it out.
There was a real windtunnel created here created between the building on one side and the enclosed arena on the other. The wind was quite strong and coming straight at us.
Tank moves on to an asphalt area here, off the gravel and is really working nicely. I was going to leave some food along this leg, but the wind was so strong, I was afraid it would blow around. I thought this was kind of an interesting area to track through. The arena area has a huge roof all the way around hanging over the edge.
I thought he may have a little difficulty through here, or just want to "inspect" it more. He actually worked really nicely through it.
He had just made a quick turn around at the corner and ended up with the line under his back leg. Since we were so close to the end article, I let him go on and eased up on the line tension.
You should always untangle your dog when tracking.
And there he has it...oh, happy day!
We played a little retrieve and tug with it here...what a goofy look on him. Happy boy!

Windy, Rainy, Cold Tracking Day!

Do they mean US?????! You can see the rain moving across the lake in this picture....cold....
Using the short line with Blast, he's staying nicely on the track, have moved off grass and over a gravel driveway, back onto grass again.
He was right on the track, but did move over to see what the garbage was, but immediately back on without me saying a word.
First article ahead. You have no idea how difficult it was to juggle the camera with him pulling me so fast
A rest for me to make sure the line, camera are all where they should be.
Onto a short patch of pavement before gravel again. I was really happy with him here, as he had spied a dog over to the right, and put his nose right back down.
Still ignoring the dog, he just made a left open corner and is heading towards the final article, just past the puddle. He did exceptionally well in very high winds.
I had left 2 pcs. of kibble inside the wallet, see one to the right...but he really wasn't interested.
Blast chose to play with the glove rather than the wallet. A very nice little track today!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Unusually Great Day to Track!!

A bonus for the 22nd of November! Last night we had freezing rain, but the temps. rose this morning bringing fog and drizzle, then rain. Tomorrow sounds much the same. So today, I tracked Trust and tomorrow I plan to do Tank and Blast.
Trust is on her second leg in some squishy areas, surprisingly still a little snow here and there.
Her first article, a soaking wet sock just before the gravel road. Her track was aged 2 hr. 40 mins. while it rained hard for a short while.
In this EXACT place, just as I was getting her out of the van, a man parked here, got out and had a smoke. Why, I don't know...I had a corner right here plus he walked all over. She didn't seem to pay any attention. She did spot the butt, and I pulled her away from that.
She had three quick changes before reaching this paved area (see above). I can only guess with some of this track, but there was a lot of rain, and so, in places there was runoff before we returned. Here she is working along the edge of the pavement/grass/plowed snow.
And suddenly she turned towards the corner and next leg. She always surprises me....still....
This is slightly down hill, I'm sure the scent had moved somewhat, but she is still close to the actual track, and then moved back onto it near the grass.
Very wet and squishy walking through here as well, with water sitting on the surface in some areas
Trust is working really nicely on the track.
She is moving out on a diagonal cross into the driveway. I had marked the previous paved area, and this one, all the entrances on and the turns with a chalk crayon, and they were all washed away. I really was surprised at there being no trace whatsover.
So here we still have puddles along the edge; no doubt, it was running off to the left and she worked in this area all the way up.
She's actually just past what was the turn off the paved driveway towards the grass, and gone around a tree. She fairly quickly worked over to the track, but was already past her second article (I only used 3 total this time). She worked back and found it.
The dumb handler (me) actually forgot about it, until she worked back towards it!!!
And sat....
We move on, and she has gone past the corner here, moving toward the hard surface again. She made the turn out on the pavement instead, and quickly picked up the track on this driveway.
I was surprised there was still an empty space beside this car, as I cut between it and another to cross and move into the grass. Trust turn a short jaunt behind it and then quickly moved back to the right side and onto the track at the grass.
She crossed the grass right on the track very nicely, toward the final turn.
She had moved a few feet past the corner, then spun around right back to the track. Being away for a long time, and the rain, not knowing what goes on when you're not there, I'm not really sure what she's doing here and in the picture below. She was "on a mission", but it didn't really seem to be my track.
She seems so sure, I was wondering if someone had parked there and walked around, who knows? But she then quickly seemed to realize the "track" was not there, but was to the right of her, and moved back over to it.
She then moved across the driveway with speed and determination, right to the final article.
And what seems to have become a bit of a "trademark" for her in the past few months....a huge wide-opened mouth yawn! Now this stumps me. If I didn't know she was enjoying this, and she has seemed more keen for some time and happy about working on the track and finding the final article....if she was human....my first thoughts would be "bored" or stressed, certainly not tired. We had a long walk back to the van...Trust LOVES the van, and we always 'trot' back to it, her looking really happy. I just don't get this yawn thing. She did a really nice track!