Tracking Season is nearly here!

And it's a good thing, too, since our May tracking test is only 8 weeks away! Days are hovering near 0 degrees C (32 F) and parking lots are clear of snow. Some dead grass is appearing here and there.

Yesterday afternoon Julie and Austen came out with me and River to take advantage of the warm afternoon. We decided to lay blind tracks for each other, with no obstacles and not too complex. We wanted to evaluate where we are at to form a plan to take us from here to the test on May 24-25.

Earlier this winter we found that by using more articles, our dogs get their nose down more and stick more closely to the primary track. We aged both tracks for just over an hour then ran them - River first, then Austen. I ran Ted on Austen's track immediately after for some good motivation for Ted on a fresh urban track. We were very happy with how they did.

Above - River's track: Julie put more articles on River's track than I did for Austen and you could see how dedicated River was to finding them. She also deliberately put some near to corners as we have decided to work on things that could happen in a test - shorter legs and articles on short legs and nearer to turns.

It is tough in urban tracking, when a dog has to resume tracking and almost immediately find a turn after an article. I don't mind it the other way - having an article after a turn! However, yesterday River cut one short leg to get to an intermediate article. She overshot her last turn on the parking lot. Part of our plan now is to follow our dogs to some degree, to practice actual test handling. We want to get that feeling of "not knowing where the track goes" and reading when our dog is off. Even though these were blind tracks, we made sure the handler knew if they were past a corner and which way it went so we could observe our dogs. River decided to come back on her own, and trotted towards me. I saw her look with her ears up several times in the direction of the turn. It was a great experience!

Above: Austen's track: Austen's track started on a very narrow boulevard - we have decided to try different types of starts such as the "narrow boulevard" which can cause some quartering as scent flows off the edges - another urban peril! At the midpoint of Austen's track a man going for a walk came up and offered Austen a cookie. Julie and I were asking him not to, and Julie lunged and grabbed the milkbone before it reached Austen. As we were trying to ask this man to leave us alone, Austen was working despite OUR distraction! He literally pulled Julie onto the parking lot and just nailed his right turn to a metal article. It was a brilliant moment and we laughed later because the moment when the intense focus lightened up was the moment when Austen was able to track more freely. We learned a great lesson from that.

Of course, people can come distract your dog in a test and this was good experience too. Like River, Austen overshot his last turn too - the prevailing wind was going in that direction. He worked his way back to the last glove, but not before he stood in a spot on the snowbank looking fairly perturbed. From my position I watched him then give a shrug and make his way directly to the last article. Later, I confessed to Julie that where Austen had been standing was where I originally ended the track. I even placed an article exactly where he stood. I decided that the last turn made him go through a big puddle, and that his track was long enough if it ended on the parking lot, so went back to the last turn and put the article down. The distance was not far enough to have been whistled as the last leg was only 40 metres.

I feel slightly sheepish today for having done that. It made a false leg and dead end for Austen. I did not tell Julie about it, and when she heard what he had done, she was doubly proud of him for working it out. As his handler, she trusted him and followed to the end. This would hopefully not happen on a test day. It shows how even in cold weather on an aged urban track, our dogs are able to smell things such as a placed article which sat on the snow for only seconds.

Ted rushed through the track Austen had just done very happily, only skipping the metal article which was no surprise as he is just at the TD level. Since it was so fresh this was mostly motivational for Ted, who is quite a clown at articles now, but more willing to resume tracking until we reach the end. This is not a skill he needs for TD, but of course, I have set my sights higher than that for him so give him lots of good experiences while making sure he doesn't lose his confidence and motivation.

All in all, as usual, we learned alot!