Caden's Track at Olds College yesterday
Yesterday I met my friends Pam and Michelle to track at Olds College. It was SUPPOSED to be around 0 Celsius (32 F) but it was minus 7 with a biting, strong wind and very damp with that lovely hoar frost on all of the trees...pretty but a sign of damp cold! Since we were all there, we tracked anyway. Pam's new puppy did scent pads, Michelle's Canaan Dog Ash did three straight lines, and Caden did a short zig zag track. Michelle did a blind L-track for River as well. I will be putting these all up over the next day or so but wanted to start with Caden. Michelle took these pictures for me. I so rarely have a "photographer" available that I am just thrilled to get these nice side shots of my boy. Thanks Michelle!
Below is Caden's start. He has a rip-roaring start which I need to work on, although he is dead-on which is a positive. His nose was down the entire time which made me very happy. We are getting our technique down!
In the photo below you can see that his tail never stops when he tracks. When he is on track it is high and waves like a plume. I have been working on my own posture while I follow him, trying to stay straight and be more relaxed in my walking (last summer I was always a bit hunched behind him, trying to hang on).
As you can see below, he begins to get into a calmer pace even on his first leg (below). The first leg was about 100 meters and the entire track was about 250 meters. That seemed long enough in that wind!
Here he is having a treat after his first corner. He ate this one, but as he went along the second leg he ignored the dried liver treats. 
He was in a strong crosswind on leg two and I was very pleased with how he remained right on track. I wondered if he was focusing so hard he didn't want his treats. At the corner, he had picked up some speed. I need to address this, and in part was trying to collect the dried liver he was skipping - two big pieces, and so I let him speed up and should have been correcting.
At the corner, he overshot and circled around. The wind went west and his turn went east. I said "NOOOO" and let him be responsible for finding the track without pointing it out - which he did! I have to admit, I was glad he did because the snow was fairly frozen in this area outside of the aquatics centre and I could not see my footprints. One thing about snow tracking is that you don't make a visual map in your head the same way, tch tch to me! I am pretty much standing in front of the corner, and Caden is on the other side of it coming around to it (below)...I notice his tail is not as high at this point. Maybe something to watch for.
Here he goes down that next leg. I love how confident he was again once he found his track! And he was very careful to have his nose down again.
*as one after-note, I have now lost over 50 pounds since winter 2008 and when I see these pictures, I feel pretty excited about getting back to my old self, and can see this jacket may be getting a bit loose, LOL!! I just had to add a personal boast, and I know being in shape will have a positive impact on my dog activities...except I was MORE COLD than usual hahahaha!
Category Article Caden, German Shepherd, Schutzhund tracking, winter tracking
