Training Day today - Spring tracking begins!

Today I laid two very difficult tracks for River and Jet just to see where we are at. It was a warm day, 14 C with no wind. The Google Earth maps are below for each one. River's was not aged 3 hours, only 2.5. But it was very complex with a lot of nv (non-veg) - more than half - and it is VERY DRY here. Even the newpaper headlines say that there is no spring runoff as usual and farmer's are worried (as usual). Jet's track was just over an hour. I was so happy with both girls. I have to say, they did better than I expected, and better than they have been doing up to today. I am sure the warm weather was welcome news for them. After each track, I sat on the grass with them and fed them liver treats and pepperoni and told them how wonderful they are. There is nothing quite so rewarding as a good day tracking, in my books. While the tracks were aging, I did obedience with Caden. I am waiting now for greener grass for him, before we start tracking again. I don't want his SchH style to be compromised in this dry dead stuff, as we are both new at that style.

**Special note for my SchH friends ** (if you look at this blog). In CKC tracking a dog is not scored and has a certain amount of leeway from the primary track. I try to keep my dogs right on when they are on veg, but when we are at transitions to nv and when we are on nv, I allow them the leeway to some degree as I am not convinced a dog can be totally nose down on hard surface, however, I do think they can be MUCH closer than the rules allow. So when you see the "line painted on these pictures" showing where the track goes - you will see my dog is not right on, but darn close. In other spots, she is dead on.

Below is River's track from left to right. It is 504 meters long and was aged 2.5 hours. At her level it should be 3-5 but this was very complex with a ton of cars and people walking all over it, and a few dogs, too. It was slightly more than 50% hard surface with some odd gravelly grass areas, and interesting brick/grass areas. AND SO FREAKIN' DRY! Under the portico where you see a grey roof was red brick.

Turn onto the parking lot. She sniffed the lightpost, then headed out onto the lot. I walk on the yellow lines when I can, as the slightly raised edges hold scent, plus, a car will not park on your track!

River did a big cirle before taking the turn. Once she turned I have no idea why but she trotted the entire leg and I had to jog to keep up. She was slightly off as I walked along the end of the yellow lines, again, to avoid parking spots and driving lanes, and because these lines are great for holding scent. She really nailed the upcoming turn which was onto a wheelchair acess spot which may have funnelled scent.

Below, here is where River nailed the turn. I went onto this weird brick and grass area and she found her first article, a torn up old sock.

From the brick/grass, she turned right and went into this portico with a smooth red brick surface. Oh, and see that white van way up there? It is a stupid security vehicle parked ON the sidewalk, right ON my turn. I spotted it from here and was ticked because I made my turn on a nice puddle and used wet footprints there, which were UNDER his van.

In this pillar area, she went in circles and sniffed pillars. Then she came to a dead stop and stood for a minute, got her bearings and headed out. I was going to step in but she got back to work before I had to. The pillars were a problem for defracting scent, I think. And the brick was so smooth it was not great - sort of like being on glass!

River has done the turn where the van was parked. It didn't bother her at all. You can see from the angle of my line that she is to the right of the track - I always stay on my track. She did something really interesting here which I rarely see her do. She actually licked this wall and I almost managed a picture of it. I am sure it was holding scent.

I went up these steps and across, then down again. River actually started to go up them to the right of this photo. Then she came down, sniffed around, then did it the second time with lots of confidence. A couple of students were heading into the College and River poked her head in the door - I had to put tension and not let her go in with them! She went down and took off on her last leg on concrete.

Here she is, really looking good on this concrete. River loves hard surface stuff. She is better at it than she is on veg now. I wish the grass would green up so I could do a nice veg track with her. The sidewalk turned but I went straight to end with a metal article on grass. I like to pair up easy article on hard surface and hard articles on veg sometimes, even though the last article should be leather. I realized I ended her track behind a bus stop. I was joyfully praising her, and a couple of students came out of the shelter to see what was going on! Oh, they said, it is that crazy girl who comes here with her dogs all the time...

Jet did her veg really carefully to start. I put lots of dried liver there, and she had not had breakfast. That helped! I noticed today that at each transition she is starting to weave back and forth before commiting to the next surface...something to work on next time. She did her nv turn nicely and found her little wooden SchH article - much smaller than a CKC article would be, but nice for hiding in public areas. I would love to do a SchH track with Jet, so use these a lot for her. I do need to work on her indications for SchH and have her lie in the direction of the track though. But it is between her paws which is great.

Second article, plastic lid on veg. Nice indication. She puts her chin on it. I used that stick to hold it down while it aged. I admit I asked her to pose for this shot, haha.

She really did a wonderful job on the road, and asphalt sidewalk. I was surprised she did better on asphalt than on this cracked concrete sidewalk but it could have been the wind that picked up during her track. She weaved a bit as you can see, and also spent some time under the low branches of an evergreen while I waited. But she popped out and then found her way along to the end of the track and the glove!

And here she is, posing again for me. She is such a good girl. We sat in the sun for awhile and he kept giving me kisses, which is very special from Jet! And she also put her front paws up on my leg and looked really happy. She loves to work. Since we don't have steady access to sheep right now, this keeps Jet busy.