River and Caden share a 4.5 hr old, 650 m track with two tricky turns!

Today I laid a 650 meter track for River at 10:16 AM. It was raining when I laid it. When I ran it at 2:45 it was sunny and warm. She did an awesome job! I then did Jet's track. An hour after doing this track with River, I harnessed up Caden and he ran it - and did a beautiful job! I have interspersed photo and video of Caden in this post. There are two very interesting moments on this track - with photos - showing two turns that turned out to be really tricky! I tried to plot something test-worthy, that made sense today. It goes to show you just NEVER really know how the track will turn out - that is what I love about tracking... it is always like a mystery unfolding before my eyes. Dogs are so amazing! And River, at age 11, is still doing very well. I treasure these days with her. I hope that you learn from her too - as much as I have...

Here is the map (River's on the left, Jet's on the right) - I drove around the College twice trying to figure out how I could lay both and have good walkouts... I added a turn at the end of River's once I was laying it, so they both had 7 turns, two parking lots and two road crosses. Equal!




START:

River's start

Heading for the first road cross The parking lot was EMPTY when I laid the track at 10:16 AM Now, at 2:45 it is jam packed!

River crosses the road. Sometimes vehicle traffic on roads will pull scent up or down the road. She arches back for the track as she gets close to the boulevard.

She is right on as she goes between these cars. The cars were not there when I laid it. However, I always try to lay a track that won't be too disturbed by cars so I walk close to the yellow lines (but not ON them anymore). You can see the turn (marked in blue) ahead.

NV (non-veg) TURN:

River overshoots then catches scent under the vehicles and makes a turn.

As she comes back towards the track, she again turns in the right direction. A wood article is ahead. She went to check scent along vehicles again, and the article pulls her right over (see video)

Good girl!

Here is Caden doing the track an hour later. There is no article for him - he takes the turn, and checks between vehicles at the same place River checked! He is a good boy:

River was actually licking the parking lot here. Ahead, you can see a turn that is up on the grass boulevard. River chose to follow along the vehicles. It was interesting. It would not be a FAIL as she was well, well within the 40 METERS allowed in the CKC rules for urban. The risk is - what if there had been an article up there? Would she have found it? I will test that another time!

Here is River, coming up to the turn. I actually believe on this humid day with no wind (so rare!) the scent mayhave flowed downhill a little from this boulevard. Traffic could also have pushed scent around. No matter - she did it her way! I just follow.

On my way back after running the track, I took this photo. River's path is in blue. Caden re-ran the track (see video) and he went up to the grass.

River is only slightly off here. The manhole pulls her over. Manholes CAN be your friend but they do attract and hold scent.

Here she is checking the manhole.

On track on the boulevard. Turn ahead.

Very nice turn, right on!

Here River approaches the next parking lot. She ends up over by the curb where scent could certainly collect. Another manhole - red arrow - pulls her over. Very neat to watch this.

Here she is along the curb.

Here she is checking the manhole.

This was a difficult turn! I had no idea it would be when I laid it. Both River and Caden had trouble (Caden ran it an hour later). I HAVE NO IDEA WHY. It is a jumble of sidewalk, road with a curve, bus parked, and building (just out of sight). Not much grass there. Also, I wondered if the scent from the article ahead was rebounding off the building or causing some confusion. Interesting!

River finds the lightswitch. So serendipitous. I meant to put this article back before the last road cross and forgot! I put it here - near a turn - just a willy-nilly placement which would not have been acceptable in the rules. But as fate would have it - it was like a reward after a hard turn I did not expect. THANK YOU TRACKING GODS!

END:

Finding her last turn.

Last leg on veg. See video.

My beautiful, wonderful, best friend River. She is 11 and I just treasure these times with her.

CADEN:

Caden re-ran her track on a harness and did a beautiful job. The glove was missing! So I tossed down metal.

As we were walking out - Caden found the missing glove! He was SO PROUD - SEE VIDEO at the end

I asked him to lie down and you can see how thrilled he is. I think he knew the metal was not the actual article - he saw me throw it down. Finding something appeals a lot more to a dog's hunt drive and is more rewarding

Caden carried the glove all the way back to the car! Very cute. I really believe letting my inexperienced dogs follow a track done by an experienced dog is great motivation. My experienced dogs stay so 'on track' and so do I, so it is not messed up, and it's nice to make extrause of a track, when so much effort is put into laying it!

And Caden gets the last word!