This is Trust about 20' out from her start. The grass had been mowed the day before. Winds were clocked at 35 - 45, but usually are even stronger off the lake. There were whitecaps and waves coming in. Trust is a 'marker' on her track and lifts her leg to pee.Red line is track as laid. Broken yellow is places she went off track. Blue arrows are wind direction. Track was aged just under 3 hr.
Her start and first leg are done very nicely, as is the corner coming up and moving out onto pavement.
She had been moving so easily along here, out towards the turn, but then wanted to continue on and spent quite a bit of time moseying around in this little area...who really knows....it was a curve in the driveway, bushes, walkway into other parking lot. I really couldn't figure out what was causing her interest or difficulty SO MUCH in this area. She really seemed to want to go down further and yet the wind was just whipping against us here. Eventually, she began to work up towards the track, but along the edge of the walkway, grass and garden.
She has the strong wind at her back, and then turns short, through the garden and out into the next parking lot.
And then she moves at a diagonal at the corner of the pavement, up onto the grass towards the track. But she then crosses the track, circles around, and swings over to the article - wood.
From the article, she moves down along the edge of the curb for the whole distance, about 4' parallel to the track.
The turn off the track on grass and into the pavement partially followed a crack, with the corner out past the yellow lines and throught the driveway into another parking are
Trust has crossed the entranceway coming into both parking lots, and is beginning to curve out towards the track along another partial crack and damp areas. The truck noted in black is backing out and comes right over our track, and past us (further on) about 2' away. I didn't want to move off the track and moved up beside her instead, assuming???? he would go around us.
After the truck left, we continued on the track (she's a little to the left of it), which went over the sewer and there's a tiny plastic tube just past it. She indicated it perfectly. We followed the crack in the pavement over to the grass.
When we reached the grass, the track went up a little rise. Trust again, headed strongly into the wind, circled around on top of the rise, and came back to her article past the tree, a sock. If you wanted to enlarge this picture (by double clicking) you will see the tip of her tongue out. She had licked the article, something really neat to see the dog do. John Barnard was the person that clued me in to some dogs licking the article and/or the track. After this, we go down over a brick walkway and up another little hill
But first, Trust indicates by sitting with a smile on her face. I think she's saying it's been hard to get here, and hope it ends soon. Oh, dear!
It doesn't! Over the hill and down the other side and we keep on going. She checked out the garbage pail, no doubt many other dogs had left their mark there. Way up ahead we go over a sandy strip, and then a short jog on grass again before a turn towards the road.
I told her to wait after the turn to the road, and moved up with her. We had to wait for traffic in both directions before heading across the road. It's a very wide road. Once I told her she could go, she ran across it, well, we both did.
This is a really neat area that was built last summer. This is sort of like a podium, this section is at road level, and then stairs downwards in to an underground walkway/bridge that goes into the downtown. Very open and windy here, she had no problem. She had crossed a bit to the left and is just moving back onto the track.
Trust is heading down the stairs. It's a bit of a tricky scenting area here. The wind coming from behind, and sort of tunnelling down each side of this, and also swirling around, and collecting in the stair area. She had quite a time sorting it out, as her final article is also tucked against the bottom stair. I wanted to put it out ahead, but I knew the wind would take it off somewhere. The red arrow points to the article.
She has circled back around here, working at finding the article. If it had been calm, and also if not afraid of someone picking it up (the grounds people were also out) I would have left it ahead where the walkway begins to narrow down.
She actually went past it, when she was circling around, and up the stairs, moving back down and scenting. Poor dog, tough spot, she obviously knew it was close, just couldn't find it.
She made another wider circle and ended up where I had walked out (burgundy line). Also a poor plan, but I had nowhere to go to get out of this area. I'd not been in there before, and could not get 'back' by going through the tunnel area. I was about to help her here, if she had continued on a few more feet. I was telling her to find it, and she suddenly spun around, heading back to the steps, made a tiny circle and was right on it. She was happily wagging her tail, and very pleased with herself. I was pretty amazed at some of the tough areas she worked through. She got lots of special treats, and we had a nice long walk back to the van.
There were a couple of places on this track that I just don't really know what the heck she was doing. Trust seems to overcompensate in strong winds and head right into them, which takes her completely off the track. And in areas I expect some problems, she just 'does it'. This urban stuff is still mystifying....
