Saturday, August 21, 2010

Finally....a track in rain....

Ah, but be careful what you wish for...problem is...this was the first heavy rain in nearly 3 months and how do you practice in 'all weather' when you have no control???! This track was laid just before thunderstorms and heavy downpours went through for nearly 2 hr. Everything was drenched, and I had no idea how Trust would do. Naturally, I expected the worst would be the hard surfaces....not! The toughest was the grass; much more than I had expected. Above is her first leg. She did not start well, was circling from the beginning and continued like this along the first leg. I felt she never got locked onto this track in the grass. Her corner was near the far fence and she did not indicate strongly. I did not think it was there, and she then just began searching all over the place. We were eventually heading in the right direction for the next three legs on grass, but turned out we were not really ever close to the actual track. She was obviously not able to pick it up very well, and I was not feeling good about the whole thing.
When we got to the first hard surface, she cut way down towards the building, then began working up, and circling around, on the paved area. I saw an article, and she actually circled around it three times before 'finding' it. She sure wasn't using her eyes and was working very hard to find it. I was pleased with this.
She has just found it, it was a plastic lid upside down and filled with water, which she began to lick.....interesting.....
She was right on here, cement with weeds growing through and then a brick area, to the final corner.
Again, you could see this article from the final corner, but she was working with her nose, and had moved left over a sandy area/grass before sharply turning to the article. You can see pooled water by the walkway here, it is just lightly raining at this time.
Trust is happy, she's found her glove and that's the end of 'that' track. It certainly was difficult and just what this heavy, heavy rain had done on the grass really has me stumped. Hopefully, on trial day, if there is rain, it will be nice and light, just enough to hold the scent down and not
completely obliterate the track!