We drew 2nd last UTDX on Sunday, the rain had let up by then. Here, she is just starting off from the scent pad. Although her start was described as solid, it was not her usual gung-ho, let's go.
The arrow points to the start flag, barely visible. We seem to moving along well on the long first leg, approaching a road. She is on the track, as it heads between the two trees in front of us.
We have crossed the road and she's made a left turn, moving along here very nicely.
Our first article, plastic. We then continue onward, onto a gravel driveway. This is a works dept. office and work yard.
Her right turn is on the driveway and taking us into the work and storage yard. This is where we began to have trouble...and the end of the photos. Our photographer, Tascha, backed off when she thought Trust may see her. This was a difficult area. There were only 2 ways out, the correct one was on the other side of this building. But wind was funnelling in that opening, swirling and bouncing around in the 'enclosed' area. There were two buildings on the other side, machinery at the end, and beside "our" opening to the field beyond was a high and long pile of gravel. The wind was coming over that and Trust kept working back and forth around here. She was frustrated. When she finally 'got out' there was a pond that wasn't supposed to be there, although it was not as large as the night before, apparently, but her track just circled around there and she didn't get it. Instead, she was trying to work up behind the building in the picture, and I couldn't get her back where she might pick up the right direction. She was missing 2 legs, a corner and an article by trying to go across the road again....which was right if she had been further down and followed the correct track. The wind was bringing the scent across the road to us, and she was trying to cross where there was another corner. So, in her mind, she was right, but not so, as she had cut off too much of the real track. I finally 'let her go' and as she moved up the ditch to the road, we were called off. It was a tough spot; more so than I would have thought just looking at it. We came home later, walked through the forest and she was perfectly happy again, forgiving her mom for letting her down.
