Buddies.....???

Nope! Just opportunists!! This is about as close to "friendly" as it gets. A moment later, the nasty little red squirrel ran at the grouse's head and kept going.....
The grouse didn't even know what 'hit' him...and immediately went back to scrounging for seed under the feeder. The squirrel returned to it's "spot".

Same Place 3 wks.later - No Snow!

We're so happy to have the snow gone, and able to get into areas we've not been able to for so long, but now we're crying for rain. There's been none, barely anything turning green yet, and the fire hazard is becoming high. But.....we can get out tracking again in real urban settings.....
This was our second leg with a sock (article) at the change from gravel to (sort of) grass. Trust had made a few 'circles' in the gravel as it was full of footprints - human, dog and deer.

We have now made our third corner, out behind the baseball diamond, moving up the fourth leg. The arrow points to her second article, a plastic light switch cover.

As you can see by her line, and the orange track line, she travelled a few feet left of the track, but zeroed in on the article.

This was a long fourth leg and took us through a gate opening towards the playground. After the track was laid, a truck had driven up, and a few kids got out to play on the swings and other equipment. The truck had parked over our track, but as the track was aged for over 3 hrs. they were long gone. Of course, you never know what has been there while you're away waiting for the track to age! A number of local people walk their dogs here, so that's a certainty.

Trust had a corner shortly after crossing into the sand, and had no problem there. She's on her fifth leg now, the sand was a short transition.

She's moved out and across the gravel drive area. She was drawn over to the ditch at the right, but has picked up the scent of the wood article and is moving back towards the track now. This leg heads out to the paved driveway into the parking lot where there is the MOT turn.

Trust actually made her turn well past the corner, while watching some people come out of the arena. She's now moving back to the actual track. I forgot to add wind direction on any pictures, but it is coming almost towards her right now, although light.

She moved up the leg, almost the whole length, over to the left. Of course, the open door of the 'container' drew her over to check it out, but she quickly came back. Just ahead of the truck coming towards us (I wasn't moving!), is a metal article that she moved over and indicated.

We are now up past the end of the arena, on the right, and just in front of the library (see previous picture). She has done well on this leg, found the turn pretty much right on, and is nearing her final article, a small square of leather. The track had a total of 9 legs.

I should mention, there were three separate areas along the track, with galvanized fencing near it. In each case, she left the track to check the fence (scent) and then moved back to the track.

Trust takes her usual pose at the final article..."here it is, give me something, let's go back to the van attitude"...

Blast Field Tracking

This is Blast, right off the scent pad, nose down and determined. It was a very windy afternoon, and we thought the dogs might have problems in this location on short, dead grass, but they worked really well. Originally, the plan here was strictly for motivational tracks.

I like to work "close" to the dogs, to see exactly what they are doing. Do you know some dogs will actually lick the track at times? I learned this from the Barnards several years ago and had never seen it until I began to work (in training) closer to the dogs - sure enough, it is true. I will work "up and down" the line, depending on what the dog is doing on the track. As you can see below, I'm near the end as Blast is running along a straight leg right here, exactly on the track.

This is one of the few pictures where his nose is a few inches off the ground. He's moving quickly and knows exactly where the track is. Below he went past the corner with the wind, and has just circled back and found it.

....and off we go again....

Blast had five legs and four corners on this track, aged about 40 minutes. It was a long TD type track. He indicated his article clearly, picked it up, and we had a few tugs and tosses with it. A very enjoyable afternoon, just hope we will soon have some real grass!

Emmas' Field Track Today

We decided to give Emma a completely vegetated track today, as a break and fun from the urban tracking she's been doing. As you can see, we still have no new grass yet, everything is still dead and brown. However, it was 'different' and she did great!

And it was sure "worthwhile" for Emma as she got a bunch of little chicken pieces from Tascha at the end of the track!

Emma just loves to run around with her article when the track is completed.