Saturday, May 15, 2010

Trusts' UTDX Track at the Waterfront

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....

Friday, May 14, 2010

North Bays' Waterfront

I laid a track (for Trust) by the waterfront in North Bay this morning. It was extremely windy (33 to 45 km), but we'd finally had some rain so it was a perfect morning to track. I also knew the normal number of walkers/joggers/dog walkers would not be out! Above, you can see by the flags straight out how strong the wind is.
The parking lot I left the van, to go and lay the track, overlooked Lake Nipissing. The Heritage Railroad and the Heritage Carousel are in this location. These are favorite tourist attractions for children and adults alike. I believe they open around May 24th weekend.
The water has never been lower than it is this year in Lake Nipissing. It was amazing in some places to see the huge expanse of beach. The spawning areas for fish are also in jeopardy right now. Above, the whitecaps also show how windy/rough the lake was this morning. It is rarely this choppy. Way back you can see the Chief Commanda docked. It is also being prepared for the summer season. The Chief is a catamaran, and very nice to cruise on.
This is the Chief in the background. These cruises have been going on every summer for many, many years. There are long and short trips made daily, very scenic, very serene. After Trust and I completed her track this morning, I took Blast for a walk along the boardwalk and out the long dock to check out the Chief. He found it quite interesting, as did I, and there was hardly a soul around...just some ducks and loons.
I took a ton of pictures of Trust on her track this morning, so will get "back to tracking" shortly.
Too tired tonight to work on pictures, just takes forever to load on our dial-up.



So where am I supposed to sleep???!

Tank - he plays hard, and he sleeps hard. I'm lucky to get 1/3 of the bed !

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Rose Breasted Grosbeaks

We haven't seen Rose Breasted Grosbeaks for over a year. Most of our regular bird species have been "missing" all winter, due to a natural food shortage - lack of seed cones in the forest. Seeing these particularly beautiful birds back was a joy. There are just two males right now, but they've been here for a week, so I imagine the females are on the way. They also have a beautiful song, usually in the evening.

A very special Trillium

I cannot remember the proper name, but I refer to this as a "triple trillium" due to the multi-petals. This is a very unusual trillium which came from the edge of a hayfield when we lived near Orillia. That area was full of the "normal" white trilliums in the forests in spring. We had a patch of 3 and when we moved I brought this with us. There are no white trilliums growing naturally in this area, only red ones. I hoped this one would survive - this is its 13th year here!
Until 3 years ago, the 3 flowers never multiplied. This year there are 9 stems and flowers, however they are very small. The poor plant was one that was flattened in the snow recently, but surprisingly, has also survived, although a little floppy still. Isn't Mother Nature amazing!

Mothers' Day Weekend - SNOW!!!!

Yup! This was MAY 8th and 9th !!! Hard to believe, especially for the poor spring birds. We even had drifting in the driveway...what a mess. And I'm sick of hearing "how pretty" it was!
These are very big trees, just laden with heavy, wet snow. We had some small bushes and perennials that were just flattened. Amazingly, most were back up in 2-3 days, but some plants seem to have bent stems.