Trust in her Element on Monday....

Trust has just indicated her first article, a sock, near the end of a very long first leg on grass, overcut while aging. She has her eye on a golfer...ooooh, maybe he will want to fuss over me!

We turned just short of the golf course, and headed towards a parking area. Here she transitions from grass to gravel to pavement and a quick turn coming up. This was a difficult spot as well, as it is a very well travelled area with vehicles and golf carts. She spied 'people' and the smell of lunch was also wafting towards us. She actually 'tried' to continue on past her turn, and I let her go a ways, but then stopped to hopefully re-focus her on the track. Of course, if a test, I probably would have followed along, oh-oh. She did circle back and move down the proper track direction.

This leg was actually laid about 2' left of where I put the red line. The breeze was coming in from the right, but she hugged the curb most of the way. Above, she has just indicated a wood article, which I was surprised hadn't been picked up by this time. It was aged 3 hr. 20 min.

Further down, her turn was close to the crack you see near the bottom of the picture. Also a very, very heavy traffic area, the cars whipping over here in and out of the golf course. She made a wide circle around the corner and then jogged back to the track.

Again, she's hugging the curb along this leg until she nearly reaches the main entrance and suddenly turned right towards the entrance pillars. There is an article on the other side.

A car was parked on the right when I laid the track, and again, being the front entrance it is heavy walked and driven over. Her plastic article is at the edge of a little bush around the bend, I was hoping it wouldn't be noticed and picked up

She is probably letting me know how much she hates plastic articles, it is yellow and right beside her (blue arrow).

We continue across the drive through, and up a small hill to a right turn.

Which takes us across another driveway that heads toward the hotel restaurant, onto another patch of grass and another right turn over the double main entrance driveways.

She is barely to the left of the track here, and then veers out and over the little island before continuing across to the grass and a left turn. She actually circled around a little on the grass, walking 3' right past the metal article, before turning and coming back around to it.

I thought she was going to continue on and totally miss this article. As I would in a test, and as a team, I actually verbally encouraged her to 'look' which she did. You can see the leg and turn up to her final article in the above picture.

I had planned to turn and leave the leather glove in the gravel/sand lot, but then saw some garbage? ahead. I decided to leave it closer, on the edge of grass/gravel instead, as I wasn't sure what that "thing' was. Trust had turned and was working left of the track, until she suddenly veered over to the article. Overall, a pretty good track, just a couple of little glitches.

Sunday, Emma's TDX track

I took these first two pictures as I began to lay the track for Emma and Tascha. The fog had almost lifted and the fields were beautiful. I just love early fall tracking. This was a field I've not used previously, 200 gorgeous acres just down the road from me.

Heavy dew, frost in a few areas, and the sun coming up behind the fog...beautifuEmma has just made her first turn and Tascha is "catching up"! The first leg turned out to be quite wet for little Emma, wouldn't you know it?!

The second leg was very long, up a hill. Here Emma is working out the scent on the top of the hill, and just turned in the right direction, pausing and double-checking.

Then she takes off hopping and Tascha begins to follow her from the corner.

Now having turned onto the fourth leg, and after finding her first article, Emma is 'on the run' and very confident along this leg, heading downhill. It's so rare to get pictures of Emma on tracks where you can actually 'see' her, usually the cover is too deep.

Emma has found her second article and Tascha is rewarding her for that.

I looked 'back' to take this picture. It was a tough go for a little dog, but Emma worked through this thick and tangled bush area without a hitch. Way back is the hilltop we had been on earlier.

After the last turn shortly out of the bush, she is now heading to the final article. She was really working well and enjoying every minute of it.

Yay! There's a leather glove down in there. Her tail was wagging a mile a minute. What a happy little worker.

Tanks' 5th Birthday Party!

It's hard to believe - Tank is already five years old! A 'small' party this year, just these four. We were remembering our birthdays of the past with 8 dogs in a little circle, and trying to figure out how we did that!!! Blast celebrated indoors with his cake and ice cream, he didn't seem to mind. It was just too chaotic to try and include the "can't sit still" Blaster with the time involved in getting Jess and Storm ready and comfortable.
Sunday was gorgeous, so we could go out on the deck for this. Trust didn't like her cake and just stared at it for a while before deciding perhaps she should eat it before someone else did. You can see who gobbled down 'his' the fastest!
And now Tank's watching and waiting and hoping someone might leave some for him! As if!!!! Jess and Storm could only have a tiny bit each to begin with. Tank enjoyed an extra special walk (actually, he had three) through the woods yesterday and lots of ball time.

Delightful or Deadly Forest Fungi?

We have never seen so many mushrooms or colourful fungus in the forest as we have in the past three weeks. Conditions are perfect, I assume, and some pop up overnight. I can't believe how fast they grow! Here are just a few very colourful shapes and I've no idea what they are. We just bought an Audobon book to try and identify them, but there are thousands and many are so similar.
Each walk through different areas in the forest always surprise us.

Every day there is something new. It's almost like magic.

I don't know what, but something nibbles at many of these, so hopefully something in the forest knows if they are safe to eat!

I think perhaps anything red is to be avoided, but they are certainly lovely to look at.

Some just pop up on wood, or dead leaves, they don't need earth to grow on or in.