I couldn't see where the start was and so just walked him in to find it. He did pick it up, but we had also seen a few people walking in this area (an employee door) and he didn't have a very good start leg.
First corner, was also not working strongly on this leg, but he also hasn't done a track since last fall, and this was not a good "first" day out.
Nearing the corner on his second leg, and he seems to be 'getting down to business' a little more
He's doing well crossing the wide driveway at the building entrance area on his third leg and I don't think he picked up any food here.
At the corner and just moving onto the fourth leg.
I was a little distracted here (part of the story at the end) and just going back behind Tank here. I think he had turned to watch me, and also had gone off the track.
We had turned another corner, on 5th leg, and note the big green apple circled in red. Tank loves apples! I hadn't seen it at first, then thought it was a large green ball. He had picked it up, happy as you please, and brought it back to me. I had put it down, he picked it up, put it down, picked it up, until I finally gave him a stern "leave it" and felt badly as he was so happy to have found it. Anyway, he moved on just fine, and we are about to cross the same driveway again.
These flags are from recent construction being done here, and we are on a diagonal now after crossing road, and heading around the side of the building to the back.
Tank has just found a cotton glove and we have a little tug with it before moving on.
We've gone past the second row of parked vehicles here and almost at the next corner. With the strong wind, I'm surprised at how well he worked the hard surface. He really hasn't done that much, and not a very long time.
Tank went past the turn (yellow line) and then turned and came back. Right here he is moving to the corner and will find one piece of kibble here, then continues on along the track.
He had me running along most of this long leg (last one) on pavement. He was only about 2' to the left of the "real" track all the way along here, and the wind was wicked here, from the right.
I'm looking for the glove, figuring it should be in this vicinity, when he suddenly rushes over to the right and in against the snow on a strip of gravel. There it was!!!
Playing with the glove. He did a really nice job...I think he was really happy to be back tracking again. So now we're working Blast, Tank and Emma towards UTD. Lots of planning, sure hope we get some snow melt soon and more places we can get out to.So, the funny story:
When we were planning the track, driving around, we saw more security people than noticed ever before...seemed odd. When Tank and I had gone 1/2 way across the front, I saw a security guy heading out the front door towards us. I kept going, and he went to Tascha. I wondered what was up, but wasn't going to "lose" this track! When we were done, she came up and said he was just asking what we were doing as someone had come in off the parking area and said we were dropping things...Well, I never had, and didn't want any problems here, so unhooked Tank from harness, put on collar, gave him the glove to carry and went inside to find the security people. (no dogs allowed sign on door) I found the same fellow and we had a little chat.
He said he had a yellow lab and figured we were doing 'search work' and patted Tank, who I said was also a pet therapy dog, meanwhile a few other people walking by came to pat him.....
Fellow was ok, but someone actually picked up some dog food and took it in wondering what we were doing and dropping. The security fellow knew it was dog food and saw us working but he had to check. Talking about how paranoid people are now. I had to laugh; whoever picked this up, did he think it would explode??? Poison??? Regardless HE PICKED IT UP!
Anyway, we had to laugh afterwards, but the world sure has changed...
