So Blast went on his track Wednesday after the rain and approx. 1/2 hr. aging. It was already hot and humid by this time. A few things jumped out at me "later" and again while playing with these pictures. He's done so little urban work. I previously planned to work closer to him, to help keep him on the track. He's generally been ignoring any food I put down, continuing on the track, but today, in these pics. it's obvious the food is stopping him, and drawing him back. Not what I want.
My hope was the food would focus him ON the track but this doesn't seem to be working.
His first leg was a short grass one, out to the gravel driveway and his first turn. I left one piece of food just out on the gravel, which he has stopped for here.
First corner with treat on there as well. You can already see how he has passed it and then turned back.
Again, the leg moving on down the gravel, he passed the food, and turned back for it. So the thing is, he is "being" stopped by the food, after already tracking on past it. Yet my aim was to be closer on the track at all times by using the food......At the article, plastic lid, he paused briefly and tried to move on. I held the line taut and walked up before he could move on to pick it up.
Moving nicely along here...hmmm...no food.
Blast has taken the corner, cutting it short, and moved onto the grass. Working nicely here, there was no food on any of the veg. surfaces.
Red arrow points out the wood article. I moved up quickly and played a bit with it before telling him to work again.
This was kind of funny. He is directly on the next corner, and stops to 'look ahead' at where we are going before moving on. I guess he 'approved', as he kept going, funny guy.
He crossed this area very nicely with only two little food treats on it.
Short grass is no issue for him, nearing another corner which I made in the shade of the small tree.
Stopped again...the treat here was actually placed as a reward for passng the hydrant and ignoring it!
And again, he had continued on, but stopped and turned back for the treat at the transition from gravel to sparse grass (looks better than it was!).
Easy on the stretch of grass beside the building, the breeze was coming directly towards us here. He has gone a long way with no articles, not even sure why I placed two in the early stages of this track, and then nothing until the end...maybe the heat and humidity was frying my little brain again...
A few food treats out onto the hard surface, but this time he was moving along well, without stopping for them. He either picked them up on his way, keeping his nose down very nicely, or just went past.
Blast cut the last corner and headed for the cloth article. He certainly seemed to have scented it well back and he could not see it, as it was in a little hollow. I actually had left it in water, which was now evaporated.
It appeared a car had driven over it also, it was well mushed into the dirt which he was digging at. Good boy. Nice work.
