Saturday, November 5, 2011

This afternoon, I was short on time to get three good dog walks in, and decided to try a little experiment and take Kira out with Tank. Kira thought she had died and gone to heaven, Tank was very kind with her, and loving all the attention.
Tank has the new blue ball in his mouth and Kira just about did head stands to try and get it from him.She had her "arms" wrapped around his head, jumping on top of him, and he finally let her take it. No doubt, it was just to get rid of her, if only for a moment.Then the little witch teased him mercilessly, running back at him, sticking the ball in his face, over and over.Finally, he took off after her, much to her delight, and they ran full speed circles around the bushes and the trails until I had to intervene. It's clear who is boss in this scenario, but they both had a great time.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Walks, Huge Branches and Balls...

Although the nights are below freezing, the days are sunny and "almost" warm...still good weather for this time of year. After tracking in the morning, just did two afternoon walks...one with Tank, Trust and Blast, and one with Kira.
As I planned to do some "ball work" with Kira in the field, I wouldn't let her take anything on our walk out, and she just HAD to dart into the forest first and drag out a large branch.The worst part of this, is that she runs straight at me, and I have to duck around something. She knows one speed, and that is full throttle...Ah, I managed to find a momentary lapse of attention, and was able to break it! I'm getting the "what did you do that for" look...We then went on to work on the balls which certainly made her even more happy than trying to knock me down with the branch.Jumping Jack Blast. Have to make sure Tank doesn't get any opportunity to catch that ball, he's up and ready to grab it, before Tank barely left his sit position.Trust has just about had enough of both of them, and flips around to show them both who is really the boss here.
I like to think this all tires them out, but, alas, it doesn't last very long before they try to convince me we haven't been for a walk yet!!!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Great New Urban Tracking Location

I walked through this area a few weeks ago, and had it in the back of my mind. It's a huge (80 acres) outdoor sportsplex, new this year. Now, it is rarely used (time of year) and I went back to check it out. Perfect! So many configurations could be put in here. Only one front field still has some geese/poop on it, the rest is clean as a whistle. So, I decided to lay a track there yesterday for Blast and today I went back and did an identical one for Tank. Between the fenced fields it's like a wind tunnel and there are cover changes all over. Both yesterday and today, I never saw another soul there.
I really can't handle either Tank or Blast properly and try to take pictures at the same time. So I decided today to take a few while I laid the track. Above is my first leg. There is a paved parking lot to the left of this grass. Before I reach the pavillion, there is an asphalt drive, woodchips, on to a cement area under the overhang. Then back out on woodchips, then grass again, where I make a right turn.Second leg on grass, over a paved drive by the fencing and both days I laid a serpentine track through this complete section, with the first article 2/3 of the way up. This was the 'wind tunnel' area.Even though there is fence on each side, there is still plenty of room to train. All the fenced in fields are locked.This picture shows the track coming out of the serpentine area, turning and moving along one field in grass, and a second article out behind. Then an open turn up and over onto coarse stone driveway, which is next to a strip of asphalt again, beside another fenced in area.Moving along the stones and making a turn between two more fenced fields and out onto sparse grass.A left turn onto a long stretch of paved drive and and up to the final article next to unfinished area which was dirt. It was interesting to do the "same" track for both dogs. Conditions were very similar and both Blast and Tank did pretty well, but made it obvious how they have very different styles of working on a track. Neither worked the serpentine as well as I thought they might have, but it was strong wind coming towards us both days. Would be interesting to give it some time and try again, if weather co-operates...running out of time here before winter!!