Interesting Track for Blast

We continue to be amazed how quickly conditions are changing for our recent tracks. I checked this area before deciding to use it. A few days ago, it looked fine, but today over the "running track" oval, it looked covered in ice. Upon closer inspection, it seemed "mushy" and so I considered it do-able. The rest was a combination of bare dead grass/dirt, hard-packed snow, gravel, cement and pavement. When I laid it, the track oval was almost running water, some floating ice, a little tricky to walk in. The article I left in there was under water. When we went back to put Blast on the track, we couldn't see just how much it had changed....a lot!

Our start was good, we were on a narrow strip of grass heading into snow. He was very interested in the drainage ditch along the first leg, and his first corner was in snow, no problem. Another leg and corner took us to the approach to the running track. The snow and ice leading to it had melted a lot. The running track is very black and was drawing the heat from the sun, with the rising temps. a fast melt. But...in we went...splash! splash! I let him "feel his way a bit" until he began to pickk up the track. The early section still had a little solid ice/sluch which must have been holding the scent.Ahead, I was beginning to see nothing but water and floating ice. Well...the track was laid, we will motor on, an article was somewhere out there, so I'd help him along...Did pretty well through here, we were about to hit the flowing water. Around this time a city truck arrived and as it turned out they were there to check the drainage (or lack of) from this spot.Blast has turned off the track here - look how deep the water is up his legs - and is scenting the run-off coming our way. I just gave him a bit of time, but no lead, and he shortly moved back to the area of the track.And then on to find the plastic article in the water. I let him dig at it a bit, before leaning down to pick it take it out.What a good boy he is. Once again, I'm amazed. I never would have planned to do this track here, had I known. However, it was a great training and learning experience and I'm always happy to have these opportunities. I think they are great confidence boosters for the handler and the dog, and unlikely to experience something like this in a test...but you can encounter bodies of water in low areas if there's been recent heavy downpours...so why not try and work it out in training?!!

And Blast had fun doing it, which all it really means to him!Bonus, was the temperature was warming up nicely, so that was also no issue. We move off the running track, across a narrow grass strip, snow, and onto a gravel road. Blast was the "lucky one" of the day having the unusual things happen on his track. While we were still on the running track, we saw about a dozen kids come down from a house way up to the right, out onto the road and over where an article was, and continue to walk over our track in front. Shortly after, they turned around and went back the way they came. I was hoping they didn't take my article, and wondered about all the new little feet all over our track and corner.Blast made a nice left turn on the gravel driveway and we head towards the corner and the article before it. (They were close, not legal in a test, but done occasionally in training - however I never expected the other issue with the kids in the same area!) The blue line shows the route the kids took, both ways. The red arrow points out the wood article. He paid no attention to all the kids when they were trooping on down, which delighted me. Above he is motoring on with no problems. Before we reach the corner, a car drove up in front and parked right over our track where we cross the road and turn on the cement walkway....So there's the car, and follows...the fellow also got out and walked over our track. Blast found his article seeming paying no attention to all the fresh footsteps. I'm looking for something special to give him for doing such hard work up to this point.

I've also circled a kids' mitt stuck in the snow which he ignored until after this point. He sniffed at it as we went past without much interest. So we cross the 'now very contaminated roadway'...No problem, he says, we'll just go in front and figure it out. At that point, two people show up in a side doorway which caught the attention of both of us. I remember thinking, please don't come this way...they didn't, he put his nose down, found the right turn and moved on past the car down the walk.Reaching this corner of the building, the wind and scent always whip around the corner. For some reason, (we've been here in the past) it's like a gust sucked around the corner even when not windy. Blast takes a whiff down that way and then will come back on the track.Hard to see, I've drawn a red line showing our track moving ahead, and the left turn shortly after we reach the grass which takes us over some snow and into the paved parking area.I wait, he is exactly in my footsteps crossing the snow.I love this picture. I would love this nose down posture all the time!!! Don't we all wish for that?! It always gives you such confidence when you see you dog working like this, however, that's a dream to get this all the time!There was a right turn near the other side and he is working nicely toward his final article, an old work glove.And there it is...he's alread begun to pick it up. I've been giving him old work gloves for his final article now and he starts to shred them right away, holding it down with his feet and ripping it apart. When I reach him, we will play tug for a bit and likely it will end up in the garbage after this!

So many unplanned and difficult things for Blast on this track, but he did so well, I couldn't be more happy with him!

Tank Tracks at Waterfront

Still cool, but a lovely day near the lakefront. I ran into a few areas I was kind of stuck at laying the track when I hit unexpected snowpiles, but was able to navigate around them. Combination of bare ground, ice, snow (hard packed to deep soft), paved drive, gravel parking area. Lots of changes, short and curved legs when I hit obstacles. Tanks' track was aged a little over an hour, with 4 articles, distractions were no issue with him.

We've just left the start, taking him in from an angle. Still frozen Lake Nipissing is in the background.Trying to place myself so I don't go flying head first, Tank is crossing a paved driveway and we head towards a long leg consisting of bare, dead grass, ice, snow. The old Chief Commanda in the background, permanently docked, which was made into a summer restaurant.Moving along at a good clip, Tank checks out a piece of garbage, about 2' left of his track. He quickly dismissed it. I'm standing just back from his corner.Veering off from the garbage, he went a bit left, all of a sudden he leaped and raced back to the track, making me wonder if I'd end up on my rear end. Luckily, he slowed down when he was on the track again. We are now heading up a hill.I gave Tank the metal article for his first one, just beyond the snow on the dead grass surface. He circled around it twice before indicating it, not too keen on metal so I made a point of having him briefly take it and gave him a treat after. As we headed into the gravel parking area, we passed a fish skin that a fisherman left behind from he cleaning his fish. Luckily I realized what it was when Tank sniffed at it in passing (I hadn't noticed it when I laid the track) and as soon as I said 'leave it', he focused back on the track. In this picture, he is nearing his left turn.He made the turn nicely and continues on to where I ran into a snow pile that was difficult to navigate through and over. We had to make another left turn and get through this on a little hill and a small bare area. He, of course, had no problem, just me!It was a good place to leave another article, for a pause, reward. I'm taking the plastic lid from him, no treat here just a big verbal reward and chest rub.I had to make a pretty quick turn after his article. We went down the hill and hit snow again, and turned right. The line is curved on the corner and we are moving into more snow again, which becomes fairly deep as we move through a narrow opening. Curving around behind one of the carousels, we leave the deeper snow behind and into a bare patch again, alongside the road for ways. An article is ahead, as we serpentine to the right. Tank has lifted his head here, he's either scented the wood article, or ??Article between his legs, he knows I'm fishing around for a treat this this time.We're on our final leg now and the last article, a sock, is behind the pine trees and near the large grey structure. Tank loves socks, he will happy when he gets there!Playing with the sock, throwing it up to catch, I can't believe how big he looks stretched out!!! We did a lot of pulling with the sock, and catching it. He carried his sock all the way back to the van, a long way to go...he was very pleased with himself and so was I!!

Emmas' Track Today

Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures of this track today, as the first part was on ice, and I had to keep looking where I was walking...

Emma is just off the start in this picture. Cool day down at the waterfront.Second leg, Emma has just gone over the curb and is heading into the parking area.They went over a snowpile and made a right turn to the second article.This was a very long leg, and mean Tascha laid this part of her track through pretty thick, heavy snow that tiny Emma had to navigate. Lucky that Emma is tough! Here she climbs a little hill, she's right on the track.This was a real rough area, the "ground" was really mucky and the track was on a slope. Emma just found her final article.Playtime! Emma loves her gloves so much, will chase and pull until the cows come home!Chasing her glove, she's kind of stuck momentarily in deep (for her!) snow..

Dogs Working Scent/Open Mouth & Licking

There was a small discussion a while back on one of the tracking lists about dogs that had their mouth open while tracking and questions from some people about why...Years ago, John Barnard (at a seminar) mentioned some dogs will lick the article or the track as they work. I had never seen this, but began to watch, out of curiousity, when I was working with Trust...still at TDX training at that time. Sure enough, I did see her lick articles at times. I don't think you would see this unless you were working close to the dog...or taking pictures.

Now, with pictures or videos that we often take of our dogs, you can sometimes 'pick up things' you would normally miss. Yesterday, I got these two pictures (Tascha was taking them) with Blast that show this very well. In the above picture, Blast has just licked the track (noticing Tascha as he raised his head).This photo was just after finding his first article and moving on. He often has his mouth open, and they definitely "suck in" scent this way into the roof of the mouth and into the olfactory system. The dog is not hot and panting, but sucking in scent. Interesting, isn't it?! And not all dogs do this. I've only seen Trust and now Blast, but it's hard to notice at the end of the line...

Blasts' Track - First of the Year!

Because these tracks were the first after a long winter layoff, we wanted to see how the dogs worked, and then work out our training plans. We were really happy when both Emma and Blast really showed no sign of 'being away' from tracking for so long. They were so enthused and both worked really well. Of course, we're still working on some types of snow, but perhaps this week it will be pretty much gone.

We began on a packed snowmobile route, so I could "stay on top" and not sink into the snow.Since the snowmobile route was serpentines in places, it was easy for me to follow and not try to do severe corners. Note Blasts' deep nose. We are moving around a large snow pile here, through a narrow area next to the roadway, approaching our first article, a sock.For Blast, an actual "stop" at an article is unusual, and hopefully a sign of things to come.Nearing a corner, and a bus stop, we had an audience on the bus for a couple of minutes. I often wonder what they think we are doing. Blast has lifted his head, scenting the turn before we reach it.This leg took us out onto the paved parking area. When I laid the track, this was all lightly snow covered..great, I could see my footprints and turns..when we did the track, aged under a half an hour, it had melted and was either slush or even running water. This changes things for the dog, of course, so it was very interesting. Blast is right on the corner here...now slush.And he did it great, a couple of feet ahead, and back turning right on the track, even with the change from snow to slush, and sitting and moving water.I had left the plastic article ON the snow and approaching it, wondered where the heck it was! No tire tracks, no people tracks, no article. Blast started to dig in the slush and astounded me, as the plastic lid was now in a stretch of watery slush!!! Hard to believe how fast the snow was melting, I am standing where the article was, a good 2' out from the snow is presently. Very happy with how Blast was working.We crossed the double driveway and up onto a bare spot where I turned left. He tightly circled a couple of times on the corner which is why I'm trying to hold the line up out of his way, and stomped on it here, then took off, over another driveway and up onto another bare spot.We made another tight left turn around the snow, on bare dead grass, and he's just found a wood articlel before the curb.After the wood article, we head out onto a large paved area, joining the different driveways, and in front of the main door. Again, when I laid the track, there was no water or slush. So scent is moving with running water rivulets and I just let Blast take his time to figure it out here before deciding which way the track is headed.Suddenly he turns right, over to the edge that is snow covered and will curve to the left following the edge of pavement/snow for a stretch alongside a fence.Blast works steadily along the stretch and will craoss the driveway, make a sharp right turn on the other side and find his glove near the corner of the next opening into a parking area.Lots of tugging with the old glove which saw its final day after this session, ending up in bits and pieces. This driveway, again, was snowy a little earlier and is now wet and you can see the pavement was almost covered in dirt spread on top of the ice. Nice conditions for tracking though. What a good time, had by all!