Trust - May 24th - 1st laid, second on

So, this is the second track of the day, and the one aged longer. Both were less than the required minimum time in a trial (3 hr.) as the heat/humidity/dryness is just too tough to be working these dogs in. This is not "life and death" it is a sport. So Trusts' first track was aged just under 1 1/2 hr. and this one was just over 2 hr. Each is very different, this one has some shady areas, but more pavement. I had two people come over to talk to us in this track, and poor Trust got a bad deer fly bit on the top of her nose near the end of this track. By the time I saw it, it had already bit her just before I squashed it.
Van parked over here, we started in shade under tree, crossed parking lot/driveway (person parked right on the track to talk!) and then sun dappled shady grass, over driveway, into treed spot with sparse grass and pine cones. I'm standing at her first turn looking back to take this.

Her first article is just ahead between some of the trees, she's obvioiusly found something worth smelling by this rock.

We turned from the grass into a sandy parking area. Just before I took this picture a fellow was rushing up behind us to stop us and tell us there is a loose dog that lives there...just so I'd know.

I appreciated that, I've seen this particular dog, it seems harmless, old and slow, but you never know.

She's found her second article and will be making her MOT turn further up on the pavement.

Trust worked nicely along the paved parking area, her turn was close to dead on, and out the driveway which turns to gravel. The arrow points to a wood article. She had moved over to the grass before this, but zeroed right in on the article.

I've laid the track off to the left, behind a stip of grass that was not cut when I laid the track. I'm not really sure here why she was tracking all along on the right side of the road. It didn't make sense to me with the light breeze here why she didn't once head over to the left, but seemed to know exactly where she was going??? I did wonder if she was pooped by this time and just had enough. However, at the "right place" she turned right and headed into the grass to the final article. Just one of those puzzles...

And here she is at her final article. You can clearly see the bump on top of the poor girls' nose.

We had a nice walk back to the van, through a lot of shade; she didn't seem worn out at all, but it was hot by this time. I had given her water at every article, by the way, and wiped her face down. I would have stopped had I thought she was in any distress at all, and would not work any later in the morning in the heat.

All burning up here has been banned and the long weekend just past, all fireworks were also banned. I really can't remember such a long spell of hot and dry weather, and we badly need rain.

Trust/May 24 - 2nd laid and on first

I've not done this before, but decided to do 2 shorter tracks, shorter aged, instead of one long regular one. We've still had no rain here, but heard the area I had planned to work in received about 10 minutes worth in the morning....so off we went. It was still going to get very hot and humid again. It's been almost impossible to work in the conditions recently, but felt doing it this way, it might be a little easier, more fun and motivational for Trust. And we could take a break between the two tracks; they were in different locations.
She is on her first leg here. The grass on this side of the fence was cut the day before; the workers are picking it up on the other side. Social butterfly that she is, she was probably hoping they would come over and say hello.

Trust found her first article (sock) halfway between her first and second corner. She chose to work alongside a ditch (wet spot) on the left so was not working right on the track. However, she moved up to her corner and this leg goes up to the gravel road.

She is turning onto the road, and this time chooses to move to the right working mainly on the grass. She curved around straight to her article (plastic) before the track moves into deeper grass.

Indicating her article and looking for her praise and treat from mom.

She's crossed into the scrubby, taller grass, made a left turn and is right on the track. Look at the beautiful view to the south, just love those hills (double click to enlarge picture). She will make another left turn, cross gravel driveway(s), turning right, will track up beside building (upper left corner of this pic.) and then turn left again on the gravel.

I had left a little treat here for her at the change from (easy) damp, tall grass to dry, hot gravel.

This is not a clear picture, but didn't take another for a longish stretch as we were talking to one of the fellows raking up grass. The blue arrows in the background show where we on our first leg and the van over by the start. This is a long section on gravel, continuing past the right side of the picture.

Trust had a left turn in the middle of the driveway, and then chose again to work alongside the grass all the way up to the next corner.

Usually she "looks" for the van - her favorite place - and I fully expected her to want to continue on towards it, here. She surprised me...turned from the grass and headed straight over to the final article.

And there it is, her glove near the edge of the grass. She did very well; this was the shortest aged of the two tracks, the idea being not overly difficult for her, she seemed to enjoy it. So then we were off to the next track.

May 21st..Back to Tracking..

It has been terribly hot for a few days, and today was no exception. Normally, I would not plan to track on really hot days, especially in urban tracking. The asphalt gets very hot, very fast, and will disperse quicker than a cooler, or damp day. My dogs' welfare comes first. So the only way to work around the heat is to get out as early as possible in the morning, and not age the tracks as long. Trust is an alternate in an upcoming UTDX trial, so we need to find days that we can work...just in case...
She is on her first leg, approaching the first corner. Scent will be slightly different moving from shade to sun. She moved out fairly strongly, and was right on her corner when she turned left.

Her first and second leg was working around a building, lots of people take shortcuts across the grass to various entrances. Trust has easily found her wood article on the second leg, it was still cool under the trees here...nice for sitting...

She will continue out onto the parking area in a curve, as I was avoiding all the painted lines. The track goes way back behnd 3 double rows of parked cars before turning left. I was surprised (and pleased) how well she did here. There were two articles in the parking area and it was a very long stretch of asphalt with one turn.

The first article (2nd of track) I had thought may be missing...it was an old Tim Hortons' card still right on the crack I left it, only 10' from parked vehicles.

She made a left turn after the Timmies' card and we are almost 1/2 across the parking lot here.

She has already found her third article, a sock, and is moving strongly.

Originally, I planned to make another turn on the asphalt, but it was already hot when I laid the track, and decided to go over to the grass before turning. I expected the fence to suck in the scent but she stayed right on the track down to the end of the grass. Another article, plastic, was placed a little ahead of the driveway.

She was drawn a little around the grass beside the driveway and after checking the air, turned back toward the track. I purposely laid the track between the cracks, not on them, as I had already used cracks in previous areas. She will move up onto grass again, across a sidewalk, more grass, and a turn to the right, over the driveway, and over onto grass again.

Another left turn on the grass and we head towards a busy road crossing. We are approaching a ditch first, unfortunately full of garbage and a bit of a steep climb out. She loves working through these areas, and just plowed through. I move up close to tell her to 'wait' at the road after she has determined where the track crosses.

We have crossed the road, moved onto a scrubby grass aread, then crossed a driveway and are up on a freshly cut area of grass. When I was laying the track, I noticed two trucks with trailers and lawn equipment parked near the building...figured they were going to be cutting. After I finished the track and walked back for my van, I drove over to talk to the workers. One had been wondering what I was doing, so explained where I left two articles, neither on grass and made sure they weren't putting anything on the grass. Knowing that when I returned with Trust, the grass would all be freshly cut was another unplanned obstacle for her. She had no trouble with it at all.

I have to admit, once again, she surprised me here. She was right on the track and the corner the whole distance.

Trust had made her turn, and I'm still on the previous leg, as you can see by the line, waiting for her to move out on the pavement and commit before I move forward.

Once again, I avoided walking on all the lines when I laid this track. I stepped over them when I had to cross them. She really seemed to do much better than when I was walking on the lines, which I had thought, previously, was a good idea. I left a metal article at the end of one line. It wasn't on it, but looked like it was part of it, so it wasn't easy to see. The blue arrows in this picture are pointing out the lawn equipment guys.

And here she has indicated it. She had been moving a little to the left of it, and suddenly turned and swung right to it. It was like "Wow! Look at this!!!"

From that article we moved up onto a grass island, off it onto pavement, then up onto another grass island. The final article was on the other side of the the second island. I had planned to leave it on grass, but after seeing the lawn guys there, knew I couldn't do that.

For whatever reason, Trust moved along the curbs instead of on the grass, but headed right to the final article fairly easily. What the difference was between these freshly cut grassy islands, and the first stretch of grass freshly cut, I'm not really sure.

But you never know what happens while you're aging these tracks; today it was just over 2 hr. because of the heat, but I know there was a lot of "action" there with the lawn crew. There were also bags of garbage, so I assume someone was walking around picking that up as well.

I thought Trust did great today and she was really happy working this track. Some days she just surprises me, and when I think it will be a tough one, it isn't, and when I lay one that should be a breeze for her, she finds it difficult or stands and watches clouds change shape...who knows!

A Golden Winged Warbler

I'm afraid the quality of this photo is poor, but I'll likely never have an opportunity to take a picture of this bird species again. This is a male Golden Winged Warbler, apparently a species at risk not only in Ontario, but the world. I sent a couple of photos to our local bird expert in this region, Mr. Parker, who confirmed the identification. As he noted, it is one of the most spectacular warblers in our area. This little fellow hit our window tonight and I was sure it would be dead or seriously injured. Luckily, it was not. I brought it in to put in our "rescue bird box" to recover, and when I later peeked in, it flew out. It flew directly onto a screen window and I quickly got a picture while it just peered about. I was able to catch it quickly and we went outside and released it, happily flying off into the trees. He was only about 4" and the songs from the warblers in the forest are magnificent.

Black Flies in Northern Ontario

We wait for lovely weather to enjoy all the outdoor activities we've missed for months. For anyone reading this blog that is not from Northern Ontario, you might be lucky enough to NOT know about blackflies. Teeny, tiny, little voracious insects that come out in May and must think they are related to vampires. They get in your hair, eyes, ears, inside your clothes and all the nether regions of your dogs. Depending on the weather, they may last from two to four weeks, and vary greatly from year to year in low to high numbers. You never know when to go out or stay inside. They can be almost non-existent one minute and ravage you five minutes later.
Gardening is really difficult, as are any dog activites. Each time the dogs come back inside, I have to run my fngers all over them and out the little 'buggers' fly. They then go into the windows and I squish them with a kleenex. This leaves blood all over the windows. We were told by an "expert" that they wouldn't be bad this year as it's been so dry....so far, the expert is wrong!

Giant Insect or Strange Dude?

Can you imagine?!! I was driving home from North Bay, on the highway, and waaay up ahead saw what looked like a kite with someone hanging on to it gliding over the highway coming off Lake Nipissing. It veered towards Callander, and I decided to follow, thinking there was a serious problem here! It was low, flying over town and hydro wires and then turned out over the lake again. It "folded" and looked like it was coming down, but re-opened and turned back as I was pulling to the side of the road. I got out with my camera, and snapped this as he was about to cross right over me. You could hear a buzzing sound, and I guess he controls the direction by his arms. No idea how he lands. Too weird. Must be the long weekend.......

May 18th - Tracking with Blast

We're in a hot spell this week, way hotter than Southern Ontario, and we have black flies mixed in. Nice combination....not. However, early morning had damp grass so it was a good time to get out. This track is beyond a TD type track, has some TDX work mixed in. As well, I wanted to work on better focus on the track from Blast, as well as not racing off the start, so I did a few serpentines with turkey on them. Serpentines are great to throw in for a dog lifting its head or moving too fast....sure gets the nose down and working.
In this photo, he is in his last serpentine on the first leg, had shot past a food drop, and turned back to get it. Ideally, don't want this either, but a couple were buried in high or thick clumps of grass. Not a problem.

He's now moving at a nice pace on the straight track, with a deep nose, towards a cover change.

There was no hesitation or searching at the edge and he went right through on the track. Most dogs find these areas fun, but some find the transition difficult until they learn to work them out.

He has just come out of the bushy area, and is into shorter grass here. Shortly ahead, there's a lot of 'mossy' area which has a different scent. And then his first corner.

He has just reached his first article, a sock, and is investigating.

He sat on his own, I went up and put some turkey on top and he immediately lay down with the sock between his legs.

Normally, he just stands at his article, or picks it up. Either is fine for CKC, but I'd like a down, if it doesn't cause a problem. He easily starts again, with me just saying "Find" after being told what a good dog he is!

We've made three more corners, worked through an area of beaver grass in mushy ground, and crossed a 4-wheeler track. He's just turned his last corner and is picking up speed towards his final article, an old work glove. You can barely see a blue arrow pointing to his tongue here - not a panting tongue, but "tasting" the scent.

And here he is 'down' on his article. Again, I went up and fed him some turkey, dropped a little on the glove and praised him.

We spent some time playing with the glove and also a double ball rope toy I had hidden in my pants - this time the tongue was panting! I achieved my goals for this track, and we both had a good time!