Uh-oh! A 'surprise' on Blasts' track

Thursday morning, this field was criss-crossed with tracks from a tractor that had removed all the round hay bales the previous day. I wasn't too concerned about that, it would be interesting to see if, and how much, attention Blast might pay to these. However, there was more of a distraction on his last leg. When I laid the track, shortly after the last and fourth corner, I came upon the remains of a leg of a freshly killed deer. It was no more than 2' beside the track. I could not just "stop" or veer off either. So, this became a totally unexpected "training opportunity". What would Blast do, and how to handle it?!
Blast has just turned on his first corner, onto the second leg here. The 2 red arrows point out the track which is quiet visible before the corner.

I took sooooo many pictures on this track, but since both of us were often running along it, most of them are complete blurs. Usually, the corners are a little 'calmer' so most pictures are there.

Here, he has made his second corner onto the third leg. This turn and the leg run up the centre between tire tracks. The third corner actually is centred in a crossing of four tire tracks. He worked this a bit but really had no problem.

Above, on his fourth leg, with multi track crossings; this is also where he seemed to pick up the 'scent' of where I think the deer leg had been dragged or perhaps even was brought down. He did veer off a couple of times, and had his nose buried in the ground, but a couple of verbal cues brought him back to the track.

Whoa! What's this?! Blasts' hind legs are ON the track, and he's just stepping over to his discovery. What a reward this could be! Knowing it was coming, I had moved up very close behind him, and I was holding tight, letting him smell it, but I definitely did not want him to lick or grab at it, and did not want him staying there getting overly stimulated. This was just too exciting for a "Leave It!" command at that time to actually "work".

I just held my ground, I did give him a little tug while telling him to leave it and repeated his find command more than once. The instant he started to move off, I praised him, told him to find again, and reluctantly, I think, he moved on. He did pause a couple of times to glance back, ever wishful, but shortly picked up his speed again on the track. I was very happy with this.

You can imagine how tough this must be for a dog.

The deer leg forgotten, he had rushed along this leg to the article. What a good guy!

I had thought, dare I let him loose to play with the article? It appeared to have been forgotten after the article was found, and we spent a few minutes doing a number of throws and tugs. I was just careful not to throw back in that direction.

You just never know what you may encounter on these field tracks!!!!!

Blast gets the pretty field!

One thing I wanted to accomplish today with Blast was to work on distractions. This has always been "an issue" at times. Today, having both Rosemary and Tascha out, I thought I'd have Rosemary follow very closely behind us, while Tascha was walking on the road taking pictures....so there was someone close behind and another further away. Plus Tascha was the "official photographer" today! The other goal was that Rosemary laid the track, so this was a "stranger" for him, as a tracklayer. Blasts' track was just over 30 mins. aged, a mixed alfalfa/clover field, five legs, four corners. Wind was pretty strong when all the tracks were laid. He is just turning a corner in the above photo. He only glanced back a couple of times at Rosemary, so I was pleased with this.

We are moving out on the fourth leg here. Isn't the background spectacular? The far hill, the tallest in our township, is called Bear Mountain (but really just a very tall hill).

Moving close to the article now, he has me running along behind, not by (my) choice, I'm really putting a lot of tension on the line.

Pleased as punch, looking at our "photographer" while he stands over his glove.

A Short TDX for Emma Today

This is Emma's first article which was on a long second leg. Of course, she wanted to play with it!

It was also nearly impossible to get pictures of Emma on her track...she had seven legs and six corners, a road crossing, 3 changes of veg. as well, 3 articles and a "surprise" cross track ( on her last two legs) which Tascha didn't know was in there!!! I'm so mean!!!

Absolutely no hesitation, climbing out of the field and over the road. Emma just loves it all!

Her track was aged two hours, it was quite hot by the time she began.

She is almost at her final article, a square of leather. Her first two articles were leather gloves. Even with the heat, she did not seem at all worn out. They both did great.

Reese and Rosemary Tracking Today

Just moving out from the start. Unfortunately, I got very few pictures of Rosemary and Reese working as Reese was buried in the ground cover almost all the way.

Yes, there really is a dog at the end of the line! Reese and Rosemary have just turned onto their fourth leg. Very nice line handling by Rosemary.Lying on her article and waiting for her treat. Nice job! Hot morning, got out very early for three tracks. This was a long TD track with five legs, four corners.

Blasts' Turn to Track Today

This was the field we were tracking in today. You can just barely see Wasi lake behind the field, with the hills on the other side of the lake. A beautiful day, but very windy, winds were 24 km gusting to 35 from the west. Field was mixed growth, averaging 6" high. I had two places I had to dodge groundhog holes, on leg one and leg two, wondering what Blast would do.

Aged his track 40 mins. He's out on the first leg. With the wind whipping over the little hill, I expected he may be a little off-track, but he was dead on, working quickly. We've already gone through one set of groundhog holes, and he barely stuck his nose in one, continuing on. The yellow arrows are the wind, and the light ones mark the next set of groundhog holes, immediately following the first corner. Again, little interest, surprising to me.

He just turned perfectly on his second corner, an open one, just before the yellow flowers. Legs 3, 4 and 5 are marked here, but perspective is quite off.

His last corner was also very good, with the winds, I was surprised (pleasantly) how well he was working the track. There were other assorted holes as we went also, not sure what they were.

You can see the dust blown up on the road just behind the bush.

And there's the glove. This track had six legs, five corners, and length was beyond a TD. He did very well, I was very happy with how he was working. We played with a ball on a rope for a bit as well as the glove.

Rained out so Heritage Carousel...

On Wednesday, I laid a great track for Trust at the waterfront in North Bay. It is a busy place, walkers, bikers, dog, and summer folk right now. There were 5 articles, 8 long legs and a really nice mix. Aging was exactly 3 hr., and there was a steady breeze off Lake Nipissing. Well, once again, after the long, hot stretch, it decided to rain a little before we started the track. On the first leg it began to pour. I was not expecting rain, not dressed for it, and totally soaked in no time. As well, it was running off my head, down my nose, and if facing the wind, I couldn't keep my eyes open. She did "pretty good".....I think!!! We never found one article, not sure if it was removed, blown off, or we just plain missed it. So....no pictures of her track.
However, while it aged, I watched the Heritage Carousel for a while - it is truly amazing and beautiful. The workings are really antique and restored, the horses, etc, have all been hand carved and painted by local artists - all volunteer. After this one was finished, they started a smaller one with all northern Ontario animals instead of horses.

Each horse is named, and modelled after "old" ones, and each has a story. A heritage railway is also set up behind the two carousels for rides. A wonderful spot for locals and tourists. Tickets are only $5. for 3 rides on your choice of any of them. If you're interested in finding out more:

www.heritagetrainandcarousel.weebly.com

The Monarchs are Migrating...

Early in the year we heard a story about the thousands and thousands of Monarch Butterflies that were dying due to cold and rain in Mexico. We knew we might not see many this year. Any normal year, they are flitting around on our garden flowers and weed flowers in the field. How sad to think they may be missing this year. And, although we saw some, not very many were spotted until this past week. Apparently they are migrating now, and our field full of goldenrod seems a favorite stop to load up on nutrients before their long flight south.

How something so fragile and delicate can travel the distances they do is another of natures' wonder. I hope their journey this year will be kind to them.