A Busy "Outing" for Kira Today!

In Northgate Square today, this little girl had been petting her, and shook her hand, but didn't want "the kiss!"These were three cute characters that learned the proper way to approach a dog before trying to pat it! Kira is very good, very patient with kids.There wasn't enough room for her to get in with Mickey in his golfcart. The mall experience today was excellent, met many people very interested in "what she was all about"....lots of questions, a good chance to 'inform' people about dogs. After we left the mall, we went to a nearby hotel and walked through it a bit. We both stood at the locked glass door to the vacant pool and wished we could inside. When we came out, I decided to meander over the Dionne Quints home next to the Chamber of Commerce and we wandered through there a bit.

Coming out, Kira spied two work gloves! She picked one up and headed over to the fellow weeding and gave it to him. Then she turns around and we head back to get the other one! He was most appreciative..ha.ha.ha. and got a nice kiss from her. She was amazingly good today, everywhere we went, everyone she met.Figured we'd had enough, getting very hot, and walked towards the van. A large transport truck pulled up in the front of the hotel, near the van...making all the noises these big trucks make. Decided to just walk over and have a look. She couldn't care less about the noise. The driver said we could look around the truck, so we did. Inspected steps, tire wells, etc. Tons of heat coming off it.Didn't see the tongue at the time, not sure what she would have been doing here.The driver had lowered a ramp to unload and thought we might be able to go up and inside. However, when I looked at it, it was spikey and sharp treads on it, and would have hurt her feet.On the drive home, thought we'd head into Callander, which is on the south side of Lake Nipissing. There's a boat ramp where dogs are allowed to go - Callander is a very dog-unfriendly town and doesn't allow them in any of their parks which are on the waterfront. Hmmm...they seem to allow Canada Geese and all the poop! Kira had a great time trying to swallow all the water while running through it.She was having a great time, totally soaked in no time.I hope she has no problems later with drinking so much of this water, maybe it wasn't as much as it appeared...A pause for the next attack while water drools out her mouth.Sometimes she looks so much like Blast. I had a long line on her as there were duck families in this area and didn't want her swimming off after them!

We had a great day. Crammed a lot into a few short hours.

Kira - A Bit of Search Work

I have been using small cotton pads to work with Kira recently. This way, they are identical in appearance, so nothing is a "better reward" for her to find. Above, she had just pulled out one that was hidding inside the folded sweater.These first four pictures were scented(by David) for approx. 10 minutes, and hidden for about 1/2 hr. before I took her in. She has just found one that was under the grey towel. These are completely hidden, she cannot "see" them to find them.She has just reached in behind the two cushions on the chair and is carefully pulling this article out.Ducking into this shelf, she finds one back on a metal weigh scale. The next three pictures were from the previous day, my scent on them, hidden for about 20 mins.The arrow is pointing to the article hidden under one of Tanks' pillows. She has just found it.Kira is carefully pulling this one out of the corner of the door frame.A tricky one here, it was completely inside the closed drawer, and exactly at this corner. Kira just loves this "game" that is preparing her for a future job.

Happy Canada Day!

Emma is visiting her grandma this weekend, and sent me this picture to say HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!

There is no other country in the world like Canada! We are so lucky to live here.

Blasts' Urban Track Sunday

Just off the start, laid in shade, still some moisture in this grassy area. You can see the track ahead of him, leading to the baseball diamond. Nice start, was getting hot fast, we had done Emmas' track first.A quick check to the left at the transition from grass to gravel/sand. There had also been people with 7 dogs out here earlier playing around, and fresh deer tracks across the baseball area.Blast had a corner on the gravel/sand and through puddle onto grass again towards his next corner. It had rained the night before, which was helpful with the heat.This is a very short leg to the next corner on the other side of the fence. This will be a narrow area for him, and one that Tascha saw all the dogs walking through.We then move through an open gate into the 'playground' area. He did appear to check a couple of places where the dogs likely had peed, but was very focused on the track.We move into the sand area under the swings. He cut this corner a little to the left but darn near nailed his turn.And out we go into a short grass/dirt type area again. Also, dogs were here about 45 mins. previously.Finally, his first article...between his legs...cloth glove. I'm "convincing" him to stop and lie down and giving him treats for this. He's so fast to indicate with a glance, I'm hoping for 'something' a little longer so it won't be missed by me, or a judge. At the same time, do not want to "practice" obedience on the track or kill the drive.We've moved on and I "expected" he would show an interest "into" the open gate, but he did not...such a good boy. And another article. This was a plastic lid, with a treat under it. He was digging at it, to flip it over, so that was pretty obvious. I did 'ask' for a down when I got up to him, which he did quite willingly and so got another treat! It's fast though, he doesn't want to stay, he wants to keep going, which is good!No problem moving directly onto the asphalt, he did dip his toes in a water puddle to the right, then continued right on to make his corner and move out nicely on the track. He's done very little urban work yet, I'm really pleased with him. He is working with great enthusiasm on the hard surface.The final article for Blast is just ahead, actually obscured by his topline. This is a great picture as it is clear he is ONLY using his nose here. The glove is completely in sight if he was lifting his head and "looking" for it. He was barely inches, at times, off this complete leg on the asphalt. I sure hope this ability continues with him.Again, I 'encouraged' him to stay a bit longer than a moment in time here. I put a few treats on the glove when he indicated it. But did not insist for long, most important was to play.Ready to spring for the glove! Nice shot, Tasha!Was actually trying to NOT let him jump up on the asphalt, but he's too fast for me!

So we had a good tug/out/tug session for while which is a huge reward for Blast, even if it darn near kills me!!!

Super "Emma" Track Today

I'm sorry I missed the first leg of this track, it was an extremely steep downhill right after the start, and there was a football right beside the track. Emma never even glanced at it, but it was at least 3x the size of her, so maybe she was hoping it was not alive! Above, Emma has just pulled Tascha around the first corner.Emma is checking out track on sand here, she shortly pounced back on the leg and off they went!Back up the hill, with the first article here, Emma indicated the cloth article nicely.And off again, having made another corner and she had no hesitation moving off this grassy area and onto the asphalt.You almost have to lean to the side walking across this area, it is so slanted. Can you believe it is part of a school playground? If you fall at the top, you just keep rolling on down!!! Emma worked nicely across here..helpful were cracks and bits of grass..and then the left corner coming up in shade.She's found another article crossing the gravel play area and made another turn. On her last leg now, she is picking up more speed (whole track was FAST!) towards the final article.No problem reaching the glove. What a great little urban tracker Emma is becoming.And this is what she really looks like...all ten pounds of her. She LOVES to track.

Tanks' Track Today

I had planned to do a relatively simple urban track for Tank, but after arriving at this location, it was more involved to get the non-veg. surfaces in there. This picture shows us on our first leg, and you can see 3 of 4 sand areas we used.The rain had started, but lightly for now, and we head towards the first sand area with a left turn in there.Tank is exactly where I stepped into the sand, you can see my footsteps in there quite clearly.He did nicely through here and I left his first article just 2' into the grass. He did not like the sand, though!Nice reward, and article pulled him through the sand.Crossing a grass surface, we head towards sand again, and a right turn, this time BEFORE the change to grass.Tank clearly wanted to leave the sand, his poor nose and mouth had sand all over, and he moved into the grass to make his right turn. I moved up closer to him to keep him working on the sand.Turning out onto grass and then back into the other sand area, he moved along here nicely, even with a sandy nose.I had lost the small leather article while laying the track, and he had just found it. What a good boy...I cleaned the sand off his mouth and nose here, as the article was on the turn (to the left) when he stopped.Shortly after was the plastic article I had placed.I dug in my pocket for a reward at this article as he had been working hard and clearly did not like working in the sand and snuffling it up his nose.Lots of quick changes in this area, grass to sand to dirt track to paved pathway.There is a turn here on paved path, and a lot of little puddles have built up also.From the turn previous, across grass again, back to pavement, over grass and into a gravel drive/park area. Raining pretty good now, he's working to the left of the track.

And he turns back to the corner.On his last leg, after turning the corner, he again worked to the left of this leg, and just turned back to it now. He's nearing the end.The final article is about 2 metres into the grass, happy boy. Tank did pretty well, much more difficult track than I was going to lay for him, and shortly after this it just poured. We had to move to another location for Blasts' track, which was mainly a very long gravel stretch. It rained so hard, we could not continue to take pictures on Blasts' track, or later, on Emmas'. Considering the conditions, and all 3 dogs pretty new to urban, we were very pleased with them, and all of us were completely drenched to drive home.