UTDX track - Blustery day

This track was done in North Bay on Friday, April 9th. After gorgeous "hot" weather, this was blowing and blizzardy at times. It's often hard to see the "perspective" on maps or google earth with these tracks; so hope this gives you an idea. Trust just moved off the scent pad above. The blue arrow on the left points to an open pavilion way over in another area where we were about 1/2 way along the track. The middle arrow is the arena out by the street where we tracked behind. The arrow on the right is the building we moved out behind and around, ending the track.

This is the first of 3 bridges we crossed. We are on the 2nd leg here, after going through a sandy area with playground equipment. There was a plastic article in the send, we were upwind and totally missed it! Interesting, Trust had NO problems at any of the bridge crossings.

Coming off the 2nd bridge, crossing gravel, asphalt walkway, into grass - over near the previously mentioned pavilion. Very open here and winds were horrendous. She nailed the corner, but had a hard time getting going on the next leg. I figured it was the strong winds, but also found (after) a truck had been driving around this area - see next 2 photo descriptions!

She finally got the direction to go, crossing another gravel area and heading towards the large playing field. We were on our fifth leg here.

Almost the same spot as the previous photo above. I am rewarding Trust here as she has indicated another plastic article. It was totally smashed to bits, with big tire marks over this are

We've now moved out along the side of the field. She shortly moves up towards the track (she is left of it here) and will search out the corner, a right turn onto leg six.

You can see some snow flurries in this picture; she is almost at the corner here. In both this picture and the one below, the line appears slack due to the strong wind blowing it. It was impossible to keep an even tension on the line.

Trust is tracking strongly into the wind here, and I can't keep my jacket hood on!

Sock article here, she nailed this one, I'm picking it up. She's anxious to get going again....

We move off the grass, over a running track where a lady just ran past while we waited, and out into the gravel parking area for the arena. Not far ahead is a right turn down a very long stretch of gravel driveway until it changes to paved parking near the end.

This building to the left was shown in the first photo, and the building way ahead of us (here)was the one shown on the right in the first photo. This was a long, long leg (7th) on gravel. Up near the end, past the building, was a metal article. Again, she was tracking upwind, had come out of any protection when passing the building, and completely missed it. I was watching her body language closely, and not even looking for articles (dumb!) but she was working so well, I was very happy with that.

We have moved off the parking area and followed a curved pathway which goes around this building (the far right one in the first photo). I guess this would be a 'curvey' leg 8. It made a couple of curves to both the left and right as we moved around it. We then crossed another bike/walkway before coming to the final bridge crossing. She was still working really nicely.

No hesitation, right up and over the bridge, two ladies passed us on the bridge, and we waited for a fellow on a bike to go on. I knew she had missed articles, but was happy with her enthusiasm. Conditons were awful with the high winds, some areas were very tricky, and it was aged over 3 hrs. Of course, if it had been a test, we would have failed for missing articles!

Curious: The one article driven over - but she indicated - was smashed so much, & driven into the dirt, I didn't even consider trying to pick up all the tiny pieces - would I have if it had been a test?????

The track curved slightly to left to the article pointed out with the blue arrow. I stopped at the base of the bridge. She had been scurrying along over the bridge, and had to stop and turn toward the scent from the article.

What a great girl!!!! It was hard work, this track. The final article is a piece of white leather which looked like another "letter" of the 'Keep Right' sign painted on the bike/walk way. Of course, we came right through the middle!!!!

Carmspack Trust CD RN HIT TDX UTD Pet Therapy Dog

The above photo was Trust moving out on her first leg of her Urban Tracking Dog test in Ottawa.
We are presently training for the Urban Tracking Dog Excellent title. This is a tremendous amount of work and time and a constant learning process, mainly for the handler!

A few years back we attended a Herding Instinct Test, which she passed. Trust had never seen sheep previously, and the instant she was brought to the fenceline, she perked right up. I couldn't believe "that instinct" was still so strong in her and she just "took over" the sheep when she was placed in with them. It was amazing to see. She was also very kind with them. Unfortunately, it wasn't something we could continue here, as I was not about to "get into sheep farming"....

Trust has always been a "pretty serious girl" and always was reluctant to "play" much. For this reason, I wanted to see what she'd do with Agility, just for fun, and to my amazement once again, she loved it. You could see a smile on her face when she finished her run. We continued to just do "fungility" when time allowed, sometimes as a reward after a track.

Trust has also done pet therapy work, but is not doing it on a regular basis now. Being a German Shepherd, it is too bad, but some people are nervous of them. Trust loves to visit and is, without doubt, the most suitable and friendly of all our dogs.

We are concentrating on UTDX training this year, it is very time consuming and demandng work, for both of us, and amazing to see what our dogs are capable of.

Mourning Doves

I love the mourning doves. They are so soft-looking and their "cooing" voice is so soothing. I took a series of pictures, and discovered something new. When they blink, the light blue rim around their eyes is a blue eyelid that closes over the eye. You can see this in the top picture.
It's really neat. At first I though something was wrong with this one, but other pictures show the same thing. This pair has been here for about a week, so we hope to see young ones later on.

The purple finch (which are red) and goldfinch and woodcocks are back now also. The grouse comes every late afternoon to feed, and I've watched her take the same route through the bush each night. I'm sure she has a nearby nest in the forest and just hope the raccoons don't find it this year....

Buddies.....???

Nope! Just opportunists!! This is about as close to "friendly" as it gets. A moment later, the nasty little red squirrel ran at the grouse's head and kept going.....
The grouse didn't even know what 'hit' him...and immediately went back to scrounging for seed under the feeder. The squirrel returned to it's "spot".

Same Place 3 wks.later - No Snow!

We're so happy to have the snow gone, and able to get into areas we've not been able to for so long, but now we're crying for rain. There's been none, barely anything turning green yet, and the fire hazard is becoming high. But.....we can get out tracking again in real urban settings.....
This was our second leg with a sock (article) at the change from gravel to (sort of) grass. Trust had made a few 'circles' in the gravel as it was full of footprints - human, dog and deer.

We have now made our third corner, out behind the baseball diamond, moving up the fourth leg. The arrow points to her second article, a plastic light switch cover.

As you can see by her line, and the orange track line, she travelled a few feet left of the track, but zeroed in on the article.

This was a long fourth leg and took us through a gate opening towards the playground. After the track was laid, a truck had driven up, and a few kids got out to play on the swings and other equipment. The truck had parked over our track, but as the track was aged for over 3 hrs. they were long gone. Of course, you never know what has been there while you're away waiting for the track to age! A number of local people walk their dogs here, so that's a certainty.

Trust had a corner shortly after crossing into the sand, and had no problem there. She's on her fifth leg now, the sand was a short transition.

She's moved out and across the gravel drive area. She was drawn over to the ditch at the right, but has picked up the scent of the wood article and is moving back towards the track now. This leg heads out to the paved driveway into the parking lot where there is the MOT turn.

Trust actually made her turn well past the corner, while watching some people come out of the arena. She's now moving back to the actual track. I forgot to add wind direction on any pictures, but it is coming almost towards her right now, although light.

She moved up the leg, almost the whole length, over to the left. Of course, the open door of the 'container' drew her over to check it out, but she quickly came back. Just ahead of the truck coming towards us (I wasn't moving!), is a metal article that she moved over and indicated.

We are now up past the end of the arena, on the right, and just in front of the library (see previous picture). She has done well on this leg, found the turn pretty much right on, and is nearing her final article, a small square of leather. The track had a total of 9 legs.

I should mention, there were three separate areas along the track, with galvanized fencing near it. In each case, she left the track to check the fence (scent) and then moved back to the track.

Trust takes her usual pose at the final article..."here it is, give me something, let's go back to the van attitude"...

Blast Field Tracking

This is Blast, right off the scent pad, nose down and determined. It was a very windy afternoon, and we thought the dogs might have problems in this location on short, dead grass, but they worked really well. Originally, the plan here was strictly for motivational tracks.

I like to work "close" to the dogs, to see exactly what they are doing. Do you know some dogs will actually lick the track at times? I learned this from the Barnards several years ago and had never seen it until I began to work (in training) closer to the dogs - sure enough, it is true. I will work "up and down" the line, depending on what the dog is doing on the track. As you can see below, I'm near the end as Blast is running along a straight leg right here, exactly on the track.

This is one of the few pictures where his nose is a few inches off the ground. He's moving quickly and knows exactly where the track is. Below he went past the corner with the wind, and has just circled back and found it.

....and off we go again....

Blast had five legs and four corners on this track, aged about 40 minutes. It was a long TD type track. He indicated his article clearly, picked it up, and we had a few tugs and tosses with it. A very enjoyable afternoon, just hope we will soon have some real grass!

Emmas' Field Track Today

We decided to give Emma a completely vegetated track today, as a break and fun from the urban tracking she's been doing. As you can see, we still have no new grass yet, everything is still dead and brown. However, it was 'different' and she did great!

And it was sure "worthwhile" for Emma as she got a bunch of little chicken pieces from Tascha at the end of the track!

Emma just loves to run around with her article when the track is completed.