Saturday, October 18, 2008

I drove to Lowden park in Weaverville. I had not been to this park before, but I had driven past it and thought it would be a good spot to lay a track. It is a large park that borders on a couple of schools.

At 5 PM I parked in the parking lot and walked Scout away from the car and walked the border of the park, through a fenced in ball park diamond that was covered in straw. Half way through the baseball diamond I made a right turn to walk toward another gate that led out of the diamond. I marked the turn with a line in the dirt. I walked out of the gate, up a small hill to another small building. We walked through the field toward a paved walk way. On the path, we made a right turn. We walked down the path toward the child’s playground. There was a small, square shaped decorative building with open sides that we walked through which opened out to the playground. We walked around the play structures and back out in the same area as the previous paved path. There was a big field in front of us with another baseball diamond. I couldn’t see how to enter the field or where it existed. I avoided going through diamond because I couldn’t see how to get out. I wanted to avoid getting stuck and having to double back. I walked the outside perimeter of the diamond, through a construction site with nobody. From there we walked down a dirt road which led out to the parking lot and back to the car. I put Scout back into the car and rubbed her down with the scent pad.

I took Dino out, put on his harness with his long line, got his treat bag with clicker and his rawhide reward toy. I walked him toward the direction of the trail with Scout, but we didn’t go near it yet. I found another way into the park nearby and started the track from there. I showed Dino the scent pad, said “take scent” and “search.” He immediately put his head down to find the track. The area was thick uncut grass. He was a bit distracted at first. He peed and pooped. I said “search.” He started again. He overshot the next right turn. I stopped at the turn, but didn’t say anything. He stopped to look at me. I said “search” as he checked both directions in front of him. He wanted to go to his left. I stopped the leash. He looked back at me. He came back to me and sat in front of me, not knowing which way to go. I said “check” as I pointed right in front of me. He put his head down and was sniffing around. He then got the direction and kept going.

He kept going along the trail as it went over old tree stumps, around a small building and between trees even with a dog barking at him from the other side of a fence outside the park that was loose. I yelled to the owner to get this dog. He called the dog back. Dino got the next right turn into the baseball diamond and through the gate. He got the straight line across the field. He overshot the next right turn and wanted to go through the gate in front of him. I stopped him with the leash, saying nothing. He came back to me. I said “search” as he went around in different directions. We went back the way we came for about 10 feet, then headed back to the line in field I made. I found the line I drew with my shoe. He was digging at it briefly, acknowledging it even though I had not shown it to him. I said “check” as I pointed to the ground. He turned toward the right, which was the correct direction, but stood still. Again, I said “check.” He sniffed again, then slowly headed to the right. I clicked and treated.

He headed strongly through the diamond field, through the gate, up the little hill and along side a small building, through the small field to the paved path. He got the right turn on the path and kept going along the path. Here I clicked and treated. Along the way, I would practice having him “check” certain area. He seemed to also do this on his own by checking spots here and there and then coming back to the trail. He got the right turn into the small, concrete covered building. He was bouncing up and down on the concrete seats as he got closer to the opening which led to the playground.

When I laid the track earlier, the entire park was almost empty. I didn’t think there would be a problem laying the track in a playground. However, when I came back with Dino, there were several kids and parents. The kids were all yelling and screaming. One came up to Dino, and I had to tell him that the dog was working and couldn’t play right now. He understood and went back to his friends repeating what I had said. I was surprised how focused Dino remained on the track since he adores kids. He followed the track around the play structures and back out. There was a man sitting on bench on the perimeter of the playground and Dino raced over to him. I told the man what I was doing. Dino got totally distracted by this and stopped. I had to show him the scent pad again and say “check” to the ground. After a couple of attempts, he was on the track again.

He followed it around the perimeter of the other baseball diamond, through the construction site and down the dirt road and back to the car without a single hitch or miss of a turn. I could see him “checking” spots along the way. He did get a bit distracted when he saw a cat run across the road as we were nearing the parking lot with my car. I told him we weren’t searching for cats right now and told him to “search.”

We got back to the car, and I let him eat out of the treat bag and played with his rawhide for several minutes.

I was very happy with this because, after laying it, I realized how difficult it would be. When Dino started the track it was 45 minutes old, which is a bit below his previous time, which has been about an a hour. I didn’t want to push to hard because I realized how difficult the track was after I laid it. He did a lot better than I thought. I am confused why he gets certain turns and not others. It must be the surface and possible other smells in the area, or maybe his concentration at the time. Not sure.