I laid a track last week at a church. It was Friday evening and there were only three cars in the parking lot when I laid it. Of course, when I came back to run it, there were 100 cars in the lot (including parked on Devon's track) and I could tell a kids program was just letting out.
Devon did a great job of ignoring the people and tracking. One woman was watching her intently, and I smiled at her. She said, "Is your dog working?" I said, "Yes ... but would you like to pet her?" This nice woman broke out in a huge grin and said that yes she really would! She said she'd be right back, so I pulled Devon off the track. I figured she was going back to get the boy she walked out with, but she was just transferring some stuff into another car. She raced back and crouched down and got the full Devon therapy dog treatment. She told me she had lost her two Malamutes in the last year and was now dog-less and missed her dogs so much. Devon knew it, and really helped her out!
When she was done with her pets, I got Devon back to the track and told her "track." I wasn't expecting much, especially since we were in the middle of the parking lot and a long series of non-veg tracking across asphalt, mulch and gravel and we were right where all the people were getting into their cars that were parked on Devon's track. To my delight, Devon picked up her track and tracked like a star across the lot to her glove. It was almost like she knew all those people were watching her and she wanted to show them how brilliant she was!
On Sunday, we tracked at a school. My dad came along to be the gallery. Devon was tracking strong, and once again there were kids on the playground. Usually I call out and tell the parents what I'm doing so they won't worry. I didn't even get the chance before a dad said to his kids, "hey there's a dog let's go pet it." Notice this was a dad ... I wonder what mom would have said.
Two parents and three kids later with my dad grinning behind us, I asked Devon if she was going to track. She immediately got back to work, tracking right around one little boy through the rubber tire mulch.
On her way out of the playground, I had tucked a metal article under a bush. She turned and gave the exact spot a thorough sniffing and finally tracked on. I didn't react because Devon has outstanding article indications and retrieves. Yep, there was no article there. Someone had taken our article, but Devon did a fantastic job of indicating it had been there. This would have passed any VST, I'm sure!
Devon's track Wednesday was very nice until she got to her first MOT. It wasn't marked with chalk but was marked with hand prints in water. It was aged 3.5 hours. Unfortunately she really struggled in spite of several water breaks and rescenting. I finally showed her the turn, and she tracked strong on the new leg. She also got the second MOT in the lot with no problem. You can tell tonight's track will be more MOT work!
No comments:
Post a Comment