We worked a trail 22 hours old, at 12:30 on Sunday afternoon. The trail had been laid with the target dog, Abby, plus two extra dogs and an extra person, I think, for sixteen feet all together. So, Kelsy was actually following a pack, not just one dog and a handler. The trail was 2.43 miles long, with 10 turns and at least 25 intersections. It rained about .25 inches between laying the trail and starting the search. It was not windy when the trail was laid. At the time of the search, winds were steady at 28 MPH, with rain for most of the 45 minutes, temps around 41 degrees, 80% humidity. A portion of the trail, up California Avenue, was entirely concrete for four blocks, with no vegetation whatsoever, and the street ran north/south in line with the scouring, gale-force winds. That section of California Ave had high pedestrian traffic and many dogs being walked. Kelsy had no trouble at all in this section.
About a month ago, when looking for the white terrier in White Center, I had a thought about dead end branches of the trail. Kelsy seemed to take them all, which takes up a lot of time. We could gain ground on our quarry if she would skip the dead end branches that go out and double back. In thinking about why she might take them, it occurred to me that the dead end branch has twice the scent, making it seem like the fresher scent trail, maybe. The trail we worked today had two double trails, one a dead end and one the combined start/finish. At the dead end branch, Kelsy took the dead end like I thought she would, and we followed it all the way to the end indicated on the map. At the end, I thought she would take the double trail down the alley to the end where Abby was waiting. Instead, she got started on the beginning of the trail again. Because people were waiting for me in the rain, I redirected Kelsy down the alley, even though she wasn't wrong. I will keep collecting more data on dead end branches.
Kelsy followed this trail perfectly. At about the halfway point, she came upon a golden retriever sleeping on the sidewalk in front of a coffee shop. She didn't speed up when she saw this dog, and she only gave this decoy a quick sniff on the way by, mostly ignoring her, like she should. I did not have to give Kelsy any corrections other than that I stopped her at intersections while waiting for traffic. I would be really excited about how well she did, except that having several dogs on the trail might have made it unfairly easy for her.
One very valuable bit of information is that we now know that a dog can follow a scent trail 22 hours old in winds clocked at 28 miles an hour. It was not windy when the trail was laid, which seems significant to me.
On this training exercise, I made extensive use of my smart phone. I could have done everything without it, but it made many things easier.
- I recorded my mileage with an app.
- I recorded my volunteer hours with the same app, and I can email a report to whomever.
- I used the map function to find the address of the starting point.
- I used the phone as an actual phone!
- Took a picture of the map Jenny had drawn, and the picture was easy to read long after the paper map had become a soggy mess.
- Used a different mapping program to record our track, along with total mileage and speed.
- Took video of Kelsy "in the groove" using her nose and not her eyes, and another video of her ignoring the decoy dog.
- Recorded voice notes for details of the search and conditions.
- Received up to the minute weather data to record for the search.
- Used the map search to find a restaurant for lunch.
- Used the map search to find the back entrance to Westcrest off-leash park for Kelsy's reward play later.
- Checked craigslist to see if I should be on the look out for any missing dogs in the area.
- Checked email to see if any other volunteers had signed up for target dog duty.
All in all, it was a perfect day, about as much fun as you can have in sideways rain at 41 degrees. Kelsy was rewarded with cheese, with a little bit of fetch at the end of the trail, with a bite of my sandwich at the restaurant, and with plenty of fetching at the off-leash park. Plus she found her dog, which is rewarding to her. And I didn't have to correct her at all, or sigh those sighs like I do sometimes. A perfect day.
Added note: Two days later I had an idea about one reason this search may have gone so well: I didn't talk. I can think back to several exercises and searches where I had someone, a volunteer or a client, along with me, and I did a lot of talking about what Kelsy was doing and why. On a practice search for Glenna in Federal Way, I know I didn't talk at all, and that search went perfectly. I don't know if this is just a coincidence, but if it is significant, I can think of a couple of reasons. The first reason is that Kelsy does listen to what I say. That doesn't mean she always obeys, but she listens. If I start talking on the phone, she usually comes around and wants to do something. I know that I have to avoid saying certain words if I don't want her to start barking in anticipation of some activity. It might be that I distract her when I talk. Another reason that talking might distract her is that it means there is someone with us, quite often a person with the scent of the dog we are searching for. She might think, that person smells like the dog, so she must know where the dog is, so I don't need to work too hard.
If it is true that talking degrades her search performance, I can either not talk on searches, or talk more in training so that she learns to ignore me. I'm thinking that I will lean toward not talking on searches. I will have the owner stay back ten feet and hold questions until later. Or text me. I will do more testing on this theory, and see if Kelsy scores higher on silent searches.
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