Practice search for Reina

I try to learn something from every search, whether it is a practice search or a live search.  What did I learn today?  Some days suck.  Kelsy missed the first turn of this trail, and I didn't catch it.  When I backed her up to point where we went wrong and started her again, we apparently crossed the trail again and she went off it again.  We ran around for four miles in the rain, and Kelsy didn't seem to mind that we weren't on the trail of our target dog any more.  The worst part is that I was very frustrated with her, and I expressed my frustration, which probably didn't help anything.  Because I knew where the trail ended, I was able to steer Kelsy onto the last half mile of the route, and I could tell as we got closer that she was definitely on the trail of Reina.

The other thing I learned, later, after I had had a while to think about things, is that I shouldn't care if Kelsy sucks at this job.  Of course, I want her to be successful, for two reasons.  First, she enjoys winning this game, getting it right.  Second, she can save lives if she is effective.  However, if it turns out that she never finds another dog again, I'm not going to love her any less.  I am very disappointed in myself for grumbling at her today.  It wasn't helpful, and it didn't make me feel any better.  She didn't understand why I was unhappy.  I hope that Kelsy and I can fix our errors in communication, but I hope she knows that I will always love her no matter what she does.

Temp: 47F
Feels like: 42F
Light Rain
Humidity: 97%
Wind: SSW at 10 mph
Updated: 1/29/11 10:25 AM PST

Name:		Track 030
Date:		Jan 29, 2011 10:47 am
Map: (valid until Jul 28, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		3.81 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:26:54
Avg Speed:		2.6 mph
Max Speed:		7.4 mph
Avg Pace:		22' 50" per mile
Min Altitude:		227 ft
Max Altitude:		433 ft
Start Time:		2011-01-29T18:47:52Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.470116º N
	Longitude:	122.198898º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.474553º N
	Longitude:	122.196872º W

The Search for Reina

Reina was missing for 4 days, after she chased a deer into the woods, but she is safe at home, sleeping on the couch now.  Kelsy started the search for her about 36 hours after she bolted.  I am not sure if Kelsy was on the right track, but I have a couple of reasons to think she was, most of the time.  Reina's owner came with us on the search, and she told us when Kelsy was following a path she and her other dog had walked while looking for Reina, and she told us when Kelsy took a different path. 


Temp: 48F
Feels like: 46F
Light Rain
Humidity: 97%
Wind: SW at 4 mph
Updated: 1/24/11 12:45 PM PST

Name:		Track 029
Date:		Jan 24, 2011 3:10 pm
Map: (valid until Jul 25, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		3.10 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:53:14
Avg Speed:		1.6 mph
Max Speed:		4.9 mph
Avg Pace:		36' 31" per mile
Min Altitude:		76 ft
Max Altitude:		393 ft
Start Time:		2011-01-24T23:10:26Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.471828º N
	Longitude:	122.182823º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.469649º N
	Longitude:	122.182574º W

Kelsy stayed in the groove for large portions of the 3-mile trail.  A few times, she put her nose to the ground and worked busily, tracking some sort of intricate activity.  After these pauses, she went back into the groove and followed the trail.  The scent article we had to work with may have had the scent of the owner and the second dog, and we know the owner and the second dog were in many of the places Kelsy tracked.  However, there were at least three key instances where Kelsy took a branch in the trail that the others did not.  If you look on the map, I think I misinterpreted Kelsy's behavior right near the end of our search.  It was getting dark, and I wanted to try Kelsy at the off-leash park, where a vague tip of a sighting had been reported.  Instead, as it turns out, I should have read Kelsy's behavior as hitting another dead end.  At the bottom of Royal Hills Drive, there is a very steep trail that leads up to Pierce Avenue and continues south toward Fairwood Blvd., where Reina was found.  Kelsy followed that trail down the hill to Royal Hills Drive and a dead end, but for some reason I didn't think to turn around and follow the trail up the hill to Pierce Avenue.  Of course, it's possible that Kelsy was not on the right trail, but I wish I would have paid closer attention to her behavior and thought of that scenario at the time. 

At the bottom of Royal Hills Drive, where Kelsy came to a dead end, she was very interested in the pavement in one location, taking extra time to sniff and analyze.  We know that Reina had many small cuts from blackberries.  I'll bet that Reina left small traces of blood on the pavement when she took a moment to rest on the warm asphalt before heading up the trail to Peirce Avenue.  I wish Reina and Kelsy could talk, so I could know what really happened.  

Kelsy and I are planning to search for Reina in practice on Saturday.

Practice searches for Cheeto and Kody

Cheeto is one of our Target Cats.  He is a good-natured fellow, and he usually hides for the cat detection dogs.  On Saturday, 1/22, Cheeto walked a short trail so that Kelsy could find him.  Kelsy is not a cat detection dog, since that is a different process, but she will look for cats if they leave a trail in a dog-like manner.  Cats do occasionally act like dogs.  This fresh trail was about 200 feet long, and at the end, Kat was standing about 30 feet away from Cheeto's carrier.  Kelsy used the other carrier as a scent article, and she stuffed her whole head inside, vacuuming up scent from the bedding.  Then she pulled me right along, following Cheeto's footsteps exactly.  When Kelsy caught sight of Kat, she charged right over to her, but when she didn't find Cheeto, she went back to using her nose.  Kelsy tracked down Cheeto in seconds, and seemed quite happy about it.  I rewarded her with cheese.

Our main purpose of the afternoon was to follow the trail of Kody, laid two days earlier.  This was an unusual trail in a couple of respects.  First, I was the one who walked Kody on the trail, which is not the way we usually do it.  Second, most of the trail consisted of a dead-end out and back.  I had intended to walk a loop, but the trail through the park did not have an outlet, that I could find.  Although the trail is 1.23 miles long, if a dog were smart, she could find the target dog by making a left turn and running a trail only about half a mile long.  It was an accident that the trail was mostly one big dead end, but it made a useful test of dog behavior.  Would Kelsy choose the shortest route?  Or would she follow all of the dead end?  My prediction was that she would follow the entire dead end because that would have double the scent, both out and back, and smell fresher compared to the branch that leads more directly to the target dog.

Weather conditions:
Now for Kent, WA (98031)

Temp: 48F
Feels like: 48F
Partly Cloudy
Humidity: 76%
Wind: WNW at 2 mph
Updated: 1/22/11 3:25 PM PST

Trail that Kody ran:

Name:		Track 025
Date:		Jan 20, 2011 6:41 pm
Map: (valid until Jul 23, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		1.23 miles
Elapsed Time:		33:39.7
Avg Speed:		2.2 mph
Max Speed:		6.3 mph
Avg Pace:		27' 29" per mile
Min Altitude:		6 ft
Max Altitude:		107 ft
Start Time:		2011-01-21T02:41:48Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.382625º N
	Longitude:	122.226711º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.383031º N
	Longitude:	122.226832º W

Kelsy started this trail following Kody's exact footsteps (and mine).  After about two blocks, she reached the intersection of the trails where she could either go straight and run the whole dead end, or she could turn left and go directly back to the target dog at the end of the trail.  Kelsy went straight.  She didn't even check the branch to the left.  She took me all the way through the woods, along the creek, over logs and through mud.  At the end of the trail, Kelsy stopped almost exactly where Kody and I stopped.  Then she tried going farther through the bushes, checking for scent.  We came back a few yards and she tried to the right and the left, looking for a continuation of Kody's scent trail.  Then she started back the way we came.  When she got back to the Y, she took the branch leading to the end of the trail, and not the one leading back to the beginning.  From that point on, she pulled hard.  At the end, Pearl was in the parking lot as a distraction.  Kelsy went part way to Pearl, bet then she stopped and got back on track for Kody, finding her hidden behind a table.  Kelsy got more cheese for a reward, and a short session of fetch.  It took me 34 minutes to walk the original trail with Kody, and 38 minutes to walk the trail with Kelsy during the practice search.  This reinforces the notion that, if the dog you are looking for is still on the move, you will probably never catch up. 

After Kelsy, I ran Zeke on the same trail.  Like the last time I trained with Zeke, he did not want to spend any time at all with the scent article.  My impression is that he is saying: "I don't need no stinking scent article--I know what to look for."  I ended up covering his nose with the scent article for a second.  Despite his refusal of the scent article, he followed the trail exactly.  When he reached the Y, he also opted for the long dead end instead of taking the easy way, the short cut.  At the far end of the trail, he went just a little farther than Kelsy had.  On the return trip, Zeke checked for branch trails to the left and right about every 100 yards or so.  When we got back to the Y, he took the branch to the end, and not the branch back to the beginning.  At the parking lot, he did not go toward the decoy dog at all.  He went straight for Kody.  Zeke refused his usual hot dog treats, but he did like a little bit of smoky beef jerky.  Zeke also took 38 minutes to find Kody, just like Kelsy had. 

This isn't enough data to make a scientific claim about the way dogs follow scent trails, but it appears to me that the trailing dog will follow every dead end in the trail left by the missing dog.  Theoretically, the trailing dog could catch up to the missing dog by skipping all those dead ends where the wandering dog investigated an interesting smell down a path that led nowhere.  My reasoning for why the trailing dog seems to always choose the dead end is that the scent is double on the dead end when compared to the continuation of the path.  When we were looking for Tabu, Kelsy dipped into every single yard, making very slow progress.  I wished she would skip these diversions and stick to the main trail.  We never caught up to Tabu in five days of following her in circles.  I can't really see how you would get a dog to ignore dead ends.  She is supposed to follow the freshest, i.e. strongest, scent, and that will usually lead her down all the dead end paths.  The only way to ever catch up to a missing dog is if that dog stops and rests, or is captured by someone. 

Search for Rusty

Rusty escaped at 7:04 PM on Wednesday, 1/19, near 288th and 19th Ave S. in Federal Way. His owner is elderly and disabled, living alone except for Rusty. Many neighbor kids tried to catch him, but he ran across busy 288th and may have been hit by a car. Kelsy followed his scent trail yesterday, 1/21, and we confirmed that he was sighted at 18th and 296th on Thursday morning, so, if he was hit by a car, he survived and was still mobile the next day. Kelsy followed the scent trail to 304th and Pacific Highway, near Steel Lake. Rusty is 14 years old, apparently deaf, with poor eyesight, and a thyroid condition. His face is whiter than in this picture. 

Today, Rusty was found in someone's yard, trapped between a fence and a stone wall.  They were able to read some of the numbers on his worn tag, and eventually they tracked down Marie, his owner.  She is very happy to have him home.  

That's the basic story, the important parts.  Below is a full narrative of Kelsy's search.  I don't know if any of it is important, but I might learn from it later.  

Now for Federal Way, WA (98003)

Temp: 49F
Feels like: 45F
Cloudy
Humidity: 91%
Wind: SSW at 10 mph
Updated: 1/21/11 4:05 PM PST

Marie did not call MPP directly.  Someone called on her behalf and asked us to help her, since she couldn't help herself.  I ended up finding her address on the internet and going and knocking on her door to offer our help.  I told her it was unlikely that Kelsy could help, since she didn't have a clean scent article, but that we would give it a try.  I took a picture of her picture of Rusty, and for a scent article she handed me a clump of Rusty's hair from his bed, which the cat also slept on from time to time.  I started Kelsy on 288th, at the point last seen.  I aimed her at a fence, so she would have to immediately choose right or left, instead of just charging ahead in the direction I had pointed her.   We started on the north side of the street, and she wanted to cross to the south side, a block west of Marie's house.  Kelsy was distracted by a little boy waving around a peice of bread on a paper plate.  Once the light changed and we crossed the street, Kelsy led me to a vacant lot.  She was very interested in an area of flattened grass, and what looked to be bloody diarrhea.  Her body language indicated she was just about to do a shoulder roll on it, and I stopped her.  We continued south on 18th, going through yards. 
Behind an apartment complex, the landscaping had compacted soil and bones and spoiled food.  It looked like many animals spent the night there, not just Rusty.  At 18th and 296th, a woman asked us if we were search and rescue, and I replied yes, that we were looking for a dog.  She thought we might be looking for a boy missing from a nearby school.  It turned out that she had seen Rusty.  I showed her the picture on my phone, and she was positive it was him.  Rusty had wandered up and down 296th, and had settled in her yard before she shooed him away.  I didn't ask why she didn't check his tags and help him get home. 
I was very proud of Kelsy at that point.  Of course, I am always proud of her, but I love to get confirmation that she is following the right trail, and not leading me on a ghost trail or the wrong trail. 

We continued south on 18th to Pacific Highway.  She wanted to follow the trail right into busy traffic, and I pulled her up and told her to wait.  She looked at me then, I would give a million dollars to know what was on her mind at that point.  I wonder if the trail went both ways, across Pac Highway and also south.  Rusty was eventually found on the west side of Pac Highway.  Kelsy ended up choosing south.  If Rusty had gone south and then back north and accross the highway, then the double trail leading south and back would have the strongest scent, possibly seeming fresher to the nose of a dog.  The trail south lead us through a construction site where they were laying a new road bed.  The surface was made of shards of broken glass.  I tried to keep Kelsy off of it, but it didn't bother her at all.  I checked her pads, and they are unscratched.  After the construction site, she led me to a feral cat feeding station behind a business on 304th. 

We crossed 304th and went around several small businesses, where there was a strong aroma of good food.  She led me back to 304th, then east, to a fenced wooded property where transients had torn down the No Trespassing sign and established a well-worn path.  We followed the trail to a homeless camp of several tents and much garbage.  A homeless man drinking a 40 ounce can of beer was very friendly and helpful, but he hadn't seen Rusty.  He said he would call us if he did.  We followed the trail into the woods until all the trails stopped.  We found a dead raccoon.  Interestingly, I caught the smell of decomposition at the same instant that I saw Kelsy's head turn in that direction.  With her superior nose, I would have guessed she would smell it first, but I guess the wind shifted, bringing the smell to both of us at once.  I didn't think it could be Rusty, since he hadn't been gone that long, and when Kelsy pinpointed the body, it was obviously a raccoon.  On the way out, after we hit the dead end, Kelsy also took us to another encampment, which appeared to be an abandoned meth lab.  Kelsy became skittish at that point, and we got out quickly.  I don't know what was making her nervous, and I didn't want to know. 

At that point, I was thinking that Rusty had gone further south, through the brush.  I was not thinking of the possibility, the probability, that a 14 year old dog would have been discouraged by the heavy brush and rough terrain, and likely would have come back.  At that point, I switched Kelsy off her harness and onto her collar, signaling that she was off-duty.  I had somewhere to be, and we just made it back to the truck as fast as we could.  The trail we followed was 1.75 miles long. 

Practice search for Bear

Pictured above is Zeke, who also came out to play today. 

Kelsy searched for Bear in the rain today at North SeaTac Park.  The trail was about 1.25 miles long, and a fresh trail, about twenty minutes old.  Kelsy definitely got the first turn and the last few turns, but in the middle she may have run parallel to Bear's trail.  It wasn't easy to tell from the description of the trail.  If Kelsy did run parallel, but about 30 feet west, this would be consistent with the way she works the opposite side of the road sometimes.  I wish I could see the plume of scent so I could know if she was working along the edge.  I also wish that Kelsy could talk.  Near the end, Kelsy was very interested in the decoy, Danny, and had trouble working past him.  Bear and Danny live together, and may have shared many of the same scent components.  Kelsy's reward was cheese and lots of fetching. 

Temp: 50F
Feels like: 48F
Light Rain
Humidity: 89%
Wind: E at 5 mph
Updated: 1/15/11 4:25 PM PST
Constant light rain after days of steady rain, with the ground fully saturated.  

After I ran Kelsy, I worked Zeke on the trail of Danny.  Danny's trail coincided with and crossed over Bear's trail.  Zeke showed little interest in the scent article.  He preferred to smell everything but the scent article.  Kat finally covered his nose with it, and we started, hoping he had the right idea.  Zeke missed the first turn, instead following the trail of Kelsy and Bear.  I was unable to detect that Zeke was on the wrong trail, and Kat had to tell me to anchor him.   After that first missed turn, Zeke seemed to stay on the trail the rest of the way.  He was especially interested where Danny had lingered next to a building for about twenty minutes.  At the end, Zeke was not interested in hot dog treats.  Zeke did seem to enjoy being out for a romp.  He has not been getting much practice lately, and we need to get him back into the routine. 

Practice searches for Grover and Thelma

Pictured above is DOGZILLA, contemplating the impending doom of Seattle.  Either that or it's just Kelsy after finding Grover on Queen Anne Hill.  (Before anyone asks--if you know me at all, you would know that I would not place Kelsy on a precipice.  On the other side of the wall is a gentle grassy slope.  It only looks like she is teetering on a ledge.)

Kelsy did two practice searches on Sunday the 9th.  The first was for Grover, who Kelsy searched for in December.  Kelsy performed very well on this two day old trail.  She stayed right on track for about 2.6 of the 2.75 miles.  She went wide on one corner before coming back, and at the end there was some confusion, possibly my fault.  I misunderstood where Grover was hiding, and I thought Kelsy had gone too far.  I think I might have pulled her off when she was really on the right track.  Also, the end was right near a busy grocery store parking lot, so there may have been transfer of scent and partial obliteration of the scent trail.  (Not an excuse, just a note for future reference.)  When she did find Grover, it was by going past him and catching the fresh scent and turning back.  Kelsy got generous slabs of cheddar cheese for this effort.  The corner where she went wide was a turn banked downhill, a natural cold air drainage.  I would have expected Grover's scent to drift down there.  She followed for about 30 yards and then turned back to the actual trail.

Temp: 37F
Feels like: 37F
Cloudy
Humidity: 93%
Wind: CALM at calm mph
Updated: 1/9/11 12:05 PM PST

Name:		Track 023
Date:		Jan 9, 2011 12:21 pm
Map: (valid until Jul 8, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		2.75 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:01:04
Avg Speed:		2.7 mph
Max Speed:		7.7 mph
Avg Pace:		22' 13" per mile
Min Altitude:		290 ft
Max Altitude:		515 ft
Start Time:		2011-01-09T20:21:36Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.629570º N
	Longitude:	122.360898º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.632355º N
	Longitude:	122.360974º W

 The second search was for Thelma in Woodinville.  Kelsy found Thelma a year ago, as detailed here.  Thelma walked this 1.25 mile trail with her brother Larry, about 24 hours earlier.  Kelsy got off the trail right at the start, I'm not sure why.  It could have been because she was tired, or because she was actually following Thelma's scent where it had drifted downhill, down another cold air drainage, or just because she made a mistake.  When I took Kelsy back to the right trail, I could tell the point where she caught Thelma's fresher scent.  For most of the rest of this trail, she got the turns right.  She did go beyond a couple of turns, run out of scent, and then come back, which is to be expected.  Also, and this is not the first time, she worked parts of the trail on the opposite side of the street.  I have known her to do this on about a third of the known practice trails we've worked.  The handler of the target dog will often tell me that Kelsy was right about the street and direction, but on the opposite side of the street.

At the end of this trail, Thelma and Larry were, understandably, a bit barky and snarly when a relatively enormous black dog came charging toward them.  Kelsy didn't seem to mind.  Her reward was chicken nuggets and ten minutes of ball fetching. 

This concludes my planned week of intensive training.  We didn't get quite as many practice searches as I would have liked, but we did manage 7 searches in 9 days.  One of my main goals is to make this whole enterprise more fun for Kelsy.  She was amply rewarded with treats and fetching and adventure, and I never forced her to search if she didn't want to.  Not that I could anyway.  Even if we aren't the ideal search team, Kelsy has demonstrated remarkable abilities.  I wish I had started training her for this when she was a little puppy, and not waited until she was three.

Temp: 37F
Feels like: 37F
Cloudy
Humidity: 87%

Wind: CALM at calm mph

Updated: 1/9/11 2:25 PM PST

Name:		Track 024
Date:		Jan 9, 2011 3:25 pm
Map: (valid until Jul 8, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		1.25 miles
Elapsed Time:		30:07.5
Avg Speed:		2.5 mph
Max Speed:		6.9 mph
Avg Pace:		24' 05" per mile
Min Altitude:		128 ft
Max Altitude:		246 ft
Start Time:		2011-01-09T23:25:39Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.768811º N
	Longitude:	122.163519º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.768317º N
	Longitude:	122.168071º W

Practice search for Rita

I guess you'll have to turn your head sideways when looking at Rita.  My computer says the picture is upright, but blogger says it's not.  Anyway, Rita is a beautiful, sweet girl, sideways or not.

Before starting on the trail, I tried Kelsy on a negative, about 100 yards away from Rita's scent.  Kelsy sniffed around a little and then gave me the negative sign, turning sideways and looking back.

Kelsy took off like a rocket on this fresh trail, less than 20 minutes old.  She definitely got the first turn right, but I think Kelsy may have missed a turn.  I'm not sure.  After talking with Rita's owner about where they walked, I think Kelsy might have gone parallel to their path for about a quarter mile.  She seemed like she wasn't on the right mission.  When we definitely rejoined the correct trail, Kelsy pulled me along like she was a sled dog, and I was a sled.  Rita was hidden behind a car, so Kelsy had to use her nose, not her eyes, to find her.   Kelsy's reward was cheese and fetching her ball. 

Temp: 41F
Feels like: 41F
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 76%
Wind: SSE at 3 mph
Updated: 1/8/11 3:05 PM PST

Name:		Track 022
Date:		Jan 8, 2011 3:22 pm
Map: (valid until Jul 7, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		1.22 miles
Elapsed Time:		30:48.9
Avg Speed:		2.4 mph
Max Speed:		8.3 mph
Avg Pace:		25' 17" per mile
Min Altitude:		331 ft
Max Altitude:		394 ft
Start Time:		2011-01-08T23:22:49Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.485798º N
	Longitude:	122.307023º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.485760º N
	Longitude:	122.307062º W

Practice search for Andre

Above is a picture of Andre sleeping by the fire, under the covers, after about ten days on the run in the cold and rain.  He has regained all the weight he lost, and he seems fully recovered from his ordeal.  He and his sister Nala walked a 1.15 mile trail for us, 24 hours ago.  For a scent article, Kelsy used a jacket that Andre often wears.  Since the trail was a loop, I started Kelsy headed in the right direction, so she wouldn't go immediately back to the house around the corner.  Kelsy followed the trail almost exactly, except that she was very interested in scents along the way.  My impression is that they were not scents left by Andre and Nala, but how would I know.  Instead of being "in the groove" all the time, Kelsy often had her nose right on the ground, carefully analyzing particular patches of grass.

I thought that Kelsy overshot one turn, but when we got to the end, Linda told me that they had overshot that corner as well before doubling back and making the turn.  So, Kelsy seems to have done this trail perfectly, although not with the intensity and focus I would have liked.  When I played Little League baseball, I had a hard time paying attention to the game.  Of my few distinct memories of baseball, one is of the coach yelling something at me while he was red in the face.  I was traipsing between second and third at the time, and when I stopped to see why he was yelling, I was tagged out, of course.  No doubt he was yelling at me to hurry up, and he was doubly frustrated when I stopped to see why he was yelling.  Now, I don't yell at Kelsy, but I often feel that she is like me as a Little-Leaguer:  the game is okay, but there are so many interesting distractions.  Hopefully, as she gets more practice at the game, with successes and rewards, she will enjoy the game of searching as much as she enjoys stopping to smell the "roses" along the way.

Other than it being dark, at 6:30 PM, the conditions were perfect.  Temp: 45 degrees.  Wind: 6 MPH from SSE.  Humidity: 97%. It had rained about 0.11 inches between the time the trail was laid and the time we started searching.  I thought that searching in the dark would put me at a disadvantage, as far as reading Kelsy's behavior.  Instead, I found that I could tell pretty much everything I needed to, in the ambient light, and I could use my flashlight when necessary.  Searching in the dark was not much of a challenge.

Kelsy got chicken nuggets as her reward, and Andre and Nala liked them too.

Practice search for Jobie

Jobie is shy but pretty.  He escaped in September, 2010, and MPP helped his owner recover him with advice and a large trap.  Today, Jobie helped MPP back by being a target dog.  This trail was 1.4 miles long and about five hours old.  The conditions: temp 40 degrees, little or no wind, humidity 64%, starting at 3 PM, with snow on the grass and shady portions of the sidewalks. 

Kelsy scored a perfect 100 on this search, getting every turn correct.  This trail had about 12 turns and about 25 intersections.  The only time Kelsy needed input from me was to stop for traffic at intersections, and to get back to work when she found a couple of enticing smells along the way.  She never took me off course, and she was fairly easy to read the whole time.  Mostly, she was in the groove, trotting along.  When she wasn't in the groove, she was checking out critter scents, and I could see that she had switched modes.  She was also distracted by a kid on a skateboard, so I just had her wait until the distraction passed. 

The humidity was higher today, even without rain, and there was no salt on the sidewalks where we searched in Auburn.  Although the trail was almost 100% paved, there was always grass or vegetation nearby.  When we got to the end point, Kelsy seemed like she was going to trot past Jobie, but you could see it in her face when she caught the fresh, direct scent of Jobie after working the five-hour-old trail.  She pulled me through the landscape and right up to his hiding place behind a car.  Kelsy got her treats (leftover tuna melt) and I played fetch with her on the snow-covered basketball court.  To cool off, she laid her belly in the snow, and ate some snow.  Overall, Kelsy seemed very focused, and she liked the smell of Jobie when she found him, taking an extra moment to smell him deeply. 

Kelsy seems to be liking the routine of searching every day.

Practice Search for Sammie

Sunday, January 2nd, Kelsy searched for Sammie on a trail about three hours old, about 1 mile long.  The temp was 38 degrees, light winds, humidity 57%.  We started at the Burien Library, north past the old library, then back to the new library.  Apparently Kelsy didn't do so well, and I didn't catch her mistake.  At 148th, Kelsy went straight instead of turning right.  I thought that maybe Sammie's handler was unfamiliar with the street numbers, so I trusted Kelsy.  When I asked later, it appears we were on the wrong track for at least a block.  Although Kelsy wasn't, "in the groove" like she gets some times, she seemed pretty positive, and I didn't catch any sign that she had jumped off track.

One thing that might have made this training session difficult for her was that all of the sidewalks were salted for de-icing.  This isn't an excuse for why Kelsy and I missed the trail, but just a note for future reference, so we can learn from these experiences.  Scent is highly dependent on moisture, and the low humidity coupled with the salt on the sidewalks may have taken away all moisture in the critical zone.

Practice search for Minnie

This is Minnie, our target dog for the day.  Please note that she is demonstrating a calming signal.  I very rudely hovered over her to take her picture, and she tried to get me to behave with this classic calming signal.  If you see a dog doing this, it means you are stressing her somehow, so stop what you are doing.  It could be a prelude to a bite.  Also, if you find a stray dog that you want to lure closer, so you can help her get home, look to the side like Minnie is doing, as a calming signal to the stray.

Kelsy started her search for Minnie at about 11 AM on Sunday, January 1st, at Lincoln Park in West Seattle.  This was a very fresh trail, with Minnie only getting a ten minute head start.  The temp was 33 degrees, with wind from the SE at 8MPH, humidity 41%, full sun with no clouds.  The ground was wet in places and frosty or icy in the shady spots.  The trail ended up being 3.27 miles, and it took us an hour. 

Kelsy set out on this search very eagerly, since the scent was so strong and fresh.  We passed about a hundred people and dozens of dogs who were also out enjoying this fine day.  Kelsy ignored almost all the dogs, knowing that they weren't the dog she was looking for.  A couple of times, there were people just standing beside the trail with their dogs in the sit position, and Kelsy saw them and started pulling toward them.  Since I saw she was using her eyes and not her nose, I held her back.  She wanted to charge up to them because this is often how target dogs and their handlers are positioned at the end of a practice search.  Except for those distractions, Kelsy did very well for the first two miles.

Then, the scent trail took us past a zip line, and Kelsy became totally distracted, not recovering for the rest of the search.  A zip line is a steel cable between two posts or trees, with a trolley that rides the cable and often a rope with a seat that a person can sit on.  It makes a distinctive sound as the wheels run along the cable.  Kelsy was fascinated by people flying through the air.  It stopped her in her tracks, and she wouldn't move on.  I finally prodded her on, but she kept stopping and turning back.  Although we never spoke, our non-verbal conversation went something like this:

Kelsy:  Holy cow!  Those people are flying!

Jim:  That's nice, sweetie, but try to stay focused on the scent trail.

Kelsy:  No, seriously, they are flying.

Jim:  It's just a zip line.  Nothing to get excited about.

Kelsy turns and starts on the trail again, reluctantly.  100 feet later, she turns and says: I think we should go back.  Are those people supposed to be flying?  Do they need help?  Should I chase them and bite them?  Should I be flying?

Jim:  (Exasperated sigh.)  It's nothing, really.  Now, honey, quit being a dumbass and get on with the search, please.

Kelsy pretends to search while she is really imagining the flying people, or perhaps imagining herself flying along the zip line.  Then she stops and says:  I really think it would be best if we went back and investigated the zip line.

Jim: (Exasperated sigh.)

After the zip line distraction, Kelsy took me off on a couple of tangents where I know that Minnie did not go.  I had to keep her on the trail the last mile.  When we looped around to the starting point, she did pick out Minnie while ignoring Daisy.  I rewarded her and praised her just as much as if I hadn't had to steer her for the last mile.  She got cheddar cheese for her reward.  Minnie and Daisy got some too.  I threw the ball for her to fetch a couple of times, as a reward, and then we went to West Crest park for another 20 minutes of fetching, as a further reward.

The humidity had dropped to 36% by the time we finished.  I'm guessing that I will see a correlation between Kelsy's search performance and the humidity, distractions or not.