Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Spring tracking in North Carolina



Sandi and I met Niamh and her person Barbara this morning at our friend Rob's farm. Typical for this time of year, the weather is crazy. We've had warm sunny days after much rain, and then last night we had a freeze. Makes the farmers a bit nervous, but it was perfect tracking weather!


The spring grass is growing green and we had a pretty good breeze. Since I want to take off again tracking after finding an article, our teacher Gretchen has said that I should sit and wait for a release to track again after each interim article. (by the way - you can click on each photo and get a size easier to view)




Our revised ritual is to water and rescent after indicating each interim article (my indication is a down - see the photo), sit and wait for a quiet release "let's track." I really want to take off tracking again like a bat out of hell, but I don't think that's going to fly with Sandi. I admit that this new ritual will help me focus.








At one point I found something really dead and exciting near the track, but Sandi called me back to water and rescent, and it helped me refocus and get back to tracking. I found the next article and I got a reward of rare roast beef. Not a bad trade!

Thanks for the photos Barbara! And please go to Setter Tails for Niamh's blog. She may decide to post photos of little Ambrose tracking. He is quite the tracking puppy! He's going to give the big dogs a run for their money soon!