Heidi is now 5 months old, and the weather now has turned a little cooler during both night and day, leading to to slighter damper air in the evening, right through to sun break. With this in mind I was keen to to see if Heidi could manage a proper overnight track. Not one from midnight through to 6.00am, but from being laid at 8.00pm, and following up at 8.00am the next day. So with a bit of reconnaissance a day or two before, making sure the ground was suitable, this is what we did.
We started off on the left hand side of a grassy track. Again I suited Heidi up with her tracking outfit 15 or 20m before the starting point. At this stage she now always becomes really excited, and know that its work time rather than just going for a walk. Mind you I'm sure my kit bag is a dead give away to her.
Well as we approached the starting point, she became very interested, and by the time I said 'track on', she was away. Now after a while she was going really well but for some reason, slightly to the right of where I had laid the line, but never the less she was following it. I'll point out here that the wind was from behind us, and the ground on this section was mainly short, dry grass. Something else to mention is that on a couple of occasions she suddenly stopped, went to the right a meter or two, had a sniff around and then got back on track. Thinking about this since I believe it could have been the strong smell of rabbits that frequent this path, and she was distracted by them, but only briefly.
Next up we came to a short, narrow path between two woods, which was pretty much just dry mud, and last night at this point I did drip just a bit more blood at this section, anyway she pulled through okay. This led us on to a strip of set aside, where there was a natural track to the right on the field edge, but I had laid the line around the middle, and thought that Heidi might be tempted take the natural option, but rather pleasingly she picked up and followed the correct path. For this whole section along the outside of the wood she went at a very slow and steady pace, sometimes stopping and even looking lost. This surprised me, as I thought this would have been the best section for her, as at this shady edge of the wood, the vegetation was quite dense, damp and lush, given the weather we have had. All I could do was be patient and quite, with the odd exception of telling her to' track on', when she stopped completely and looked at me. This seemed to re-focus her and she was able to continue. It was around this point the first video stops, but the track had a gentle turn to the right, which she picked up fairly easy considering the trouble she had been having along this section, turning into the corner of the wood, and then out again within a few meters by means of crossing a small, narrow footpath bridge.
Across this wooden bridge I noticed she seemed to be able to pick up the scent from the day before without any trouble. Once out into the field edge the other side the rest is pretty much history. Heidi just picked up the scent and went off, giving really good tension on the lead, all the way to a left hand turn which she had no trouble with, and then within a few meters, her find!
Conclusion:
If I had to give Heidi a rating for this track, I would say 65-70%. The middle section was really strange, and seemed more difficult for her than I imagined it would be. Maybe because the vegetation was so long here, the drips of blood did not get down to the ground where she was scenting? I think this because I distinctly remember getting blood on my trousers along this section, where I was walking through the long grass.
All in all though, 700m, 12hrs old track, 5 month old Bavarian-Team Heidi was very happy.
Age of track: 12hrs
Length of Track: Approx 700m.
Type of track: Shoe and diluted blood. Fresh defrosted cleaves.
Amount of blood: 250ml (1/2 diluted with cleave juice).
Wind direction: From behind
Wind strength: 4-7 mph
Temp: 24ºC
Weather: Dry, very close, but just had a very, very light drizzle for about 5 mins
Time: 08.00am
Age of Dog: 4 1/2 months
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