Gracie and I spent a good part of the day training at a County Park called Oatka Creek park.

One interesting note regarding this park.  Many years the Robins have stayed in this park all winter.  There seems to be a special temperature gradient that keeps this park several degrees warmer than the surrounding area.  In the 40's and 50's gypsum was mined here and the mines have collapsed over time giving the area some interesting hidey holes.

We were working on getting Gracie to quarter a field, keeping her interested in searching even though there was a significant time lapse from when the subject ran off and of course getting her to work the scent cone for the subject.

We have been working on the quartering thing.  This is when the dog acts like a wiper crossing in front of the handler and going back and forth across the field.  I take a zig zaging course across the field and when she checks back and sees me walking away she comes back to me and starts working in front of me.  Eventually, I'll be able to walk straight across the field and she will cover the entire area for me.

Increasing the time is a precursor to placing a subject that is not seen by the dog.  Each run gets a bit more time delay until she is actually returned to the car for up to a half hour having seen the subject enter the field.  Next step is to put someone out that hasn't been seen and see if she will work without seeing someone leave.

When a person or any scent object is placed outside, the wind dissipates the scent downwind, as the scent gets farther away it spreads out into a cone.  Finding the edges of the cone allows the dog to zoom in on the scent and make the find.  Of Course this is in a perfect situation, changing wind, temperature gradients from snow or sunshine, even clouds will change the way the scent behaves and make things difficult for the dogs.  

So, were having fun with this, Gracie amazes me every time we go out.  I am so glad I switched dogs.  Not that Elphie didn't have the desire, I just didn't give her a good chance...and with her Lymes disease she needed to not run so much.  She is much happier visiting nursing homes and getting attention. 

After we were done with Gracie, I plopped down deep in the woods and waited for one of the other dogs to find me.   About 10 minutes into my wait I heard a commotion, kinda sounded like I was about to be hit by a train.  I looked up to a CROWD of deer running through the woods.  They scented me and broke into 2 groups with about 2 dozen going off to my left and 15-20 more on my right.  Since I wasn't moving they had some curiosity and did'nt leave right away.  A 6 point buck and 4 does stood about 30 yards off and stared at me.  Over on the other side a BIG buck was also checking me out from his vantage about 40 yards out.  I counted 12 points on this one.  He was accompanied by a huge Dark Doe.  I guess it was his #1.  Finally, they took off.  5 minutes later I hear a bell and here comes the dog looking for me.  So, I guess I know why all the deer were evacuating.