Today we trained at Crestwoods Park in Kirkland. Raphael was the target dog, and he was found by Haas first. Haas did a great job, at a casual pace. Tino went next, and he charged along the scent trail, threatening to take me down at many points. I had to hang on and try not to slip on the wet leaves or trip on the tree roots. Please see the video for a sample of Tino working. I believe the scent trail was about a mile long. The weather conditions were great, at about 48 degrees, although Tino would have preferred 33 degrees. At the end of the video of Tino’s work, you can see that I just dropped the leash. I could tell that he had the direct scent of Raph, and wasn’t just following a scent trail any more. I let him go so he wouldn’t just drag me through the brush. Tino was very happy to find his buddy.
Raph searched next, finding the kitty. We were working on the opposite side of a soccer field, checking the bushes, and then we crossed back toward the hidden cat’s location. In the middle of the field, I stopped to take Raphi’s picture, because it was a nice sunny day and because I only have about 10,000 pictures of him, which is not nearly enough. The wind picked up from the direction of the hidden cat, and Raph started dragging me right toward her. He caught the scent from more than 200 feet away. He dragged me to a fence, which was blocking us, so we had to go around. The wind died, and he lost his intensity. After we got around the fence, I could feel that the wind picked up again, and he dragged me right to the location of the cat. Once we were close, he did not find her right away because she was camouflaged in leaves. He sniffed around the area until he found her. Raph did a great job, and he was very easy to read. You could definitely tell he caught the scent of the target cat from across the field.
After we were done training, Tino and Raphi went to the baseball field to play. They played with a stick and chased each other around. Raphael was thundering as he ran, and his footsteps were louder than Tino’s, even though he is half the size. Please watch the video to the end, to see the slomo of Raph galloping at full speed and jumping over Tino. Training day needs to be the most fun day of the week, to motivate the dogs, and the boys definitely had fun. Be sure to watch the video to the end.