This is how adults play hide and seek with their K9s...
K9 Reese is a 4 month old golden who had zero issue finding POIs hiding in unique places tonight. Reese's handler is injured so I had the privilege of working Reese while her owner watched...first location the POI ran and hid in multiple elevated hiding spots in a playground. Reese navigated her first fence crossing and did great getting back on scent after being (gently) tossed to the other side. Later on after it got dark, Reese executed a fantastic track of POI after they ran near a gas station. Reese had to track past distractions/noises and maintain course over some urban concrete terrain.
Liesel Weapon was hard charging tonight. First track the POI went through an urban
environment and finished hiding under a deck. From there the POI fled back out and down the road before hiding in their car. LW and I crawled under the deck (this was a long deck...like 50 feet of crawling through the dark) then she picked up the track, crossed the road and did a great job of bracketing POI to their car and even indicating on the correct door. Check out this video featuring my struggle to get under the deck and LW's fantastic finish. There is no sound so you will have to imagine my high pitched shrieks as I struggled to get under deck while LW pulled on the tracking lead...as well as my high pitched shrieks of excitement on her successful find at the car ;)
Later in the night LW successfully found POI after they left a track that traversed a busy gas station. Heavy winds blew north to south and despite the distraction, contamination and wind LW stayed on target and found POI hiding in the brush near the highway.
Super fun night! Love getting creative with scenarios and watching dogs level up!