Friday, December 5th
This morning, we left the thick fog in Santa Rosa, and traveled to the park at Lake Sonoma outside of Healdsburg for a visit with my friend Diane Farmer, and her two Field Spaniel girls, Bonnie Rose and Mrs. Bell. We left the fog behind and had a beautiful drive up West Dry Creek road where all the vines were lovely fall colors and the air was crisp. Too bad I didn't get any photos of that.
Mocha greeted everyone cordially and then...what? Back in the crate? Well, we needed to do some tracking. ALL the dogs got to track today. Bonnie Rose and Mrs. Bell hadn't been out tracking for a long time but they certainly remembered how! Ethan got a quick practice track...and Mocha got a track too! (More on that later)
I didn't get pictures of the other dogs tracking this time, but I did ask Diane to take a video of Mocha tracking on my digital camera. Quality is not so good since it's not a video camera, but it gives one an idea. Also, it accidentally got turned off, so the one baby track is in two parts.
As we were gathering things up at our cars, one of the park rangers walked right over Mocha's track, near the end, when she pulls to the right after the small turn to the left, she was leaning over toward his footsteps. A good lesson.
This track taught me several things: pieces of tuna brownies are a little overwhelming to Mocha on the track - too smelly from too far away. She's more focused with cheese pieces she happens upon once she gets there. Also, the sound of our dogs barking in the car (they sound louder on video than they did in person) was a little distracting to her. Though she wasn't as smooth as she has been on previous occasions, she was still focused and willing - and even offered a down at the article when I was fishing out more treats for her! Super!
Follow the link(s) to the right to see Mocha in action. (Hopefully it works, it's my first attempt at uploading to YouTube.)
A WALK WITH A TWIST
We set off for a walk around the park with all four dogs on flexi leads. At one point, I accidentally dropped Ethan's flexi. He stood and waited like a good boy for me to recover it...but I was too slow. Mocha was on the job! She saw it slither over towards Ethan in the grass and she pounced on it! She darted and dashed and fussed over it and finally grabbed it up and ran with it! It was so funny and cute! I only wish I would have thought to put my camera in video mode!
So Mocha was still on her flexi, racing around with Ethan's flexi in her mouth - taking Ethan for walk...or at least trying! Ethan was very patient and trusted me to sort it all out for him...once I stopped laughing!
Diane and I had lunch together which gave the dogs a chance to renew their energy. When we came home, Mocha was most happy to RACE around the back yard in full zoom mode! Fun stuff!
In addition to her other qualities, Mocha is a Dandelion Destroyer! She sneaks up on the white puffy ball of Dandelion seeds and takes it out with one (occasionally two) chomps! Now, whether this is weed control or not is unclear, since effectively she moistens the seeds and spits them out. I had seen her doing this at home, but was surprised to see her continue her mission even when out and about in a new place.
I TRIED to get a photo of this activity, which is rather difficult, with my really cheap camera AND the fact that I still have hold of two dogs on Flexi's! If you look really closely (and use your imagination) you might be able to see that Mocha has grabbed the offending white puff ball, and then a photo of a forlorn Dandelion stalk having just suffered an attack from Mocha the Destroyer of Dandelions.