Brick walls aren't real

Fizz has been enjoying her tracking work, and is progressing nicely.   We are training her in a component fashion.   There's no reason you need a multi-hundred pace track, aged for long periods, in order to teach a dog how to work challenges, and so, most of her tracks are short (60-80 paces) and aged roughly 15-20 minutes....basically enough time for me to lay it, walk back to the car, log it in my book, get the camera set up and running, and then go back to the car again and get Fizz.

Today's challenge was visual barriers.  The first portion was working through a narrow pass, with high grass on one side, and a rope running overhead on the other.  After coming through the passage, Fizz's track had a big curve in it, turning us around to head right back into the tall grass/wildflowers, head-on.    The point of heading straight into tall stuff was to teach her that "brick walls aren't."  While it may seem that the track should end b/c there's something in the way, today she learned that one should instead forge through the tall stuff and find big rewards.

I was very pleased with how she handled this.  Neither the narrow passage or the tall grass bothered her, nor did she show any hesitation or confusion.    She did get onto some sort of a scent just after the passageway, and I still have no idea what she found....but it was apparently quite yummy.

Here's a side view, from Fizz's level, of the difference in cover, of her 'brick wall' that she went confidently into.

Today's track: