January 16th, 2025
It's been a while since I have posted and it's great to be back in regular training mode after a busy holiday season and an unforeseen water outage...This will be a recap on what Tilly and I's tracking progress has been over the past month since I last posted.
Track 1 was taken while we were still in Canada. It was laid in about a foot of snow. This was our first time tracking in such deep snow. I wasn't sure what to expect but being able to visually see the track we were following was an interesting experience I was able to see how Tilly relates to the track. At first she seemed a bit hesitant to keep her nose down but eventually settled nicely into a rhythm.
Track 2 & 3 (back in the USA) were laid out in the field of an elementary school. I made Track 2 shorter and easier since Track 3 was going to be longer and harder with less food drops (shuffle 5 steps, 1 step food drop, 1 step and repeat). She worked both tracks well, but on Track 2 you can really see that she is constantly going back to get the treat she blew by. Track 3 had a mix of snow and grass which she seemed to enjoy. At some point she kinda wanders off the track and circles behind me. I decided to wait her out to see if she would get back to the job without any verbal prompt. And she did which was really great. It looked like she was a little more distracted by other smells on this part of the field.
Track 4 was laid out in Bryan Park. This one was up a gentle hill and had the added bonus of geese poop along the way (ew)...Tilly did super well and we also ran a second track that I didn't end up filming in which she did equally great.
Note: I started hiding the end of the track by laying down my flag and that seems to have cured Tilly from lunging barking thing she was doing in my last post (Thank you Judy for that piece of advice).
she is definitely getting the concept. tomorrow at cool water we need to work on the end flag - food vs article. remind me!! oh and we are going to introduce an open angle turn too!
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