November 23rd, 2025
Goal: To run a 250 yard track with two turns with the S5W8 food drop pattern.
Since we both struggled a bit with turns on Friday, I decided to work on those again today. For the scent pad I omitted treats and place the article where I scuffed the scent pad. As we begin she goes straight for the article, and though she needs a verbal cue to pick it up, I already think this is an improvement. She looks around and finds the first pad successfully. Interestingly she walks beside the food at the second scent pad. Not sure why this happened? But her nose is down and she is tracking nicely. At 1:20 she goes off a bit to the right, scurries back to the track, finds a food drop and hits the breaks in the CUTEST way!
As we approach the first turn I decide to shorten the leash (as suggested) to help her out. She does a beautiful turn, but then goes left and seems to lose the track. I don't let her wander too far to the left where she then circles back to the track. At 3:32 she starts to go to the right and begins tracking parallel (this is the direction the wind is blowing). I step behind her but this only seems to push her more to the right. So I return to the track and she returns with me for a few steps (this might have been a good opportunity to try stepping opposite of her). At this point she kind of wanders on and off the track for a bit and at 5:23 she get super excited to find what she thinks is an article. Unfortunately for her it's not. I tell her to leave it and she goes back to tracking which is really great. Once again, she looks for the track and after searching for a bit she finds it. As we approach the second turn I shorten my line. She enters the turn really well but seems to lose the scent for a bit as she is coming out of it. After a little while she moves forward in the right direction, has a bit of a distraction at 7:38, where I wait her out until she gets back to business. She tracks well until the end, where she finds the article and picks it up this time without a verbal cue! I'm chuffed and tell her so :)
Our turns went much better today. I made a point of keeping my line shorter and to feed it out when I thought she needed it. However, I'm not sure why she lost the track after the turns (maybe the wind).
For our next track we will move on to the new food pattern Jen suggested which is S5W10 with a food drop in between.
An onlooker:
Love the onlooker! I like that that track design has enough reinforcement to reward her for returns to the track and you nicely notice details about what could be impacting behavior (like wind direction). There were some distractions there with the track and painted lines on super short grass, but she nicely returned to work and you limited her options. Her nose is clearly at work the whole time! There were a few instances when getting even closer *may* have helped. When you stepped behind her she actually corrected initially and then went right again...since you had a nice visual in wet grass of where you track was, I'd take those opportunities to see what happens if you stayed behind and stepped really close to her OR if you had tried the other approach (you left of track). Still, I think you handled it well and she returned to the track.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t even think that the painted lines could impact her! I’ll keep that in mind next time. OK for getting right up behind her when she is struggling and I know exactly where the track is.
DeleteSorry, I hit comment before I was done...I meant to add her 'leave it' was great! One thing you may want to consider doing is marking your turn about 5 steps or before the actual turn to help make sure she doesn't get too flag-wise about her turns.
ReplyDeleteThanks! She loves to make me happy and tbh the feeling is mutual :) Roger that on the turns to avoid the dreaded flag-wise… We’ve had a case of that in the past hahahaha
DeleteShe actually did well especially given the wind gusts. She did commit to the 2nd turn faster than the first. As Anne pointed out, the painted lines, asphalt track, etc, may have contributed to her struggle at the turns. It will be interesting to watch to see if she tends to do turns this way (take the turn but then double back and check out the other directions before going back to it).
ReplyDeleteShe does have a very nice "leave it." I go back and forth on whether to say anything to Otter or not. Someone told me that you never know what might be an article, especially in the higher levels of tracking, so always reward for anything the dog indicates just in case. I tend to just wait him out while he checks out the item and not say anything. But he does not have a good 'leave it' either.
Ah good catch on her being faster the second time around with the turn. I totally missed noticing it. True about the double back on the turns, she’s been pretty consistent with that in the last few tracks. For the “leave it” I’ve heard the same thing and I think that’s a great question. For now I’m just teaching Tilly that I might say it on the track so it’s not a surprise to her if I say it during a trial. I checked the rulebook quickly to see if there’s anything about a dog indicating an article that’s not part of the track, but I haven’t found anything yet. Any idea if that’s grounds for disqualification?
ReplyDeleteIf she indicates an article, pick it up and show the judges. If it is NOT the tracklayers, no harm. As long as your dog is on the track working, you are good.
ReplyDeleteGood to know! Thank you for clarifying. What about in practice? In this case Tilly spotted something she thought was an article and left the track to indicate. I told her to leave it since it’s not something I laid out and it wasn’t on the track. Not sure if that was the right call?
DeleteFine to use leave it in training. And in a test, if it was a hole or bird or nasty, i would say leave it. But if it was article like....I would likely pick it up.
ReplyDeletePerfect, thanks!
ReplyDelete