December 3rd, 2025
Goal: To recreate the exercise we did in class last Saturday which was a short track with one turn and 2 steps to the right, then continue straight.
Track :
Time laid: 4:45 PM
Time ran: 5:01 PM
Length: ~ 70 yards
Temperature: 39 F
Humidity: 65%
Wind: 6 mph S
I felt a bit rushed for this track as I got delayed by work and did not have enough time to lay out the track I had originally planned. Instead I decided to retry the exercise we did in Saturday's class. This time for the start article I laid out some food on top of it. I wanted to prompt her right away to get the article before she gets to it and I'm hoping the food will reward her for "finding" it. I decided to do two scent pads instead of three this time because of how short the track is going to be. I'm pretty pleased the grass is not extremely short but I wondered what she will make of all those leaves at the start. I finished laying the track and fetch my dog. As we begin I tell her right away to get the article and she springs forwards to it. She does take a moment to eat her treats despite me asking her to "get it" but finally she does pick it up. Not sure I love that start with the treats? She gets tracking right away and I can see the scent pad really helps her find the track. She does pretty well for a few yards then it looks like she looses it for a bit and drifts right. She does come back to it really well at 1:37, then totally get distracted by something to the left at 1:41. I can tell it's not the track and tell her to "leave it", which she does and gets back to work. As we begin moving again she once again wants to go right. We come up to the marker which I placed a couple of yards before the turn. She does the turn pretty well but then it looks like she struggles a bit and goes wide. Since I stepped to the right of the article farther down, I wonder if she was smelling the rest of the track or if the wind was blowing the scent of the article that way? As we approach the second article, I prompt her before she gets to it and this time she happily picks it up right away. She also follows the track to the right which is amazing! But then she kinda goes a bit left, smells something and decides she needs to go to the bathroom. TBH I feel this is my fault for rushing and not giving her a chance to go before we started tracking. Sigh. We finish the track with the final article pick up.
Not a bad track but definitely not our best. I like that Tilly keeps trying even when she gets distracted. I am also seeing a marked improvement in myself this season at being able to tell when she is tracking versus when she lost the scent or is distracted.
We did go out on Monday to track and that wasn't super great either. Mostly because as I was laying out my track, another person came by with their dog off leash and made a million cross tracks on it. Oh well, those are the breaks.
We've also been practicing our article games everyday at home this week. I've now got her bringing the article to me and placing it in my hand pretty consistently (thank you Anne for reminding me to use that loopy training).
I'm adding Saturday's class videos for reference. First track went super well thanks to the excellent track that Ralph laid out for us. The second track was more of a struggle and it didn't help that I messed up by placing the article at the turn instead of before the steps to the right.
I have to say, I loved this. No, she didn’t follow the track precisely. But, her tracking behavior vs investigate behavior were both very clear. Articles are so much better! And when she’s on task, her head never comes up—she’s working her heart out. Serious progress!
ReplyDeleteThanks Judy! I feel we are closer to a good start and a consistent tracking behavior.
DeleteAgree with Judi...and before I even read your narrative, I thought to myself that you were doing a good job reading her tracking vs non-tracking behaviors! Very nice! Also, I know the spot you were in (actually practiced there quite a bit with Mila for our TD :)). It has a fair bit of contamination from dog walkers letting their dogs play there off leash. That area to the right gets wet and has a downhill slope so can draw them that direction. She did great returning to tracking each time. Love what a good leave it you have! And glad to hear the article play is going well - definitely looked good in the video. Maybe food on article for starts is something you do periodically...see if it helps in other ways (like a really forward start after the 'event' or makes the next article indication stronger) or if not, then it might be something you don't do as often.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anne! Good observation about that slope, I didn't even think of the fact that it could draw her in that direction. I'll keep this in mind next time I use this field. I'll continue trying out different approaches to the article like you suggest. Lately to improve her start I've drop the first article all together to get her focusing on the scent pads.
DeleteI wasn't able to be at the class where you did this track pattern originally. I've never tried this type of track with such short legs but I'm looking forward to trying it with Otter when I can track again. Tilly is a hard worker! I've never seen her get frustrated and just stop; she just continues to work until she finds it and then away she goes! Articles are definitely improving!
ReplyDeleteIt's a really fun exercise and I think Otter would love it!
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