November 27th

We were traveling for lure coursing so took a few days off of tracking practice.

Today I set up the tracks in my neighbors backyard. As MaryAnn suggested I single laid a track, worked it. Then double laid the track, worked it and then triple laid the last track. He was excited to enter the neighbors backyard since in the past he has been allowed to chase squirrels in their yard. So he was pulling me quite a bit thinking that was going to happen.

Track 1

This was 12 feet and I used chicken again. Spaced 6-8 inches apart. He seemed eager once he realized what was going on but skipped over the chunks of food at the start flag. I think he visually saw the second piece of laid chicken and just went straight for it. I did not restart him though since he was moving right along picking up the trailed food.

Track 2

25 feet long with food spaced 8-10 inches apart. He had a much better start this time. In the middle of the track he did turn to the side and try to go back however this was only the one time. Previously he would veer off more frequently. During this track I prompted him to track and pointed down to a piece of food. He got the hint.

Track 3

35 feet with food spaced about 8-12 inches apart. He had a nice start again and stayed nose down and pretty straight for the majority of the track. At one point he did turn to the side and try to veer. This time I just stopped him from going behind me and waited for him to figure it out and keep going again on his own. He didn’t take too much time at to start again.

My greyhound enjoyed picking up the food he left behind!