December 18th
Our training goal was to replicate the tracks from the day before since we had so much trouble. We went to a different park and I ended up using a vacant frisbee golf field. It was still a warm day but it was a weekday. I got out before lunch thinking we might be able to avoid some extra distractions.
Track 1
30 yards with the food drops spaced 18-20 inches apart. During this track someone did get out of their car with a small dog however I was able to get him back on. I did notice him being more visual a couple of times vs using his nose. Sometimes the pale colored chicken bits stuck out sitting on the dead grass. He would also check some small bits of paper trash that was in the field/track area. At the end he did not want to play/pick up with the article at all.
Track 2
40 yards with the food a bit closer together around 15 inches. Again I noticed him being a visual and looking for the food vs nose down. It’s not for the whole track. He eventually got into the flow of the track. At the end he again did not really want to engage with the article. As Judi suggested I put some food on the article in hopes of a bit more interaction with it. The man and dog from the parking lot ended up behind us. I was able to toss the ear muffs for a few catches though. Better than nothing!
Track 3
50 yards with the food back to being 12 inches apart since this was a longer track. During the middle of this track he stopped and looked up for a long while. No dogs to watch so he was just staring at whatever. He was also panting heavier than he has in our previous training sessions due to the warmer weather. I am not sure if that had anything to do with it. There was also a good bit of leaf litter in this field and it was sometimes concealing the food. Chicken was placed on top of the article at the end. He again was far more interested in looking around than picking it up. I got one catch out of him. We then went to a fenced in sanded horse paddock nearby. He was able to run there. I brought the glove article with me. I tossed it and let him run around with it in his mouth and played tug-o-war with it as well. Play tug, tug, tug and then treat.
I'm glad you were able to retry these tracks today! It looked like his rhythm was best in Track 2 so I would repeat these 3 tracks again. Remember to offer water between tracks, especially if it's warmer. Good job getting him back on track with a treat toss to the track. When he's taking a break like that, you can also try to water then as well.
ReplyDeleteFor articles, I'm wondering if we could modify an article game where the article has a little bait that comes free when he grabs it or tosses it. This may be a puzzle that provides more interest to him and the food comes from the magical found article rather than from your hand. You could give it a try by putting a few small pieces in the glove and shaking them free while it's on the ground, then reload and encourage him to do it. Give it a whirl and let me know how that goes! Another idea is to do his best article game *before* running the tracks so it's fresh in his mind.
i agree with jen re: article game. put your straight line track, get him out of the car crate and right at the back of the car or side of car - play opps i dropped something. have your yummies in your hand and just stand there quiet - you need to stop picking it up and tossing it, you need to stop telling him four times to pick it up while he ignores you. just wait him out. if he makes ANY motion toward picking it up, YES and feed. then just look at it again - ANY motion toward picking it up, YES and feed. then go run the first track. then put him in the crate. lay your next and repeat the article GAME at the car. perhaps we can create a behavior at the car that gets him excited about finding the article.
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