December 3rd

Drove up to Riverview Farm Park. I set up 2 tracks. They were both 45 feet. The first one had food drops closer together. About 8-10 inches. The second track had them spaced out to about 12 inches.

Track 1

Great start! He recognized the start flag right away on his own. Tried to veer off once but got back on once I didn’t give any slack. Once he arrived at the article I rewarded him. Looking back I did this incorrectly. During class, the food was being place on top of the article however Judi suggested that I begin to treat him after he arrives at the article. For some reason during these tracks I placed the food on the article after he located them. So in theory this is the same as having the food on top already. I should have given him the food from my hand.

Track 2

During the middle of this track, he became very distracted, staring off at something. I am wondering if the food drops were too far apart. He did start back to the track but I felt like I had to prompt him a lot. Not pointing at the ground IS VERY HARD! I found myself doing this twice after watching my videos back. Once we got to the article, I again dropped the food on top instead of giving it to him. He then was more interested in our surroundings and sniffing for food than the article. It was a lot of prompting and encouraging him to engage with the item. Once he realized what we were doing though he got more into it. Pounce, grab article and I had the treats ready.