December 9th
Drove back up to Riverside Farm Park. We went right before it was about to start raining, so I thought the park would not be so busy. When I set up tracks at this location last week, he was very distracted. I figured we would try it again. I laid the tracks out exactly the same as last time. There ended up being quite a few people with their dogs at the park. I know this is good training however, its a bit frustrating running into so many dogs not on a leash in a public area.
Track 1
30 feet with 12 inch food drops. He started out nicely. He actually was moving a lot quicker than he has been in the past. Then a man got out of his car with two small dogs off leash. They did not fully approach us, but they did walk our direction. Finwë got distracted and ignored the track to focus on the dogs. I did want MaryAnn suggested and got his attention and then tossed some treats down on the track. No pointing! 😅 It worked and got him going on the track for a couple of steps but then he looked up again. Over all though it wasn’t to long just waiting him out to get back on the track. I’m just glad I didn’t completely loose him. Once he saw the article he pulled me towards it and skipped a couple of food drops.
Track 2
Another 30 feet with 12 inch food drops. He had another good start. He did begin kind of weaving, back-and-forth a bit and looking up to passing dogs and walkers. He would go back to the track himself however, he never really got as straight as I would’ve liked. A leather glove was the ending article. He did not act as excited as he did for the earmuffs. I had to kick the glove around a bit to get him to engage.
We continued to play with the leather glove. Trying to keep it fun!
This is frustrating and you are handling it well. I would like to see your tracks be lengthening. Ideally each session is three tracks…and they get progressively longer over time. So today could have been 30, 40, 50 feet. next time out, 40, 50, 60. Next time, 50,60,70. Keep building like that. Keep the food the same. If the track length is predictable, it actually opens the option of “it’s almost over, Im going to look around.” We want to be building a “keep going” mindset.
ReplyDeletenice glove play!
ReplyDeleteGreat job in Track 1 using the food to redirect. I noticed that after that first redirect, his self redirections happened much quicker each time. Good training!
ReplyDeleteKeep lengthening as Judi said and as needed, change your training goal if you arrive and there's off leash dogs that may be too much. Perhaps it's get out of the car, track 10' and then load back up before playing Can You or another game.