January 22nd, 2025
Tracked today at the Yorktown Battlefield area with Heather and Wren. It was freezing with snow on the ground. After the feedback I got from class I hope my tracks were laid more efficiently. Smaller strides and I tired not stopping when dropping food. I laid Wren’s tracks and Heather laid Fin’s.
Track 1
60 yards with food drop every 6 steps. I used a mix of cheese and a hard sausage from a local butcher. Hoping he would like it better than chicken! Heather placed a tug toy at the end of the track. It’s not one of his favorite toys but I was curious to see what he would do seeing a tug vs a clothing article. It was a no go. He did not engage with the toy.
Track 2
This was 80 yards with a slight open angle turn. Food drops every 6 paces until the turn. Then it was 5 food drops every step leading up to the turn and 5 every step coming out of the turn. Then back to 6 paces. While Finwe was in the car waiting he somehow got into my tracking bag in the front floorboard and stole the raccoon pelt I had waiting for the last track. My plan was use a toy he likes for track 1, then a toy he loves for track 2 and then try the pelt for track 3. However since he was so interested in the raccoon we ended up using it for track 2 and 3. Finwe ended up skipping quite a bit of food during this track. He stayed on it though with his head down for the majority of the the track. He did pick up the food during the open angle turn. This was to the right. Our goal was keep the turns to the left since that’s what was done in training but due to the terrain the turn had to go right. Once we got to the end he did not pick up the raccoon! 🙄 I was pretty surprised to be honest. Once I asked him to pick it up he did. We did a mixture of treating for picking it up twice and a quick name of tug with it.
Track 3
90 yards with 6 pace food drops. Raccoon at the end. He again skipped a lot of food. Two off leash dogs did show up in the distance. So this was a distraction. Once I verbally told him to track he would go back to the track but would eventually stop and look up again. I did toss some food on the track once to help move him along. He was skipping so much food he wasn’t really getting rewarded to ignore the dogs and put his head down. So I hoped by having some food right there it would Reinforce the behavior I asking for. At the end of the track he again did not pick up the raccoon until he was asked to. Sighhhh
i think his tracking is pretty good. extend the food to 8, and try to go 90, 100, 110 next. then 100, 110, 120. then 110, 120, 130 etc. let's get this boy going! no article at the start is correct. i think what you are doing with the pelt is good - if he puts his mouth on it the first time, mark YES and reward. then let him try again, if he puts his mouth on it, mark YES and reward. then be done. just make sure you are marking YES when he does what we want.
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