February 4th, 2025
Heather and I met up with Lauritz and his poodle Max from the Tidewater Tracking Club in Yorktown. The weather ended up being warmer than the dogs would have liked!
Goal for the tracks: I was hoping to work on endurance.
How did it feel: Finwe was not himself. I am not sure if he was just feeling the heat or what. He seemed to track okay he just did not want to play with the articles at all. He was also not dying to take the food from anyone. Also, every time we got back to the car he would jump in right away. I usually have to really coax him to get back into the car because he doesn't want to just sit in there!
3 Things that went well:
1. His tracking went pretty well. A little bit of weaving but his head was down for the most part. Even with the distractions of Hampton's K9 unit being in the area training tracking.
2. Got some great info from someone else with experience. Thanks Lauritz!
3.
3 Things I'd like to improve:
1. Working full time can make training long tracks difficult. I try and plan around my days off. When I dedicate time, a location and meeting someone to training it can be hard to throw in the towel when my dog is not feeling it. So I need to be better at reading him. Hindsight is 20/20 though.
2. ARTICLES! Going to get clarification from MaryAnn on tying up the article(s) so that I can tug on it.
3. Working more on the "rotation" Turns, Endurance, Articles and Starts.
Track 1
110 Yards with food every 8 paces (this will be the second time at this distance and food spacing). It had a right open angle turn. I think I or Heather got confused when we were listing everything we needed done on our tracks and this got mixed up. Finwe and I are working left angles turns vs right. Heather put in a right angle. This was the first time we tracked at this location. It was the practice site for the Tidewater Tracking Club. During COVID they stopped mowing the fields. I was told the fields ended up waist and shoulder high and heavy with thorns. I am not sure when they started mowing again. The field did still have a fair bit of briars however it was workable. The only thing was that the food drops would fall through the grass and get hidden. Finwe would spend a fair bit of time snorkeling out the food. Heather laid the track and placed his favorite tug toy at the end. He wanted nothing to do with it! Even if I did try and move it a bit.
Track 2
This was shortened to 80 yards with food every 10 paces. Finwe was acting like the heat was getting to him. The sun was a lot warmer than I we anticipated. So I decided to shorten the length to avoid him being out in the field for too long since he is a slow tracker.
We stopped after these tracks. It was 76° and we were in the direct sun and Fin just hit too warm. He was not enjoying himself.
Video of Lauritz and Max tracking
Track 1: HEATHER ERROR. Look at that! My own notes for your track on what to lay totally tattled on myself. I even wrote (left open) and laid a right open! Good gravy.. someone send me to school and work on my reading comprehension.. or maybe my directions for right verses left.
ReplyDeleteSome thoughts. I respectfully suggest it’s a bad idea to attach a story to a bad day. He wasn’t himself—that’s all we know. Once you apply a story to it (it was the heat) you’ve set yourself up to think he can’t track in the heat. You have NO idea why he wasn’t himself, just accept that he wasn’t…keep your journal…and we can draw conclusions after he’s tracked in 62-74 degrees 20 times. I can come up with 30 reasons he had a bad day, and I wasn’t even there!
ReplyDeleteI would take unwillingness to take food as information. Dogs who aren’t great eaters (I have one) refuse food at the first suggestion of emotional discomfort. We don’t know what’s causing that, and we shouldn’t make up stories (there’s a theme here). Simple fact—not taking food. I’d suggest you test some parameters—can he take food in his crate? Will he eat if you set it down vs from your hand? Will he eat if you toss it, so it moved? You can build food eating if you can find a circumstance in which he will eat. Here’s a critical question—in training, is food something you give him, OR IS EATING FOOD ON CUE A TRAINED BEHAVIOR??? I see you this week, we can talk more about that.
For the rest of his tracking career, the article needs to be on a leash so it can twitch as he approaches. This isn’t a quick fix, we want to build a habit of the pounce—we want him to expect it, to prepare for it when he scents the article.
Good job to shorten the tracks up when he’s not feeling it. Flora, you know training isn’t linear…Fin wasn’t himself, that’s ok, let’s see how the next time goes!
Now, the video. I’m not sure what you are unhappy about!!! He’s straight and going forward. He seems to be eating food (snorkeling is fine—he’s gathering track scent while sniffing for food). I’m going to be harsh here, and ask you to compare that to Lauritiz’s dog. Yours has much nicer tracking behavior. Nice job!
NOTE: at one point you turn around to speak to ??—Please—never take your eyes off your dog!!!