February 28th, 2025 & March 2nd, 2025
Today we met up at Surrender Field in Yorktown. Very nice sunny day. I was only able to get in 2 tracks due to time constraints. Also included in this blog is a different day that we practiced starts.
Track Layer: Heather
Treats: steak and string cheese
Article: coyote tail on tether
Goal for the day: Super fresh easy tracks. His last tracking session was during class where his track got aged for a little over 2 hours. This practice was to make things fun, short and easy for him.
How did it feel: Aside from this not being his favorite location (he tracks here even slower than usual because of the thorns) things felt pretty good for the first track.
3 Things that went well:
- I could feel a difference when letting the line out before walking up the track myself.
- I feel like I am getting more of a sense when he is looking for the track (loss of scent) vs just not working.
- He did a great job looking for the second track when we went off of it. He knew something was up and I should have trusted him.
3 Things to Improve:
- Continue working on line tension.
- Still working on holding my feet in place vs pushing him up the track.
- I could hear MaryAnn every time he stopped "Your clock has started". When he stops and stares off we are going with "okay let's track" every time to get him going again.
Track 1
Short straight 80 yard track, with food every 15 paces. During this track I was finding him going back for food that he missed. In the past he has not been doing this much. He did lop down the track okay though, I was trying really hard to let the line out and then step forward. At the end we used his favorite article since this practice was to make things extra fun. To my surprise he left it to get a food drop he missed and then he went back to grab it.
Track 2
This ended up being a bit of a mess. 100 yards with one open turn. He did pretty well until we got to the turn. Things got a bit hazy on where the track actually was after the turn. I could tell he was not sure and kind of wandered back and forth a bit. He then found a cheese drop, I felt bad because I kept pulling him off. We ended up being off the track quite a bit. Heather had mixed this track up with a previous one.
Article Practice
He is not willing to work for his dinner. He just might as well not even eat it in his mind🙄. Once a day we play this game for a few medium reward treats.
March 2, 2025
After work we went up to one of the high schools. I wanted to practice Starts. I set these up how Jennifer suggested. I laid 4 straight tracks. All 60 yards with an ending article. I didn’t have enough cord to tie each article up on a tether so we just went without, I was curious to see how he would do. The tracks were laid 15 minutes apart. He had a rough start on all 4 tracks. I would come in at an angle and he would want to go straight instead of using his nose to find the correct starting angle. So this is something else to continue to work on.
Track layer: Myself
Treats Used: salami and cheese
2/28 one and two - i thought track one was pretty good. the multi flora rose is prickly and he is clearly picking his was through. track two - was a struggle, at the seven minute mark, i would have likely thrown out an article and called it a day. i nearly spit out my cocktail at the "piece of crap" comment made by heather! you girls are going to kill me. you have to 'start your clock' and make a decision. and until you are more familiar with Yorktown, i strongly suggest a ground marker at the turn. he is working his heart out and i don't want a track laying 'puzzle' to be part of his experience. i love the article work - keep that up. he loves it when everyone gets excited over his pick up! i will watch your straight line start video now.
ReplyDeletestraight line starts - yes, we really need to be aware of how you are approaching your first flag. with that said, the other utility flags were confusing for him. i'm not sure how far apart these four tracks were but he did not seem to be air scenting, which is excellent. he clearly likes this grass better than the crap at Yorktown. he is learning your 'track' command, you are talking WAAAY too much. and one 1, 2, and 3 you use your YES marker word for him looking at the article - you pay him for nothing. then he goes back to the article and picks it up. you mark again. raise your criteria for YES and food rewards - oh, you did raise them on 4 - in fact you say 'im just going to be quiet' - great idea. if he looks at it, you look at it. wait him out - he knows the drill.
ReplyDeletei also think using scent pads may help him get a stronger start. i'm not sure if I have you next or Judi has you - either way, ask us to show you how to put in scent pads for him - it changed the way my feral cocker starts. i think it could help finwe too.