November 23, 2025
Location: Newport News Park
Track Layer: Heather
Food: Cheese and salami
Article: Coyote tail on tether and a glove on tether.
Goal for the day: Work on our homework 2, two-turn tracks with an article at each turn.
How did it feel?
Overall, things felt okay. He stopped quite a few times on both tracks, which can definitely be discouraging when he’s not fully focusing.
3 Things That Went Well:
- Each time he approached an article, he leapt toward it before the tethered pull happened, exactly what we want.
- When he stopped due to losing scent (or because he decided staring into the distance was more interesting), I was able to get him back to work more easily. A simple “Come on, let’s track” worked, whereas before he needed much more coaxing.
- Despite distractions and frustration on his part, he still completed both tracks and worked through multiple challenges. Loads of frisbee golf teams, other dogs, a vulture trying to steal his toy...
3 Things to Improve On:
- I’m going to start incorporating a scuff pattern and possibly the drag bag at turns. Hoping to wean him off the “5 drops in, 5 drops out” system.
- During Track 1, I do think I could have offered some water and that may have helped a bit.
- Keep working on Judi’s homework
Track 1
Heather laid a little over 100 yards with two turns and an article after each. The setup was: scent pad at the start → food drops every 10–15 paces → then 1 drop every yard for 5 yards into the turn and 5 yards out → then 15 paces to the article on a string. I alternated between a toy article and a “real” article for this track.
While we were running Lauritz and Max, Finwë’s track aged for about an hour. Apparently during that time, his first article, the coyote tail caught the attention of a resident vulture. Right when we started, she swooped down and marched straight toward his article. Finwë was very eager to handle that situation himself! Lauritz eventually had to go out and shoo the bird away.
Needless to say, he was a bit distracted after that fiasco.
Track 2
This one was shorter, 80 yards with a similar pattern. Because of space limitations, Heather could only fit in one turn instead of two. Fin again seemed a bit distracted and possibly frustrated. When he loses scent, he tends to start whining, and we saw that several times today.
Track 1 was quite nice. I would water him before re-scenting every time. I dont think he was "walking with his head up", I think he was giving you info and acknowledging the turn. Perhaps the five cookies in and out of the turn cued him. IF you are set on eliminating the five cookies in and out, perhaps leave the five going in and use a scent pad 15 steps out of the turn. On your next outing, try a scent pad 15 before the turn, followed by 5 cookies going out. Have a plan you can evaluate after. Heather and Lauritz played with scent pads yesterday so they can help before you see Judi next. Regarding looking away, whining AND rolling - I would be interrupting those behaviors sooner rather than later. Ask about a plan in your next class.
ReplyDeleteI agree with MAM! There was some really nice tracking here.Remember, he’s a tall dog….putting his nose all the way down to the grass is potentially physically uncomfortable. If he can cruise with his head a bit higher, AND still stay over the track….I’d accept that. The turn will tell you if he’s just cruising with his head up, or actually following the track.
ReplyDeleteAnd frustration behavior is good information—we can’t fix it in real time, but we can alter the next track just before the points where he had trouble on this one!
ReplyDelete