I wrote this on Thursday...
As planned, yesterday after work I had dinner, then went to the park for some remedial tracking. Dottie was excused. I started with Pie. I made the scent pad, went a few paces, put food in my footsteps for 6 paces, then 6 paces no food, then 6 paces food, then no food, a corner and then an article. Then I did a straight line with some food in the middle then an article. Pie seemed confident and did fine. We meandered around the park doing lots of short legs, corners and some food. Pie just got better and better. Next it was Fancy’s turn. As I’ve mentioned, I don’t use food with her since she seems to think she has lost the track when the food runs out. So remedial for her is short, short tracks. The articles are the things that give her confidence since she only finds those when she is correct.
As planned, yesterday after work I had dinner, then went to the park for some remedial tracking. Dottie was excused. I started with Pie. I made the scent pad, went a few paces, put food in my footsteps for 6 paces, then 6 paces no food, then 6 paces food, then no food, a corner and then an article. Then I did a straight line with some food in the middle then an article. Pie seemed confident and did fine. We meandered around the park doing lots of short legs, corners and some food. Pie just got better and better. Next it was Fancy’s turn. As I’ve mentioned, I don’t use food with her since she seems to think she has lost the track when the food runs out. So remedial for her is short, short tracks. The articles are the things that give her confidence since she only finds those when she is correct.
The neat thing about where I was tracking is it is boarded by houses and there is a small hill in the park. Structures and hills (really anything other than flat ground) influence scent. Scent is kind of like a fog. It gathers in low lying areas and drifts on air currents. So while Fancy’s tracks/ legs were short and the articles plentiful, she still had some trouble due to the unexpected actions of the scent. I felt she gained confidence by the end of our session.
Which brings us to Tracking Update 4. At lunch today I took 4 articles and laid a short track with many turns for Pie. It had drizzled earlier today (weird!) and I could see my path, plus I was careful to use landmarks like “left and parallel the patch of dead grass,” “ right at the soccer net,” and “article next to the man hole cover.” (You don’t see too may manhole covers in a soccer field.) Yep, Pie was pretty much perfect! (It was an I love tracking day.) She didn’t get lost, she went at an ok speed, and was very confident.
Dottie’s turn- that dog can track. She has maybe too much confidence and that causes her to go fast and over shoot corners. If I can get some strong corrections in she will slow down but it is refreshing to NOT be working a wilting flower. I tracked her on the other side of the parking lot and here the grass was deeper and I could really see my footsteps. Again I started off with 4 articles then after we were done with that did “extra legs.” This is where I leave the dog in a down and do a leg with the dog watching. It is nice because it makes it harder (but not impossible) to forget where I just was, and the dog sees me putting the article down, so they know it is out there somewhere, and if they get into trouble they will keep working. I always end tracks this way. I just realized something. When I started tracking, I couldn’t do this with Dottie- she didn’t know how to hold a down! That shows how long I’ve been tracking… I thought Dottie needed a challenge so I tracked her over 2 consecutive plastic utility covers. It wasn’t so much the plastic that gave her problems, but the fact that they were recessed pretty far into the ground, so I’m sure that messed the scent up. She eventually figured it out and it was good problem solving.
Next up, speaking of “problems”- Fancy. The wilting flower herself. She started off down her track- then had a bathroom break. She’s never done this before so I ignored it. The odd part was it was more like marking (which she does do) than actually having to go. She looked at me, then volunteered to track again. But then she stopped and had another tinkle. This time I corrected and she started up again, made the corner and stopped to sniff a tree. I told her to keep tracking, which she ignored, so I corrected her again. 2 corrections in a short time was too much for her and she tried to refuse to do anything. Luckily for me that article was about 2 feet away so I was able to convince her to take a step, and then she found it. Whew. We started up again and now she was tracking, but slower than a snail’s pace. (Dottie is too fast, Fancy too slow.) Slowness is not bad. But this slow for Fancy is bad because it meant she was not happy. However, I was smart and put her articles close (smart for once) and after she found the next 2 easily she got more confident. K pointed out Fancy keeps her foot on the track to check different locations but make sure she doesn’t lose the last known location and I saw Fancy doing this during this track. Very cool, Fancy. After the last article, I did the extra legs and Fancy got more and more confident. At one point I tracked up to a chain link fence then turned left. Fancy followed the scent up to the fence, then seemed lost. She tried to go right, but that wasn’t it. Then she came back to me, but that wasn’t it. Back to the fence. She soon found it and we continued on. Later I realized the wind was blowing from behind, pushing the scent through the fence and she was confused because to her, the smell kept going, but there was a barrier in her way. The fact that she checked (in her mind) random directions and didn’t just quit is great!
Yeah tracking! I love tracking! (Today. Cue ominous music…)
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