Tracking Training Log Entry #1
Newly motivated after recent tests and new ideas, I went out tonight armed with wieners and a spray bottle of water. My goal tonight was to see how River reacted to a sprayed track, in the cool of the evening. I did not attend the recent Steve White seminar but think that using a spray on the hard surface will be motivating for her, as a little bit of a problem solving technique.
I headed for Leon's Furniture in Gasoline Alley, south of Red Deer about 10 minutes from my house, as I recall it has it's own lot and a big parking lot surrounded by nice green boulevards. I drove around the building several times before deciding what to do. The main issue was walking back to my car, as Leon's is SO big that I didn't want to walk all the way around it for the sake of a short track.
In the end I decided I would be keeping a short enough line tonight that I would try to use some natural features to my advantage, to help keep scent where I hoped it would go. Scent was blowing to the west and so would blow "out" of my little rectangle (technically!). I also made a little "jiggy-jog" turn away from the building and ensured none of my corners lined up. Normally I hate an enclosed track and prefer linear. However tonight was an experiment in keeping River on track. 
As I walked I sprayed so that I walked into the mist and aimed at the track. I left wiener bits every 30 steps or so. After the first non-veg turn was a metal article. A wood article was placed after the last turn on veg, and a small leather glove was left at the end of the track.
I only aged the track 20 minutes for River as I didn't want the benefit of the spray to dissipate. River was literally screaming as she came out of the car, and she wanted to play tug with her line, so she was in a jolly mood.
River's track
I am practicing a new kind of start where I walk up and ask her to find her track with no pointing at the scent pad. This seems to be the "way of the West" unlike at home where we pointed to start. River followed my walk-in and took off with no problem. She overshot the first corner as the wind was going that way. She was going a bit fast, so I asked her to "steady" (herding term) and then when she tried to do a big cast with her head up, I gave her a soft "nooooooo - find it" so that she focuses a bit more and doesn't do these big flying casts when she first starts out. She always expends too much energy when first starting out this way. She caught on right away, put her head down and found the turn.
The rest of her track was what I would normally expect from River in terms of her ability to stay on track with confidence - it was so nice to see. My biggest surprises were that she actually LICKED the track three times as she dipped her head. I have never seen that before.
Secondly, I loved how she found the little jog that crossed over the little obstacle with a lightpost and cedar shrubs, filled with gravel. These were very short legs - 10 and 20 meters - shorter than allowed in a test. I just wanted to see if she would be faithful to the track and not cut the distance to go to the next parallel leg - and she stayed right on track! This was the best track she has done in a month so I thin the spray is definitely a confidence booster for her!!
When we got back to the car, River told me that she was insulted, and that it was "the track of a simpleton." I thought it would be fair to enter her opinion in my log.
Caden's track
As I followed River I dropped bait for Caden. I ran him on the track immediately. I tried to ensure he had a slow, steady pace as he will be doing Schutzhund tracking. Sadly, I forgot his pinch collar and he doesn't track on a harness, so I had him on a buckle collar and struggled to hold him back. He was dead on, nicely nose down - even on the hard surface. It was harder work for him to do this with the kind of nose down tracking that he does. I made sure to remember to praise him quietly along the way.
I have not done hard surface with him for nearly 2 months, and was very pleased with his behaviour and as always he is highly driven to track. However, as he took the last corner on veg, he lifted his head and was really panting and had some foam at the corners of his lips. This was interesting as River, who is 9, was nowhere near to being this tired yet she found her track more calmly and with less exertion. I am happy about that - she will have to go a long distance to do UTDX and it is better if she conserves her energy.
Caden was so excited that he expended a lot of energy on a short track. I definitely need to remember his pinch collar and will put more food to slow him down and keep him more calm on track! I won't do too much hard surface with him as he is getting much more confident with his nose down, and I want to keep that confidence up on veg, unless I run him on a freshly sprayed hard surface track of his own to keep his nose down.
I have not done hard surface with him for nearly 2 months, and was very pleased with his behaviour and as always he is highly driven to track. However, as he took the last corner on veg, he lifted his head and was really panting and had some foam at the corners of his lips. This was interesting as River, who is 9, was nowhere near to being this tired yet she found her track more calmly and with less exertion. I am happy about that - she will have to go a long distance to do UTDX and it is better if she conserves her energy.
Caden was so excited that he expended a lot of energy on a short track. I definitely need to remember his pinch collar and will put more food to slow him down and keep him more calm on track! I won't do too much hard surface with him as he is getting much more confident with his nose down, and I want to keep that confidence up on veg, unless I run him on a freshly sprayed hard surface track of his own to keep his nose down.
Category Article Art; Jet; River; German Shepherd; Border Collie, Caden, Schutzhund tracking, tracking maps, Urban Tracking Training Journals
