Teaching an old dog new tracking tricks
I am proud to say that River has been learning some new ways to track, at nine years young! I had always let her cast too much, in part because I was a greenhorn at urban tracking, and in part because I thought it was her style. But it is a waste of energy - especially in dry conditions and at her age. So I have been spending the past month working on a strong scent pad and start using footstep style tracking methods. River is UTDX-ready but I want to improve her veg starts...there is no end to training and her hard surface work is much better than her veg now, which can happen if you don't keep up your veg work in tracking. 
In the video below you can see she is getting it at the beginning. I've spent the past month doing ONLY veg with her, and lots of scent pads and starts. She liked this because it meant lots of cookies. This was her first hard surface track since early August. You can see how hard she is working at the start to keep her nose down! I am so proud of her. We were tracking in the evening and by the time we ran it, it was pitch black at 8:30 PM.
I did a short L - track with Jet as well. She did an awesome job of following the painted line after her non-veg turn. 
Ted did a scent pad and start only, as he needs to calm down to get going. As usual, I drove home on a tracking high! Even though the season is changing, it is still great to get out.
In the video below you can see she is getting it at the beginning. I've spent the past month doing ONLY veg with her, and lots of scent pads and starts. She liked this because it meant lots of cookies. This was her first hard surface track since early August. You can see how hard she is working at the start to keep her nose down! I am so proud of her. We were tracking in the evening and by the time we ran it, it was pitch black at 8:30 PM.She starts out good on non-veg, but I can see that she is slightly stressed about how I am keeping her on track by using a tighter line. When she began to make small circles, I said no once, but she is not used to verbal corrections. I decided I would keep a tighter line and restrict the size of her circles with a tight line. She did this Open Box shaped track to the glove, and despite some circling on hard surface I was very happy. I stopped video -taping to help her and handle the line better. There were enough treats that she got going again and it was a positive experience. But, it was the START I was working on. 
Sometimes when we train, we have to realize that when you try to fix one problem, another one can pop out. Bob Vest, a herding clinician, compared this to a bucket of water. When you plug one hole, another one can pop out, draining your bucket. With work, you plug the holes so your bucket (the dog) can carry all of the water.
I headed out around 7 PM but by the time I laid tracks and ran dogs, it was after 8 PM and pitch black. I went to a Church that has a big field and nice parking lot. The grass was very sparse, but it let me see where I placed my treats to ensure the dogs stayed on track. I wanted to focus on handling, but did snap a few pictures of the other dogs.
Caden did three tracks much like we did two weekends ago. By the time we did his last track it was pitch black and I could not see my landmarks, but he did he turn dead-on making me feel very confident in this training approach.
Sometimes when we train, we have to realize that when you try to fix one problem, another one can pop out. Bob Vest, a herding clinician, compared this to a bucket of water. When you plug one hole, another one can pop out, draining your bucket. With work, you plug the holes so your bucket (the dog) can carry all of the water.I headed out around 7 PM but by the time I laid tracks and ran dogs, it was after 8 PM and pitch black. I went to a Church that has a big field and nice parking lot. The grass was very sparse, but it let me see where I placed my treats to ensure the dogs stayed on track. I wanted to focus on handling, but did snap a few pictures of the other dogs.Caden did three tracks much like we did two weekends ago. By the time we did his last track it was pitch black and I could not see my landmarks, but he did he turn dead-on making me feel very confident in this training approach. I did a short L - track with Jet as well. She did an awesome job of following the painted line after her non-veg turn. Ted did a scent pad and start only, as he needs to calm down to get going. As usual, I drove home on a tracking high! Even though the season is changing, it is still great to get out. Category Article Beginners tracking, Schutzhund, urban tracking
