Caden's "Show me the Money" 750 meter long urban track
Every time I track, I do fairly short, regimented Schutzhund tracks with Caden, focusing on his style. When I put him away, he always cries for more. So I decided last night to give him more, just out of curiousity. I put small jackpots along the way, thinking that if he was struggling, I could end it at any of them. The track was 750 meters long - nearly UTDX length, but only 30 minutes old.
Well, he did this whole track in 10 minutes. So he showed me the money, LOL!! All that whining about wanting to do more was legit! Caden did the entire track at a steady fast pace completing it in 10 minutes with no help at all. I praised him when he was on, but didn't once say "no" or manipulate the line.
HEY, I JUST RE-READ THIS WHOLE POST AND SOMEHOW, IT DOESN'T REALLY GET ACROSS HOW THRILLED I AM WITH HOW CADEN DID, SO I AM JAMMING THAT IN HERE!
(ok, I got it out of my system!)
I saved a hard surface turn for the very end. He found it but wobbled a little at the turn and on the legs. The only sad thing about the track was that my battery was flashing red on my camera the whole time! I took pictures sparingly and only video-taped the last bit, which is his hard surface turn...here it is...
BUT FIRST, MY LITTLE SPEECH
Now, bear in mind, that I do NOT do urban with him. I only do field / SchH right now, so this track was literally throwing caution to the wind! My long-term goal is for him to be very steady on his non-veg, much like his is on his veg. This track was just about seeing what he would do and how he would handle it.
He has not done anything "urban" since last year. I encouraged him a lot on the non-veg turn, and (argh) once, I accidentally stepped on his line. I wanted him to have a good experience. You can see him attempt to put his head down to footstep track. I don't expect this in urban, but I love the work ethic and know I can work with this when we do urban more seriously.
I was seriously out of breath (embarrassing!) because of his pace the whole way! In hindsight, I should not have put this at the end, when he was tired. I should have plotted so it was half way, rather than have him hit the hardest thing when he was not as fresh. Next time!
Here is the map. As you can see from the dark blue lines, he just made small circles on corners, or over-stepped them a bit.
Here are the photos of the whole track. There was no wind and it was humid. He was so hot at the end, from this intense track. Boy, was I proud!!! I have made some minimal comments of interest for each photo.
Nice start, his starts are calming down and he settles in faster now.
He loves his tug game after. He is going to be fun when he actually reaches urban tests! Hopefully we will get a TD this fall to start.
Good boy!
Well, he did this whole track in 10 minutes. So he showed me the money, LOL!! All that whining about wanting to do more was legit! Caden did the entire track at a steady fast pace completing it in 10 minutes with no help at all. I praised him when he was on, but didn't once say "no" or manipulate the line.
HEY, I JUST RE-READ THIS WHOLE POST AND SOMEHOW, IT DOESN'T REALLY GET ACROSS HOW THRILLED I AM WITH HOW CADEN DID, SO I AM JAMMING THAT IN HERE!
(ok, I got it out of my system!)
I saved a hard surface turn for the very end. He found it but wobbled a little at the turn and on the legs. The only sad thing about the track was that my battery was flashing red on my camera the whole time! I took pictures sparingly and only video-taped the last bit, which is his hard surface turn...here it is...
BUT FIRST, MY LITTLE SPEECH
Now, bear in mind, that I do NOT do urban with him. I only do field / SchH right now, so this track was literally throwing caution to the wind! My long-term goal is for him to be very steady on his non-veg, much like his is on his veg. This track was just about seeing what he would do and how he would handle it.
He has not done anything "urban" since last year. I encouraged him a lot on the non-veg turn, and (argh) once, I accidentally stepped on his line. I wanted him to have a good experience. You can see him attempt to put his head down to footstep track. I don't expect this in urban, but I love the work ethic and know I can work with this when we do urban more seriously.
I was seriously out of breath (embarrassing!) because of his pace the whole way! In hindsight, I should not have put this at the end, when he was tired. I should have plotted so it was half way, rather than have him hit the hardest thing when he was not as fresh. Next time!
Here is the map. As you can see from the dark blue lines, he just made small circles on corners, or over-stepped them a bit.
Here are the photos of the whole track. There was no wind and it was humid. He was so hot at the end, from this intense track. Boy, was I proud!!! I have made some minimal comments of interest for each photo.
Nice start, his starts are calming down and he settles in faster now.
He crossed a road with no issues, then went up and over a small hill which did cause him to quarter just a little. I did no correcting and said nothing negative. It was just a fun day off and I wanted to see what he did.
That tail is always up when we track!
So he overshot the turn a little and came back to it. Here, he finds my little treat after the turn (about 3 m after).
Another overshot turn. So I know what I need to work on. For Schutzhund tracking, this is not acceptable. For CKC tracking it is a minor step beyond the corner and just fine. In part it is his speed that causes this. I can age the tracks more to slow him down.
At the turn ahead onto a gravel parking lot, he circled and whined. But then he took the turn and was very good on the gravel! I had to draw this onto the Google Earth map, above.
Very nice nose-down work on the gravel. I thought the gravel lot would be a nice first n-v surface for him before getting to the parking lot. The pink arrow is pointing at a treat he missed. I used a mix of kibble and dried liver - using the dry liver at points where I wanted to reward him (after turns or transitions).
At this point he has crossed another road and a small sidewalk.
Caden made this turn on the boulevard easily and didn't hesitate to step out onto this parking lot. He weaved a little and as you can see, lifted his head. In Schutzhund the dogs should not lift their heads, but in urban, of course they will. I don't worry about this. Schutzhund is all on fields and not on hard surface.
Of all things, this little depression with dead grass and flowers threw him off more than anything! He really casted about in there, before finding his way out! Good problem solving, good experience.
Coming up to the final turn bringing us onto the parking lot.
I used my film editing program to capture a picture at the non-veg turn. If you see the video, he lifts his head and knows the scent has gone somewhere. He makes a circle, and comes onto the leg after the turn.
He is not too sure what he is doing and suddenly reaches some treats I put on a black line so that they were not visible. This helped him out. He goes off on an angle, then I think he gets wind of the article and pulls to it! It is tricky to get stills from video - this was not the one I wanted but it will have to do (for those of you who cant watch the video).
Happy Boy! I only put a jackpot on the article for now, but he is "getting" that it means something now, even though we just play with it at this point.
You can hear me gasping during the video as I follow him - embarrassing! It was humid and he was so fast with no searching at all. He was fine until he got to the car - and they he really started to pant and need water and I blew the A/C on him.
The tradition at the car - cookies! Then a bit of water - never too much until they are more relaxed.
Good boy!
Category Article Caden, German Shepherd, Schutzhund tracking, Tracking training, Tracking Video, urban tracking
