Wind effect in Schutzhund tracking practice today

This morning I tracked with my SchH friends Dan, John and Pam. We met at 8 am, but it was already VERY windy. I have never experienced winds like this in Thunder Bay! So, with Dan's direction, we developed a plan on how to use the field and what to aim for with the dogs today - essentially teaching them to keep their nose down, and not to get stressed in the wind.


With Caden I did four legs. His second and last were with the wind, so we could end on success. Dan said to use more food on the legs with a cross wind. We deliberately did not have any legs going into the wind with Caden, because he already lifts his head more than I like. So his track was on a wonky angle in the field to accomplish this. John, Pam and Dan (with puppy Cilla) all did legs that went with the wind to start, and then turned so there was a crosswind leg, then with the wind again - with no legs going into the wind. Dan and Pam's dogs are both under a year old so keeping things more simple is important. And John did a separate track with his Rita going into the wind so he could simply work on teaching rather than trying to run a track.

All of the dogs did really, really well. Caden had real moments of brilliance (those are Dan's words). But he doesn't sustain his focus for a long period. He won't be in a SchH tracking test until next summer, so I have time to work on this. We did not correct very strongly today (my corrections are to say no and flip his line, so they are never that strong to begin with). We wanted to see him dig in, and certainly did not want him to start to worry about the wind. There was more food on the tracks with crosswind - so that it was pretty much guaranteed if I said 'noooo...' and he put his head back down, he would come upon a nice tasty treat. It was also interesting to see how he was angling his body so that his head was facing the wind as he sought each footstep, but crabbed ahead on his line.


On the other puppy tracks, Dan and Pam did the same thing on the crosstracks. Just a gentle no, but no stress, and lots of cookies. AND the treats for the puppies were only on the upwind side, so that the dogs didn't follow the scent downwind off the primary track. So if the wind was coming from the RIGHT, food would only go in the right footstep, to keep the dog from drifting offtrack to the left. Neat, eh?


Rita did a great track (sorry, no pictures, it was too far away) and she worked hard for Johh. Aaron, who is only a year old, did a track with the wind too, and lots of treat. Lastly, John did one straight leg right INTO the wind with Rita, with lots of food. The idea was that IF she lifted her head, as they tend to do into the wind, John could tell her no and she'd put it down and find food. However, she did awesome!

I remember the old days when we taught articles and turns by making the turn going into the wind. The dogs would get wind of the article and sure, it would help them turn, but then they would speed up and run to the article. I mentioned this to Dan, and he said that once a dog knows its articles, he will also make sure they track to each one going into the wind - and do not start to rush. The nice steady, calm pace of SchH is a very reassuring thing and the dogs really do get down into the track - today - Caden's nose was buried right into the grass. It was so neat. I was proud of him!

It helped that the field was perfect, nice lush grass, dewey and green. Great day, and as always, I learn new ideas now that I am doing some SchH tracking. More pics to follow (I am pretty sure John took some for me, so I have some of Caden - right John? are you out there, ??),

Dan did a complicated, but short track with Ali who is a SchH 3 dog and awesome tracker. She handled it so beautifully. As Pam pointed out later, when you see that - you know what to aim for (and you decide to listen to Dan's advice too! )