17 Nov 2022 

Nimrod and I did three trails today, one 15 foot and two 20 feet. I extended the 15-foot trail and re-scuffed and re-treated the same trail. I tied Nimrod to a nearby fence, and he watched as I set the trails.  I used rotisserie chicken to scent/treat/entice.  I set a small piece of chicken every six inches as suggested. We used an elementary school ball field as our site.  Nimrod and I often play there on the weekends, so the site was familiar. I used a chain-link fence as my site line and ran the trail parallel to the fence and about ten feet out.

Before bringing Nimrod to the trail, I let him smell my hands and talked up the fun. I attached his leash to his harness.  Our first go Nimrod got the start prize and then turned around and looked at me asking for more. I stood there silently keeping a slight tension on the leash. After a while he cast about and quite by chance happened on a second piece of chicken. Then his head went down, and he started snuffing. He blew by seven or eight treats with his nose about two inches to the right of the trail. He got back on track and finished with delight.

Rinse and repeat.  This time Nimrod sort of got it. I did see his flanks quite a bit, he was making small circles and again he blew by many of the treats.

The third time it clicked, head down, tail up hoovering down those treats with a quickness and not missing any.

Comments

  1. JudiNovember 17, 2024 at 3:56 PM

    AWESOME!!! He’s getting it! Smelly food is critical, as you can now see. Please don’t spread the food out more—even when they don’t eat it all, they may still be using it as information. And he still needs that information. Glad to hear he’s getting it after just one more training session. Track on!

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  2. JenNovember 17, 2024 at 5:03 PM

    Awesome indeed! I love how you built some enticement during track laying/before he went. He's getting the game - looking forward to seeing his journey!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jack's JourneyNovember 18, 2024 at 4:31 AM

    Another option for track laying is to put in your start flag, walk 30 feet, put in a flag. Circle back around. Then walk it a second time putting your food down. So this is 'double laying' the track vs what we did in class which was shuffle shuffle shuffle shuffle food drop. So play around with a double laid line and see if he likes that. And I would keep your food at six inches even if he does not eat it. At least until he really understands that we want his spine straight on the track, his head down and you following along behind with gentle tension on the line. And work your article pick ups - have that food ready!

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