Nimrod and I trained on the5th and 9th


The 5th was cold. By the time I got the first track laid, FD every 3rd shuffle step and every full step, my hands were numb. I tried videoing Nimrod, but I've always avoided phone photos, and I had difficulty keeping Nimrod in the frame and I kept cutting the off the video. I will continue to struggle with this aspect of tracking

The track was thirty feet, straight line with an article at the end. (Should I put an article at the beginning?) Nimrod was nose down tail up and straight most of the time. He did pause a few times to stare at distractions, but I waited him out.

When he nosed the article, I had to prompt him several times before he downed.

The second track was a repeat of the first.

I am playing article games with him, but Nimrod is such a mouthy dog that nosing anything on the ground is a given. When we walk or run together, I actively discourage nosing any object on the ground with lots of leave its. When we play the article game, I'm not sure he's associating nosing the article with my "down" request and food.

Originally, I had thought I'd use mouthing an article as Nimrod's indicator but after watching Tilly track I concluded that Nimrod would give many false indications. Right now, I'm focusing on "Can You" trying to get him to down rapidly, with one command and no gestures. Slow going.

It was warmer on the 8th. I laid 2 fifty-foot tracks. One shuffle steps and regular strides with FD every five shuffle or one stride. The second track was double laid with FD every stride. I made the mistake of laying the tracks too close to each other. The tracks ran south to north and there was a brisk wind out of the west. I ran the eastern most track first and Nimrod pulled toward the more westerly track several times. Waiting him out got him back on track each time. I'm assuming he was scenting the westerly track.

He ran the second track perfectly and with more enthusiasm. Both times he needed prompting and gestures to down after nosing the article. I did attempt to film this training run, but the clip is not in my gallery. I will figure this out.       

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