Notes from tracking on December 24th. The first track was 30yds with a FD every two strides. The second track was 35yds with a FD every two strides. The third track was 40 yds with a FD every two strides. There was an article at the end of each track.
As you will see in the first track, Nimrod was distracted by a dog being walked in the distance. He knows both the dog and the walker, so he was able to refocus without prompting from me.
On the third track, Nimrod moved slightly off the track and peed. This was a marking behavior not a need to relieve himself. I read in the rules that this does not disqualify a dog.
There is no video of the second track. I fumbled the phone at the beginning of the track and Nimrod was moving too quickly for me to unlock the phone.
Nimrod sees the articles, but in no way identifies them as an objective. I've done lots of "oops I dropped it" and "get it" with him with limited success. I'm not sure if I should go back to working a down for article indication.
it is difficult to see if he is straight line tracking, but he is doing better with keeping his nose down. so that is a positive! as far as article indication goes, whatever you pick - stick with it. and go back to the TRAINING tab, and watch the ARTICLE GAMES videos. if fetch is your command, then work a ton of "fetch" opportunities in your house and in your back yard while his dinner is on the counter.
ReplyDeletethe first game CAN YOU FETCH? Place article on the floor (not thrown), for the first one or two times you command him FETCH (no repeating it six times), he picks it up, he gets fed 1/4 of his dinner. Then the article is placed on the floor (not thrown) he picks it up WITHOUT YOU TELLING HIM TO, you mark it with YES and he gets a handful of his dinner. When he can play CAN YOU FETCH (without me commanding you) then he can play OOOPS i dropped something.
If you decide that DOWN is his indication, then you play CAN YOU DOWN by walking through your house and saying DOWN (one time not six) and he downs. If he downs, he gets fed. IF he does not down, you put him in a down with your hands and tell him good. Let's try again. Only feed when he downs on the first command. THEN, you introduce the article laying on your den floor and when he approaches, you say DOWN. and feed when he downs. You do that for half a dozen times. Then, you put the article on the floor and he should DOWN for it because he knows he will be fed. You should not continually have to command him - the article should prompt him to down. This is a game you should be playing four times a day - for his dinner, for his breakfast and for treats. It takes all of five minutes.