Nimrod and I ran tracks on the 18th and 20th. On the 18th I laid a hundred-yard one R 90-degree turn track with FD every step and a bag drag. Nimrod had been successful twice on the one step FD pattern, but I elected to keep the one step FD pattern because we were in a heavily used park. I anticipated the ice-cream truck, the soccer game and loose dogs. The hoarse being put through jumps was a surprise but ok. My track was about half laid when a man in pickup pulled into the nearest parking lot. He eyed me, let his miniature Australian Shepard out of the cab, pulled a large remote controlled vehicle from the bed of the truck. He zoomed the vehicle back and forth across our track and his dog gave chase. I thought about asking him to move to the vacant half of the field, but something about his posture made me think he wanted a confrontation. I didn't have enough food to lay another track. The dog got tired of chasing the vehicle and man and dog moved off the field. I put the harnes...
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March 14th tracking Nimrod did well on this easy track: 1 turn, bag drag, FD every step, familiar field. He needed prompting to down at the initial article but no prompting to "get back to work" We'll track again tomorrow. I think I'll keep the food drop at every step because we'll be using a less familiar field where he's had trouble before.
We tracked on March 8th. It was a fine day. I followed Judi's suggestion and had a FD every 3 steps. I do not know what was wrong. Nimrod would not put his nose down. He did not appear to know what we were doing out there by ourselves in a grassy field. I don't have video. I had planned to look at my dog not through a screen, all I got was Nimrod staring into space. The grass didn't look like it had greened up although they were fertilizing at the far end of the field. Maybe it was the pit bull that said hello before we started tracking. March 12: I planned a very easy track: straight, sixty yards FD every step, article at the beginning and end, familiar field. There were more distractions than I expected: dogs, children playing ball and on bikes. Nimrod did very well. He got himself back in the game unprompted a couple times and only needed verbal cues twice. He downed on the articles without prompting. I need to work on keeping tension in the line. We'll run a track...
Blog for March 2nd 200 yard, 2-90 degree R turns, FD every 15 steps, bag drag throughout. It was cold, no wind, the track was only 15 minutes old Objectives: focus on line handling, build Nimrod's confidence, shorten the time between distraction and return to work. Things that went well: Nimrod returned to tracking after being distracted with only a verbal que. Nimrod only needed to be reminded to 'get back to work' twice. Nimrod downed without prompting at the articles. Nimrod moved with confidence. Objectives for next training: Use a field with more distractions. Use sausage as FD. Keep bag drag, keep FD at 15 steps, use the same track configuration and length. If Nimrod manages distractions, I'll start using the bag drag every other 15 steps.
