I've uploaded video of us tracking today.  The video is upside down and somehow; I filmed grass at the interesting bits. I was working on turns and duration.  I laid a 350-yard, top hat which is the longest track we've done.  I was pleased that Nim kept his head in the game for the entire track.  He overran the first turn. I was watching Nim not looking for my next double line up and I let him blow past the turn.  When I saw his LOS, I realized what had happened.  I took him back to the last spot I thought he'd had scent. He found the turn and we were off.  I deeply regret that I have footage of grass for point on the track.

I don't see footage of Nim making the turns, but he made them. I'm still holding at ten shuffle steps, five steps, FD.  I liked his focus at this pattern, and he's never run such a long track.  He stayed with the game despite being barked at, low flying panes, and birds on the field.

Once again, after taking off the harness, I let him choose how he wanted to leave the field. He wanted to rerun the track. He did, with more confidence and accuracy than the first time. Should I let him rerun the track?   Did I act correctly by guiding him back to the spot where he last had scent? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

 I haven't posted in a while. Nimrod and I have been tracking 2-3 times a week.  I don't use the same field two times in a row.  Nimrod is tracking with a FD every ten steps.  When we run a 200 yard, two or three turn track I see very few distraction or extinction behaviors. When we run a 300 yard, two or three turn track I see a lot of those distraction behaviors.  I'm not sure whether to keep the tracks at 200 yards and increasing the spacing of the FDs or keep the FDs at ten steps and gradually increase the length of the track. I will try to upload video soon. I've put Nimrod on a long line and his tracking improved instantly but I'm having trouble managing my phone and the long line. I got a go pro mini with a chest and head mount. The battery keeps overheating, but I'll keep working on the video piece.  
Read more
 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...
Read more