Sunday, October 8

Dog Obedience Training Club of Rochester NY Tracking Trial.

Millie drew the first TD track, which was a bit of luck. There were already steady winds in the mid-teens, with gusts well into the twenties, but that was only going to get much worse as the day went on. The first, third and fifth legs were cross-wind; the second and fourth were downwind.

    She took off on the first leg (125 yards) very smartly, and proceeded two-thirds of the way down it with determination. Then, just to the left of the track, we both spotted a groundhog hole, one of those broad ones. She stopped, sniffed and, defying a "leave it", dropped down and rolled over in it. Well, that's not a bit deal, except that it took at least three minutes, perhaps as much as five, for her to regain the track. What saved her was that she was clearly working, so we didn't get the whistle. Finally she got it back, and proceeded to track with determination for the rest of the track, finding and taking all corners with little effort--her body language was very easy to read today, so I had no reluctance to follow. On the last leg (75 yards), which was one of the cross-wind legs and where I could clearly see the track in the grass, she tracked the first 50 or so yards parallel to the track, about 5 feet to leeward. I fell in behind her, hoping that she would get back on top of the track at some point. She did just that, about 20 yards before the glove, and followed it in. Passed!

Really, except for the problem on the first leg, it was one of the best and most convincing tracks I've seen her run. I am really proud of this girl.

Thank you Judi and all our training partners, particularly Mary Ann and Betty who laid blind practice tracks in the past couple of weeks.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 Two new article tracks, one from Thursday and one from today. 3/20. Slightly sketchy start, but stuck to the track nicely throughout the session. Did have to work a bit at the one corner, but found the correct direction. As an article track, we have a long way to go--she did find each and every article, but only twice, later in the track, did she give me a good automatic down. Her mind was clearly on getting at the food in the article. My timing is still off as well--it's more like two or three seconds between her starting to nose the article an me saying "Down".  3/25 (starts around 10:13). ≅300 yards, 1 turn. Good start and work on the track all the way through, although once or twice she had some difficulty recognizing the article when it was among debris or in the only long grass on the track. This time I had one piece of food in each article: if she gave me a down only after the command and gesture, she only got the one piece of food. If she gave me an automatic dow...
Read more
Image
 January 14, 2025 Millie in Class Tuesday. Judi asked me to post this one. This one actually precedes the one for 1/16, but I had problems downloading the video from my phone (I hate Apple!). No commentary necessary, except for Judi's comments. A lot to absorb.
Read more
Image
Millie -- Obstacles Practice AM, Article Game PM Two different sessions with Millie today, since the weather was beautiful. Morning--5-turn (4 open, 1 90°), 275 yard track with changes of cover and two road crossings. Sunny, 56°, calm. Low humidity. Food drops every 30 yards or so, and high-value food drops after negotiating challenges.      The start and most of the first leg were mediocre--I thought that distractibility was going to be a problem all along today--she was sniffing hard at everything but the track, and she seemed to lose it for a bit after the transition from medium to short grass. But she made the first turn ok, and about a quarter of the way down the second leg she started working the track nicely. She had to work a bit on the first road crossing, but made got to the far side about 2 feet wide left. She made a nice transition from medium grass to the rough stuff with no hesitation, and negotiated the second turn and the long third leg through the brush w...
Read more