January 20, 2025

Millie--goal: to combine several challenges in a row on a very short (140 yard) track; continue to be aware of handling skills. No turns, 1:20 old. Cover mixed snow and field grass, with a road crossing. Sunny, 30°, light breeze (Force 2). RH 40%

Good start taking her towards the first challenge, a passage through a tree line covered with pine straw and pine cones, a favorite haunt of squirrels and a regular source of distraction for my dogs. I left a couple of strong-smelling food drops (peccorino romano cheese) to help pull her through the passage, but at least this time she seemed unphased by the other distractions. She sniffed at, but really didn't indicate, the article on the snow. Beyond this was a low rope barrier and a road crossing; she balked a moment at the rope, which was unexpected, and came out wide. Road crossing fair to middling. Picked up track again on far side. One serious handling error at 4:48, when I side-stepped to get her going in the right direction. I'm certain she would have found it without guiding. Something distracted her after last patch of snow, but she found the track again and indicated the last article.

I liked her handling of the distracting patch under the trees, but we have things to work on:

  • Article indication--our next track is going to be an article track
  • Road crossing. The road that gave her trouble was barely wider than the 6' crossing allowed in TD. Next obstacles session will include several road crossings.
  • I still have to be careful in handling. The side-step guiding at 4:48 should get me whistled off.
Video (short audio problem at 2:45)



J

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