Millie 2025 01 16

January 16, 2025

Millie -- Goals: 1) to work turns and loss-of-scent indication; 2) to accustom her to working in snow and other cover challenges; 3) for me to refine handling, particularly working turns, and learning to follow on a short line (4-6 feet) as a training technique.

    Six-turn stairstep, 360 yards. Aged 1:30. 2 articles + start. Mostly cloudy, 32°, gentle breeze (Force 3). Mixed snow w/ sections of field grass.

    Start very good. First leg dead on, she wasn't even fooled by the obvious cross-tracks--human and animal. Clear loss of scent on first corner and very quick discovery of second leg. She was very good and determined on second leg, although I seem at times to be following the track and not Millie--I wasn't consciously guiding, although that seemed to be the effect. Millie went straight into the the third leg with no difficulty whatsoever, an achievement since we were crossing some very distracting territory. Nice indication of first article. After checking left, she picked up the fourth leg nicely again. Fourth leg crossed diagonally from snow to a bare strip and back again to snow, none of which gave her any trouble at all. On the fourth corner her head went right immediately, but she showed a little more confusion as she went some distance on, and it took a bit of work for her to pick up the fifth leg. Fifth corner was no problem, although I accidentally restrained her at first, which fortunately neither discouraged nor confused her--SHE knew where the track was. She had to work a bit at the last turn (right): she kept wanting to check left, but eventually settled on right. (I'm not sure about my handling here--in the video it looks as though I was starting to turn my body, which she might have cued off of, but it is also possible I was just turning my head to follow her. Nice work on last leg, but although she was tracking only about 1-2 feet wide at the end, she barely noticed the final article.

Things I am happy about:
  • After a poor showing a few weeks back, Millie is again making reliable and clean starts.
  • Millie has no problem handling the change from grass to snow and back again. We'll see later how she handles other changes of cover.
  • She is reliably showing loss-of-scent behavior, and easily picked up the new leg on almost all turns. I am beginning to think that she is "left handed." I'll have to keep watching videos.
  • She showed her very typical and distinct article indication on the first article. 
  • I am slowly getting used to the training technique of following closely, and on all but one turn (and that is not clear) refrained from turning my body or in any other way indicating the direction of the turn until she make a clear commitment.
Things that need work:
  • She is still tracking a bit wide some of the time--nothing dramatic, but I like it better when she is dead on the track.
  • At the same time, I occasionally follow the track, not the dog--a very bad habit. Must avoid all semblance of guiding.
Video:




Comments

  1. JudiJanuary 18, 2025 at 6:17 PM

    AWESOME!!!!! Great job BOTH of you, and great self/team analysis. Much happier, more confident dog. Much quieter, more trusting handler. If you’d like her closer to the track, move even closer…and when she’s in the footsteps, allow her to take some line. If/when she drifts off, move up (not pull her back…you move up the line towards her without impacting her forward progress). And just keep doing that—close when she’s off, give her line when she’s correct.

    This is the dog I told you could get an X. It won’t be this year. Take your time, stay less than 2 hours for now….and build her foundation. Let her own the game at this level, and we will stick our toe in tiny bits of X while at this level. And that will allow her to sneak into X training, without you making the big ask.

    This video made me smile. She’s a nice dog, and you can do this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. tracking gracieJanuary 19, 2025 at 6:50 AM

    Hi Ralph
    I have not had the pleasure to see you and Millie track in a long time.
    You are now so QUIET! You used to talk a lot but not
    You were very good and analyzing yourself and agree with your own comments.
    I enjoyed watching your video. She is very careful and steadfast.😊

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jack's JourneyJanuary 19, 2025 at 9:47 AM

    her confidence is growing, hopefully your adherence to 'no slack in the line' 'move up' and 'keep your feet facing forward until she tells you otherwise' will increase your confidence as well. it is easy to slide back to bad behaviors Ralph, so please keep video-ing and blogging.

    ReplyDelete

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