Tracking with the PEEBs

Fall 2024 –  I'm beginning a new section of this blog; once I figure out how to save my material in anything but xml format I will archive everything before October 2024. We're starting with Millie, who earned her TD a year ago, and Brigid, who almost certified back in the spring but who since has been inconsistent (to be generous).  November 21, 2024 Millie . Goal: Improve handling on turns and isolating her behavior on turns; reinforce reliable article indication of some sort. Six-turn stairstep, 7 legs each about 50 yards. Track 1:50 old. Articles on every leg. No food drops, but high-value reinforcement (garlicky turkey breast) on finding and clearly indicating article. Generally I try not to use flags with Millie, but this time there was a flag 5 yards (6 paces) before each corner. I tracked with her at 15 feet, so I reached the flag at the same time she reached the corner. Medium to medium-long, ragged cover (field of grass and weeds recently bushhogged), slightly damp; ...

 March 4 Brigid  -- Easy two-turn (RL) track, but with some age on it (1:20). 225 yards (each leg 75) Mostly cloudy but warm (mid-60s), little wind. Goal--to give her confidence following somewhat older tracks, and to give her something otherwise easy to do to see how she was performing while she was in heat. She had a bit of trouble starting, but eventually made her way to the track without assistance. Good attention to the first leg after that, but had to work a bit harder than usual at the corners. Went very long (at least 20 feet beyond the turn) before registering loss of scent; she did manage to circle back to each new leg in the end, but it was a struggle. I need to work her more on longer-aged tracks and on starts. March 5 Millie  -- Completely blind four-turn 450 yard track over rough terrain with TDX-like cover changes. No food drops, but heavy rewards when she found each of 4 articles. Aged 1:30. Overcast, upper 50s, wind force 1. High humidity Goals: 1. Reinfo...

February 15 Brigid  -- Goals: 1. start building track age; 2. get her used to a combination of very short and long track legs. Short track (260 yards), 2 turns, legs of 60, 150 and 50 yards. Age 1:10 old. Articles on every leg (two on long leg). Food drops every 20 yards, high-value food drops (pieces of roast lamb) thrown onto articles. No scuffing. Short to medium cover, with some sections of pine straw and pine debris. Clear, 46°, wind force 2. 59% humidity. Brigid is starting strongly, and was not phased by rather drastic change of cover 10 yards after start. First turn was near tempting line of trees with critter-laden debris, and she did let herself get drawn beyond turn, but eventually found the track on her own. I'm not sure I wouldn't have followed the false track if it were blind, We have to continue to work through that sort of tempting cover. She stuck nicely to the long second leg, and found and indicated both articles; third turn was nice and clean, but she had pr...

January 30 Brigid  -- 4-turn track in unfamiliar field. Medium length hayfield all around. 400 yards, 50 minutes old. Three articles. Clear, 43°, calm. Humidity 67%. Good start, great track accuracy all around. Good turns, although still has to work on corners. Found and indicated all articles. What is really encouraging is that she is enthusiastic and eager all the way around--pulling hard to final article. Millie  -- Short (230 yard), 4 turn track on new field. Foray into deep and thick woods. Aged 2:20. Medium length hayfield and woods. Sunny, 43°, wind force 1; humidity 69% Excellent start and confident first turn (open right), found and indicated first (and all subsequent articles). Worked on second turn (open left) along tree line and made it cleanly; followed third leg along tree line, up to 90° right into woods. Hesitated for a moment, then checked right and plunged through thicket into woods. Found article after about 40 yards of thick woods, then worked hard to find ...

  October 20 Millie  - Goal: Give her a relatively short (250 yard) track introducing a few TDX-like wrinkles (cover changes, road crossing, turn at edge of woods) into her training. 3 turns, 2 articles. aged 0:55. Clean, confident start. No problem with first turn. Road crossing at first had her perplexed. In the end she did find the track by crossing and then working the far side until she picked it up. This time she had little problem with transition from medium grass into relatively deep vegetation. When we got to the wood line she made the turn without excess interest in finding critters (to my surprise), and made it to the end. All in all not a bad little exercise. I'm starting to identify a few things that need work; in particular I'd like to see her handling the unexpected, like a short road crossing better. Now we start on a rotation (starts, long tracks, old tracks, obstacles, and stairsteps)

October 17 Brigid  - New dog (Ch Goose Creek Brigid O'Shaughnessy At Brownstone). A very bright girl, but never been tracking before. For the past three days running I have emulated the work Judi gave the newbies a couple of weeks ago. Absolutely clueless on the first track of the first day, but by the third track that day she was snuffling and going with the track, as she has done on the subsequent days. Nice start. Millie  - After a nine-day layoff after Rochester I wanted to just introduce Millie to some of the wrinkles of a TDX track, so I laid one with a short road crossing and lots of weird changes of cover. But when we got to the track half of it had just been mowed over. It's good to give a dog challenges, but asking a dog to deal with that is just setting her up to fail. Can't work tomorrow, so we'll wait until Thursday.

October 15 Ilsa  - Hard-surface work. ≅300 yards, 4 turns. 2:15 old. First leg (50 yards) and first turn on grass; remainder of track on either asphalt or concrete. Sunny, 59 degrees. Moderate Breeze  (which made things really challenging). Humidity 56% [Note: Throughout this journal I have been using terms like Calm/Light Air/Light Breeze/Gentle Breeze to describe the wind. These are all pulled from the Beaufort Scale, which describes wind conditions in what I consider meaningful units from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane). I can't tell the difference between a 10 mph wind and a 11 mph wind, but I can tell the difference between a Gentle Breeze (Force 3, 8-12 mph) and a Moderate Breeze (Force 4, 13-17 mph)] Blind track. A couple of weeks ago she ran her first blind track with VST-like challenges, and I realized then that her indications are not nearly as clear and easy to read as they are on vegetated surfaces. The purpose of today's track was to some extent to practice a blind tra...