2/1/25. Full length Track with no food - found some holes
2/1/25. Full length track with no food.
Great start, great first leg, great first right turn! About 3/4 of the way down the second leg he stopped and turned and looked at me with a big question mark? I swear he said “I must be wrong because I have gone 100 yards and I have not found any food yet.” I told him he was doing great and he was a good boy and go track. He freaking shrugged his shoulders and turned and tracked on. He made the 2nd right turn fine but he was not pulling with his usual intensity. The further we went, the more I could feel his confidence dropping by his pull. I could hear him muttering, “Still no food, I must have gone off somewhere…” He made the 3rd turn, but it was another right turn and I must have subconsciously thought that can’t be right. He picked up on it, his head came up, I had not moved and he came back to me. We ended up convincing each other that it went left and that was the end of it. He had good articLe indications.
Holes to fill:
1. Increase number of legs with no food incrementally.
2. Full length tracks and longer for endurance with consistent hard pulling.
3. Ask for a second pull on some turns before following, so he knows sometimes he has to tell me twice. Try the hangman.
Any more holes jump out at y’all?
Sounds like a really good learning outing! And I love how it highlights why Judi and Mary Ann spend so much time making sure we understand the importance of us going with the dog is a form of reinforcement. When we’re tracking them in a test situation, since there won’t be food than us reading them correctly and going at the right time becomes the reinforcement along with the tracking itself, of course😁. It sounds like you handled it really well overall! And you have some great takeaways to work on and take you guys to that next step that you are more than ready to proceed to!
ReplyDeleteBy the way it’s Anne. I can’t login right now because I don’t have my Google password memorized so I’m having to comment anonymously. I’m out waiting for Mila’s track to age and thought I would take a look at some of these blogs.
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