2/25/25. Hangman Turns
2/25/25. Hangman Turns
Left turn. https://youtu.be/4-6cWKeRXBg?feature=shared
Right turn. https://youtu.be/nR_0n57HxOk?feature=shared
1/19/25. Short tracks around fences and woods
1/19/25. Laid these short tracks one at a time, ran him within 5 minutes and put him in the car to marinate while I laid the next one. Food drops varied between 10-15 steps apart. He got better with each track. Track #1. Struggled at the turn into tall cover https://youtu.be/imxw4lYuoHA?feature=shared Track #2 short track from tall cover to short towards fence https://youtu.be/bA4Q4ZZpGu4?feature=shared Track #3 Between 2 fences towards woods https://youtu.be/R9EverPLGJ8?feature=shared Track #4 Parallel woods and turn away https://youtu.be/88B4jnpOJYc?feature=shared
Ok. Nice job both of you. Couple of things to think about. The goal here is to TRAiN him to search 360 degrees. You know precisely where the turn is, and precisely where the hangman ends. Use that knowledge to help him succeed. Letting him have line—what appeared to be 40’ of line—past the hangman, feels more like testing than training. If you’re 6’ behind, he will take you past the first (turn) flag, and you will follow. He casts—and you wait until he’s checked the opposite—unless you feel/see him trying to recover to the track behind him, in which case you back up 3-5 steps. If he’s searched both directions, 180 degree arc to the track, when he’s taken tension out of the line (by definition moved towards you, you’ll again back up 3-5 steps and let him check. You count how many steps you take—do not just blindly back up. When he’s put YOU 3-5 steps before the turn, let him work it out. Which doesn’t mean 40’ of line. At all times, you know where the track is. You shouldn’t put him in a position to need 40’ of line to find it. His job is to find it AT THE TURN, or a couple of yard (6’) down the leg.
ReplyDeleteWhen you 2 have successfully backed up a couple of times, you will then purposefully step past the turn 1-2 steps, and again limiting his options, let him check behind him.
At no time do we want to teach him
To search a 40’ radius circle. Nor do we want him to find the leg 40’ past the turn—we want him to search the area AT the turn.
The turn with the tire tracks was probably pretty hard. I think you both did well on this, just remember, more line is rarely, if ever, the solution on a known track. The only time in training to feed line is when he is on the track and going well.
Hope that makes sense.
Some of this is feel Ellen—your dog casts off 10 steps past the 30 yard flag, you’re not going to back up. He gave beautiful head snaps on both tracks when he passed the turn—did you see them? Head snaps are a great time to take a slow step or two, or even pause for a half second . Does he continue straight after the head snap? Our forward motion does push our dogs forward. If we notice changes of pace, head snaps, and support them by slowing down, the dog is more likely to investigate and make choices.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that’s the feel piece. You see a head snap, nothing happens, then you get loss of scent. The instant he starts to search towards you, take 2 steps back to support him going back to where he head snapped.