This was posted to a Schutzhund chat group I belong to, as an example of how all performance should be achieved with fun for both the trainer and the dog. All I can say is 'wow.' How delightful to see dogs so happy in their work, no matter what they are doing! We should all strive for this!
Below is a short zig zag track with Caden, who is at the beginner's stage, followed by a series of video clips of River doing an 800 m, 3 hour old urban track - she is 9 and Caden is a year and a half. I hope you enjoy watching them, and seeing the contrast between them!
Donna
Last night a friend video taped Caden for me. Caden reacted to them standing there with the camera! Once he got going on legs two and three though, he really did well and was better on the corner. Nice to track him on a night with no wind, finally! This track was 45 minutes old on very short grass at Olds College, around 8:15 PM.
Now I know I need him to get used to distractions as well, but will be more concerned about his continued learning as he won't be tested this year so I have lots of time.
The videos below are posted in order from start to finish of the track, scroll down to watch them all...
River with her final article - a very well-worn old glove, missing fingers. No one will ever pick up this glove! It is too hacked out! I had to use a flash, because it was getting dim by the time we were done.
I have never been to this College and plotted the track on Google Earth, so this turn is not what I had planned and is a bit wonky following a sidewalk to veg. In addition, there is a new road to my left, which Google Earth showed as a big lovely lawn area! I was a bit nervous as I started out, and excited. Do you notice anything? I am wearing River's harness around my neck! I put it on at the first article, but she sure didn't seem to mind tracking on a collar...
I don't know what made this turn so tricky. Great scents on the lamposts really attracted her. The convergence of sidewalks may have been hard where competing scents are concerned. When I laid the track there were some ladies from a conference walking back and forth here. I also wonder if it actually did throw her off to be on a collar, doing so well, then harnessed up at the first article...argh! Eventually she finds it. I try to let her sort it out. The difficulty in a blind track is that I could follow her the wrong way and push her away from the track. I try here to keep backing up to where she was last tracking, and not face the direction I know I went. She DIPS her head when she is on, do you see it?
I had planned to go deeper into the lot but see that there is no way to get to the next part of the track if I do that so followed the road this time. River goes from boulevard to boulevard then settles on the track. I spotted a good parking lot where I can work next time! Hard to get to know a new place...
She is working along the building while I stay on the track, and then gets the line right over her eyes and runs to mommy! I needed one more arm.
I planned to go straight here, to another building, and turn right. But when I was laying it, I saw that I would have no way to walk out. One thing about this campus is that roads surround it but you have to get out and walk around to see these things. So I turned up a brick path past a Gazebo and followed it out and ended by the water tower. I find it so fascinating to see how River sorted this out. Overall, I could not have been happier with her work tonight - very up and dedicated, in a new place, dry conditions and putting up with me, her handling-challenged, video-taping mom! At the end I had such a lump in my throat, tracking really gets emotional!
This is a close-up shot of Caden flanking around the sheep. I love this shot - he is using the outside perimeter of the round pen, and he has his head turned to keep an eye on those sheep!
I sent these pictures to his breeder Sandy who uses her dogs on sheep every day. She sent me this photo of Arla taken quite a few weeks ago. Arla is Caden's full sister from an earlier breeding (same parents). Look at how calm she is, with her head turned in to watch those sheep. See how calm the sheep are - they know to stay in their grazing area because she is patrolling the border! I love to see these pictures because it gives me a visual image of what to watch for, such as the head turned in like this.
Arla just had nine puppies! 5 boys and 4 girls - I keep saying to myself "Donna, you have enough dogs to keep you busy..." Check the puppies out at www.kleinenwiese.com/Blog/
Do you think those puppies were "herding" in this photo? Boy, talk about starting early!
Today I decided Caden was ready to go on sheep. The last time he was in with sheep was a year ago at a Bob Vest Clinic when he was 6 months old. At the time he was an over-excited puppy. Now he is an over-excited adult but at least he has some good training thanks to my Schutzhund friends. His "Platz" (lie down, using the German command) was very useful! As you can see, he is very attracted to sheep but was able to be calm and focused with them.
I was on the sidelines while Louanne handled him alone first. Louanne owns Phantom Ridge Border Collies - High River Alberta - see the links in my sidebar menu to the blog and website. What a beautiful facility. I knew she had the experience to direct him properly so felt quite confident.
In the above photo, Caden's head is turned IN to the sheep which is what they like to see when a tending dog is working the border. Some dogs are taught to run a border but don't look at the sheep. A dog that is attracted to sheep and knows its job knows it has to watch the sheep at all times to be in control. I am not an expert on tending but have been getting an education from Caden's breeder Sandy Wilson and the breeder of Caden's dam, a lady named Ellen Nickelsberg. Between Ellen and Sandy, I am learning so much - even though they are in PA and NY!!
Louanne commented that Caden had nice wide and round flanks and kept a nice distance from the sheep, including when he was fetching, as in this photo where we are walking backwards. Look again at his head inclined towards the sheep! There was one time when he did get up from a down - Louanne and I were talking and the sheep drifted away behind us - and Caden got up on his own to cover! I have seen my Border Collies do this, and Scott Glen has told me you never want to take this ability to make decisions away from them, as this is a thinking dog that will save your bacon by being allowed to do what is right and not become mechanical.
Caden - 280 m leg, 20 minutes oldTonight I tried to videotape my dogs using my little Panasonic camera and I created a YouTube account for videos called Spiritdancedogs. First is Caden's beginner track on grass, followed by a small portion of River's advanced track with two non-veg turns in a row. Can dogs track on hard surfaces? I think so! Here is her YouTube link -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY_l9Uv0zXk
Caden - click on link below or view in sidebar menu to the left
It was quite windy so I apologize for the noise. Also, I found it hard to multitask and probably didn't do Caden any favours as I really should focus on handling and not videotaping! But considering the wind, he did very well! At the end, I turned my camera sideways, which you shouldn't do when videotaping! But he did a nice platz (down) with the McDonald's bag between his paws. Inside was a plain double cheeseburger! I must add here that he has no article training at all, just a jackpot at the end. I asked him to platz for the camera. You see, having a camera can make you do weird things. Next time - no camera, better handling, less food, longer and a bit more age! This track was just over 200 m and 30 minutes old.
Watch Caden by clicking the link below. You can make it 'big screen' by clicking on the screen icon (a square box) in the bottom right corner of the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbinFcy5D-k
This is the description of Caden's track on the YouTube site:
I've never tried to videotape my own dog while handling at the same time. It
didn't do Caden any justice, but if you can forgive my ineptitude, this gives
you an idea of where he is at - tons of drive, nose down, small variations on
the corners and a bit too reactive to the wind, which was quite strong tonight.
My line handling is generally better than this! But he is learning to respond
well to praise and a gentle 'no' when he rushes or goes off track too much. I
think there was a bit too much food on track in the beginning and the track was
too short - by the 5th leg he settled in well. This track was a "Big Dipper"
shape. June 17 9:30 PM Red Deer College grounds, Alberta Canada.
Caden's track - the wind was coming strongly from the west (the left). The start is at the center, and the McDonald's bag is at the end, to the left of the map. You will see in the video that his track crosses where River had been about 45 minutes earlier. He does make a leap that way, then turns and takes his own track. It was not great plotting but this was the only good grass to work on with a soccer game just ending on the big soccer field you see to the south. I baited through the corner to help him out on that tricky turn near River's track. On the last turn it seems he is pulling to the road where I walked out. Once I called him back to the track, this turns into his best leg. He was going at a better pace and so nose down that he didn't look up and see the bag ahead!River - click on link below or view in sidebar menu to the left. You can make it 'big screen' by clicking on the screen icon (a square box) in the bottom right corner of the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY_l9Uv0zXk
I laid a 700 meter track for River too - 480 m veg and 265 m non-veg. It was laid at 5:30 and I ran it at 8:45. River just nailed the non-veg. OF COURSE her brilliant non-veg turn was the one where I mixed up ON and OFF and did not get it on tape (I swear its true!). I was just giddy about taping it. What can I say?
However, I did catch the next non-veg portion of her track, where she had two non-veg turns. You can see her take the turn off a berm (I walked right over the manhole cover you will see). Her turn is at the wavy tar along the yellow line which she takes, and then she takes the next turn dead on as well, but overshoots towards the blue handicap sign, comes along the curb crossing the leg, then gets wind of her plastic article and gets a big reward for all that hard work! She was getting tired here - all we had left was a short veg leg to the end of 700 meters. She had worked for nearly 20 minutes by this point. I hope you can see that my line is always as loose as possible. This is my short (30m) line - for testing I use my full length line (50M). I want River to make the decisions and try not to get in her way.
She cast a bit more on her veg legs. At one point she was sucked into a gully of cobblestone and grass, which she had to pass on her way to the last article. As usual I let her sort it out. The only time I did stop her tonight was where she tried to roar across a busy road. Interestingly, I walked back on the opposite side of that road after laying the track. It was not best walk-out - even after nearly 4 hours, she detected it - in some tests, the tracklayers are actually picked up in a car if there is not a good way to walk out.
Below: River's track on Google Earth. Starts at the left (west) and ends at the right side of the map. There were articles mid-way on legs 2, 4 (non veg article), 5 (on the berm after the road cross), 8 (after the 2nd non-veg turn) and at the end. They were a mix of metal, plastic, wood and leather but I forgot cloth tonight!
Tonight I laid tracks for all four dogs. Jet and Ted did the HITT thing on the parking lot with a much longer serpentine and Ted continues to shine using this method. Jet is very visual, so I am going to up the treats next time. I laid a track for River at 6:30, for Caden at 8:00 and then when they were done, played in the parking lot with HITT until 10 PM! I can't believe it was still so light out when I drove home.
Since River has done long tracks the last two days, today she got a motivational track. Altogether it was 270 meters and 2 hours old. But it had some fun stuff - stairs up to a roadway, and then a small uphill leg to another parking lot.
Tonight River was very excited and she ran her track with no issues at all! It was a good night for her. Here is her map. It started at the right and ended at the left (west). It was dry and warm to boot!
PS Notice - no turn at any building corners, AND the article is AFTER the corner of the building. I pat myself on the back, haha (see the post below)...
While River's was aging, I laid a track for Caden. I didn't put in too much hard surface but because of two soccer games, had to use what veg I could find at the College. His track starts at the top (North) and goes right, then turns south and comes back around. It looks like a closed in box which I normally don't care for, but after it aged, and because he is so nose down, it presented no issues for him.
I wish I had brought my camera tonight. Caden was really good at keeping his nose down and working out the track. I tried not to let him rush, and also to prevent circling at a few missed pieces of bait. He was DEAD ON. His track was 320 meters and one hour old. The age was an accident, I don't know where the time went! But he was excellent. He is quite an exciting dog to track with.
I was out tracking on Saturday and have a couple of questions. First of all, what your experiences have been – when turns are plotted before, even with, or just after the corner of a fairly big building? From a 'best practices' standpoint, what would you consider the best placement of a turn in a UTDX track?
Overall I was really happy with her work, and the conditions were great - rain the night before hail while I laid the track (I know, weird hobby).
The place where River went off to a major degree was when I turned away from a building at a corner (90 degree right away from the building). I was following the sidewalk which, at that point curved away to the right as well, to follow the road. River cast about in the area of grass beyond the turn then down a slight slope to a roadway into the next building. Looked under the stairs, around a garbage bin, and finally turned right to parallel the original track.
Here is the map – red is the track, yellow is her path. It was 3 hours old and 800 meters (480 veg and 320 n0n-veg). I have been contemplating this since Saturday and wonder what experienced urban trackers or judges might say. It hailed when I laid the track and was sunny and cold when I ran it. There is a slideshow of this track to your left in the sidebar menu.
I love taking pictures, even though it is torture at times to see what I missed. Look at the first photo below - River is LOOKING in the direction of the turn where there is an article - at this point we are probably 30 meters from that darned article.
In this photo you can see the automatic doors closing - they opened when River walked by but she ignored them (once before she tried to go in!)
So I am feeling pretty happy, she is humming along, and I am clicking. I just let her do her thing and don't overhandle. Having a camera prevents me from doing that! Suddenly, when I was expecting her to turn right, she disappeared around the corner.
...and wound up past the corner. She explored, got stuck downhill from the track, then paralleled to get back to a spot where she hooked up with it again! This was good for problem solving, but I would not want it to happen all the time.
Paralleling the actual track. Amazing to me that she was able to sort this out! The track is actually about 30 meters to our right.
When she came to an open area where I crossed the road, she caught the scent and came back in on the track. The wind was blowing over the building in the direction of my 90 degree turn, if anyone feels that has an impact. Also, I followed her to let her work out the problem, even though I knew it was wrong. But from now on won’t let that happen as I can see it crossing the line from problem solving to eroding confidence. It is a tough one!
Also of interest to me is that I Googled this and she was never beyond 30 m from the primary track. But it would take a lot of experience to see that. Most times I think 40 m is a lot of line in urban for going off track. But in this case I had to eat my words! Would people think this is the kind of situation the 40 m off is meant to apply towards? Unfortunately she missed an article too – perhaps not the best article placement? I thought it would reward her for the turn (groan – even when I plotted it I wondered…I am just getting to know this venue!)
I would love some comments if you know my email, or use the comment function below - all comments are not public until I moderate them. If you do not want it to go public, just let me know - and be sure to give me your email address if you want me to respond!
THANKS!
Donna and River!
Good girl!
I am pretty interested in Steve White's HITT - Hydration Intensified Tracking Training - method. All of my dogs track, so I have no one to start with. Well, except perhaps Ted. Ted seemed to pick up tracking very quickly when I first got him. However, he developed an obsession with articles, and abandoned all form on the track in his determination to simply find the fastest way to the article where he would pounce like a cat and start tossing it in the air!
Here Ted proudly poses with things he brought me over the course of a few days while I worked at the computer. I took each one and added it to a pile, then took this picture. Yes, his early tracking experiences made him a bit of a toy freak - ANY toy, even a piece of string!
He was so excited to track that it became impossible to harness him! My friend (Julie with the famous Austen in the post below) took these blackmail shots to show people how tracking instructors harness their dogs. Ha Ha Ha.
Enter Steve White's HITT. Today I tried playing around - not really knowing what I am doing. I pick up my DVD tomorrow in Calgary. However, I have seen some of the great videos sent to a tracking list by people who took his seminar (which I unfortunately missed) in Edmonton. I love to learn new things - in fact this is one of the great things about tracking!
This is my little serpentine. You can see my Element TWOLVES in the background. My licence is TWOLVES for Two Wolves, though some say it could mean two loves - tracking and herding!
Now, check out Ted! I knew he was doing well - and just let him go on a loose line while I got out of his way and clicked. But seeing this picture really has me pumped! I did not use an article at all, since that is Ted's downfall (and a blessing too - as his indications are great! TOO great!) He looks like a Schutzhund Dog!
Right on
Very cool
Coolio (no, that is not an official tracking term)
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Ted's best track ever! There was a big jackpot of treats at the end...as in Schutzhund tracking (no article).
Stay tuned!
Winrob's Sleepy Hollow TDX, UTD, RN, PCD, CGN "Austen"
Newly motivated after recent tests and new ideas, I went out tonight armed with wieners and a spray bottle of water. My goal tonight was to see how River reacted to a sprayed track, in the cool of the evening. I did not attend the recent Steve White seminar but think that using a spray on the hard surface will be motivating for her, as a little bit of a problem solving technique.
When we got back to the car, River told me that she was insulted, and that it was "the track of a simpleton." I thought it would be fair to enter her opinion in my log.
This fabulous nose-down Greyhound "Hunter" earned a TD in the Alberta Beach test two weekends ago. The warm, dry weather did not bother him one bit as he calmly found every leg of the track to the end. ' Windwood Distant Orion FCH' handled by very proud owner Vicki Averill of Maple Ridge BC passed under judge Erich Kunzel. I can only find a record of one other TD Greyhound in Canada, named Rosie, from Sudbury.
This is great weather to be a Greyhound, read on!!
Caden follows a track on the "lawn" boulevard heading onto a parking lot...
Caden continues along a painted line in the parking lot...
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