Last night I did a practice Schutzhund track with Caden. It was 200 meters with four turns. I am not using articles with him yet, so had random food on the track. There was more (every 3-5 steps) on the first leg, then it was after each turn, and some extra thrown in here and there. I do this a bit intuitively, not with any science. There was no wind, so it was mainly a matter of keeping him focused and having enough food to reward him after an appropriate length of time.
He did this track well with only one hitch - he circled back towards me after the third turn. I think that by this time, he is losing his ability to stay really focused on the track and tiring out. I need to figure out a strategy for that - possibly just more and more practice so he can settle in better. Maybe I could add more food again after the 2/3 mark. Articles will help as they will give him a resting place- so I plan to introduce them very soon but have to teach them off the track.
Here is the video (8 seconds)...I didn't tape more as I was focusing on my handling too, plus wanted to pay attention to him. Below the video is a map showing the track, on a soccer field at Red Deer College.
This was videotaped with my iPhone.
The arrow shows the leg in the video. The yellow circle is where he turned. At the X was a jackpot of wiener.
On the same evening, I did two U-tracks - one with Ted and one with Jet. I am trying to get Jet more in the footsteps as I work on her TDX training. She is fine with utdx and urban, but casting too much on veg, so I am scaling it back with her to work on technique. And with River, I did an L-track going from the boulevard onto the parking lot. River needs practice on her starts. She did well, nailed the turn and was very happy! Here she is at her article. The track ran along the boulevard you see behind her, with a very short 30 meter leg and turn.
On my drive out, I passed this bench and HAD to take a photo of River on it!!!
Is she cute, or what! I made this my new FB profile pic!
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