Two short, tight training tracks on hard surfaces

Nice rainy evening - might as well track! These are very different than the long tracks that are more like UTDX test tracks on the June 5 and June 12 posts.

River at the article.

Caden at his glove

It was spitting rain and the parking lots were wet, so I decided to lay two very different tracks this evening for Caden and River. Since Jet is pregnant, I am not working her so much - she went for a walk this morning and has been sleeping all day! So she stayed home tonight - it felt weird to leave her at home, I've got used to tracking with that little dog. It's funny how it has hit her so suddenly, all she is doing is sleeping.

Jet on the couch with her current favourite toy

For Caden, I did some 'berm hopping' as we called it back in Thunder Bay. He started on a boulevard, then went to the parking lot, turned, crossed another berm, and went out for another turn on the parking lot. So he had grass every third of the way to reconnect before striking out for another hard surface turn. I also picked up a few handfuls of grass to toss down for the first few steps on each transition from veg, over a curb onto the parking lot, which I think helps him - especially on the second transition which is much more confident.

He worked so hard and was so diligent - and did a great job. I asked for a platz at the glove. He is not article trained yet but I think it will be easy. I am really happy with his hard surface turns here. He is very nose down but I allow him to think a bit - without correcting - because he is such an honest dog - whenever he goes off the primary track it is to sort it out, not to goof off. His track is 30 minutes old. He lifts his head a lot, and in part I think it is the moisture in the air and perhaps I should have aged it more.

At the 2:30 minute mark you can really see him get into the groove and begin to track nicely on the parking lot. He finds all of his turns pretty quickly. He's not super-experienced on hard surfaces but he is very nose down with lots of drive. Good boy!



River's track started on veg but the rest was on a big parking lot. I laid parallel legs with concrete barriers in-between. If you want to see a UTDX - trained dog get pissed off, you will laugh at this video. When she steps onto the parking lot - it is obvious she knows the article is to the right. The blue line shows where she tried to go to the end. It sure shows WHY you should not have tight tracks and parallel legs in urban tracking. However, I like to practice different scenarios. River tries about 3 times to go to the right but then, finds the track and a treat and off she goes.

This is a training exercise with treats along the way - so I prevent her from cutting over to the wood article. She is a good girl and plays along. You can see her dip her nose and touch the hard surface - but she knows all along that she COULD just cut across to the end. It made me smile, but I was proud of how she worked with me. Technically, if she went straight to the article and cut out the entire track, she would be within the 40 meters allowed in the regulations. Something to be aware of when plotting! Yet (I am sorry to say) I HAVE seen tight legs like this from time to time over the years, in tests.

River's track is ONLY an hour old. It is very easy for her fine-tuned nose and in parts she is moving pretty quickly and doing her regular nose dips to check the scent. You will notice that her track does not flow as nicely as it does when I just give her a loose line and let her do her thing. Tonight I did prevent her from cutting over to the article - and it shows that she is fighting me a little. This would be unacceptable in a test, but training is not testing! I put enough treats for her to be rewarded for working with me and she did realize here was scent there.

At the 45 second mark you can see her look straight in the direction of the wood article with her ears up. It's so interesting because it is like a knee-jerk reaction. I love videotaping my dogs because I see this after, not always when I am handling and it helps me read my dogs better. At the 3 minute mark (after I am unstuck from the stupid concrete thing) she tries again to cut over but I won't let her go. These nice damp lots carry a lot of scent, and you can see she finds the track easily.