Fizz's breeder, Erika, lives on the other side of the country from us. We're trying an experiment where I take Fizz out tracking, with a set of instructions and record our work. Essentially, these videos are for her, so that she can see what we're doing, and give us our next guidance. Its experimental for both of us, and I appreciate her patience in working with us in this way.
Below are videos of our first two tracks. #1 was yesterday. Its on grass, at a location that is a well known dog park area (read: off leash dogs abound). I laid my track well away from where the loose dogs typically are, and was unbothered. But of course, as soon as we get out to the track (about 50yds from our parking area), a father, teenage daughter and their over-sized, over-weight Cocker Spaniel show up and start playing with a golf ball. Yay. The dog was roughly 30yds from us. Fizz is highly distracted by this dog, and each tim she stops working and her head comes up.........she's staring at the dog. Emilie was my videographer, and it's a bit bumpy in places. ;)
What I did see of her tracking in #1, I was happy with. Calm, focused, not pulling hard into the line, nor trying to race down the track. Food is in each step, we're using Natural balance. It had a few ants on it, after 18min of aging the track. Track is 35 paces long.
Track #2 was this morning. We're in a moderate, almost severe, draught in this area, and the dirt is essentially dust. The field looked like grass, until I walked out on it, and then realized that it had been turned probably 2 weeks ago, and is now full of weeds. It's conservation land, but used for hay growth.
Track is again 35 paces, this is first thing in the a.m. (as opposed to yesterday's mid afternoon track). Bait is the same. I cut it a bit small, and it was falling down into the cracks in the dirt (it's about 3/4" deep in those big wide cracks.....laying the track was like walking on broken puzzle pieces).
Was very happy with her work. She was calm, working from heel to toe of each step. She stayed focused on her work. Occasionally the cars driving by would cause her to lift her head, but she went right back to the track. Around 2:55, she checks a car track crossing our path. What I liked was that she came right back to her work, happily. :)
