Fizz has been enjoying her tracking work, and is progressing nicely. We are training her in a component fashion. There's no reason you need a multi-hundred pace track, aged for long periods, in order to teach a dog how to work challenges, and so, most of her tracks are short (60-80 paces) and aged roughly 15-20 minutes....basically enough time for me to lay it, walk back to the car, log it in my book, get the camera set up and running, and then go back to the car again and get Fizz.
Today's challenge was visual barriers. The first portion was working through a narrow pass, with high grass on one side, and a rope running overhead on the other. After coming through the passage, Fizz's track had a big curve in it, turning us around to head right back into the tall grass/wildflowers, head-on. The point of heading straight into tall stuff was to teach her that "brick walls aren't." While it may seem that the track should end b/c there's something in the way, today she learned that one should instead forge through the tall stuff and find big rewards.
I was very pleased with how she handled this. Neither the narrow passage or the tall grass bothered her, nor did she show any hesitation or confusion. She did get onto some sort of a scent just after the passageway, and I still have no idea what she found....but it was apparently quite yummy.
Here's a side view, from Fizz's level, of the difference in cover, of her 'brick wall' that she went confidently into.
Fizz's pedigree is strong in tracking, many FH's and even an FH Championship lie close behind her. I've seen behaviors in our yard that led me to believe she'd be not only a competent, happy tracking dog, but a focused one as well.
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. :)
