Tracking

[AdrianneIsabel]

Originally Posted by Maliraptor

You made me cut up hot dogs. Now I'm going to go track my dogs. Really.

Hahahahaha

[stardogs]

IPO tracking here!

Kes is now tracking solely for articles, thanks to the push for article indications I made just before our IPO-VO trial. I taught them as a cue for down: hold article, dog downs, reward. Gradually move article closer to floor each time. Hold article on floor, dog downs, reward. Add in distance from me, then orientation to the article, then onto the track. He still needs finetuning, but he tracks better for articles than for food now!

I need to work up to an IPO1 track for him currently, but motivation is lacking and we haven't tracked since December. Looks like we'll be shooting for Dec 2013 for our 1.

Aeri is started in tracking but hasn't tracked in a looong time because she's all over the place about it. I want to get at least her VO at the same Dec. trial as Kes, so I need to get off my butt and train for it. I'm considering teaching her articles now, then seeing if she'll track just for articles instead of food...

Ziva was in wilderness SAR training for 9 months - she had just switched to air scenting from trailing when politics resulted in her being dismissed from the team.

[FG167]

Kastle at the start of his tracking, I'm working on line handling. We're on much longer tracks now but this is all I've got...

I'm reminding him about articles off the track now.



ETA: How come my videos are always a white box?

[AdrianneIsabel]

I like the way you trained articles, Erin! Thank you! That might work very well with Sloan.

[GatorDog]

IPO tracking here! I actually restarted my dog at about 2 years old in tracking because his previous foundation was learned at a different club and caused lots of conflict in our training. If I had the chance to start all over again, I would have taught him much more confidence/independence on the track and more dedication to it.

We started footstep to footstep with food in every step, adding serpentines and turns. I always ended on an article, making sure that it was marked with something so that I knew to run up and help him into a down. We always end with a can of sardines after indicating the last article. At home, I was working on article indication by teaching a "such-platz" where I have him lay his head flat on the article and remain there until released. I would toss them in the yard and have him indicate each and "such-platz" when told. I gradually added more articles to the track itself and weaned the help away. I had never had a single problem with articles on the track until I started using articles with no scent, fresh out of the bag for trial. He walked both of them in his IPO2 (21 point loss), but still managed to get a 77 because his nose was so deep and his pace was so steady and the steps were so spot on.

We do lots tracking for meals during the season. I really had to work on building dedication to the track and building independence on the track. Aiden had problems which were not limited to overshooting corners and losing the track and panicking or shutting down once he lost it and couldn't find it. He tracked for his food every day from April to November this last year. In the beginning, if he lost the track, I would follow him in order to teach him to find it on his own without any help from me. If he didn't find it, he was put up in the car. I would lay a short line track with one article, he would get a small reward , but no jackpot sardines and no dinner. Only took him a few days to realize how important it really is to pay attention to each footstep.

No videos here yet either. Hopefully once the snow melts I can get right back out there!

[FG167]

Aha, thanks to some help!

[AdrianneIsabel]

Ahhh Backup was a mess. He blew all over on the step to step treats but as we hit the four steps between treats we settled in, at the end. Think I should change anything or run a few again before coming to any conclusions?

ETA a dog did come up and eat part of the beginning of the track but I felt like the confusion was more than that, I may be misreading things though.

[stardogs]

We tracked today! First time since December for Kes,a nd first time since October-ish for Aeri!

Kes' tracking doesn't seem to have lost anything with the break and he's MUCH more confident than he was in December. Ran a 150 pace and a 225 pace track with just articles.

The first track had four articles and one turn and he hit every article and got the turn with a minimum of casting. Second, longer, track had 4 articles and one turn. He missed the first article, but found all of the rest. The corner had more casting, but turned right into a hill, so I suspect the scent was doing weird things. He did mouth about half the articles on both tracks and is downing perpendicular to the track, so in addition to adding a turn or two and some length I'll be working on fine-tuning that.

Aeri's were 60 paces with a turn and 35 pace straight. Food every step except for 4 single steps on the first and food for 3-6 paces then no food for 3, then food for 3-6 paces, etc. Jackpots at the start and finish, no articles.

Both tracks were actually better than expected because I think I stumbled onto something: at the start, when I'm right near her, she's super hectic, lots of circling/casting, etc. but when I accidentally let her have "too much" line and she was 10'+ away from me she settled immensely. Hmmmmmm.

She did air scent some and thus skipped over large sections of each track, but did resume the track and maintained it even when I thought she was off of it and tried to call her back (oops!). She also hit the corner just fine with me at 15ish feet, which is insane - usually she's too spazzy to "get" corners. Nose was much deeper this time, too. Overall some really nice stuff, but looooots more to do.

[Red Chrome]

Originally Posted by release the hounds

i teach articles in my living room and when I can toss one on the floor and they down with it between their paws, I go outside and do 5-10 in a short straight track just down, reward, 2 steps, down reward, etc. Do that for a few days, then they're on the track

This is currently the way I am retraining them. Working well so far.

[PWCorgi]

BUMPITY!

I don't want this thread to die! I plan on starting both Frodo and Siri tracking this spring. I'm way excited. I know Frodo is going to love love love it, he LOOOOOVES using his nose. I feel like if Frodo is going to title in anything ever it will be either tracking or nosework.

I'm pretty sure this is going to force me to get my carcass out of bed even earlier every day, and that also makes me extremely excited