River

S10W30F15 on 4 turn track at Tucker park. 75 F , no noticeable wind or gusts , 3 mph. Dry ground, clover lush, weeds. Was hoping for smooth handling and letting line run out at legs when she stopped for food drops and at turns. Think I did fairly well at this as River only seemed frustrated a few times. I am lucky she persists. Ants on food pupperoni, but not on freezes dried chicken. Ants steered her from eating the food drops as she just bypassed them until the final part o

Due to ankle strain, anterior t…. tendon, only did straight or one turn tracks. S3W24F12 & then S3W30F15. Length was max 100 yds. It’s Monday after final Saturday tracking class. Anne Morris did a nice job as Instructor and Leigh was a great assistant. Judi, who subbed in for Leigh, gave us a couple of final tracks that made me feel very positive about my tracking journey with River. Needed help at one point from Judi, definitely lost my zen mindset and talked too much to Riv

Stair step track at Tucker Park. Put flags 2 yards ahead of the actual turns. Made final leg longer so that River didn’t have to down in an actual puddle of water. Unplanned challenge was deer tracks across legs 1&2 so I did add more food drops. Then on the final leg it was mostly walking through a giant puddle so food drop was on any swampy ground. Goal: I hoped to have her work the turns well and move fairly on the track through the swampy ground and giant puddles. For me,

River has been either downing or picking up and then downing some of the indoor articles, so returning outside plan was checking on article indication. Did Judi’s article track. Warm day and very mucky grass, dirt. I tried to make this as positive as possible by dropping articles on driest spots. On the way to start, River avoided the puddling spots. She did not try to pick up any articles. She did hesitate to down at the first two and looked back at me. I tried to not queue

I would like to write that we’ve done tracking out in the snow, but I am not going to lie. I have spent everyday chopping inch + ice off of my driveway, steps, walkways, back patio( this area gets no sun to help the situation). Even on a 60F day there is still ice & snow surrounding my patio grill…grr. Good way to find out how out of shape a body is. I feel lucky that neither dog has injured any body part. River has tried, by launching from the retaining wall and landing like

River is still young enough to be fearless out on the snow and ice in the yard. She spotted deer and launched herself off the retaining wall, landing like a ski jumper, thankfully without any injuries. After that, mental note to keep an eye on out for wildlife. I was lucky to be near Duck to keep him from going full speed ahead. He is older and wiser so he has tread more cautiously. River is a retrieve dog so we worked on her directed retrieve for Utility. Thought this might

Robious athletic field, 53F, Planned a top hat but that shape didn’t work with fields being used. Tried to use the walk food patterns. Image of actual track aged 45- 50 minutes. Start is at upper left yellow line and end article is lower right in the image with the slightly longer leg. I forgot to edit the photo with start flag and end article. Goals: nice start for dog and her human. Line mechanics….Letting line run on the turns, getting back up, noticing and reacting to LOS

Start tracks near Duluth trading store. Lots of people with dogs walk this area and let the dogs run in the field. Someone was leaving as I started putting in the tracks. Aged for 45 minutes. These were 3 left turns, one right. I am actually not sure if not having turns in the same direction is ok to do for the start track exercise. My hope is to tighten her initial start from the article/flag, as sometimes she Is not as direct doing an arc in front. Also would like me to wor

Top hat track laid by Betty. Had one blind turn, the others were marked with low flags. This felt pretty good and I kept calm even at the blind turn. Determine to watch River for LOS and investigating the area. She is good about being persistent if I am. It quick enough to let her have line and follow. Anne’s advice was to do a start track next. Link to video: https://youtu.be/jEUc6Y8rWZQ?feature=shared

Hidden Rock Park, 42F, 41% humidity, wind gusts diagonal across track for 3rd leg of her 225 yd total track. Aged an hour. This had some, 3, tennis ball distractions on the first leg, so I hoped to use leave it. Added food at change of surface as she hasn’t crossed from grass to road pavement, also at the gravel path. Third leg went along slightly higher grass. Video link: https://youtu.be/5fog4jwP-ME?feature=shared Positives: Lovely down indication to start and she accepted

Watched Judi’s video in an attempt to make sure I had the correct mechanics. Tried this exercise with food. Wandered in small space with River and said leave it. Then put food down by my foot. River stopped moving and stared at me. She did not go to the food. Tried just holding the food out. She did the same thing. If I gave her a release, she went to the food. Based on instructions I want the movement to me after I say leave it so next I’ll try this with a toy.

Hidden Rick park for distance track with one turn and dropped article just over halfway down the longer first leg. I hoped that the article on the track instead of using food would keep River on the track instead of checking out to the left and right. Positives: At the start River was cold, shivering but not from excitement and I probably should have had a fleece on her. She had a nice start with the article and I am trying to be smoother with my article pickup and tucking it

Distance track work continues. 44F 66%humidity, partly cloudy. Aged 1 hour. 2 turns , 1st leg short 50 yds but had puddles across part of it and 2nd leg long about 170 yds, leg 3 was short 50 yds. The Walked track without food drop as River did well on distance track the other day. First leg and turn went really well. She did not want to walk through the water but her head was up and she appeared to be focused on finding the scent again after each of the puddles. On to secon

River did stair steps up track with scuff out on 1st & 2nd turn then only walking for others. Arrow indicates final article placement. Aged 45 minutes. 46F, ~60% humidity River did a great job on this track. Her start article was missing in action but she went right to her track. And, I was really able to notice when she had LOS on her turns. Since the legs were about 50 yds, she didn’t wander off mid leg. Her down indication at the end was good. No video for this track. Next

Long first leg, 125 yds, over a small dip, ditch track total 225 yd. 44F, 1 mph wind, 69% humidity, cloudy No food on track as it wasn’t quite as long as I intended due to kids playing ball at far end of field. Also, she’s never had a problem in this small dip/ditch area. Track aged 45 minutes. Positives: Beautiful start from the article out on to the track line. Very dedicated to the track with only minor serving across the track path. Handled the dippy ditch without any pro

We had a track recovery exercise ! So great, loved this one, hoping it’s added to the training exercises. Since it had 2 turns I wanted to keep my head down, watch the dog and not look ahead to the where the turns or articles were located. Food drop in mid leg with walk only, no scuffing. Video link to YouTube https://youtu.be/FaNxu_KiJ_0?feature=shared Positives: River had nice down indication for all 3 articles. River recovered the track quickly after the mid leg article. S

Top hat track aged 1 hour; about 250 yds; 59F, no noticeable breeze; 45% humidity Legs 1&2 of track have clover groundcover. Objective was to see if different scuff, food at turns changes how River did at the turn. Turn 1: scuff&food in/out this was and felt ugly; plus she drifted left and I followed to get her back but then she pulled right a lot. After that turn I took a deep breath as we are supposed to have fun. Turn2: scuff in only River turned about a yard, ahead of the

65F, 59% humidity, light breeze going across first and last leg and then dog going into breeze on second leg. This was 2 right turn 175 yd total track aged 45 minutes . The start track with Duck took longer than expected. And, again, River encounters the unintended distraction from humans and canines. Leg 1 had soccer goal cage to the left 15 yds away, I did 2 food drops. Then as we tracked there were 2 leashed dogs playing and barking with kids and parent. River did an abso

Continued the scuff 5 in and out of the turn that we did at class. One good drop per leg. Intended to do only 2 legs but ended up with 3. Total track length was 215 yds. Positives, negatives & concerns, questions: On leg 3 there was a black piece of cloth almost on the track and then as we did the track there were people walking their 2 dogs towards us along the trees about 15 yds away. Neither distracted River . After her last left turn, she got distracted by the flattened d

We worked in the house and in backyard on a mix of randomly scattered old and a new articles, glove & cell phone case. The strategy Jenn recommended worked ! Both dogs ended up doing down indication for all the articles. They both look back at me and previously I told them to down. Now, they look, well Duck paws at it & then looks, but they drop into down as I’ve decided to look ahead and not at them. So, should I look at them or ahead or should it not matter? Starting to th