9/30/25 Huguenot Park
- Maureen Woolley, Duck & River
- Sep 30
- 2 min read
Time laid: 2pm
Time run: 3:23 pm
Temp: 74 F & cloudy, high humidity
Goal: trying for dedication to turns without any extra scuff in or out. Walked track with food drop 20 paces into each leg.
Challenge : leg 4 was along an area that dog walkers take so expecting a lot of scent distraction.
How did this track feel? Honestly it was really very zen, calming and relaxing. Normally I tense up in the harder areas, but I’ve been working on keeping a relaxed mindset as the dog knows what she’s doing.
(#) indicates what dog did well.
In the challenge area on leg 3, a couple was approaching toward us alongside the track. They were to our left and we were going to be doing a left turn. They walked a perfect cross tracks for leg 4. And, the food drop was in that area so I was really interested in how River would do. She ROCKED this area.(1) Checked out the 2 cross track scents but went back to her track and the food drop was there to help. She did stay right on ignoring another prior dog scents and the persons walking next to our track. (2) She did awesome turns (3) and hesitated on one but that was me not letting the line run out so it checked her. She reevaluated and took me on that track anyway. River downed to indicate for start and end article. (4)
Honestly, I don’t know what to improve with respect to River other than that we need to work on doing longer track lengths and aging the track. So, please tell me what needs improvement.
Photo and YouTube link below. Don’t forget to zoom on the video.
I encourage you to find new places to put in a start or two (one turn each). Both of you need a break from these athletic fields. A new place will energize your creativity!
Well crap. I had a whole comment here, and it failed to upload. First—no more “trying for dedication to turns with no scuff or food.” We call that testing….and testing isn’t training. Behavior is dynamic—it’s either getting stronger or weaker. It gets stronger through reinforcement (reinforcement, by definition, increases behavior).
As far as what needs improvement…..are you thinking this is trained and therefore it will maintain itself? Your job, today and every day, is to make sure she is using her little brain to become always more confident, more joyful. It’s to set up simple challenges (example, can she turn inside the soccer goal?), lay them so that she not only will succeed, but will be reinforced for working o…