January tracking

1/14/23 Robious Middle School fields

River did S8; W20; F10, but 10&12 on T2. Cold, 36 F, breezy day so I threw a fleece jacket on River and the harness went over it. Didn't know if this apparel would confuse her as far as what activity we were doing. Don't think it did but next cold I'll put a tighter fitting fleece on her. She tracked with her tail doing flippy action at the tip. I'm taking that to mean she's enjoying the game. Still down indicating for start and end articles with or without food. I've only left food out of start ones. Not sure if I should try putting a ball in end article again to see if she downs or does a frozen stand and stare. Her 2nd track passed over portions where 2 dogs had justed finished playing fetch, so I expected some wandering. Did 2 food drops to help her in this area. This helped and she was doing ok, slightly off the track line to the left consistently, just as Duck had been although they tracked in different locations, the wind direction was the same. Normally, her right turns are right on especially if it's an open on, but this last open right put her near the prior dog play place, and she did explore. She was irritated that I did not move, could not find any ball they'd been using, and she had limited movement on the short leash. It's 15 foot, but I was only giving her 6-7 today. Finally, she went back to tracking and headed to the article and downed. Next, I'll likely give her track with 2 turns again.

One question that has just come to mind. So the dogs will learn to recognize that a certain harness means they are going to track. Does their handler wearing certain clothing, shoes, pants and or coat, vest, also trigger that for them?