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Saturday tracking class…Judi’s article track. Expected him to do fairly well as he doesn’t mind cold, snow or rain covered ground. We had practiced articles a lot over Christmas and new years too. What we learned: I need to work on staying behind my dog. He passed over the final article. I suspect that his age may be starting to show a little as he is slower doing repeated downs in a short time or distance. In class, Anne is doing a nice job giving positives & negatives with

Tucker Park - start track pattern I tried to relax and enjoy his happiness before we started the tracks. Left River home to have Duck & Mommy time as he loves it. Duck was very excited to get to the start articles. Had him on the shorter 6 ft leash. I hoped to not stifle his enthusiasm for this tracking game today. So, I actually gave him food at all start articles even with his nice down indication. He did the turns better with scuff out of the turns and food drops. The food

Recovery track @ Hidden Rock Park 42 F, 41% humidity, 9 mph wind gusts but pretty constant when Duck did the track Aged 30 minutes. S5W39F15 Positives: Leave It exercise: We used this to maneuver away from the two large dogs in the dog park near the fence that Duck was interested in as he was looking to potty prior to the track. And, surprisingly he did better than at home. He left them, success…. He trotted promptly to the treat near my ankle. What a good lil’ man!!!! Duck

Duck stops & looks at me when I say leave it. He does not yet come near my hand holding the food by my ankle until more than 5 repetitions in a row. Tried using my happy voice. On another round I was tempted to give his release word break but I resisted. At some point I expect improvement.

Food motivated beagle mix so played leave it and Duck just stood there but he did notice that I bent down and held a piece of food so he came to me slowly. With the 20 repetitions he was moving to my food hand down near my foot more quickly but still a bit of initial hesitation. Expect that he will improve by class on Saturday. Previously he had just not moved from whatever he was supposed to leave and then I’d command something else. Granted we have gotten out of practice wi

Duck did stair step style track; S5W20F10 and turns 1 & 2 had scuff 5 out of the turn; turns 3&4 had walk out of turn with a food drop at 5 steps. You tube video link https://youtu.be/GcP60beA-vo?feature=shared Positives: Duck had nice down indications. He had nice start on the the track. He held fairly straight on the track for the entire track. He did turn around to get his food drops as the track continued. Not sure if he had flag awareness. I will extend his SWF pattern a

3 turns Turn 1 scuff&food in & out of turn Turn2 food in &out of turn Turn 3 food out of turn Also food drop mid leg. Objective: Trying to see what worked best to keep him on the turn 1st turn was kind of messy & I felt puzzled by what he was doing. Casting left, forward, right. He managed to encircle the line around his neck so I had to bend over him to fix it. The mid leg food drops kept his focus. Surprising to me was that he got better at the turns as we went along. On tu

65F, 59% humidity, light breeze so either across the track or with the track direction. Outcome: Duck has really nice down indications. Need work on turns and he struggled on this exercise. I almost quit on first track but backed up and when he slightly went in the right direction I went. On that first track he was really looking for food drops. On to the next ones and the food helped him, he turned back for it. The scuff in and or out of turns led to a less frustrated dog bu

Shortened scuff pattern on turn track. Put scuff 5 in and out of turns. S5W20F10 So after we finished the track I realized that I changed too many variables. I dropped from S8 to 5 but I am forgot that I had him at W16F8 and I changed that too. Ughh! Positives , negative ms and questions: Duck had a nice start and was excited to track. We approached on an angle and he downed to indicate without any prompt. He turns clockwise to face me. Getting up he went right into the track

Tucker Park, Maidens, VA 55F, 28% humidity, sunny, only 5 mph WNW winds Goal: start tracks with right turns. Work on my recognition of Duck doing a turn and following the actual track. Outcome: Duck is so enthusiastic and working much better than I’d expected given his extended break from this activity. He has a nice down indication. Speedy start tracking which makes me wonder - should I pick up the start article when I bend down to him and he’s still lying down instead of pi

61F, very windy & gusty so single right turn track of 150 yards total length. Track runs along tree line to block the wind. Right turn went thru break in trees. S8W16F8 with extra food into and out of turn . Goal: staying on our track line and improving my recognition of Duck taking turn. Adding on some track distance for our conditioning. Need to work on: I need better line handling as I use a wider line with Duck. I need to stay behind him if he wanders off the direct track

We had done the various article games on the class website as I knew this skill needed tightening up from his last class 2 years ago. The initial article in the game required verbal prompting when we first started. Then Duck was pawing at the article and needed verbal promt. By the week before class, he pawed at the article and downed slowly without the prompt. (He is 8 now.) Felt confident in his indication by class. Wasn’t sure how turns would go. Link to Judi’s article ga

Did article exercises at Hidden Rock park and near Bette Weaver school. Put out the 10 articles in a line as Duck needs more rapid and automatic down indication. Took him through three times each day. Initially he was slow, and was more interested in the hawk flying above but finally he improved. I think the yummy food helped. He hasn’t had hot dogs in a long time. Now, he downs but started standing up and downing again, I gave him more food . Then I took to taking a small b

Track with google earth map and video link https://youtu.be/w-eiYVgvZD8?feature=shared

Out in Powhatan near town center area, put in 2 one turn tracks, as I only had 4 articles with me. S5W20F10. Sunny, felt warmer than 64F. Dry grass. Duck did ok on down indication, he tried to get another treat by downing a second time. He knows where the track is and he is pulling hard. Toward the end he slowed, his age showing up and maybe the warm sun or both. Still gets interested in other smells along the track. I tried to get video but the first track gets outside the

Time laid 2:30 pm Time run 2:45pm Temp. 74F, fairly high humidity, dry ground, short grass Goal for track: Doing start tracks for...

Trying to get this blog straightened out, I’ve reached out to Kelly too. Writing this in the Spaces by Wix app. And, I do only do these...

8/30/2025 Over the summer, Duck did article work. He did a few very short, as in 30-50 ft. He does not like to work in the summer sun,...

Duck does 2 rounds of article game. Scuff 5, drop article, then repeat until 8 articles are in a straight line. Duck was so happy to have...

58F dry ground, late afternoon, 60% humidity, no wind. S3W12F6 on single left turn track. https://youtu.be/3RvJ9CgbjNk No goal just...