Tracking Ian: today's adventure in turns

Ian continually surprises me with his desire to track. He was once again a spinning, whining, blur of black fur when he came out of the van to track. His track was 270 yards total, with three turns. His first two legs were 50 yards, his third leg was 100 yards and the final let was 70 yards. I gave him three food drops every three steps after each turn and a glove at 15 yards. The track was aged 50 minutes.

Ian tracked strong off the start. He doesn't totally have the idea to pull me, and this may be because pulling me has always been wrong for him. I also noticed that when I stopped when he was off the track, he stops too. This was the first time I've noticed this, and it might be the source of the repeatable stalling out problem I've had on the turns. I decided to play with this a little as we tracked. 

Ian got the first turn beautifully because of the food drops. His head went right down on the first one, and the next one led him onto the new leg. He was very excited about the article. He indicated it then tracked on, not caring about the extra cookies in the glove. 

On the second leg he tracked stronger. He came up with a loss of scent indication just before the turn, which was likely due to the wind direction. The food drops were again helpful to pull him onto the correct leg. His article indication was just like the previous turn. 

On the third leg, I experimented with something in my handling to help his "stall outs." When he went off track, instead of stopping I continued to move my feet but I moved them "in place" so I wasn't actually moving forward. This sound of footsteps was enough to give him the confidence I was back there and still coming, but it didn't continue to push him forward further off the track. It worked like a charm! He realized he was off track and came back to it, but he wasn't worried I'd somehow left him alone in the field (God forbid). 

I continued handling this way and he tracked this long leg nearly flawlessly. He actually gave me loss of scent indication and turned on the new leg before I realized he was on the turn. Unfortunately he also started tracking with his eyes, looking for the glove. He spotted it, after also spotting a couple of leaves that could also be articles. 

Ian's interested in the articles and realizes they are part of the game, but he'd rather track than get the cookies. I like this reaction, and it's much like Devon was when she was learning the game. She could have cared less about the food, because she was having so much fun tracking. 

Ian found his last glove and I gave him the cookies out of this one to show we were ending the game. He still tried to continue tracking until he realized he had a handful of treats! After we emptied the glove, I asked if he wanted it back. He played tug and then shook it to "kill" it. Finally, just like the Goldens, he carried his prize nearly all the way back to the van. I kept asking him if he was a retriever!

I am very pleased with what I'm seeing out of Ian. On our next track I'll try to diminish the food drops at the turns. Mostly, I'm glad Ian has found a sport he enjoys so much!