This week's VST tracks

It's after June 1, so it's time to hit tracking a little harder if we want to meet our goal of fall tests. Both girls track well, but we need work. I've had a few people tell me they think it would be hard to prepare both girls to do VST at the same time. Actually, it's much easier to lay two similar types of tracks, versus one VST and one TD or TDX track. It's also lots easier to find good VST tracking areas then TDX grounds. I am again very thankful Page passed her TDX last fall. She did me a lot of favors when she did that!

And as I've said so many times, Devon and Page are so different, it's easy to treat them as individuals. Devon's strengths are the experience she has in tracking and her article indications. She also tends to track "typically" of must dogs. Devon's weakness is confidence. Page's strengths are her nose-down footstep tracking style. She is atypical in that she works until she solves her problem; she doesn't lack confidence. Page's weaknesses are article indications and her lack of "mileage" or experience under her tracking harness.

We've tracked twice this week. Page usually runs first, so I'll start with her tracks. Unfortunately the places I used for both girls on Sunday were too "new" to be on Google Maps or Google Earth, so no images. Page's track was very good; it was aged about 2 hours and 20 minutes. I did a very short track with grass, sidewalk, grass, curb, grass. I'm also trying to "wean" chalk with both girls. I'm making my chalk marks smaller (only 1-2 inches long) and placed on cracks or on paint lines where it's easy to get scent anyway. I'm hoping to teach the girls to look to these "scent holding" places for clues on their tracks.

Page worked her track well, and she worked her turns meticulously until she found the correct new leg. She shows no favoritism to vegetation versus non-veg. either on straight legs or when working turns. She tracks nose down no matter what the surface. Unfortunately she tracked right by a plastic article hidden just off the track under a bush even though it had kibble in it. More work on articles!

Tuesday's track was even better than Sunday's track. This is a track Devon ran a few weeks ago. It was aged 3 hours and 15 minutes; the track was 334 yards long with 37% non-veg. Page started strong and continued strong. She tracked nose down on the sidewalk, only getting distracted when a worker rolled a wheelbarrow within a few hundred feet to unload mulch. She wagged and barked at him as I explained what we were doing. He shrugged his shoulders and went about his work; and as soon as I told Page to do the same, she did.

The orange lines on the map show his various paths during his work related to Page's track. I was simply amazed how Page worked as if he hadn't been there. The only sign she was distracted by his scent was when she worked the turn and tracked toward the distant pile indicating she did check out his path once.

The nicest thing Page did on this track was the non-veg turn off the sidewalk into the curb. She worked this like she was working a vegetative turn; it was beautiful to watch. As soon as she found the new leg, she was off nose down in a straight line.

The worker did pick up her metal article (which I retrieved later). She did not give any indication it had been there, but then again I had to hold her to get her to acknowledge the bright white plastic article in the grass she wanted to track by, too.

The only part of this track that gave Page any problem was the angle across the last leg of parking lot. Angles are hard for dogs to work in field or in tracking; they want to square up. Page worked hard to adjust herself along this line and did a fairly good job.

I must carry high value treats and hold Page until she finds her article, indicates it and reward her. She will indicate the articles if I make her. I now have to convince her how valuable it is. I think Page is ready for me to introduce MOTs on her next track. I'll be interested if her turns in curbs help her transition to MOTs.

Devon worked well on Sunday. Her track was similar to Page's: short and only 2+ hours old with grass, parking lot under a roof (bank drive thru lane), grass, parking lot, grass. Devon struggled a little at the start. She also worked hard in the parking lot under the roof. She also overshot the veg turn before the second parking lot run. Her article indications were lovely, and once she was solidly on the non-veg legs she tracked confidently.

Devon's track on Tuesday awas 3.5 hours old. It was 423 yards long with 53% non-veg and two MOT turns. This track was much tougher than the one she had earlier in the week.

Devon really struggled to start in the short, sparser grass which was dry. Her first turn was also a real struggle. However, once she got into the curb, she worked the long non-veg section well.

As Devon works non-veg, she tends to track straight then lift her head and circle, checking out other options. I don't know if this is a confidence problem or if she's double checking herself. I've learned the rule of three with Devon. If she circles more than three times, it's time to call her in for water and a rescent.

Unfortunately the two MOTs were too much for Devon. She tracked well to the turn and indicated loss of scent but struggled to find the new leg. In addition, I had forgotten to bring water and she was thirsty. On both MOTs I finally pointed out the new leg, and once she found it she worked the new leg well.

Devon also struggled on the last vegetative turn, spending way too much time on it. I've heard this is typical of VST dogs, as well as forgetting how to start strong which Devon also exhibited. Because I want to keep Devon's confidence high, I plan to work starts the next time we track. I'll lay two to three 125 yard tracks that start, have one turn and end on non-veg.

After some work on starts, I'll next move to more transition work and build in some turns into curbs to build more confidence. As her confidence builds, I'll put the MOTs back in.

Generally both girls look very good in tracking. They love to track and get very excited to see their harnesses come out. I'm enjoying our work, so I look forward to working on this journey this summer.

Observing a VST test

Since one of my goals this year is to get Devon and Page test-ready for VST, I thought I should go watch a VST test to see what I was getting myself into. In mid-April, I went to Chicago to watch the Moraine Tracking Club's VST test at Lincolnshire. I even got to see one dog pass!

This is a wonderful tracking club, full of great and helpful people. The grounds at Lincolnshire are perfect; what a lovely office park they have to test in. Judges Ted Hoesel and Beth Walker plotted interesting tracks, and I was able to walk behind all 8 participants that day.

I think my greatest observation from the test is that thanks to training with Steve Ripley, we are on the right track (no pun intended) with our training. We're working on the things the dogs will be tested on, specifically transitions and "moment of truth" or MOT turns. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to learn from Steve and from all the tracking teams he's followed in his years of judging.

I got to see some great handling and some really bad handling at this test. It reinforced to me how important it is to trust your dog and how to be patient while the dog is working out scenting problems. Handler Allison Bently who passed that day with her GSD Meghan was the perfect example of patience and trust. After working out a MOT turn, Meghan cut the corner of the next turn when she spotted her plastic article in a parking lot. Meghan came up on the article from the south, but the leg ran east-west with the track going east to Allison's right.

After picking up the article, watering and rescenting, Meghan continued north in the direction she traveled to find the article; it was also the direction Allison was facing. However, after 15 ft. Meghan's head lifted, she circled, and she correctly identified the track to Allison's right and tracked off in that direction, 90 degrees from where Allison was facing and from the path they had taken to the article. The gallery knew this was correct, but Allison was running a blind track. When Meghan showed Allison tracking posture, Allison immediate turned and followed her dog across the parking lot and eventually through two more turns to the final article.

Following your dog in a different direction after picking up an article has got to be a hard decision. And in this case, Allison correctly chose to trust her dog and their team was rewarded with the coveted "Champion Tracker" title. Those decisions are easier to make when you know how to read your dog and you have had lots of tracking "mileage" under your belt.

Equally as educational but monumentally frustrating was following another team where the handler failed mightily in his job to read his dog. It was the team's first VST test, and this amazing Golden Retriever made the first leg of this track look easy. I learned from club members and seasoned trackers, that the leg full of transitions in front of a large building with the wind coming off the pond was extremely difficult. After turning at the side of the building, the dog didn't hesitate to track straight into the middle of a parking lot.

Even to me, it was clear when the dog indicated loss of scent and wanted to make a right MOT turn. The dog indicated this turn several times and the gallery became hopeful we'd see another pass that day. However, our hopes were dashed as the handler forced the dog forward ignoring more than a dozen indications of a right hard surface turn.

The ever patient judges allowed this team to work left and eventually the dog brought the handler back to the very same spot and again indicated the right MOT turn. This time the handler took it and our hopes soared. However, when dog and handler reached a grassy island and the dog indicated a left turn on the island, the handler again ignored his dog. Eventually the confused handler circled back around to the right and ended up on the previous leg (even walking right past the judges going in the wrong direction) and again pushed his dog past the MOT turn the dog had worked so hard to accomplish. That is when they heard the whistle.

As a member of the gallery, I got to witness first hand how frustrating it must be to be a VST judge. After seeing more than a dozen indications of that turn from the dog, I lost count how many times that dog told his handler where the track went, only to have the handler think he knew better. No matter how much you think you know, you must over-ride your brain and follow your dog. The dog has the nose and knows where the track is. Your job is to recognize when the dog is on the track and when he/she isn't.

Finally, I got to see several MOT turns on actual test tracks. I now have a better understanding of these turns and how they can be used. According to the AKC's Tracking Regulations, a MOT is defined as:

At least one (1) moment of truth 90-degree turn will be in an area devoid of

vegetation and will be plotted to allow at least thirty (30) yards before crossing

or returning to a vegetated surface.

I had always envisioned MOTs as turns in the middle of a parking lot or non-vegetated area and no vegetation within 30 yards in any direction. While that is an example of an MOT, I also got to see other examples which were turns that were devoid of vegetation, at least 30 yards from vegetation in many directions and could not be successfully accomplished by fringing the scent on vegetation.

Here is an example of two MOTs. Turn 2 is what I would typically think of as an MOT. However, Turn 1 is also an MOT. There is an island close to one leg before the turn; but the turn could not be successfully done with the dog working any vegetation and the track did not cross vegetation for more than 30 yards. Seeing turns like this gives me even more ideas for working MOT as we train.

Our trip to Lincolnshire was educational and worth the time we took. It encouraged me that our training is going in the right direction. And it gave me real life examples of how important it is to read your dog and trust your dog while tracking.

An evening of VST tracking

Friday evening I laid a VST track for both girls. Page had been especially bored this week, so I knew she could work. And if I want to finish out the girls' tracking titles, I must get out and train!

Page's track

Page's track was 284 yards long with 164 yard of non-veg (57%). It was aged 3 hours and 10 minutes, and it had no chalk or extra scent. I thought she did a great job transitioning onto the parking lot. I thought about her hard surface turn and put it into the curb. I think that actually confused her more than if it had been on the sidewalk! Page had a difficult time finding the scent in the curb, searching the grass, sidewalk and parking lot. I finally pointed to the curb and she locked in and moved forward.

I gave her a bit of veg before taking her past the front of the building under the pull through drop off. She got a bit of confidence back on that grass and in the grass on the opposite side of the doorway. Page did a great job tracking across her last bit of parking lot and into the grass to the end of the track.

I did forget to load some treats into the articles, and Page missed the metal article in the curb. That's a good lesson for me that we'll have to work article indications all over again for VST. She did a great job on the plastic article that was in the open in the parking lot, and right after indicating it, she gave me a good, "not mine" indication on a bit of trash. Page did find the leather article at the end of the track well.

Generally, this was a very nice track. It was fully aged with no assistance, so we're off to a good start for VST.

Devon's track

Devon's track was across the driveway by the next building in this office park. Her track was aged about 3 hours and 25 minutes. It was 282 yards with 192 yards of non-veg (62%). It did not have extra scent, but I did put chalk on her MOT turn.

Devon did a lot of searching at the start. We were in a grove of ornamental trees, and the leaves were falling. I had to rescent her, and she finally got to work. After checking all the other possibilities, Devon took the turn onto the parking lot, and then confidently tracked across it.

She again checked all the possibilities on the next turn before committing onto the sidewalk and to the front of the building. She was again very confident once she committed. Of course I lost my metal article. I figured I would when I left it in front of the building. Darn it!

Devon continued on the sidewalk very confidently and then transitioned up on the grass in front of the building. I wanted to give her some veg tracking before asking her to go into the parking lot and do an MOT.

She overshot the veg turn, but worked her way back and practically dragged me across the drive. She found her plastic article easily, even though I forgot it was tucked around the corner of the island. I LOVE Devon's article indications. She thinks this game is so much fun and to find articles are like finding food to another dog!

Devon did some circling on her parking lot leg, but not the frantic circling I've seen in the past. She did continue to make progress down the leg. She overshot the MOT turn, and she wanted to keep moving past it. I held her and asked her to work. I couldn't see the chalk, but I made the turn on a white line so I knew where it was.

She worked in the correct direction twice but didn't commit, and she worked other directions, too. After a water break and another rescent, Devon dropped her head on the white line of the new leg and took off down it. Once on the center island, she worked easily down the veg. Devon overshot her leather article to inspect a drain, but she worked back to find it.

In thinking about MOT turns, I plan to put some extra scent down for Devon with hand prints the next time I lay them. I think that would give Devon more confidence as we re-visit this skill.

Overall, this was a very nice track. Because I saw stress in her tracking this summer as we were working field, I wonder if I was reading too much into her searches on her corners. After thinking about this track, I believe she did her usual amount of loss of scent/ruling out other direction searching. I need to be careful that I don't compare Devon and Page's tracking styles and expect Devon to look like Page. I've been tracking Page so much, I think I was projecting Page's style onto my expectations of Devon.

I don't believe Devon is less of a tracking dog, but she does track differently than Page. Page is a meticulous footstep tracker. She has her nose down on the non-veg surface most of the time. Devon doesn't have her nose down as far as Page, and she searches a wider area. These are differences in style I need to learn to read. Hopefully, tracking them more often and together will help me do that.

Tracking: 2 out of 3 ain't bad

In the last three days, Devon and Page have had one bad track and two good tracks. Even though we had one bad track, I'm glad things are moving in the right direction - the good tracks have been the more recent ones!

Friday

I combined TDX tracking training at a state park an hour north with transferring our Belgian Sheepdog rescue to her foster home. It seemed like a good idea at the time, since I'd been planning all week to track there. What I didn't consider was the stress the girls had been under with the rescue dog. Page hadn't been feeling well and had gotten me up the previous two nights to go outside.

The day was perfect for tracking with rain the day before and drizzle that day. The temps were in the mid-60s. The cover was perfect. Due to our travel schedule, the track was 4.5 hours old when we came back to run it. That is older than Page has experienced, but not by much.

However, the wind had picked up and was blowing 15-20 mph. Page worked hard on this track, but chased the scent in circles with the wind. It took her 30 minutes to work about 120 yard down the track. When she found the first article, I ended the track.

I expected her to have worked out the issue with the wind blowing scent from our last track there. It was windier than our previous time tracking there, and I know the wind was a big factor. Page just couldn't lock into the track.

But I think stress was a huge factor, too. Page and Devon both had a big disruption in their routine with a new dog in the house. The rescue wasn't socialized with dogs, so she couldn't be integrated into the pack. Now that she is gone from the house, things are settling back to normal and I think the stress has dissipated.

Saturday

A group of us got together to do VST. With Page not feeling well, I gave her a break and just tracked Devon. Actually, I also got to track Archie, too! Steve was out of town judging a tracking test, so we put a track in for Archie and drew straws for who would run him. I got the privilege!

Archie was easy to run (especially since I laid his track so I knew where it was), but the squirrels and his strength did make it interesting. When Archie locks on and decides to go, he decides to go and you better be hanging on! And he loves to chase squirrels, so when he spied two squirrels playing at the bottom of a tree on the other side of a parking lot, I braced myself. Luckily, he was a good boy and finished his track.

Devon had a lovely track that was about 265 yards and aged 3 hours and 20 minutes. She hasn't tracked in quite a while, and she's been sitting around watching her sister get to track. I think the time off and jealousy were good motivators. She looked fantastic!

Devon started beautifully, which was nice since I really didn't know which way the track went off the start flag. She locked in quickly and pulled me along the first leg and worked the first turn very nicely.

The second leg was also along an office building, and Devon was still dead on the track. This was nice to see because the wind which was around 15 mph was swirling around the building and parking lot. You couldn't tell it by the way Devon was locked onto the track.

Devon worked the non-veg turn very well and finally committed very confidently to the third leg which was a sidewalk along a parking lot. She found her metal article without any problems.

My tracklayer told me the track went on to the grass ahead, and I looked straight in front of me to a patch of grass across a driveway. When we reached the drive, Devon started her transition searching; however I thought her transition searching looked an awfully lot like a turn indication. When Devon committed left onto the grass, I turned to question my tracklayer only to find she'd moved from behind me to my right ... then I heard her say, "She's dead on the track."

Well it's a good thing my dog knew where the track was, because obviously I was clueless! I thought it went straight in front of us! Two more articles, and Devon was done and very proud of herself. She should have been. It was a beautiful track, and she even proved halfway through it she wasn't feeling well either!

Sunday

Both girls had to be fasted for 24 hours and put on chicken and rice this weekend. Either it's stress or mushrooms in the backyard or a combination of everything. They don't seem to mind the chicken and rice (good thing I have a great rice cooker and split chicken breasts were on sale this week).

Page is feeling much better, so I decided to give her a confidence building track this afternoon. It's been a beautiful fall day with clear sunny skies, high wispy clouds and the trees are in my favorite period with lots of oranges and reds.

I laid a short 435-yard TDX track in my favorite place at a nearby metropark. After I put it in, I ran an errand to a nearby library, so the track only aged 40 minutes before Page ran it. It's a good thing I didn't run it any fresher, or Page would have killed me in that cover and in those woods! I've never had her pull so hard on a TDX track before!

Page flew through this track in about 10 minutes, including getting her line wrapped around a thorn bush that took me a couple of minutes to disentangle. She stopped at her articles, but I had to make her sit or lay down. I've never seen her track woods so fast or so confidently. I'm glad I ran this track, because it gave both of us our confidence back!

So, two out of three good tracks isn't bad for a weekend's training. We're supposed to have some good weather this week, so I think we'll get back out and do more in the coming days now that both girls are feeling better.

Stupid Squirrel ... Devon's VST track Saturday

I had a nice 350 yard VST track for Devon on Saturday. It had 39% non-veg and was aged about 3.5 hours. I was excited to run it, because it rained the previous 2 days and I thought Devon would like this track. I didn't lay any chalk because it was a straight forward track and I wanted to see how Devon would handle it.

She started strong and after much checking transitioned out into the parking lot. She handled the turn on the sidewalk along the building much better and found her metal article in the grass.

She got back to work and had just started a lovely transition from the grass next to the building onto the sidewalk when a stupid squirrel jumped off a bird feeder next to the building, took off across the parking lot - and across Devon's track - and into the fir trees beyond the grass.

Devon wanted to take off after the squirrel, and I was able to hold onto the line without a rope burn. The only thing not making me want to kill her was how pretty she looked all at attention and fully focused on finding that squirrel.

I thought I could get her back to work until I realized the devil was sitting in the grass taunting her with his flicking bushy tail! Sigh! One of the things you learn about dog training is the best laid training plans usually result in you working on something you never intended to work on. So I took a deep breath and asked for a lot of patients and worked on focusing Devon back to the task at hand for the rest of the track.

Devon did finish this track and found her last two articles, which helped her focus. By the time she made it to the final turn, she was back to 90% focused. Still, she was a little "squirrely" (pun TOTALLY intended) for the rest of the track.

The fun thing about tracking and field work is the "variables" Mother Nature throws at you in every test and training scenario! Man-made distractions seem like a piece of cake compared to squirrels, rabbits and deer!

Page's TDX track on Saturday

On Saturday I put in a TDX track for Page at a nearby office park. This track was 865 yards long, and it was aged 3.5 hours when we ran it. The red line is a cross track I put in 50 minutes after I laid the original track. The obstacles were the road and sidewalk, a woods which we turned in front of (there's an old farm fence running through that woods), then a black-topped walking path around the ponds that I tracked on the edge of once then I went onto a second time. There were changes of cover from a variety of medium cover to short grass.

Page started very strong, but I noticed she didn't pull as hard as she does on fresher TD tracks. She also went farther past her turns before indicating loss of scent. Page rarely goes 2-3 ft. past a turn before losing scent. But on this track she did what is more typical and went 10-15 ft. past a turn.

Page check the first set of cross tracks to the left and then practically leaped off of them to the original track like she was on fire! She was horrified she'd gone onto something she wasn't supposed to. She searched a little wider for the track near the second set of cross tracks, so I'm wondering if the cross track confused her a little after she got past it on the second leg.

Once she refocused and found the third leg, the road obstacle was not any problem at all. She barely worked the transition before heading straight across the road almost dead on the track.

Page didn't indicate the first article as well as I had hoped. She actually tracked past it to the left about 5 ft., but I held her until she found it and indicated it. It was a different article than I had used the last two tracks and the article had no food in it. This likely resulted in a weaker indication. However she got a treat from me when she did indicate it.

The turn before the woods line wasn't a problem and neither was the turn through the opening. However, on this fifth leg, Page suddenly indicated a cross track and took it to the left very far to the woods. I went with her even though I knew it was wrong. I wanted to see how far she'd take me, and if she'd take me into the woods.

I will say had I not known this was a cross track (because I laid the track), I would have thought Page railed a turn and we were going into the woods. However, Page stopped at the woods line and didn't go in. She worked the leg back and then came back to the woods again, which on a test track would have made me think we went into the woods. I took a couple of steps toward her and the woods, wondering if she was going to go in. She thought more about it and then angled back to the track and continued strong.

I do wonder what I would have done had this been a test track. Would I have encouraged her into the woods? I don't think so because she never fully indicated that's where it went. And when she went back to the original track, she was very convincing and showed me good tracking form once she was back to it. I hope I would have been convinced once we were back on the track it was correct.

Although Page investigated down the side of the hill towards the pond, she handled both sections of the walking path pretty well. These obstacles happened well into the track, so she worked a little harder because she was tired but worked them out. Her article indication on the second article was stronger, as was her article indication for the final glove.

In all this was a very nice track. Page ran it in 25 minutes, and she did a lovely job. She's a solid tracking dog!

We've also been doing some tracking

Tracking has been a little hit and miss lately. Last week I laid a TD track for Page on the way to do some field training. I figured it would be aged a couple of hours by the time I ran it. Well, it was 3.5 hours old when I got back to it. It was 520 yards long with 5 turns. Page ran it like it was 30 minutes old. She really is a great pup, and I was over the top about this track.

Last weekend we had some beautiful cool weather in the mid-70s. It felt like fall in August, and I was thrilled. On Sunday, we met the Ripleys and Archie for some tracking. Archie hasn't been feeling well for several weeks, battling a flare up of Lyme Disease. We started to see it in his tracking, where he would miss metal articles and stand at times like he wasn't sure what to do. This is NOT Archie!

Well he is well on the road to recovery! On Sunday he did a beautiful 384 VST track and found all of his articles (even when I didn't see his metal article)! There were lots of hoops and hollers for Archie, and it was great to see!

Devon and Page got some nice tracks, too. Devon's was aged 2 hours and had chalk at transitions. I had posted a few weeks ago that Devon hadn't been tracking with a lot of confidence, but she was back to her old self on Sunday! Time off can be a very valuable training tool.

Devon motored through her track and was really having fun. Next to the building and parking lot where her track was, there was a large retention pond and geese. She saw them when we started the track, but as we moved away from them, she forgot about them.

But when the track went along a sidewalk headed right for the pond, Devon picked up her pace! Devon was pulling and wagging with her nose down off the sidewalk and onto the grass along the side of the pond when I heard Janet behind me say, "I actually made a left turn on the sidewalk back here...." She so much nicer than judges who blow whistles! ;-) I laughed as I watched Devon in all her glorious tracking posture a good 40 ft away from the turn she blew by and I said, "Not according to Devon!" We all laughed.

About that time Devon figured the jig was up, and she put her head up and circled left. She was headed directly around the pond to where the geese were standing. Too much field work! This girl was changing sports on me! She quickly back tracked on her own looking for her track, and as soon as she got to the turn on the sidewalk she took it and tracked to her glove. It was sitting on the seat of a metal picnic table, and she wasn't fooled! She reached right up, snagged it and carried it right back to Janet! This excitement and great attitude were awesome for me to see.

Page's track ended up being 3 hours and 15 minutes old when we ran it. This was the oldest VST track she's ever run. She had chalk and transitions and a MOT turn -- her first! Page went off the start like it was a 30 minute track. This girl doesn't mind age. She tracked strong across veg and non-veg to the front of the building.

The fronts of buildings with entrance doors give Page lots to investigate. She searched every seam in the pavement and sniffed every flower and every planter pot. Janet had been teasing me earlier when I didn't know the names of plants and flowers (hey, she's the gardener and I'm the one with an animal science degree!). I told them Page was going to get her undergraduate degree in horticulture with the way she was examining the flowers!

Any other dog would have looked up and seen the bright yellow dog toy on the sidewalk 15 yards ahead. Nope, not Page. She was WORKING! I couldn't push this dog through a track if I tried. Her investigations finally took her past the entrance doors and into the flower bed on the other side. After a tour where she again sniffed every flower, she used her nose to go back to the track and found the yellow dog toy the hard way -- from the side using her nose!

From there Page tracked right on to her MOT turn. This really threw her and it was late in the track. She found the chalk and twice put her nose down on the new leg and once tracked it 10 ft. However, she just couldn't commit. Once I rescented her and stepped onto the new leg, she picked it up and tracked to the glove.

This was a really nice track for a 6 month old puppy. She found her articles and indicated them (she even shook the toy and loved the plastic article with cookies in it). I'm really proud of her work up to this point. I'll try and sneak in some more tracking in the next week or so.

TDX training in woods

When I was brand new to tracking, especially TDX work, I read a great article titled "Training Woods" by Rosemary Janoch in the July-August 2007 issue of the Golden Retriever News. In this article, she lists all the scenarios you should practice with a woods. They include:

• track towards the woods and go directly in
• track towards the woods and make a right or left turn in front of it (don't enter)
• track toward the woods on a diagonal and enter on a diagonal
• track parallel to the woods then make a right or left turn into it
• make a turn shortly after entering a woods
• make a turn after going a long way into the woods
• make no turn at all and go through the woods

This article has been invaluable to me in my training, and I apply the list above to any obstacle I can (like ravines and changes of cover).

Well, I said a couple of weeks ago Page needed to get back to TDX work, and that's what we've been working on. In the last 10 days, Page has done three TDX tracks, and she's done really well on them.

Track #1

I laid an evening track in high grass and woods that was approximately 600 yards long and aged 3 hours. There were lots of deer trails through this area, so I knew it would be challenging. Page worked well through the high grass and into the woods. The first set of woods I went straight through on a slight diagonal. Page entered the woods easily and tracked well. However, just before the exit of the woods, Page got very confused.

She worked a deer cross track and took it to the right. She wasn't totally committed to it but came back to it several times. I finally allowed her to track out of the woods on the cross track to see what she'd do and how she'd look knowing the track wasn't there. She did just what I've seen Devon do in this situation. She hunted for the track and never found it. So back into the woods we went.

I finally worked her through the section with several rescents and moving her toward the correct track without pushing her. How did I do that? Well, each time I rescented her I did it farther beyond the cross track until she got her correct track. I didn't push her through the track but helped her work it out. Once she was on the correct track, she practically pulled me over exiting the woods.

The key thing for my training is that all this happened on damp ground with no veg. It's the second time she's really struggled under these conditions. Looks like I have something to work on!

Page handled the rest of the track very well. I gave her another small woods line to cross through an open gap, and I gave her a left turn in front of a woods. This last turn and leg of the track paralleled a deer path just 3 ft. to the right. Page did very, very well on this leg.

Track #2

This track was laid at 8 a.m. and run at 11:15 a.m. on a hot, humid day. It was also about 600 yards long with very heavy, brushy cover and woods.

Page didn't start very strong, but within 40 yards she was pulling so hard I nearly lost my feet in the heavy, dense cover. She made her woods entries very well and tracked quite strong in the woods. I gave her two woods turns, and the difference in this woods was there was much more vegetation to help her scenting.

The other difference with this woods was the vines! The trouble with tracking Page in viney cover is that she goes under the vines while I go over them ... leading to interesting line handling. At one point before her woods exit, Page froze in the vines. I waited for her to move forward and then realized that maybe she was stuck. As I walked forward she never moved but simply looked over her shoulder and up at me with a glare that clearly communicated: "Thanks for FINALLY realizing I CAN'T MOVE HERE! A little help is APPRECIATED!" Once I lifted the vines off her she was gone like a shot. Seriously, where does this girl get her attitude??

On this very humid day, the heat got to her on the last leg. She did take water and a rescent; but again her attitude seemed to say, "Leave me alone. I got it, just let me work it out." So I did, and she found her glove in less time than it took me to lay the track. That's always a good sign!

Track #3

This track was again laid in the evening. It was about 275 yards long, aged a little more than 2 hours and had some VST as well as TDX in it. It started in weedy high cover and including some cover that was a bit viney. This track was laid by Steve, and there were several articles on it. I was VERY pleased that Page indicated her two articles on the track by wagging her tail and picking them up! This is a big improvement for her.

Page did a lovely job on her turns, including triple checking herself when she hit a deer bed after she had already committed 10 yards down a new leg. With the heavy cover, you could see the exact 90 degree turn, and she came right back to it and worked it to triple check herself! Page also gave an extra tail-wagging indication where the tracklayer took a tumble in the heavy cover. Personally, I think she was checking for any cookies that might have fallen out of his pockets!

Page again was meticulous on her transition to the non-veg. This was an interesting twist for her since she hasn't done non-veg in probably 10 days and it was at the end of a TDX track with completely different scenting. After indicating the track went out into the parking lot, she triple checked herself then committed. She tracked well to the final article.

Page did indicate her final glove in the curb, but it was a weaker indication than the others with no tail wag. However, once I asked if she found something, she picked it up and I was able to play with her by tugging and tossing the glove. This is a real first! And she carried it all the way back to the vehicles. When Janet saw her she called to her and Page ran to Janet with her glove for a big party! I think Page could get used to the party part! And my leftover hamburger from dinner got an enthusiastic welcome as a jackpot!

Devon's 12 hour track

On Sunday evening, I laid Devon a track at 7 p.m. However, after we got done running Page's track, it would have been after 10 pm when we ran Devon's. So I decided to try her on an overnight aged track. I know those on the west coast and in southern states run overnight tracks all the time because of the heat, but this is a new experience for Devon.

I wish I had a map of this track, but the location is too new for Google. Devon did a really good job with the track and found all her articles. She struggled a little with the start and the first non-veg which was a baseball diamond. I could see my footprints from the night before, and I could see added prints from a coyote or dog and deer from overnight.

Once back in the lush grass, Devon did really well through her next non-veg and first article. She didn't struggle again until her real non-veg turn. Once she committed to it, she tracked it well back into the grass and then to a plastic article. It was hidden, but she was on the track and found it easily.

Once in the grass again, Devon didn't want to go back out into the parking lot. She indicated that's where the track went, but she skirted the track on the sidewalk instead. I followed her, but the track angled out into the parking lot and she was soon far off of the track. I took her back to where she lost the scent and told her I didn't go on the sidewalk and she knew it.

Apparently my comments worked, because once she was back to the transition, she worked it properly (although grudgingly) and did go into the parking lot. She worked this surface swiftly, but accurately. She knew what she was doing once out there. Then it was back into the grass for her final article.

I won't do 12 hour tracks very often with Devon, but it was an interesting experience. She worked the track very meticulously, taking three times the normal time to complete it. This track had some extra scent, but no chalk. It proved to me she really doesn't need extra scent. The chalk is still helpful for MOT turns and transitions, but it's also time to fade it, too.

Page's "big dog" VST track on July 12

Sunday was really a lovely day, and we spent most of it at the White River Golden Retriever Club meeting. But in the evening, I couldn't help myself. I wanted to see what Page would do on a "big dog" VST track.

I put in a track for Page that I would usually give Devon. It was 577 yards long with 45% non-veg. It was aged 2 hours and 15 minutes. It included curb work and serpentines, which are staples in our VST work. I started with hand prints every 3-4 steps on the first section of non-veg and faded them to every 10+ steps.

I gave Page an angled start, and she again handled it very well. She's locking into her starts better than Devon is! She handled the first turn well, and with only a little searching went out into the non veg.

It took her a little bit to figure out the island work, but once she did she did the serpentines like she'd been doing them for years. Once on the veg, she actually took longer to lock into that leg than the non-veg. The angle across the driveway was simple for her, and she pulled me across with her nose down and back arched.

Page easily handled the track along the side of the building. She worked nose down and easily took the track into the curb and down the back of the building. I had less hand prints through this section, but you couldn't tell based on they way she worked the track. She angled out of the curb, across the sidewalk and onto the grass with her nose exactly in my footsteps. It was amazing.

The only place she really worked was the turn onto the sidewalk before the playground. This took several minutes and a couple of rescents before she locked in. However, once she did, she easily handled this section. I was very impressed she didn't even look out into the playground when she had just tracked through there two days before. She was really tracking and not just wandering and getting lucky.

The last leg of this track was the hardest because there was no light on this side of the building. I always forget that when I lay night-time tracks here. With her less than solid article indications, I wondered if she'd find the last article. She worked hard through this section, getting distracted and bringing me back mulch and wood chips (at least that's what I'm telling myself I was pulling out of her mouth; I really don't know and I don't think I want to know!).

Finally, she locked into the track and did a sit at the final article. Yippee!! Page did an awesome job with her first "big dog" VST track. She really is an amazing little girl!

Catching up: Page's tracking last week

I haven't blogged in a while, but don't think it's because we aren't working! Last week Page did three tracks, one of every type. Last Monday, good friend Beth called and offered to put in a TD track for Page. Hey, I'll always jump at that!

Beth put in a nice four turn track that was probably in the 300-400 yard range and aged between 30-45 minutes. She also put one in for her "grand-dog" Ripken. As I pulled up, I saw a fisherman headed for the pond. When Beth pulled her van up to mine, I wasn't surprised when she said, "Ummm...one of us will have a cross track!" I immediately volunteered Page for that track. I wanted to see what she'd do.

Page did a lovely start even though this was just the second time she'd tracked someone other than me. She cruised through the first turn but got spooked by something on the second leg. It was either the fisherman or the cattails with the wind or both. She ran back to me a couple of times, but I got her working again pretty quickly. Page is in that stage between 4-6 months where even the boldest puppies will shy sometimes. She's only reacted to something strange a couple of times, but it's more than she did before she was 4 months old. We just work through it and don't make a big deal of it. Page got back into her track and even though she was headed closer to the scary fisherman, she was working too hard to give him any attention and handled the second turn well.

On the third leg we had the cross track. It was only aged 5-10 minutes. Page checked it left then followed it back right for about 15 ft., when her head came up and you could tell she was thinking, "This isn't what I'm supposed to be tracking!" She turned and when she hit Beth's track, she got right back on it and tracked strong to the glove. Good girl!

Tuesday was a VST track on a hot humid day. I put in the track at 8:30 a.m., planning to run it in 45 minutes to an hour. However, I got sidetracked with Devon's field drills, and we didn't run it until 10 a.m. The track was approximately 250 yards long, with two smaller sections and one large section of non-veg.

Page did a great job on the first section of non-veg which included curb work. However, after going through some grass and indicating the track went back into the parking lot, Page got stuck on the grass. I helped her to the mulch island where she found an article. However, I knew she wouldn't restart back into the parking lot. I walked her across that section and restarted her in grass.

Once started, Page did well in the grass, finding another article. She turned and headed into the longest section of non veg, back into the parking lot strong, angling across a mulch island, pavement, another mulch island, into gravel, across the end of a concrete loading ramp and finally back on grass. She was rewarded 30 yards later with a VST leather article hidden in an indentation in the grass. She found it easily and had a strong indication. I was pleased with the end of this track, especially since the middle was so bad! She did show me she needs work restarting after articles.

On Wednesday I decided to give Page a short TDX track. I used my favorite spot for TDX work and took her into the woods. This track had a short 60 yard leg through high cover to the first turn. The second leg was 150 yards long through high cover including a mowed path and into woods. She had a turn in the woods to a final leg out of the woods and back into high cover that was 130 yards long.

I gave Page a one flag start and brought her up at 90 degrees. She sniffed her start article and headed off in a straight line in front of me for about 10 yards before her head came up, and I could tell she was thinking, "Where the heck is my track??" She usually goes left with loss of scent, and in this case the track was to her left. When got found it she gave me a clear, "OH! HERE it is!!" and started tracking.

Page handled the mowed path without even showing any indication that the cover had changed! The third time through that mowed path, and she's an expert! Great lessons learned from previous tracks.

When I laid the woods part, I was SURE to put plenty of trail markers after our disaster the last time! As I decided where the turn was, I thought this part of the woods looked familiar. No, I must be imagining it ... until I started on the new leg and saw where I should have come out on that disastrous track the week before. And then I saw a trail marker up ahead! It was the one I'd been searching for when I got lost. Since I was on that line, I just used it again!

Page did an excellent job on her woods turn this time. Interestingly, she sucked left after the turn into the same areas we got lost before. However this time she righted herself and with the extra markers for me, we tracked to the glove.

The other fun thing about this TDX track was that our friend Judy followed us on it. I've only had a couple of people follow Page tracking (besides our blog readers!), and it was good that Page wasn't bothered. The thing that was interesting to me was what Judy had to say about our tracking.

First, Judy was struck by the fact that I was silent as Page tracked. I didn't tell Page to get to work or talk at her. The only time I did was on the last leg toward the end when she got off on some cross tracks and started to follow critters (likely deer) instead of me. I simply asked if we were tracking (she would probably say, "Yep Mom, but not you!"), and she got right back to work.

When Judy made this observation, I realized she was right. I do track silently except to tell my dog "track" off the start, to praise him/her for finding articles and to tell him/her to get back to work if I have to. I believe it's their job to track, and I don't want to be part of the tracking picture at all. I don't know where a test track will be, so they have to know their job and do it. The best way I know how to teach that is let them figure it out, without letting them get into trouble.

Judy's second observation was that she thought Page would be hard to read because Page's nose doesn't come up. In heavy cover, Judy is right. Page tracks head down and on the track most of the time. She's still little and not that fast because she's fighting cover, so she indicates loss of scent within a few feet of the turn.

However, this observation made me think about what I do use to tell me if Page is tracking or not tracking. I can tell by line tension if Page is working or not. When she's searching for scent or crittering, she doesn't pull with purpose on the line ... actually, she probably pulls harder when she's crittering than when she's tracking, but it's not "with purpose." Page does lift her head when she loses scent, but she is more subtle than Devon.

After a successful week hitting all three types of tracking, I gave Page the rest of the week off from tracking!

More tracking by Page

On Tuesday I laid a track here at home for Page. The track was 200 yards long. The first two legs were 50 yards to left turns, then the last leg was 100 yards and we crossed my gravel driveway at 70 yards. The track was on short grass and it was aged 1.5 hours when we ran it. It was cloudy and 67 degrees with a light 8 mph wind.

Page started strong, even with the age of the track being twice what she ran the day before. She did a lot of casting on the first and second leg. I think this had more to do with the short grass and the wind than the age. She has been tracking in heavy cover, so the short grass was new to her and I expected to see a difference.

Both of Page's turns were lovely. She also handled the gravel driveway extremely well. She only gave a short pause at the transition and then nose down tracked across the driveway. I was especially pleased with her nose touch and down at the article when it had no kibble in it.

Today we did some field training with Steve, Janet and Sheree. I asked Janet if she would lay Page a track since Page has never tracked anyone but me. Janet was a real trooper and laid a lovely track with 4 turns and approximately 250-300 yards. We went down a hill to set up marks while Janet was laying this track, so it was also a blind track for me.

About 2 hours later, we returned to to run the track. This was the most age Page has done to date, and she's never tracked someone else. Add in that it was a blind track for me, and I didn't know what we'd have. The good news was that the track was in pretty high cover (up to my thighs) and it had rained while the track aged.

I've said that Page doesn't have the best starts, but now I'm rethinking that. Page has good starts; they just aren't what I'm used to. Donna told me when Bizzy is working field, she'll mark and seem to say to Donna, "I got it! Send me!" Now I think I know what that looks like by Page's tracking starts. When I've asked her to sniff the start article or lay down at the start, her attitude is, "No, I got it! Let me go!" and she seems to dismiss me. So I've let her go with that kind of start. And you know what, she does have it!

I brought Page up from the side about 3 feet behind the start flag. I pointed to the start article, a stuffed animal, and she sniffed it. Her body posture was slightly different like, "What the heck? This is odd." She started off and I let the line out, but then she circled to the left almost immediately. I let her go and work it out. She circled all the way back behind me and picked up the track there. She passed me, sniffed the based of the start flag again, and then almost seemed to shrug and say, "Well, this is different from the other times I've tracked so Mom must have lost her mind, but I'll play along" and off she went!

From the start, Page never missed a step in her tracking style. She tracked strong on the first leg. In the tall grass I had a good idea where the track went because I could see it even after 2 hours. However, when her head came up and she went left, I stopped dead. I was a little confused because the track looked like it went on straight; but sure enough I turned to my left and saw a path in the grass. I was standing on the first turn. Page overshot it by 25 ft., but she knew it and was working back to the turn.

Once on the new leg, it was nose down tracking again. She read the second and third turn much more quickly. On the fourth leg we started coming out of the heavy cover, and the fourth turn was in a roadway of grass much shorter than the surrounding cover.

This last leg of the track was very long. Page stopped about halfway up and investigated something in the grass. I called to Janet and asked her if that was the glove. She said no, it was farther on up. I told Page to track, and she did but came back to this spot. Finally I saw her eating something, and I realized she was eating rabbit poop. YUCK!! I told her to leave it and track, and she did. Several more yards and she found the glove. Page sniffed it and her tail went 100 mph and she stood over it, but she didn't do a down on the article.

This was an awesome track for Page. I am so pleased to have her track someone else and not miss a beat. And nearly 2 hours of age and a blind track was an added bonus!

Page's tracking - WOW!

I am just amazed at how mature Page is in her tracking. On Tuesday she did a 135 yard VST-type track at a local church. I really wish I had it on tape because of her focus. The track had 65 yards of veg with a metal article at 50 yards, then a double lane drive onto grass on an island where she had a plastic article. Off the island she went across the double lane drive again, then back into grass for her final glove.

I only aged this track 10 minutes, and I had hand prints and one piece of kibble at the second hand print on both non-veg. As I was waiting for the track to age, a teen-aged boy drove up in a golf cart and started sweeping up mulch around the islands that were about 20 ft. away from Page's track. I thought, "Oh great, there goes our track. What 15-week old puppy is going to track past a person who might want to play with her?"

I got Page out and went through our start routine. Imagine my shock when Page didn't even head check the kid that was sweeping by her! She got right to work. In fact, when he got into the golf cart and drove past her to the next island and started working again, I was in awe that she didn't pay any attention to him - in spite of the fact he was watching her!

I was so shocked at her tracking that when she started to paw something in the grass I thought, "What is she doing?" I had totally forgotten she had a metal article to find, and she was indicating it! She wagged her tail and pawed at it, then laid down and waited for the treats! Amazing!

After her track, I let her go play with the guy and explained what we were doing. She played with him like a typical puppy once she wasn't working.

Today I wanted to really push her and see what I had. I gave her a 405 yard track in medium to high cover with four turns and aged 30 minutes. I put one article on the second leg, and I knew there was at least one deer trail as a cross track on the first leg. There was no food on the track or in the articles (mainly because I forgot it!). 

The first leg was 80 yards to a left turn, then 65 yards with an article at 20 yards to an open right turn, leg 3 was 70 yards to a right turn, then 40 yards to another right turn and finally 150 yards to her glove. I'll spoil the ending by saying Page handled this track like a certified tracking dog! 

Below is the first half of the track from about 20 yards through the cross track deer trail, first turn and to the first article.

I had to shut the camera off to pick up the article, so here's the second half of the track.

I'm really just amazed at her tracking abilities and her work ethic at such a young age. Gayle told me she loves to work (just like her mom), and she doesn't like "down time" and I'm finding that to be true. 

We do have things to work on. Clearly Page's article indication is gone now that there's no food in the article, so I have to work on that. Now I'm glad I forgot the food, because I learned something. Also, she has only tracked me. I think our next track needs to be tracking someone new. 

Page's VST tracking

When starting Page in tracking, my goal was to introduce non-veg very quickly. Since Page is a "clean slate" she doesn't know tracking non-veg is "harder," so I didn't want it to be hard for her. I remember watching Devon as a puppy track on lots of surfaces as she was walking around in her daily life. I wanted Page to do this and know it was part of the game she was learning.

What I learned from tracking Page on non-veg right away, is that even though she is a blank slate, she recognized tracking non-veg was different than veg. Even though she had very limited experience (all of four tracks in her little life), she did work her first non-veg transition just like an adult dog and she didn't follow the track right onto the non-veg. After some encouragement and more experience, she's doing much better with non-veg just as she's doing better with the whole tracking game in general.

This is a good example of the types of non-veg tracks I've given Page recently. Although it looks like this track is a two turn track, the initial leg was really a soft curve to the left toward the front of the building. I'm still using a single kibble food drop randomly on the track approximately 10 yards apart. Page's end article also has kibble in it.

On the concrete areas of this track, I used water with hand prints every couple of steps to add extra scent. I put a piece of kibble on the second hand print as a reward. 

At the end of this post is a video of this track. I got the idea to carry the video camera as Page tracked, but I'm not sure how affective this video is at showing her tracking abilities! I'll describe what happened on the track to give you some context in what is on the tape.

It's too bad I couldn't get the start on video. Page has a very enthusiastic start. She knows when the harness goes on in the van what she's going to do; so out of the van all she can think about is finding that start flag. When she sees it, she runs to it in all her puppy enthusiasm! Once she gets her scent, she's off!

Page tracks very nicely off the start, but she was to the right of the track on the first leg. This could have been due to the curve of the track to the left and/or the wind. She did get distracted once and found a food drop along the way. Although you cannot hear it on the video, there was a thunderstorm to our south and the thunder rolls were noticeable. 

Page searched the transition onto the sidewalk to the right before committing into the sidewalk. You can see the hand prints here since the track was only about 10 minutes old when I ran it. She also went right going off the sidewalk into the grass. 

After the sidewalk, she was distracted by a storm water drain to our right near the building. She really wanted to go check it out, but because she was on a 6 ft. leash, I wouldn't let her. I think the backwards glares I'm getting from her are pretty funny. Clearly I'm cramping her exploration desires here!

She finally gets back to work and tracks very nicely through the grass, through the mulch bed and onto the concrete at the entrance of the school. You'll see as she goes onto the concrete, she's visually distracted by small black bits of mulch that look like her small kibble. She tastes, then discards several bits of mulch! She also gets me hung up in the bicycle rack (sorry for the camera motion there). 

It's interesting Page pulls in toward the entry door in this area. This is exactly what the scent does at entrances, and she reads it well. She was also using her extra hand print scent across the walkway, too. 

Halfway across the entry area, she loses interest and sits. I'm guessing this was because the conditions turned difficult. I was pleased she did get back to work with encouragement, and again the hand prints were great motivators here. Once back in the mulch she tracked with a little crittering! 

Just past the mulch we had another distraction. Two boys on bicycles rode past talking very loud. At the last minute Page saw them and took off toward their bikes. You can hear them on the tape yelling loudly after she did that. That's a pretty big distraction for a 13 week old puppy! I was really pleased she got right back to work after they went by!

Page did some of her best tracking through the grass after the "boys on bikes" distraction. The grass was not lush through here, so I was impressed. She gets to her turn and just indicates it and starts to work it when we had yet another distraction - a rabbit. You can't see it, but when you see her sit, she's very politely asking for the rabbit. Track, what track? I want the rabbit, please!

Ok, lady, if you won't give me the rabbit, I'll get back to work. Luckily I had laid kibble every two steps past the turn for a total of four drops. This got her back to the new leg and momentarily interested in tracking again. 

Unfortunately at this point, Page starts to fade. This was the longest track to date I'd asked her to do, and this is where it showed. I had given her two non-veg scenting areas, and she'd had several distractions on this track. In addition, the vegetation was sparse on this new leg after the turn. You have to bear with her searching for the track and going off to the left of the track for several seconds. And it's hard to tape a tracking puppy when she goes behind you!

But once Page picked up the track, she just nailed the end of it. I'm sure she scented her glove with her jackpot in it several yards before she found it. In fact, she found it before I even saw it because I was taping. 

It's also interesting she volunteered to give me a down and several nose touches on the article. You can tell just an hour before we tracked, I was working with Page on nose touches to a target since that's what she gave me at the article. Hey, if she starts defaulting to this article performance, I'm fine with it!

So I hope you enjoy the video. I'm not sure what it shows, but it was fun to do and review. As I said in an earlier post, you can also see how great she looks in her bright pink collar and puppy tracking harness. She does truly glow!

Memorial Day training

We spent Memorial Day training and relaxing with friends. Before breakfast, we had an early morning training session in the building with Page and Devon. Then we hit the road (the girls were really voting for breakfast) for a short tracking session with Page and some more obedience work for Devon. We were trying to beat a thunderstorm rolling in from the south. 

More on Page's track in the next post, but Devon's obedience session was fantastic. She's changing speed extremely well, and we're really together on cuing sits. We're working on getting finishes to the right and the left with both hand signal and verbal, and those are also coming together very well. Now it's down to refining the little things, like pivots and other fine heeling skills. I've never had a dog that loves obedience as much as Devon, and she's really making me enjoy it, too!

We just beat the rain, and after the dogs ate a late breakfast they napped as the temperatures actually dropped and I pulled a sweatshirt on. In spite of the rain, we spent the afternoon at K9 Athletes having a cookout/pitch-in and spending time with training friends. It was a great afternoon. 

The rain eventually went away for Devon to play on the agility equipment. She did a very nice job on all the equipment, including the teeter. She did bail off the first time but got right back on and was solid every other sequence. Her weaves are very accurate; and although they aren't fast, I'll take accurate right now.

I think Devon's favorite part of the day was getting pets from her friends. She especially liked one little boy and would have sat with him all day for pets! Page also got her socialization time. She enjoyed eating grass clods from the mower and meeting new people. Page also tried her very best to convince Dr. Bonnie that she needed to share everything on her plate. She should know by now Dr. Bonnie is no push over! And she wanted to follow Mike anywhere he was going when he walked past with a pan full of hot dogs! This girl is her mother's daughter all right!

On the way home, it looked like it was done raining for the day, so I chanced laying three VST starts for Devon. Remember I said that was on our agenda! I have the map here, but it's very hard to see because the last satellite image is from a couple of years ago during construction of this building.

The first start was 50 yards in lush lawn with a right turn across a drive, up and over a mulch island, across another parking lot entrance and a leather article at the end of another mulched island under a bush. I didn't lay any chalk or extra scent. The first start was 3.5 hours old when we ran it, and all of the tracks were approximately 100 yards.

Devon did a picture perfect start, but I did give her a straight on approach to the track. She only circled once on this start and tracked very strong. She did 2-3 circles on the turn, but that's because the track transitioned onto the non-veg in less than 10 yards; I think she was truly working the transition and not the turn. Once into the drive area, she tracked straight as an arrow to the glove.

The second start was 35 yards of short, patchy grass to a mulched bed, across a drive to another mulched island, across a parking lot to a gravel divider strip/island and her leather article was in the gravel island under a rock. I gave Devon an 90 approach to the flag, and this time she worked the start much harder. She circled a couple of times before committing to the start, but once committed she was on it and pulling strong. 

Devon made short work of the rest of the track. She does work her first transition to non-veg pretty well before committing. However once she was out there, she worked the islands and pavement very well, tracking straight to her article.

The third track started again on lush lawn. It was a 32 yard start with a right turn and 15 yards later a mulch bed into a parking lot. She then had to angle across the lot, across the gravel divider, across another lot to a mulch island where her article was hidden beside a light post. 

I again brought Devon into the start at a 90 degree angle, this time with the start to her right instead of her left. She's stronger when the track goes left, and I think we've worked more of these types of starts. Devon struggled more with this start, circling several times and back tracking the start. Again, once she committed, she did a good job and got into the track. 

I can also say Devon was getting tired at this point, too. She'd had a long day with little nap time, and this was now the third "sport" she'd trained today. She worked the first turn several times and then committed into the mulch bed and then the parking lot. She worked well to the gravel island, but once she got past it, she stalled. After circling in the same area three times, I called her in for a rescent. This did the trick and she dropped her nose and tracked directly to the article. 

I was very pleased with this session. Devon's last two VST sessions have been short yardage, but I believe we've gotten a lot of good training in. Her next track might have to be a little longer, but we'll see how the weather holds out this week.

Tracking Page

Page is really getting into tracking. We did some veg tracks starting at 9 weeks, but she didn't "take them on the road" well. I also wasn't good about my consistency in tracking her. About 2 weeks ago I decided I should track her more often (on short tracks) until she really understood the game. This strategy has worked well.

Page knows what the harness is and knows when it goes on what we're doing. She's immediately looking for her start flag when she comes out of the van. She's also pulling me toward the start article and giving it a good sniff. For the first few times tracking, the flag was a big distraction! It was so much fun to attack the flag and try to rip it apart! But now she ignores the flag and gets right to work.

Earlier this week we went to the local metro park for another new location to track. I went to a spot I like very well for straight line puppy tracks. I put in the start flag and bent to place the start article when something went past me. I didn't think anything about it until a bird swooped by my head. "HEY!" And here it came again! 

I was being dive bombed by this swallow! And she was serious; she came at me at least 6 times! I was putting my start way too close to her nesting box. Like I said, I've laid tons of tracks here, but this year I retreated and put my track on the other side of the road! Ms. Swallow preferred my change of location.

This was a 75 yard track, with food every 3 steps for the first 20 yards, every 4 steps for the next 20 yards and then every 6 steps (or every 5 yards) for the next 25 yards and no food for the last 10 yards. Page did an outstanding job with this track and barely stopped for any food drops. 

The next day I took this new confidence to non-veg. I laid a track across a two lane blacktop drive. I had 40 yards of veg before the non-veg. I put beef as my food drops every 4 to 6 steps. Then when I got to the non-veg, I used water with a hand print and a small piece of beef every other step across the drive. Once we got to the veg, she only had two food drops before the glove 30 yards after the drive.

The last time Page did this non-veg, she struggled and really didn't track across it. This time, she tracked very strong to the curb. From the curb, she walked out to the drive a couple of steps but never put her head down even with the beef. Finally I pointed to the drive and said, "track" but never leaned over and actually touched the ground. Page turn her head and looked where I pointed, saw the food drop and ate it, contemplated the situation before her and then trotted across the drive on her track to continue tracking in the grass. 

Page never dropped her nose to sniff the pavement, and she never ate the food drops on the pavement but walked right by them. I did get the feeling she used her nose. Very interesting. 

Today I decided to spread out the food drops even more and go with a low value food drop (kibble) since she was ignoring most of them anyway. I went to a place where I could track across a gravel driveway for another section of non-veg, and on a whim I decided to add in a turn. Usually I train tracking in this order: length, age, turns. However, Page is tracking so strongly, I wanted to see what she would do with a turn. 

I put a food drop in a footstep every 10 yards for the first 30 yards to the gravel drive. Then I put a food drop in every other foot step across the driveway. I switched back to every 10 yards until I got to the turn. On the turn, I mashed the grass down so I could tell where the turn was. Then I did an open turn to the left with a food drop in every other step for 6 steps then one more at 5 yards and then back to every 10 yards to the glove. The total track was around 80 yards. 

Page did a fantastic job with this track. She didn't get any food drops until the gravel drive. She got the first food drop here, and then used her nose (I heard her sniffing) to track across the driveway. She got the first food drop in the grass, but she didn't get any more across the driveway.

Page also didn't hardly notice her turn. She kept her nose down and just turned along with the track on rails. The first food drop she got was the one 6 steps past the turn! Then she tracked confidently to her glove.

I would love to get video of Page tracking; she's doing so well! And you should hear people's reaction when I say Page is tracking. They cannot believe it! I'm tracking with friends tomorrow, so I'll try and get some video. I haven't yet figured out how to hold a camera along with the leash and get her off the start line. But you can't miss Page - she has a bright pink harness to match her bright pink collar! She glows!

More VST work

We just got a VST track in today before the rain set in ... well, we did get a little wet. I laid this track at a local school which has some really cool tennis courts. Although I knew this track was long, I didn't realize until I got home it was probably about 850 yards and had 54% non-veg. There is no map of this one because there are no satellite images of the school completely built. My distances are estimates based on partial construction of the grounds.

The other interesting thing about this track is I laid something very similar on Wednesday, but picked it up. Terrie and her friend Suzette were laying tracks at this school, which was on spring break, and got hassled by a custodian. They eventually picked up their tracks and left. About 20 minutes later I showed up and laid a track through the same exact areas but didn't get hassled. Instead of fighting with the guy when I went back, I waited and picked up my track after he left. We'll wait until summer break (and Sunday mornings) to track much more at this school.

I ran this track at exactly 3 hours, because the rain was headed towards us. Devon started strong and as we were on her second leg big raindrops fell on us. By the time she made her second turn, it was a light rain that made everything wet and then stopped. It was good practice. 

I was interested to see how Devon would work the second leg. I laid the track about 3 feet west of the path I took on Wednesday. When Devon ran her certification track (at 7 months) she indicated a 48 hour old cross track. The tracks I laid at the school were 96 hours different in age, but laid by the same person. Devon worked the leg on the Sunday track through the grass and the first landscaping area to the concrete sidewalk at the front of the building. On the concrete she showed loss of scent and actually picked up the Wednesday path off the concrete and across the landscaping back into the grass. I would have thought she was just fringing if I did not know where I laid the other track and she was nose down on it. 

Once in the grass, she moved to the Sunday path again. She searched wide for the next corner, and I knew I probably laid the two turns at different places. I also knew Terrie had likely been in this area, and she's tracked Terrie before. Devon made the correct choice and tracked right across her chalk marks to the back side of the building. 

From here the track ran about 50 yards in the grass along the building and then turned out across the sidewalk and into the parking lot. Devon overshot the turn and started working a transition farther down at the next downspout. Again, I suspect she was working the Wednesday turn at this point. She came back and forth between the Wednesday turn and the Sunday turn, then she spotted the chalk from the Sunday track and started working it more heavily. She finally decided to commit to the Sunday track and went into the parking lot. 

Devon did a wonderful job on her first of two MOT turns. She did sniff the chalk and worked it, and once she committed to the new direction, she tracked strong and straight. She was rewarded with a metal article. At this point she really needed water, and (bad, bad mom) I forgot the tracking pack with the water bottles. I suspect the only reason she made it through this track without water was because the ground was wet from our brief rain. 

Devon struggled with her second MOT turn more and needed a couple of rescents before she committed to her new leg. She was quickly rewarded when she saw a leather article laying on the parking lot. We tracked on into the grass for some much needed break from the parking lot. However, her longest section of non-veg was to come, and it was the toughest.

The neat thing about tracking at this school is the tennis courts. There are a series of tennis courts separated by concrete sidewalks that are about twice as wide as a normal sidewalk. The map with this post shows you similar tennis courts at another local school. The courts are all 50 yards square, so it's a legal track and makes for interesting scenting work. All the courts have chain-linked fence with privacy strips in them, and there are multiple entrances to each court. 

Devon's first leg went down the west side of the courts. She searched into the grass for a while before committing to the sidewalk into the courts. She had the courts on her left and the fence to the football fields on her right. She chose to track this entire leg on the grass to the right of the sidewalk. I allowed this and wondered what she would do when we came to the end of the courts; would she continue to track straight on the grass or make the turn deeper into the courts? 

Amazingly, Devon showed loss of scent right next to the turn and eventually worked the turn to the left after checking straight ahead into the grass and looking into a tennis court. She was rewarded by a plastic article down the track hidden to the left of the track behind a fence pole. I believe she actually winded the article which is what helped her turn. But she did have to search for it and didn't give up. 

Her next two turns in the courts were very strong. She struggled a little on the last turn, but I knew the track was getting long and she really needed water. She was a trooper and accepted her rescent and made her last MOT turn. She was rewarded by grass and a grassy turn with less than 80 yards to her final leather article hidden under a tree.

Devon did an amazing job on this track. I was thrilled with her confidence on non-veg, especially her MOT work. I was also amazed at the indications of the 96 hour old track she showed me. We humans have very little concept of what really happens when our dogs track, and Devon's work today showed me she is far smarter about scent work than I will ever be.

Tracking down south: lessons in distractions

On Friday when we visited Agile Gold in southern Indiana, we laid a VST track for Devon at a local community college. This was a fun track and it provided lots of distractions for Devon. The track was aged 3.5 hours, it was 558 yards long (42 yards shy of a regulation track) with 244 yards of non-veg or 44%. It was cold and very windy with gusts reported near 40 mph. This was difficult tracking weather for the challenges I gave Devon, so it was going to be very interesting how she ran this track.

The start went along a grassy area between a parking lot and a barbed-wire fence. When we started, there were black Angus and Angus cross steers laying near the fence. Devon started nicely, but when she saw one of these steers get up, she turned and barked at them. Instead of going away, the steers got more curious about this dog and all got up and walked towards her! Devon barked more and came back to me. She wasn't really sure what to do and these were big black beasts! 

Kathy and I chuckled at her, but then I told Devon to get back to work and track. Probably in an attempt to avoid confrontation with the steers, Devon did what she was told and put her nose down and got to work. I was pretty proud of her to work through that, only to discover it wasn't over yet! The steers were following Devon along the fence line! Since they were behind her, Devon didn't know she had a bovine gallery. She likes to track for an audience, but I wasn't sure this is what she had in mind. Kathy and I began to wonder if she'd realize she was being followed. 

Sure enough these steers caught Devon's attention and she gave them another stern barking. Kathy and I laughed and told her to get back to work, and she did. This time, she had offended her audience enough that they stayed put. It was a good thing this leg was just over 100 yards so she could get a good scent and work the track avoiding the steers.

The next part of the track was what I expected to be the hardest for Devon. On the map, you see it goes onto some brown colored area; these were brick pavers. I had been told pavers scent differently than concrete, and Devon struggles on gravel, so I wondered how this would go. I didn't put chalk through this area because it was a main courtyard to the building. I did add some extra scent with hand prints in three places. This was a heavily traveled area, so I was sure there would be a lot of extra distracting scent.

In the second diagram, you can kind of see that this area was actually a raised concourse. The building was set against a hillside, so in the back you walked into the third floor. Because of the railings and the wind, I was sure the scent was doing a lot of funny things. Just into the paver area, you can see a grassy area to our left. Devon spent a lot of time search this area. Beyond the landscaping was a fence and then a two story drop to the patio areas below. I was sure the wind, coming from our right was pushing the scent into this grassy area where it stuck and then over the edge to the area below. 

Devon eventually worked this out and tracked to her turn where she lost scent. She circled the area several times. I offered her a rescent, and after a quick sniff she committed instantly to the right turn. This was another tricky area. It was a concrete amphitheater down to the lawn below. I put extra scent at the top step and again halfway down. Because there was no handrail for me (the steps were on the sides) and Devon committed 100% and hopped all the way down the concrete steps, I let her get to the bottom (and all 40 ft. of my line) and told her to wait (which she did) and slowly made my way down. When I reached the bottom I told her to track, and she easily made her way into the grass for her first article.

After the turn on the sidewalk, Devon allowed the stiff wind to push her into the grass where she caught the turn to the left. I was sure the wind had blown the scent into the grass so I allowed this. She struggled a little with the plastic article in the curb. She winded it but it took her a while to find. She handled her two MOT turns very well, and tracked very quickly to her glove. 

I was very proud of how Devon handled this track. She had distractions from steers and lots of scent from people. She also had difficult scenting conditions from the wind. I gave her minimal chalk and some extra scent. I really am pleased with how well she's doing!