Video of some puppy tracking
Noah took some video of Isaac tracking today, the video is a little sketchy as is my technique. Noah skills as a camera man appear to be improving faster than my abilities as a dog trainer. I seriously thought about editing out the ‘bad’ parts to put together a couple of minutes of ‘solid’ tracking, but figured I wouldn’t learn anything from that. Though I think I could have a spliced together a nice highlight reel.
The good news is that Isaac is moving forward while keeping his nose down. Now for the bad news! I still at times keep a tight leash, I stepped in and pointed a little, and in an effort to keep the tracks in the shade I had my scent pads to close together (yes I said scent pads plural).
All and all for a slacker handler I think the dog is pushing through and figuring it out regardless of my faults. He even kept his nose to the ground as Bethany ran up screaming “Mom, what are you doing?”
Why the three tracks? Well I’m sure this will be a controversial topic, but I am using the tracking program that is detailed by Gary Patterson in his book entitled Training the Behavior. The 10,000 foot view is that working with three tracks the dog is able to settle in and calm down and regain focus between each of the tracks with hopes that the third and longest track is the best. You only use 3 tracks during the early phases of tracking (it’s not a forever thing). Seems to be working (if I could just get out of the way and let the dog work we’d probably progress a little faster).
Here are the videos (Track 1 is about 10 feet, Track 2 is about 15 feet, and track 3 is about 20 feet). They are all baited with a Jackpot at the end, I made the jackpot a tad smaller than the ones I used on Monday. Isaac still heads back to the tracks from Monday when ever we pass by with the hopes that more meat fell from the sky while we were away.
Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
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Just a guy with a BLOG about a DOG. You can follow me @rosebudcassidy http://www.twitter.com/rosebudcassidy - or just continue to check back here for updates on our trials and tribulations with SchH.
