March14, 2025 (Friday) @ VGL (TDX style practice track)

 

Goal - work on elements of TDX style track particularly bouncing off, working alongside, and entering the woods.

Things I liked: 

• Mila's overall tracking style (solving many of the turns nicely) 
• Strong first 3rd
• She tracked along the woods edge better than I anticipated (leg 2, not last leg)
• She learned from turn 1 and used it to work turn 2 & 4 
• Readily drank water on leg 4 (as well as back at the car prior to start)
• I was able to practice line handling and working at distance more
• This was a challenging track and she did great (longest track for quite some time at ~580 yrds) 
• Since it was warmish (for Mila) and the track was longer and challenging I kept it young (~ 1hr)

Improvements & observations:

• Too much testing in this one. I didn't really plan it to be, but I realized it towards the end.
• I should have broken the elements down and make this two tracks and reduced number of legs.
• Feels like 'what did you find' is becoming too much of a cue to get her to turn towards me to indicated the article. 
• It was interesting but several times after she ate a food drop, she'd show LOS before restarting (not sure why, but I found that really interesting) - it was more noticeable to me in the open field sections.
• Woods entry needs work - I should have maybe stopped before the woods entry (or just used a better strategy to keep us going).
• Woods exit needs work - I needed a better strategy at woods exit - she was tired and having a hard time solving that puzzle. I don't think I did great supporting that moment.
• UGH - not remembering to remember which legs had articles! I had some of the memorized, but I normally have them all nicely seated in my brain.  Unfortunately, I could remember if leg 3 or 4 had one (neither did!) and so I had to check my map (stupid hooman)
•  At turn 6, the breeze died down, birds got silent (except for the dang 'who cooks for you') and it became preternaturally silent - this meant Mila could hear distant barking, gunfire, and owls hooting.  Felt like my strategy to get her back to tracking wasn't as good as I'd have liked. I did try to get her to recall before she triggered, but didn't work.  Instead of the long toss of treat, not sure if it would have been better to do one closer to me, then a little further down the track, and then one more.
• Not sure I'm happy with my decision at the woods entry on leg 7. I did an article toss because I worried I had reached the bottom of her reserves but she seemed energized and my thought was if we could just get into the woods away from the noises then she'd be okay.  Maybe the decision to go into the woods was okay (seemed to be once we were in there), but I wish I had used a better strategy to get her across that transition zone.
• And I definitely needed to work closer to her in the woods (effing line entanglement!) - video is in two parts as I cut it off while I untangled the line - figured my video was going to be long enough that I didn't need to include that portion :). Mila waited nicely during that. After that, I worked more closely to her except in areas where I knew it opened up some.
• I wish I could have left the flags in/at the woods, but I knew it was going to be a bit dark by the time I'd be able to go back for them. I just hated having to worry about them or the clips...it took me away from supporting Mila and got on my nerves.
• Woods exit...talk about lack of strategies...you know when you tell your pup, "you got it girl..." you're reaching a bit. I pretty much disliked everything about how I handled the last leg...need to think about this one more and ask Judi & Mary Ann about this section for sure (and others).  She exited the woods very nicely but right when we got out there was more owl hooting and dog barking that bothered her and I think she was a bit stumped.  I scuffed the first 5-10, I'd have done a food drop too, but the article was 30 steps from the exit, still, wish I'd have done some food drops there.
• I repeat, too much testing in this one. 
  
  
  
  
  Part 1 - I stopped it to untangle shortly after we get into the woods (be forewarned, this is a long video so make sure you have snacks and a beverage :)!)
  
  
  
  
  Part 2 - Woods to end Article
  
   
  
  
  

March 10, 2025 (Saturday) @ Emmanuel (young start & young article track)

 Will add maps and more details later.  Location can be tricky - noises, contamination, mixed quality of cover

 

Track 1 - short, young start on crappy cover (particularly 2nd leg).  I put a bit of line pressure on the second leg ...muddied the waters, shouldn't have done that (bad partner!)... If I intro more line pressure again in future, I'll do it when conditions are more ideal

 

 

Track 2 - article track, young

 

 

 

 

March 8, 2025 (Saturday) - Class @ Cool Water

 

I'll try go add maps and details later - just trying to get videos in the blog.

Two starts - start 1 ~ 1hour and start 2 ~ 2hrs

Track layer: Betty

 

Start 1 (I threw us off in the beginning because Betty said it went toward the house and I thought she meant the one in front of us, but she meant the Cool Water house)

 

 

Start 2 - was happy to see the article on leg 1 - it helped explain the LOS I was seeing.

 

 

 

February 22, 2025 (Saturday) - Class @ Cool Water

 I'll have to add details later - Judi was track layer - track included long leg and crossing driveway

 

 

 

February 15, 2025 (Saturday) @ Adair's

The goal for this one was at least one long leg and a few obstacles.  We were also trying to get this done before the rains came.  Our last two outings had not been super reinforcing for me 😁so I wasn't sure what I'd get today.

I wanted the second leg to be long...however I ended up being a bit foiled in my plan by the fence. If I know I'm going to have to go through the fence, I normally line up with a section where the bottom rail is sagging to create an easier pass through for Mila.  For this one, I was thinking I could do a long diagonal approach and then continue diagonally through the fence if I dropped one side of the bottom post. However they were too tight so I had to do a turn at the fence until I got to a better crossing spot. I haven't done this with Mila before so was curious about it.  The 2nd leg was still somewhat longish (about 105 yrds).  Before realizing I was going to have the turn at the fence, I put an article about 2 feet to the right of leg 2.  

All-in-all, this was some of our better efforts in a while (very reinforcing for me😁 and more importantly hopefully for Mila too!). I actually have decent video of this one - two videos because I knocked my phone off the chest mount when we went through the fence.  I wish I had my longer and thinner line for this one as Mila's tracking style allowed for practice at distance and more line handling practice. The line I had was heavy and has larger knots (it's self knotted a few times) so isn't my favorite for line work.

The end article was the hiccup - right was we were approaching, Adair came home...and right at the article approach, in the distance, you could just hear the garage door closing and Adair's little dog  - Mila was a bit transfixed...

I sort of wish I had stepped in earlier and thrown a treat on the article, but I'm not sure that would have been the best idea either (need to ask Judi & MAM).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 14, 2025 (Friday) @ Emmanual Episcopal (Short Article Track)

   

Lots of unanticipated distractions - tree limb clean up so sawing and leaf blowers along with contractors working outside one of the buildings.

So, in light of that, she did a nice job - we were  just far enough away from most of the distractions. Since I was trying to control her proximity to the people, machinery, noises, I had to use less space so only ended up with five articles. I also opted to run this very fresh (20 min)

 

 

February 9, 2025 (Sunday) @ VGL

 

So this was an odd one for the books...I cannot really say what happened, but we didn't seem to find a good rhythm...we started at the top of the bowl, so I anticipated a little deviation and confirmation on Mila's part and it was okay(ish).  The track turned at the woods and went about 25 steps before turning into the woods. We entered the woods a bit off the track and didn't really recover from that. For now I'll chalk this one up to 'just not our day...'  The day was a bit warmer (near 50) than it had been so perhaps that was a factor.   

 

February 2, 2025 (Sunday) @ Adair's (starts)

 

This was a bit of a mixed bag - first three starts were good.  Right as we were starting the fourth one, someone was firing a gun in the distance so I had to do some treat tosses to get her going and then after the turn, partway down the track she encountered an area she did not want to walk through at all. Something there was aversive to her...then once we got going again she stopped a few feet from the article and I had to again encourage her... 

Tracks were: ~1.10; 1.39; 1.45; 2.08

(will post maps and if I can get it loaded, video later)

January 25, 2025 (Saturday) Class @ Edwards

I’ll add details later

January 12, 2025 (Sunday) - Class @ Holly Ridge

Mila has a low threshold for certain environmental stimuli…sadly, barking dogs is one of those and this class featured The Hound of the Baskervilles (the only thing missing was Holmes skulking about in his trench coat and deerstalker)…seriously though, I was so lucky to have this happen in class (although you can imagine I didn’t necessarily feel that in the moment 😂). If I hadn’t had Judi there this likely would not have turned into such a good training session with Mila!

This will show many great lessons that you can glean (my pain will be your gain😁)…Judi will likely comment on the good stuff (you’ll hear her remind me about loopy training and you can see in Mila when my timing is better vs too late). I’ll mention a few other things too:

Notice that when Judi steps closer, I generally start making better decisions. And yes, it’s in part because she’s talking me through it m, but also, though you may not be able to tell in the video, I feel a little more confident with her there and reinforced to continue (hmm, wonder why they sometimes want us closer to our dogs😁). I wish I had walked up the line sooner. Instead you see I had to make the choice to step up when she wasn’t tracking. In that moment though I felt like it was the lesser of two evils.

You’ll see my handling behaviors degrade under the pressure of the situation and you can tell from Mila’s behavior when I’m handling better vs worse. Notice when Judi reminds me about steering and a few seconds later I step behind Mila and she returns to track.

Thanks so much to Judi for getting me through that and the classmates being patient too! Mila is appreciative too 😁.

December 14, 2024 (Saturday) Class @ Cool Water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 7, 2024 (Saturday) - VGL (Stair step)

 

Stair step - gunshots caused distraction

I probably should have stepped in sooner and used tossed treats to encourage return to tracking and backed up at a couple of of the turns.

I'll add map and other details later - just trying to get videos to cooperate 

Video is a long one so pour yourself a glass of wine if you're going to watch :).

Chest mount video - I look further back than I am (the big knot is at around 6 ft) and sometimes look like I'm to one side of her, when I'm not.

 

 

November 30, 2024 (Saturday) - Class @ Cool Water

 

This was a great learning outing - track was aged a bit longer than we had been working, but it was well reinforced, etc so wasn't worried.  Was pleased in light of wind and age at how she did and the learning moments...

Things to consider as handler and if Judi or Mary Ann have insights, I'd love them!

1. Wind is clearly a factor for Mila (saw this again when I practiced Fri, Dec 5 - will post that one next).  Are FD better than scuffs in wind since the scent gets blown around so much and all the scuffed scent is going everywhere or vise versa?
   
2. Why is a neighboring track sometimes more 'compelling' than the track we are meant to follow? I've seen this a few times in class with Mila...need to unravel this a bit more maybe.
3. What does the LOS I sometimes see before an article mean to me as the handler (saw with article on leg 2 and seen it before - Judi pointed it out to me and so I keep an eye out for it now)? How can I use that information better? How can I separate it from LOS at a turn and is that necessary to do in terms of what I need to do as handler?

Something I'm really liking is when she's tracking her tracking behavior is getting stronger and she's getting confidence back. I didn't like that I moved a bit more than I'd have liked in this one..

Water: 1. Offered @ car and drank readily; 2. Offered @ leg 2 articled - denied; 3. Offered after overshooting turn and drank readily (yay!) and I think it really helped her.

Loved the super restart after leg 2 article!! And really liked that she used the article to triangulate back to the track as we kept getting pulled to the right of the track.  So glad Mary Ann picked that one to put food in as it reinforced that behavior.

 

 

 

 

November 27, 2024 (Wednesday) - VGL

 

Nov 27, 2024

 

Great location (permission only) - substrate was a mix of green and brown grass medium length.

 

Goal - long, straight track - highly reinforcing;  try something slightly different w/ articles

Articles (food=*) -  S-mask*; 2-suede glove; 3-glass case*; E-wallet

 

~280 yrds total

TL: 8:55am/9:15am - 38oF, H:82%, DP:33o

TR: 10:00am (10:12am) - part cloud with diffuse bright sun coming through.

 

Very still and quiet - so could really hear dogs barking, leaf blowers, etc in distance - she handled those well w/out preoccupation. 

Intentionally laid track on a somewhat higher "flatter" portion of open field. Kept it away from too much downhill sloping/woods to keep scent from drifting much. I wanted this one to present as much focus on track as possible. 

 

Mainly - W20FD@20,21 or did scuff @ 20.

 

Water

1. Drank @ car ~ 30 min before track

2. Offered @ article 3, denied

3. Drank very readily after done but still at the end of the track

4. Offered back @ car, denied (note, we walked for a while - in and out of woods - after the track so I was a bit surprised she didn't drink, but I think at that point she was a bit tired) 

 

So pleased with how she did and how much she "enjoyed" herself on this one. And, although she denied water after article 3, her restart was enthusiastic...even trotted down the track a bit.

 

Okay - article observations/changes

1. Continued to add food to some - upped the food ante with even better "food" - I had some leftover salmon cakes so I used pieces of that - she thought that was the bomb. I typically try to use a better treat for article reinforcement than what's on the track.
2. I added small scent pads under each articles (except for start) - Judi/Mary Ann - what do y'all think about that? How long can I use them? If I continue, should I very them (so sometime the article has a scent pad and sometimes it doesn't)? It definitely seemed to help get her to 'stay' at the articles longer, which will help w/ #3.
3. Indication change - I want to move away from down as her indication. She will do down readily during article games but just does not seem to "want" to do it while tracking. In part because she's a bit precious about substrates she will deign to down on readily, but also I think there's something else going on that is a doggie mystery. Sooo, I'm trying to get a longer standing at the article. This has had mixed results before as this is somewhat unreliable in terms of how long she'd stand - she'll frequently pause but if I'm not quick enough in noting it (and frankly sometimes her pause is minuscule). But, that's because I'd be unclear because I'd do article games, etc with the down. For this track, I used 'wait'...which is a cue she knows; however, I'd like to quickly transition this old cue with a new one. Question - ultimately, I'd like the stand to be coupled with her looking at me to make it even more clear. My inclination is to have her come to my hand - "looking" at me for the treat and then treat again on the article itself. Judi/Mary Ann - Thoughts on that or any of this?

November 24, 2024 (Sunday) - Very Good Location

Nov 24, 2024

 

Great location (permission only) - substrate was a mix of green and brown grass medium length plus hardwood forest.

 

Goal - cross "thresholds" into and out of woods and track in woods

Articles - started adding food(*) back to some: S - mask; 2-bandana; 3-umbrella holder*; E - change purse*

 

~350 yrds total

TL: 9:12am/9:47am - 47oF

TR: 10:30am -  51oF, H: 67% - sunny, bright, warm

 

Mainly - W15FD@15,16 or did scuff. After articles 2 & 3 walked 3-5 and did short scuff to help reinforce restart.

 

Water

1. Drank @ car before track

2. Offered @ article 3, denied

3. Drank just after woods exit

4. Drank @ car upon return 

 

All-in-all super happy with every thing - articles are still a quandary, but I have an idea to try next time. 

 

Entering woods - smelled around my entry point...even headed in a bit and then returned to edge and did a search to left and right (not far) and then returned and entered. I had to stand for a bit at the entry point and move a little to side to move a larger limb, so not surprised there was some searching here. First article about 20 steps into the woods. Used a bandana which in itself is usually fairly high on the article preference list for her. She did a nice standing acknowledgement for this one - gave treats on article. At the the point where I had to meander around the brush, she first when very nicely where the track went then suddenly stopped and searched and perhaps questioned herself (maybe the scuff after article caused a lot of scent to waft downhill - not sure?). Anyway, I called her to me, took about 3 steps back and that was all the reset she needed to nicely continue. 

 

Passed turn 1 a bit and wanted to go sniff something she found interesting. Returned and took turn - again acknowledged the article (this one w/ food) - if it didn't have food, I'm not sure how strong this would have been. Continued down track...went right to the spot on the large log that I hauled my ass over 😂...needed a little encouragement to jump the log...I did a scuff after the log and then a larger number of food drops about 15 steps beyond that to reward the log jump. 

 

Took turn nicely. Continued down track - oddly enough, when I have to meander around something like a brush pile she seems to want to keep going straight...however, she has no problems choosing to meander around something she doesn't "like" when I have walked straight through it - I find that interesting... She does better if my "meander" is more open turn, short straight line (like a mini leg - even if just five steps), with open turn either back to the same path or on a new straight path vs the meander that is a momentary curve around the issue and return to straight path. Judi/Mary Ann - something tells me that's typical and y'all will have insights on this.

 

At woods exit, my original path would have taken me straight into a thorny patch (right at her face level) and I realized too late that I had removed the pruners from my vest!! (Bad handler!) so I meandered to the left of a big poplar tree - to the right would have been more in line with the direction my track was going. She wanted to go the direction the track would have gone if not for the thorny patch...in fact she attempted to go that way and I would have let her but it was too much in her face so I called her back and redirected her slightly to go to the left. Once we got out of the woods, she continued and then we hit sort a transition area of shorter grass and she did a bit of right/left searching. I let her have a bit more line to investigate...her body language suggested a little stress here (nothing alarming) and I suspected she had used all her brain juices and needed water. I called her to me, gave her a drink and that was all she needed. Last article - again, similar to the prior article, her body language suggested that she would have only done a mere courtesy acknowledgement and attempted to continue tracking if food had not been in the article.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 23, 2024 (Saturday) - Emmanuel

Nov 23, 2024 - semi-new location this was our second time here - Permission-based location. 

There's a church and other buildings close by - several vans were getting washed by car washers near the buildings. There's a play ground (luckily no kids) and in the larger field there's a big garden plot. Except for the car washers, there wasn't a lot of noise distractions.

61oF, part sun, windy, H:34%

Two tracks - 

Track 1 was a shorter version of the article track - I ended up only having room for 6 articles. W25FD,W15A,W10FD,W15A, etc

• Goal - Articles
  
• Aged about an hour.  
• I tried one of those chest mounted cameras and found that far too distracting so will work with that later.
• Indication seems to be fading.  This is not a new problem.  I have to be careful not to make an issue over the downing as it becomes aversive and she will start to "shun" the articles...
  

Track 2 

• Goal - was more to try out a different area with what I had hoped would be a reinforcing track with mixed cover of short grass, dirt patches, exposed roots. 
• Aged a little over an hour. 
• Mostly good, but the turn seemed to have more questions than I anticipated. I had placed an article about 20 steps after the turn for reinforcement.
  

 

November 16, 2024 (Saturday)

First Class @ Cool Water - Instructor:
Judi

This was Mila‘s second track of the season and the first one in class. Was really pleased with how she did! Sometimes she can find the new locations with people watching a little distracting. Really gained helpful information from re-watching the video (thanks Andrea!) and wish I had someone following me along when I’m practicing for videoing😁. 

November 11, 2024 (Friday) - Emmanuel - Just get started already

 I have been a truant blogger...I did outings last winter and spring, but didn't manage to get them posted. At some point I will try to do...I have all the maps in my tracking binder thing.  

Regardless, since had not done anything (other than a few article games around the house), I decided I needed to just get out there and do a quick, easy track to get our feet wet again so to speak.  Plus, I had gotten permission to use a new site and I wanted to try it out.

S5W15*9/10 - * was either two food drops, an article (no food in article), or more scuffs

 Cover - wet, green grass & pine needles

 55degrees, partly sunny/cloudy; H: 88%

TL: 3:30pm TR: 4:15pm

 

This was a brand new site, w/ kids playing on the playground about 100 yards away and a fair bit of traffic noise.  Since we hadn't been out in a while, I kept this young and short to increase success.  Initial start forward-going, then did some smellploration.  After that, kept a moderate tracking pace. "Ignored" food drop on leg 2. Did okay with articles (had to verbal cue the down). Started strong after article on leg three.  I did not like my handling...too much guidance with my body. 

January 2, 2024 (Tuesday) - Adair's Farm - Brushing the dust off - Part II

Decided to give the new hip a try and put in a short (~120yrds total), young track for Mila to see where things stand after another long break.  My hip did okay overall and Mila did great (though we both need to build our fitness back up)!

So an underlying theme for all my tracks is going to be trying to identify how arousal states influence Mila's tracking and figuring out ways to maintain the arousal state that drives, drive rather than suffocates it 😁.  This ought to be interesting...

Mila typically comes out of the car gangbusters and excited to track and then sometimes, something happens along the way to snuff this out and she shuts down a bit (or a lot).  After thinking this through and from some discussion's in Judi's Foundations classes and that podcast about arousal (can't remember the name), it started to seem like her checking out was from overstimulation/too much arousal.  This is worth exploring.  So, I want to try and keep the energy up but channeled - this is the part that will take some learning for me for sure.

Out of the car (she was amped) so to focus her a bit, I did 10 smallest possible loops (which helped). Then we went to the start flag and about 10 yrds from the start, I put the harness on and did 5 SPLs.  She started (and maintained being) super focused and no smellsploration at the start...the only meandering was at one of the tall tufts of grass next to the track that she wanted to smell the calling card some other critter had left behind, but she went back to it in short order. LOS at turn 1, but relatively limited - overshot turn, checked left with head only, then looped back to leg 2.  Found the article that was about 12 yrds from the turn and did the Mila special indication (standing) - briefly offered water (refused).  We took a moment to play with the article (during which she downed and maintained article interest).  She nailed T2 (I actually anticipated LOS here because it was on a downhill slope) and stayed focused down the last leg to the article (same Mila special followed by article play - again she downed during this). Offered and drank water. I switched clip from back to collar, did a few more reps of SPLs then removed harness.

It's difficult to see my scrawl so my pattern was S5W15*9/10 with * being food drop, article, or 5 scuffs. I wanted each leg to have at least one food drop OR one article with the rest of the reinforcement being scuff. Start (canvas glove) and End (wallet) article did not have food; with article (bandana) on leg 2 having food. T1 was scuff in/out and T2 was scuff in/walk out.  I benefited from observing class on Sat so worked on keeping the line at 6 to 10ish feet.

September 16, 2023 (Saturday) - Old Field - Brushing the dust off

 

We have had a big break from tracking so for this outing I mainly wanted to just get out and track something simple and remind myself of what strategies I need to keep working on. I sort of picked up with things from the last tracking outing (even went to same location).

Two short, young tracks (~30min/ea). I had planned to age them longer, but then I started to get worried that kids would show up for soccer league games plus it was starting to warm up quite a bit w/ the sun coming out (had been overcast till then).

Track 1 (all scuffed, no food) - started strong (not distracted by dog & person at far end of the field though I could tell she was aware of their presence).  Overshot turn w/ a quick loop back to leg 2.  Unfortunately 'saw' both the article on leg 1 and the end article.

Track 2 (food+scent pad or article (NF) + scent pad) - start not quite as strong, but the dog & person was more in her line of sight. Still wasn't too distracted by them, more that it pulled at her attention a bit more. Slight distraction at the movable soccer goal, but quick return. Found both the article on the track and the end article w/ nose rather than seeing them. Very strong restart after the article on the track. Some shifting to left due to wind blowing right to left, but w/ quick returns to track. 

She definitely needs to rebuild fitness - unfortunately had been too hot for me to start her hardcore fitness walks so I could see her get tired (more from the heat). I need to work back in the reinforcement strategies (like TT at end of track or when she returns to track after difficult/worrisome distractions).