Sil always has us verbalize our goals for the track. For this one my goals were to have Gimme work close to the track and for me to not step off until she pulls 20' or more of line through my hands. I'm not waiting 100% of the time, but more often than not. And when I do step out early, I notice it at the time. Its important that I get control of this so Gimme doesn't rely on my movement to tell her she is right.
Gimme started out "goofing off", but with a little encouragement, she got right to work. I'm sure it was because of her special condition. It could also have been a bit of distraction from the barking dog nearby. I didn't notice the barking dog at the time, but its very clear in the video. I was surprised right away to see her reacting to the furrows caused by farm equipment when the ground is wet. I really thought this was only something to affect little dogs.
I used to think her main change of behavior was to bring her head up, but with Sil's coaching I've come to realize she actually curls off the track a bit before her head comes up. Seeing this improves my timing reading her changes of behavior, so I was able to "own the spot" before I am taken past the corner. You can see when she commits to a leg, she really gets her head down and puts her shoulders into it. If you watch on the second corner she starts to pull me off balance a bit when she commits.
She really did a nice job on the track. When she hit the unintended turn, she just sailed along on it. This playing with the glove at the end of the track is something we've just started doing. In the past she hasn't been interested in chasing it, but showed a little interest at the seminar in April. Now that she's in season her play drive really goes over the top. So this weekend she was chasing and retrieving the glove and even tugging with me. I'm happy to see this, since it'll make the transition at tests easier for her (when I can't have food). On this track she tugged so hard she pulled off some small pieces of leather from this very old glove. I'll have to start carrying a sturdier glove out on these tracks so we don't get a reputation for ruining others' stuff. Truth be told, the dog who ran the track I laid put a sizeable tear in the almost new glove I put at the end.
This is a very long video - almost 12 minutes. Its much better quality than we got last month, since Jon is able to keep up. Day 2 tracking video I hope you enjoy it.
Sil commented that he could see a lot of progress since the seminar last month. He said we were doing as well as I report in my blogs (I send the links to him). He suggested using a starter track to get her brain in gear if she continues fooling around at the beginning. I'll see how it goes when she's not in season. He talked about the bend in the fourth leg and noted we could see the same thing in a test. In fact you could see a bit of "meander" in a test to get over/through an obstacle safely. Sil says we are nearly ready to get our certification. My goal is to have it by the end of summer.
After we did this, I laid track for a cross track exercise. The black U-line is the track and the red M-line is the cross track. It was just three
legs, but it was very complicated to keep everything in order, putting cross
track flags at the right places and doing the same with reward
articles. I had to keep the flag colors in mind (white for the track, orange for cross tracks), get articles down with the right spacing after each cross track, walk a straight line and not forget where I was in the plan. It was nearly 800 yards. It was a lot of fun to watch this being run and having it go off without a hitch. Well maybe one little hitch. It was very hard to see the white corner flag from the start, even though the grass was relatively short and the field very flat. So I told Louise I had used a giant roll of hay on the far side of another smaller field aligned with a particular fir tree on the horizon for my sight line. We hadn't even got to the first cross track when we noticed my giant roll of hay was moving! The farmer chose this exact moment to come in with a tractor and take away my marker. So much for my ability to select stationary reference markers.
Later in the day I laid a pair of 1-corner, 2 leg tracks for Stella and Heidi. On Friday Heidi had experienced her first 45 degree corners. I got to lay her first 90 degree corners. Gimme successfully navigated corners on her very first track, so I didn't fully appreciate then how especially talented she was (not that I would have been surprised had I understood). It was neat watching Heidi puzzle through these challenges and emerge victorious. Sil reminded me to allow for more spacing between the two tracks, as well as between the tracks and the ingress/egress path. There is so much to think about in tracklaying.
Which gets to the other thing we spend so much time learning - how to lay a track. There is so much more to laying a good track than just walking a straight line. The tracklayer has to:
- be able to follow instructions and replicate what is needed
- have an adequate selection of flags, clippies and articles
- select stationary reference markers on the horizon
- make an accurate map or representation of what she did
- walk a straight line
- maintain spacing for entry and exit paths so she doesn't foul the track
- maintain orientation in the field while doing everything else
- keep distances consistent and accurate
- leave articles in the right places
- leave food drops in the right places
- place flags or markers correctly
- know how to deviate if/when it becomes necessary
- report all deviations
- be able to walk the path behind the tracking team and know when they are on or off the track
- do this while you are separated in space from the team so you don't confuse the dog while they are running the track
- and keep a sense of humor...
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