TDU/VST Seminar, day 2

We met at the Cascade Shopping Mall. It has HUGE parking lots, which were mostly empty early on a Sunday morning. Sil did a demonstration of how to mark these tracks so the handler knew where they were going from a distance. Since Gimme has done these so many times, her track was in a place where there would be very large gaps. Given her difficulty on Saturday, I wanted the rest of her tracks this weekend and for the foreseeable future to be lay-it-and-run-it tracks, i.e. zero age. The cool temps and damp grass were also a plus for Gimme. You can turn down the volume if you want - I did the first time.
 
Island Serpentine video - Because of a pocket failure, Gimme had two start articles, so she indicated both. She does nicely tracking a short distance and finding yet another article. Gimme sniffs and leaves a bone lying in the grass, then moves to bushes on our left for a pee break. Some people don't allow their dogs to pee on a track, but Gimme doesn't do it very often, so I permit it. (She's done more peeing recently - probably because of the extra water she is drinking in the heat.) She crosses the pavement readily to the island and quickly finds an article. She moves around the island and into the open space, drifting toward the sheds on the right and then back to the open area and the mid-leg article. She finishes moving across the open area and finds another article right next to the island. She finds the metal plate article between the islands and then moves on quickly to find another article at the next island. The next gap is really really big, with an article halfway across. Gimme does a little visual shopping, then uses her nose to find the article. She finishes crossing the gap and finds the next article next to the island. She finds another article in the gap and then to the island for the final article.

In the afternoon Gimme ran her second showcase track. We again went for a TDU-like track, but this time well marked and zero age, lay-it-and-run-it. To help her with the non-veg crossings, we added treats. To make sure those treats would not attract any insects, Nadine gave us a big piece of duck breast. You'll hear a running commentary by Maureen, which I love. She always gives the advice, then provides
an example of where/why.
 
Gimme's 2nd showcase track video - Gimme starts nicely and lines out on the first leg right away. She overshoots the turn a few feet and uses the opportunity for a pee break. Then she does a 3/4 circle before lining out on the second leg. We have a hard surface to cross - the driveway where we all just drove over her track. While it seemed like an eternity, it only took 37 seconds for her to decide she was ready to commit across the driveway. Good girl! Shortly after the transition, she comes to the first article - a perfect reward for doing such a good job. There are two potential changes of behavior. The first is at 2:44, but she immediately resumes the line. The real COB is at 2:51 and I take five more steps (about 6') before backing up to where I should have stopped. She circles once and then my foot gets caught in the line, stopping her abruptly, so she stalls briefly before lining out on the next leg. She's quickly rewarded with the second article. She gives a false turn, then waffles a bit before committing to the leg heading for the parking lot. Gimme comes to the parking lot at an angle and I square up to it (perpendicular to the edge), so she moves a bit right to square up with me - which takes her further from the article midway across. Sil tells me what I've done, so once I support her line across the pavement, she finds the article easily. By the way, there were just waves of heat coming up off the pavement. It wasn't too hot for her paws (we checked before starting the track), but it was stifling just the same. Gimme checks the duck breast, but doesn't eat any of it. I purchased some beef jerky and am keeping it in the car for when I need it. Gimme finds a shoe insole and I eagerly reward her for it, but it's not an article for the track. I cut those up for articles, so I just assumed it was one. Oh well, once I get my scissors out it will be a few articles. There was a small flag in this part of the track which was unrelated to our track, so it was confusing. When I moved over with her, Gimme then starts the crossing of the pea gravel and quickly finds another article (the real one). Her transition back to grass was seamless. She continues down the track and takes another pee break before deciding to indicate the final article. Actually her indication was pretty weak, but I reward it anyway. These are very hot conditions for her and I sure didn't want to delay rewarding what she was giving me. She is such a good girl...

Comments:

• From Maureen, use a 40' line. I'd come to the same conclusion after reviewing Saturday's track. I have a 40' line, obviously since I used it to get our TD. I need to use it so I can give her the full length of the line to explore her options without going with her, which could give her a false impression that I'm agreeing with her line of motion.
• Sil and Maureen both commented I need to climb up the line sooner. Pretty much right after she lines out and shows she's committed, I need to be moving up the line to the 10' mark.
• I am consistently late in recognizing her change of behavior, so I inevitably move several steps further than I should. Ideally I'd recognize the COB and plant my feet, while allowing line to play out. Gimme sometimes does a bit of a serpentine back and forth over the track and so I think I don't recognize it until she fully curls off the track (usually to the right).
• I have a tendency to square up to transitions (most people do). Because I squared up to the edge of the parking lot, Gimme matched me, which put her out of line for the article halfway across.
• Sil did say my line handling was better than Saturday. It helps a lot to not be worrying about what Gimme is going through.
• About the non-article Gimme discovered, Sil said it was only 10' from the track and it's entirely possible some of Debbi's scent (the tracklayer) had drifted on it. Although I didn't see it until Gimme showed it to me, I had paused nearby, so I could have unintentionally sold her on it.

There was some discussion on Saturday about starts, related to Gimme's track. I didn't know what they were talking about and thought it would be obvious in the video. It wasn't. On Sunday the comment were about an improved start, which I still didn't understand. I made a short video of the two different starts and asked Sil and Maureen to review and explain what this was all about.

Two Starts video - While I don't think we can make any conclusions about the quality of Gimme's starts from Saturdays track and I don't think we can compare it to Sunday's track since the conditions were so different, I'm sure they is room for improvement.

There is concern that I let Gimme pull ahead to the start sock and that she can be turned facing in any direction when she looks to see if I've noticed her cleverness. She does generally align with me when I give her start-sock treats. While the advice is to restrain her from rushing ahead to the start sock... I don't want to do anything which might say she shouldn't independently go to any article she finds. She often makes generalizations I don't intend and I don't want to risk bleed over from start article to other articles.

So, to get closer to what is deemed a better, more focused start... I'll work on the following changes:

• make sure she is aligned at the article to get her treats
• treat for ten seconds or more
• as she gets treats, I'll move my hand up the line until its close to the harness
• as the treats end, I will watch her for a moment when she looks/faces down the track and say "track-on" then (much like I do in nosework)
• wait to pick up the start article until after she commits down the track

When we arrived for one of the other Sunday showcase tracks, Sil had placed a thermometer on the asphalt. After a few minutes he showed us the difference. Before laying it down it said it was 78º and 50% humidity. Afterward it was 114º and 22% humidity! Who'da thunkit!

This explains the waves of heat I felt coming off the parking lot as Gimme and I tracked across it, just 30 minutes earlier. Sil has a seven-second rule for whether we should ask our dogs to cross any hard surface. The rule is: place your hand flat on the surface and wait seven seconds. If it takes an act of will to keep it there, it's too hot for a dog's paws. At 114º it was almost there.
 
During the afternoon wrap up discussion, I discovered a hole in my understanding about corner communication and it wasn't something easily explained.  So Kathleen, one of the mentors, and I decided to do a track the next day where she could help me experience it in real time.