Tracking With Otis

 Strong positive start with attention to track/tracking behavior . Food drops at 10. Second positive stracking  tracking with food drops at 10 so will push out to 15. Turns and road crossing were good. Placed an article on the far side of the road as a positive reinforcer. Otis stopped before the road crossing when he heard and saw a kestrel fly from the kestrel house to a nearby tree. Article indication retrieve great! Plan to do the 10 article track in a grassy area that runs along a manufacturing plant. Will track on Saturday when there are no workers. https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cTXF3knqjo7 https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cTXF35nqjDl

 Goal of easy/motivational start track follow up to Tuesday class. I did food drops on each leg at 10 and articles at 25. Article indications were great. He had food and/or play rewards after each. There was some change of cover and he also tracked among three grave sites. Back to car, gear off and great free run on farm. Fridays will be a follow up to Tuesday class work. Tuesdays will be the next in the rotation/puzzle/challenge track so this Tuesday will be 2 turns at 90 minutes augmented with articles and food drops and including a heavily scuffed dirt road crossing. Then the 2nd Friday will be an article track. https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cTXoDXnFSUz https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cTXoDwnFSwf

 Great day today as I felt I had worthy goals for both of us and that they were met. For Otis, I wanted him to succeed and have fun tracking. My goal was to be a better planner, tracklayer and partner (line handling) on the track. Otis had a strong start with good pull. I put a food drop at 25 which he did not eat. Following the grass path I felt would be easy but I did insert what I thought would be 2 challenges in the track and augmented them. At the dirt road I heavily scuffed, put a small bison bit in the middle and meatball in the other side. He did not eat the food drops. He sniffed very fresh scat on the road and went right back to the track. Good boy! Took the path bearing to the right off the “main” track and scuffed 3 steps as I took that turn. He took it and found the article. Classic Otis with the article! https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cT6o2DnbZLc

 Went back to the site of new home construction that was very distracting for Otis several months ago. The  did a lot of whining and I did a lot of nagging that day. I was hoping since it was Saturday there would be the same visual distraction but that workers would probably not be there; however; the new home owners were there along with their dog. In addition after Otis started his track, a contractor drove up and they of course were discussing the weekly progress. Thought our walk up was good as well as the start. At the dirt swath I should have augmented with scuffing when I laid the track. I did put a food drop on the far side. I also should have gotten close as he approached the swath and as the distractions intensified. I was nagging again. I was very pleased he was able to come back to the track, make a good turn and finish strong which included a look back at the loud talking/laughter. He went right back to his track. The indication was classic Otis. Thankful for the ...

 Article track following the class lesson formula. The weather was warm and humid this AM. Otis had an amazing amount of drive and pull on the line. His angled start to the track I thought was very good with high energy. He had so much energy he blew over the first four articles. He then did not pick up article #5, the toothbrush. I dropped the toothbrush on the track when he was doing a later indication and he did pick it up. Making a mental note to use some unusual and more difficult to pick up articles to challenge him. https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cT6jY3nbeQX https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cT6jY0nbeQT https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cT6jYtnbeQ7

 Goal to put in tracks (2, start) in a new location with distractions. Made the tracks short and ran them at less than 30 minutes. Came in at an angle, put down food drops on the first leg of both tracks but Otis did not eat them. Walked up to the start together using “Ready Steady Find it” each time. Goal of having a consistent and positive walk up.  Got Otis out of the car and let him acclimate to the new site and use the bathroom. Track #1 Otis started well but saw a man in a hoodie coming toward our car and started back to me. Saying “unh uh” got him back on the track. He did a nice job on the open angle right turn and on his article retrieve. I took his gear off and put him back in the car for 10 minutes. Second track: Walk up getting more consistent language-wise. In at an angle. He caught the track, followed and made a nice open angle left turn. Nice article retrieve as well. Less distracted. https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cT6fFpnD7QO https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cT6f...