Tracking With Otis

 Nice damp heavy dew morning. Came at both starts from the offside and he hit both tracks pawing the start article at each. Continuing FD every 10. Am trying to pay conscious attention to distance from Otis maintaining at 10 feet and also to not moving until he gives consistent indication of at least 3 steps. Turn 1 was just beyond a tall weed which he peed on before taking the turn. Turn 2 was fairly near the fence. He went around me then hit the turn. Picking up the articles and holding for meaty reward. Taking water when he finished.

 Such a great day and so proud of Otis. The focus today was distance and with a nice cool morning Otis tracked 255 yards with the final leg being 140. This was the most he’s tracked this summer and never faltered (other than to take a pee break) There were 2 turns, both left. He overshot each by perhaps a yard then hooked around to hit the track. The first leg (50) brought him within about 20 yards of the woods. He made the turn with no pull into the woods or distraction today. Leg 2 followed at this distance from the woods then turned left away from the woods. Food drops every 10 and he skipped I’d estimate about half. (He never has breakfast until after he tracks.) I stayed at a distance of 6 to 10 feet. He picked up the article and held it trading it for chicken and meatballs then had a long drink of water.

7:00 64 degrees Article track with nine articles using 10FD 15Article  Coming out into the field I spied a super double line up for the track. So I laid the track using the above pattern BUT I laid it about 5 feet off of a woods line. When running the track, Otis was distracted off track  multiple times. My assumption is I laid the track too close to the woods. On a positive note he did respond to “Leave it”  (multiple times) but not an ideal situation for him. On Friday (distance) I will lay a track about 50 toward the woods and turn to parallel the woods this time at about 20 to 25 yds vs 5 ft then turn away from the woods for another 100. He took water after article 4 and at the end of the track. Article indication remains good and positive.

Today’s focus was turns. Temperature and humidity even prior to 7AM were high. Otis had a great start but I needed to think of what the first leg was passing through. I was more focused in where I was going to place the turn and the first leg passed through a large bare patch with no grass and he struggled a bit with that. Mental note made. Both turns, the open angle right and left were made close to the actual point of the turn. He takes water easily and readily on the track. Article indication very good ie picked up the article and held it as Hamzah and Redman did. Bought some new “articles” at the $ store yesterday. Washed them and now sleeping with them until next week’s tracking practice.

 A much cooler morning, by almost 10 degrees. There were great stand alone weed clusters as turn markers. Both starts were very good. Cross country runners (several groups) came down the dirt road and were very distracting. No sooner had one group gone out of sight than another came by. Finally after what seemed like an hour of waiting it out, Otis went back to work and finished the first track picking up his article. Second track and all the runners reappeared to go by again. More waiting it out and finishing well-finally. Water at the end of the second track.

6:50 75 degrees 87% humidity  Distance 210 yards FD every 10 Started well, hot air balloon inflating within peripheral vision with attendant noise-never looked up from track, ate very few food drops today and picked up article Great job with a great distraction! Once he finished tracking and the balloon was ascending he found it a scary sight-so a matter of fact walk back to the car-a great experience for his Rolodex.

 74 degrees 87% humidity 7:12 Article track Did an article track with 7 articles. Humidity oppressive this AM. I am alternating/rotating tracking objectives: articles, distance, starts, turns.  I am running the tracks after I lay them and not doing aging as hot as it is in these summer months. Brought Otis to the track from the side and he picked it up right away after pawing the start article which I picked up. He never has breakfast before and today seemed especially keen for the food drops. He picked up every article and rewards were slices of roast beef and much praise and play. I just couldn’t hold on to those slippery articles so he would play pick up play. We had a great (hot!) time out there! Speaking of hot, he took water on the track after Article 4 and again at the end of the track.