Fall #14

 Today’s focus was turns. It was a very windy day and I laid the track at Panorama which always seems to be windy even when there is no wind elsewhere. I laid a top hat track. Otis seemed to find the legs challenging. He would stop and seem to lose scent and take longer than usual to get back to work. Thinking I should have shortened the distance between the food drops given the wind. Will put that in my Rolodex.  He crossed the road both times very well. I had put a food drop on the other side of each crossing. He also did quite well on each of the four turns. I pushed the article partially under some longer grass and he found it. He was proud and so was I! 





Comments

  1. JudiNovember 26, 2024 at 5:10 PM

    OK, this is soft. If you follow his wind blown self….does he come back on his own? Does he stay parallel at a fixed distance from the track? What happens if you step into the wind, keeping your line length the same, and put him on the track? Food may not be the answer—if he gets wind blown, and comes back for food drop, and then is blown off again, I’m not sure he’s learning anything.

    He’s been doing so well, it might be worth following him when he’s blown (don’t go crazy) and seeing if he figures it out. Figuring it out would look like loss of scent, and using the wind to get back to the track…following it for a few steps…and possibly getting blown again, but hopefully not as far. With experience, and good handling, he will stay close to the track in the wind, but at some level I think we need to let him figure that out (without letting him fail). Is this vague enough for you?😛

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