Since there is nothing to be gained by tracking in a torrential downpour, there will be no tracking this Sunday. We'll try again next Sunday unless the weather is just as bad.
All of you who are trying to recover from various flu-like ailments, drink an extra cup of chicken soup or green tea, and we'll see each other next week.
Dave Port
Friday, January 4, 2008
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Training Day Change
Tracking will be held on SATURDAY, December 29 at 8:00 am, at our Mission Blvd -Whipple Road location .
The Oakland Dog Training Club is hosting an introductory Variable Surface Tracking event at Cal State University -East Bay (Hayward) on Sunday, December 30 at 8:00 am. I am going to watch the event. Join us there!
See you SATURDAY,
Dave Port
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sunday's Training
Our next training session will take place on Sunday, December 23 at 8:00 am. A light drizzle will not cancel the class, but if it's raining hard enough that you have to run from the house to the car I'll understand if you stay home! Competition people, that doesn't apply. We'll need to be out in all types of weather; trials aren't cancelled due to weather unless it's tornadoes and golf ball-sized hail. :-0
Dave Port
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Dawn and Penny Pass their Orange Star!
Dawn and Penny passed their Orange Star test today! Dawn introduced a new twist to her Orange Star test - the training of article indication. Penny has been trained to lay down upon finding an article dropped by the tracklayer. While they were tracking, Penny found two articles dropped by Dawn, with a beautiful down-in-place that was "fast, close, and straight." I have seen trained Schutzhund dogs that only wished they were that well trained! Congratulations!
Janet and Pepper rejoined us after an extended absence due to illness. Unfortunately I didn't get to see their first track; Janet arrived early to train so she could meet another obligation. Janet reported that she and Pepper were a little rusty. Here's hoping we get to see them next weekend, and in the future!
Lorril and Dottie tracked with their usual enthusiasm this morning. Dottie once again displayed her unique way of "indicating" the end of the track: Her tail wags so hard it literally swings all the way from one hip to the other! It's always fun to watch her find the treasure trove at the end of the track.
See you next Sunday,
Dave
Janet and Pepper rejoined us after an extended absence due to illness. Unfortunately I didn't get to see their first track; Janet arrived early to train so she could meet another obligation. Janet reported that she and Pepper were a little rusty. Here's hoping we get to see them next weekend, and in the future!
Lorril and Dottie tracked with their usual enthusiasm this morning. Dottie once again displayed her unique way of "indicating" the end of the track: Her tail wags so hard it literally swings all the way from one hip to the other! It's always fun to watch her find the treasure trove at the end of the track.
See you next Sunday,
Dave
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Sunday's Tracking
Class will be held Sunday, 9 December 2007 at 8:00 am (7:00 am for Elissa if needed), at our new location at the north end of the field (see map). Britta track for her FH 1 title on Saturday at 7:00am in Manteca. I will keep you all posted on how she does.
There is an "Introduction to VST Tracking Event" being put on by the Oakland Dog Training Club on Sunday, 30 December 2007 at 8:00 am at CSU Hayward. All eligible AKC, ILP, and FFS dogs can enter. I don't know if Britta's titles will transfer since they're not AKC titles, but I'm going to watch if I can't enter. Anyone up for a field trip?
Dave
Sunday, November 25, 2007
New Tracking Location
We will be tracking is a new location. We will use the parking lot of the Pioneer Regional Trail Staging Area. Instead of turning right on Mission Blvd, turn LEFT. Go north on Mission Blvd to the intersection of Whipple Rd. and Mission Blvd, and turn right. The parking lot is at the end of the road.
By using this location, we will avoid the stable smells that caused us trouble today. We can also walk down a horse path to lay tracks on the long side of the field, thereby increasing the usable area for tracking. The horse path does get used by equestrians, so we will have to be considerate of the issues regarding horses reacting to dogs, and vice versa. We will be able to avoid the issue of crossing each other's tracks at the new location, plus you won't have to make any confusing series of turns to get there.
As soon as I find out when I track in my upcoming trial December 1-2, I will advise the class when our next class will be held.
Dave Port
Sunday's Tracking
1. Lisa and Bob, and Janet and Pepper, both passed their Orange Star test! Congratulations! Lisa and Bob passed with flying colors, even though Bob had to climb out of a couple of furrows that were as deep as he is tall. Which is the same as Britta or Hunther climbing a 3 foot hill to follow the scent. Lisa was also getting over a case of food poisoning. Great job!
Janet and Pepper had problems with her track, as did a few other dogs today (more on this later). She had gusting winds, the smell of the horse stables, and dry cold soil to track on. The first attempt didn't go well, so Janet put Pepper back in the crate (in Janet's cool new car!). After a couple more teams tracked, Janet laid another track that Pepper followed calmly and competently to its end. After the second track, I asked Janet for the pace count. When she told me 50/50/50 (with a left and a right turn) I realized that she had just done the Orange Star track! Outstanding!
2. Patti O'Neill and her Tervuren, "Anika" joined us this morning. Patti is going for her Schutzhund 1 title with Anika next week, and hopefully will be joining us again in the future. Welcome aboard!
3. Dawn and Penny, Janet and Pepper, and me and Hunther all had problems with tracks laid near the 8:00 am class start. (Interestingly, Elissa and her two dogs, Bodhi and Leroy, didn't seem to be bothered by the conditions.) All three of us laid second tracks, and all three of our dogs handled the second track much better than the first. I couldn't figure out what was going on, as all three dogs are usually good trackers. But I noticed that Penny's second track was run with a deep nose almost the entire way, whereas her first track had a lot of trailing and air-scenting. For some reason, I checked the thermometer in my truck. I saw that the air temperature had risen form the low 40's to 59 degrees during Penny's second track. The wind had also slowed to almost nothing. Afterward, I laid another track for Hunther, aged it for 45 minutes, and he ran the first two legs almost perfectly. (He had some attention issues caused by some medication I had given him, another variable to be controlled for.) I would have scored him in the 82-85 point range for the second track; he would have gotten a failure for the first one.
Here's what I think was going on: The soil and the air was cold and dry; even for those who hydrated their tracks, the low soil temperature inhibited the growth of the bacteria in the scent to the point that the tracks couldn't age properly. That, combined with the wind further drying the soil and removing more heat, along with the competing distraction of the stable smells to confuse and distract a dog that had already lost the track scent, made the tracks much more difficult for our dogs to figure out. I tried to locate a website that would explain how much faster soil loses heat than air, but got an information overload (none of which answered my question). Also, on reflection it seems that the farther away from the hills and stables a dog was, the better the dog did on the track.
It sure wasn't pleasant watching Hunther perform so badly at first (with a week to go before his Schutzhund 2 trial!), but I learned a lot about environmental factors affecting Hunther's and the other dogs' performance this morning. I also learned to control my panic!
Dave Port
Janet and Pepper had problems with her track, as did a few other dogs today (more on this later). She had gusting winds, the smell of the horse stables, and dry cold soil to track on. The first attempt didn't go well, so Janet put Pepper back in the crate (in Janet's cool new car!). After a couple more teams tracked, Janet laid another track that Pepper followed calmly and competently to its end. After the second track, I asked Janet for the pace count. When she told me 50/50/50 (with a left and a right turn) I realized that she had just done the Orange Star track! Outstanding!
2. Patti O'Neill and her Tervuren, "Anika" joined us this morning. Patti is going for her Schutzhund 1 title with Anika next week, and hopefully will be joining us again in the future. Welcome aboard!
3. Dawn and Penny, Janet and Pepper, and me and Hunther all had problems with tracks laid near the 8:00 am class start. (Interestingly, Elissa and her two dogs, Bodhi and Leroy, didn't seem to be bothered by the conditions.) All three of us laid second tracks, and all three of our dogs handled the second track much better than the first. I couldn't figure out what was going on, as all three dogs are usually good trackers. But I noticed that Penny's second track was run with a deep nose almost the entire way, whereas her first track had a lot of trailing and air-scenting. For some reason, I checked the thermometer in my truck. I saw that the air temperature had risen form the low 40's to 59 degrees during Penny's second track. The wind had also slowed to almost nothing. Afterward, I laid another track for Hunther, aged it for 45 minutes, and he ran the first two legs almost perfectly. (He had some attention issues caused by some medication I had given him, another variable to be controlled for.) I would have scored him in the 82-85 point range for the second track; he would have gotten a failure for the first one.
Here's what I think was going on: The soil and the air was cold and dry; even for those who hydrated their tracks, the low soil temperature inhibited the growth of the bacteria in the scent to the point that the tracks couldn't age properly. That, combined with the wind further drying the soil and removing more heat, along with the competing distraction of the stable smells to confuse and distract a dog that had already lost the track scent, made the tracks much more difficult for our dogs to figure out. I tried to locate a website that would explain how much faster soil loses heat than air, but got an information overload (none of which answered my question). Also, on reflection it seems that the farther away from the hills and stables a dog was, the better the dog did on the track.
It sure wasn't pleasant watching Hunther perform so badly at first (with a week to go before his Schutzhund 2 trial!), but I learned a lot about environmental factors affecting Hunther's and the other dogs' performance this morning. I also learned to control my panic!
Dave Port
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