29 July 2007 Class Summary

Dawn, Elissa, Lorril, and Janet attended today's training. Elissa showed her dedication by showing up an hour early! We took advantage of the cooler weather to discuss various issues related to track laying, micro climates, and how to begin training corners.

Two issues came up in one form or another: The dog investigating cracks in the pavement, and the dog checking to see if pebbles and other debris are edible. We discovered that small currents of air were probably blowing the scent into the cracks in the pavement, which acted as a funnel until the scent settled. Most of the investigating of cracks appeared to take place on the downwind side of the track. The second issue, of dogs checking objects off the track, appeared to be a minor problem. The dogs that did it did not stray from the track by more than about 1/3 body length, at most; the dogs then returned to the track and continued to solve the tracking problem. They appeared to be checking to see if the object was their reinforcement for tracking.

we began the training of corners by laying an 'S' shaped track, with a radius of about 15 feet for the arced portions of the track. This seemed to work well, so this became the homework assignment for the week.

Palo Alto Foothills Tracking Association is the local AKC sponsored tracking club. The website has interesting info on AKC style tracking. They have a track laying seminar in October that looks promising, for those of us interested in AKC style tracking. I am going to investigate this further, as it will be another "feather in my cap." I also would like to work toward the VST title for Britta.

See you next Sunday at James Logan H.S at 8:00am,

Dave

Sunday's Tracking

Sunday's tracking went very well. Dawn and her dog Penny showed up and gave tracking a try. Both Dawn and Penny did a GREAT job! Penny worked three tracks (three by Dawn and one by me). Penny got the hang of things right away!

Lisa and Bailey ran three tracks, all laid by Lisa. Bailey has turned into a tracking demon! He put his nose to the ground as soon as he left the truck! He was definitely motivated!

Lisa mentioned that she knew of several people that expressed interest in tracking, that have small dogs. We came up with several ideas to make tracking accessible to small dogs. This is a "run what you brung" class; purebred, mixed breed, and small dogs are all welcome. If your dog has the desire, I will be glad to have you in class.

See you next Sunday at James Logan High School at 8:00 am.

Dave Port

Sunday, 29 July 2007 Training

Training will take place at James Logan High School in Union City, at 8:00 -8:30 am. We will be H.I.T.T. tracking for awhile, so please bring your sprayers and treats! For new students, don't worry about equipment; just bring treats and your dog.
See you on Sunday!

Sunday Tracking

Sunday's tracking went well. The weather was very co-operative (light winds, cool, overcast), which really helped. Several areas to address were brought up, which leads to the change of location for the class.

The class will be held on Sunday, July 22 2007 at 8:00 - 8:30 am. The class will be held in the parking lot of James Logan High School, 1800 'H' St, Union City Ca 94587. We will begin our H.I.T. tracking, so bring your sprayers. If you haven't gotten one by Sunday, I have one that I'll share, of course. Since we'll be H.I.T. tracking, we should be able to get in a few more tracks than we would on the dirt field.

The class will be held on Sunday, 15 July 2007 at 8:00 - 8:30 am. We will meet on the dirt field north of 34400 Mission Blvd, Union City, CA 94587. As always, new members are welcome! I have new member information made up, and be sure to bring coffee for the discussion while the tracks and scent pads age! (Click on the map for a larger view.)

New Information

Two new handouts will be available this Sunday. I photocopied the USA Rulebook's tracking rules and made enough for everyone who was there last week, plus two new folks if needed. I also made a sample tracking log that can be filled out in three minutes or less. If you haven't started your log, you may want to wait and take a look at this.

Also, Janet told me about the sign-off sheets used in Search And Rescue dog training to track progress. I am going to start this by this Sunday. Everyone is progressing so fast that I may not get my White Star pins in time to hand them out!

First Training Day

We held our first training session today. Elissa and Bodhi, Janet and Pepper, Lisa and Bailey, and Lorril and Dottie participated. We met at a field located at Mission Blvd. and Decoto Rd. The scent pad exercise was taught today. This works best with a dog that hasn't been fed the morning of the training session. (If your dog is ravenous to the point of not being able to concentrate, go ahead and feed him/her a reduced portion of food):

1. Obtain four flags for the corners. Sprinkler system flags sold at home improvement stores work fine.
2. Scuff your feet in a straight line about 5-10 paces long, depending on the size of your dog. Make a right turn; repeat until you have a square. The idea is to make an area large enough for the dog to walk around in without being cramped. Walk into and out of the pad from only one corner, to avoid confusing the dog.
   
3. Within the boundaries of the square, scuff your feet and walk for approximately 3-4 minutes, to deposit your scent within the square.
4. Lay pieces of your dog's favorite treats along the edges of the square. This will teach the dog that reinforcement comes from sniffing the area that you have walked on, and that the area you haven't walked on provides no reinforcement.
5. Let the scent pad age for a few minutes while you prepare your dog (potty break, attaching the tracking line, etc.).
6. Lead your dog onto the scent pad, provide enough slack in the tracking lead to allow the dog to explore and find the treats. If the dog should leave the pad by more than two body lengths (an arbitrary number used to denote a distance) and does not voluntarily return to the scent pad, gently lead the dog back onto the scent pad.
   
7. Stop the exercise after about two minutes, or while the dog is playing (not "working!") intently.
   

There is very little that can go wrong with this exercise. The only things I could think of were making the pad too small, and not using a high enough value treat for reinforcement. If your dog leaves the pad too often, try addressing these two points. I didn't see any problems with any of our trainees. They all did great! I enjoyed training with all of you this morning!

Dave Port

Welcome to The Way Of The Dog. We are a San Francisco Bay-area based tracking group. We study scent theory, track laying, and other subjects relevant to Schutzhund style tracking competition.