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