Lorril and Dottie passed their Orange Star test today! Dottie moved out calmly and confidently on the track. She got to the first turn, and made a hard left onto the second leg. I thought she had smelled a rabbit hole, but she then proceeded down the second leg with no change in speed. It was an extremely accurate turn! She took the second turn the same way, then got to the big pile of treats at the end.
One thing that I noticed was that Dottie's tail did not wag as much as usual, at the beginning of the track. It appears that once she gets going, she concentrates to the point that she forgets to wag her tail. Of course, that all changed at the end of the track.
Elissa and Bodhi tracked well today. Elissa's track wasn't exactly laser straight, but Bodhi didn't seem to notice or care. Elissa later told me that she had trouble laying a straight track. I explained that the inner ear and sense of balance caused this, but I think she thought I was pulling her leg. So, here's the link to a good article about the graveyard spiral. Really, I wasn't making it up! :-)
I had an interesting conversation with an experienced AKC tracker at the Schutzhund club afterward. She told m that Schutzhund-style footstep tracking (like we're doing) made her dog more accurate on the longer, older AKC tracks. She said that if she had to do it over again, she'd train Schutzhund style first, then switch to AKC style.
See you next Sunday at 8:00 am,
Dave Port
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