Buster Snow Day 3 in a Row! 1/9/25
Another GREAT track in the snow. Spotsy HS. Straight line. NO articles. Scent Pads 5,10, 25, 5, 10, 25. REpeat 3 times for total of 120 yards. He liked the liver and hamburger mix. I'm learning his start is super important. He seems excited or nervous and wants to stand up on me. I let him because I think it calms him down and gives him comfort and confidence. You can see I spent some time petting him before start command. . .I saw him watching and concerned about cars going by. I think he is GETTING it! I just hope it doesn't change when the snow goes away!!
We've been playing glove games in the house and garage. Going well.
Snow Day 3 in a row 1/9/25 video
let's hold at your current scent pad pattern and let's throw one food drop in between your 5 and 10 scent pads, and then one random food drop somewhere between 10 and 25 scent pads on the next sequence. so just something to reinforce his head down and prepare for when we begin to stretch the scent pads out or when we just mash the grass down in a scent pad but don't leave food. you are a ways off of that but this is the beginning to weaning off food laden scent pads. if you go to jack's blog and watch his jan 6 and jan 7 tracks, you see that he STILL has a scent pad at the flag (with 6 treats AND THEN I LOAD IT WHILE HE WATCHES) and then in five steps, he has ANOTHER scent pad with food. after that, he generally doesn't need one. but we didn't go from having 10 scent pads to having 2. we changed it slowly, sometimes a mash down of the grass but no treats, sometimes three scent pads with food in quick succession and then nothing. so we are going to mix it up for him AT A LATER DATE. he is doing so well now, do not get into test mode. promise me! you are training him to keep his nose down and give you thoughtful tracking. so start a random food drop between pads and see if he needs/skips the food. and keep your article games going. and yes if you can take him off leash safely (garage, friend's fenced yard, etc) and play some OOOOPS, that would be amazing.
ReplyDeleteI’m going to be Debbie Downer. He’s going to regress when the snow melts. It’s ok. He’s learned a LOT in the snow. We will re-teach it in the grass. We will go back to snow track #1–SP, lots of food, no articles. And after a track or 2 or 3 he will say, “oh wait—this is the same game? Got it.” But he WILL regress…so kinda plan on it and have a plan for it. If only snow translated to grass…sadly, it doesnt. But it doesn’t mean he didn’t learn. He did. And YOU learned he can do this!
ReplyDeleteI like all of this. What I especially like is his speed. He’s no longer dragging you off your feet. This makes me think he’s actually tracking. so now, when you see that head come up, slow down! Let him know that’s not the desired behavior simply by slowing down. And when the head goes down…step forward—reward that.
ReplyDeleteI suspect you’ll have to go back to work tomorrow (too bad!). Feel good about the progress you’ve made….and we will see him on Saturday.
We HAVE made so much progress! He is even getting in the VAN easier! I'm trying to put him in VAN even when we don't go anywhere. You get in the van, you get a treat! (he doesn't eat the treat until he comes OUt!) Nothing bad happens when you get into the van.
DeleteI'm so glad this is going better!!
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