"Puzzles"

I have been slacking off at blogging lately. It is ironic that the times when I do the most thinking about dog training are also the times when I am too busy to write about it. I have just finished teaching two great tracking clinics, one in NC and one in SC. In addition we currently have a three week long detection trainers course in session here in Jackson. Really fun group of people and they have made some great progress with the dogs they are learning to train. I also have a few other dog training projects and updates that I will cover in the blog in the near future. While our schedule is not yet completed it is looking very likely that the dogs and I will be “on the road” for the first half of 2013. Should be a fun and interesting year!

In the meantime, although he is now an official AKC Champion Tracking, Steel is not about to kick back and let me get away without tracking him. Problem is that although I am not really concerned about “titles” or winning; I am very goal oriented and am sort of struggling with how to keep Steel entertained and happy without a current goal to work toward. I have also been tracking some young dogs so can’t spend as much time aging his tracks right now, at least not the three to five hour old tracks that he was working. To keep him happy I have been setting up tracks with little weird scent pictures for him throughout the track. Stealing a term from detection training, I call them “puzzles”. Our goal is to challenge the dog and expand his skill set by setting up a puzzle. However the dog needs drive for the puzzles to be effective, the more they want to succeed the quicker they will progress through working the puzzles.  However we don’t want to overface the dog and create in his mind about whether he can solve the puzzle. We want the dog the enjoy the challenge and to go away from the puzzle having gained knowledge and confidence solving it.  Steel is at that point in his tracking and gets a big thrill working through tricky (at least for his current skill set) scent pictures. Here is a clip of a short track we did a few mornings ago. For those that are interested I have listed the "narration" below the clip.

0:00 The Start Routine. This is important and something that I really harp on when teaching. It has many purposes. Initially it gives the dog important clues about what is going to happen. It also creates a habitual mental state in the dog - they then have the attention and drive to do the task at hand. Through management and channeling drive in the proper direction I have a dog that comes out of the car, does his business and then charges over to demand to be harnessed and directed toward the start.

0:33 Starting the track facing the wrong direction and article not exactly at starting point.

1:28 Right hand turn was made in a stairstep pattern. If you look carefully you can see Steel do the stairstep.

1:52 Isn't this a cool shot??

1:55 road crossing. This is an access road to the marina. Lots of vehicle traffic, people etc. A steep berm on one side, a rock slope and water on the other. Steel successfully crosses and then decides to double check other options, then obviously convinces himself that his choice was right.

2:33 You can see him start to correctly cross the road here. He then loops back and works the area more heavily before crossing. Do I know why? No. I DO however know that the only way to progress is to let him make his own decisions. With both detection work and with tracking I have observed that as the dog gains experience (on his own) the "wasted motion" decreases. That step cannot be rushed.

3:30 Article!

3:57 track runs to left along edge of ditch. Scent is likely to be pushed down into the low lying area.

4:23 This part was fun. There are a series of berms that run to the right of the ditch. The track winds through the berms, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right and then sometimes up on top.

5:30 The End....