Tracking in Snow

"Don't they cheat and learn to track by sight?"

We finally had snow this weekend, so Dustin and Bruce each had two snow tracks before everything melted. That certainly isn't enough to teach them to track by sight, but I certainly learned a lot by watching them. Dustin worked well, and I saw him have an "Aha" moment at the turns when he could see what was happening. The second day, his turns were obscured by holes in the snow where clots had fallen from the tree branches -- footprints everywhere! He kept his nose low and checked each likely hollow, and even got the metal article he'd missed the day before.

With Bruce, the snow helped me put on the brakes as we reached an article. I need to cut up my elderly hot-pink sweatshirt for working him; I can see those easily and the dog can't. This is good for a hot tracker who's lukewarm on finding anything. He's maturing, but is still a bit of a scatterbrain. I'm wondering if he'd take to field-trial training and whether I could ILP him as a mysteriousy small Labrador.

Compulsive behavior

We own a tail-chasing dog.

Tasha spins on certain occasions, such as when her preferred person comes home and is mobbed by all and sundry instead of focusing exclusively on her. She spins when she wants her dinner prepared. She spins when she wishes to leave her boarding kennel, which leads to injuries when she's there for more than a couple of days.

However, the dinner preparation starts to look like a cargo cult. She sees me pick up the food dishes, goes into a back room, and spins like the washing machine on the wringer cycle. There is soon food; therefore the ritual has worked.

The past few meals, we've made her come and lie in the kitchen while we scoop kibble and dole out supplements. Her obedience is good enough for down-stay to be effective. I'm hoping her basic intelligence, which generally seems pretty good, will eventually twig to the idea that the food is made even when she is not wearing holes in the rug and her pads.

Tracking After Hiatus

After actual months between tracking sessions, I finally got up, settled the baby in the stroller with the brakes locked so he could watch from above while we worked, and worked a couple of tracks. With luck, it'll happen again tomorrow. We'll be fair-weather trackers for some time, though. While I can find baby clothes to keep a little one warm, I cannot find any to keep him dry.

Each of the two boys had an eighty-pace track with nine articles including the starter. Each started on a leather article. Each had two leather, two paper, two plastic, two cloth, and one metal article. And there the resemblance ended...

Bruce is an excellent natural tracker, with a nice low nose. He was delighted to take a scent by a post and work down the line, and delighted to get treats for doing it, but couldn't for the life of him remember the down-on-article part. By the last article, though, he was beginning to stop and stare thoughtfully into space. A few more days like this, and he'll probably get the idea.

Dustin is a natural air-scent and trailing dog, with a high nose but excellent skills on mixed surfaces. He remembered the down on articles just fine. He had a big lapse on remembering the line of scent down at dead-grass level, or perhaps just doesn't find it as interesting as sorting out the entire neighborhood blowing on the breeze. As he's more experienced than Bruce, though, and also considerably smarter, he had it figured out again by the end of the line.

I'm not going to get ahead of myself, or them, though. For one thing, short tracks are much easier when also keeping track of the infant. For another, if I jump ahead too suddenly, I'll just frustrate everyone involved, including the little boy who insists on kicking off his blanket and then complaining that he's cold (and who hates his snowsuit.) When he's a little older, he should be able to ride in a backpack while I work the dogs, which won't show him much of what we're doing but at least will let him see where we've been.