November 14, 2008

Clear, sunny, cold, dry morning around 11:30 AM. Breeze was very light. Neighborhood is a combination of rural and surburban with a major highway/throughfare on one side and a large empty lot with a house in the back on another. Car was parked on one of the corners of the block.

I had John walk Dot down the short side street away from the car and toward Main Street. At the corner we made a right. I was walking in the street on the side streets with no sidewalks or as far to the left on the main streets with sidewalks and trees and cars in the street.

The Main Street is heavily traveled with cars, semis, RV's and a lot of foot traffic. Along the right is house and businesses with fences right up to the sidewalk. Every house had a fence. We walked up the street and then when we came to a business with a parking lot around the back, I had John walk Dot close to the fence that borders along the back of the lot. There was a large dog tied to a chain barking at us, so we cut from the fence back to the building along the other side. We walked back toward the sidewalk and Main Street. We continued up the street and when we came to the bank, we cut through the parking lot and I had John go diagonal through the lot while I stayed far off the the right. He crossed the lot and then crossed a small concrete barrier with plants and then made a right back out to the side walk and then made a right back in the direction of the car. There were no sidewalks on this street, so I had John walk close to the edge of the street. Then I had him cross the street in my direction, around a power pole and back out to the street, staying on this side while I crossed back over. A little further down, I had John cross back across the street and I went to the other side. John and Dot walked all the way down the street back to the car.

I put Dot into the car and John sat in the car to read his paper. I took Dino out and put on his harness, got his bag of treats and his rawhide bone.

Started Dino at 11:50 AM. I walked with Dino in the opposite direction to go around another block and hit the trail from another direction. We walked around the block and when we hit the location of the corner where John and Dot made the right hand turn onto Main Street from the side street, a few feet before, I told Dino "Ready, Ready, Ready" to get his attention that something was going to happen to get his attention. He was focused on me. I showed him the scent pad and said "Take Scent" and he reached out the sniff and then I said "Search." He immediately put down his head and started looking. He followed the trail up the street. I thought he might catch the scent of the the cat that lives on the corner, but he went right past it.

When we got to the parking lot with the fence that goes behind a business, he made the turn right away and followed it all the way around (no barking dog on a chain this time), and he got the left diagonal back to the side of the building and back to the street. He followed it up the street again. I remember him checking nooks and cranies along the way and I would say "good check." When we got to the bank, he made the right turn, but he went the direction of my track instead which was along the side of the bank, instead of John's which was along the building on the other side of the driveway. I thought about leaving him alone, maybe thinking he was following parts of John and Dot's scent. But then I called him and he came back in my direction. I said "check" as I pointed at the driveway where John and Dot walked. He followed the trail up the driveway and then along the back of the building instead of diagonal. This time I didn't restart him and he followed it back up along the parking lot in the correct direction.

At this point, he got a little confused, and when I saw what I did, I don't blame him. Instead of crossing the small concrete barriers that John walked over, Dino wanted to go straight to the sidewalk. At first I called him back not seeing my mistake. I brought him back to the middle of the parking lot where he was correct and had him going again through the parking lot to the street. He still went straight for the street instead of crossing the concrete barriers. I noticed what he was doing. He was picking up the scent from when John and Dot had made a right back onto the street which went in front of him, though about 50 feet ahead of him. This time I didn't restart him and let him go to the street and praised him. He made the right turn back down the street toward the car.

Instead of being on the left side of the street where John and Dot walked, he walked on the right side where I walked. I didn't correct him because the street was narrow, barely enough for two cars to pass with no parking on either side, so I figured he easily could have been picking up the scent that blew to the other side.

I did walk right past the power power (which had a U shaped driveway around it, and this time I called him back to a spot before the short U around the power pole and said "check" as I pointed at the ground, and he started again onto the driveway, checking various spots around the edge of the gravel driveway. He came back to the top of the driveway and back onto the street again and made the right turn back to the car.

He crossed the street on his own, which is the side that John and Dot were walking on. He was checking various nooks and crannies along the way with me praising him.

Instead of going straight to the car, he made the right turn back down the side street and back to Main Street. Of course, I didn't restart him since that was the way that John and Dot walked. I followed him down to Main Street and he made a left turn where there wasn't any scent. I let him go as far as he wanted to (about one house distance) before he stopped on his own. I said "Show Me" and he came back and jumped on me with his front paws. At this point, I think I need to distiguish between running out of scent or no scent and another indication. But I didn't do anything different with him, I was thinking this to myself.

I did repeat "Search" since we had not found Dot yet. I did see him glance in the direction of the right turn back out onto Main, but then he went in the direction of the car. He walked up the the car, sniffed the side and then jumped with his front feet onto the bumper of the car. I praised him and then gave him his back of treats and played with his rawhide.

The time was about 12:40 AM, about an hour since the start of when John and Dot walked by. I was pretty happy with this. He was very focused and got very little distracted by his environment which he has done in the past. I have stopped clicking and treating during the track and he remains very focused. I think that worked best during the inital training, but now verbal praise is good and the treats and toys at the end since he now seems to understand cleared what he is doing. I will put a post onto the PetHunters Yahoo group asking about the different indications people use for "cats", "end of scent" and "anything else".