Saturday, January 10, 2009

I am trying to train Dino everyday to see if that makes a difference for him. In the last couple of day, I have noticed his focus becoming much better and his interest is very high. He seems to love doing this.

Weaverville. Started 3:15 PM walking Dot. Weather is clear and cold. Street is residential with no sidewalks. Sometimes no shoulder. Sometimes shoulder closer to houses. Lots of deer in the area. Several loose dogs on the trail. Narrow two lane road.

I parked the car in the parking lot of Tops in the rear alongside the side street. I walked Dot up the street, no shoulder on road. We went straight up the road. When there was a place to walk off the road, we would walk onto the vegetation or paved driveways. We walked all the way up the street, which was about one 1/2 mile to the top, which was a dead end. Along the way, there were three loose dogs (luckily all friendly!) that ran from their properties over to visit with me and Dot. When we got to the end of the road, we back track about 20 feet, and then crossed over the street. One our way back down, we went up to side streets, and then came back down the same way.

I was trying to set up some spots for "running out of scent" compared to "no scent." There seems to be two different types of "no scent" however I use the same indication with Dino. There are the "we are going along the right track and suddenly there is no scent" like the animal turned and backtracked. Then there is the "no scent because we missed a turn or veered off the trail." One is a mistake on his part, the other is not.

I walked Dot all the way back down the road, and along the way we ran into two more dogs loose on the front lawn with full access to the road. Luckily, we were on the other side of the road, and the dogs stayed in their front yard. I thought there might be an invisible fence, but one of the dogs did come out to the road after we passed.

At the bottom of the road, we walked into the yard of a vacant house and around the front tree and then back out to the road. We walked along the side of the road, and the truck we clearly visible from where we were. I thought that Dino might key into that later on, and I could use that as a distraction. I have started to plant a towel with the scent laying dog along the trail for him to find instead of having him always go back to the truck.

I put Dot back into the truck around 3.45 PM and went inside to the store for over an hour. I came back out around 4:45, which would be about one and a 1/2 hour from the start of the track. I planted the scented towel across the street down in a dip so Dino couldn't see it. He would have to smell it in order to find it.

I put on his harness, treat bag and got his rawhide bone out. I walked him up the street over Dot's first track, but I did not tell Dino anything. We got about 50 feet into the track, I took out Dot's collar, and said "take scent." He reached up to sniff it and then immediately put his head down to follow the track. He followed it all the way up the street, getting most if not all, of the side tracks up driveways and around light posts. He did seem to be picking up the scent from the other side of the street, which I expected. This is the first time I have laid the two "coming" and "going" tracks this close. I tried to hug the sides of each lane as close as possible to make it easier. He would pick up his head and start to scent something from the other side, but then he would come back to the track he was one. Only one time did he cross over to the other side. He went up a side street. I let him go. He stopped on his own when he noticed there was no scent. He came back and sat. I clicked and treat. I brought him back out to the road and said "check." On his own he went back to the first side and continued up the road in the correct direction.

He went all the way up to the top of the dead end road. He went way past where the scent stop, but I did not say anything. I wanted to see what he would do on his own. About 50 feet where I turned around with Dot, he started weaving back and forth and lifting his head and looking around. He checked one more ditch off to the side, and then he came back and sat in front of me. I clicked and treat. I turned around and started back to see if he could pick up where I crossed over with Dot. He got that immediately, and started back down the road on the other side.

He followed the road pretty good all the way down going into the weeded and grassy parts where I walked with Dot. I missed one of the side streets where I turned up with Dot. Dino continued all the way down. One of the dogs loose in the yard was still there when we came back down. I picked up a rock just in case I needed to use it. Luckily, the dog stayed in his yard. Dino was distracted a bit, but I told him "search" as we walked past the dog, and he tried to keep his focus. We got past the house and kept going.

One thing I wanted to mentioned that I noticed different today was that a man walked past me on the walk up the road, said "hi" to me and kept walking. Dino took a brief glance at him and kept on the track. This is totally different than in the past when Dino would go up to anybody and everybody to visit, and then it would take some time to get him back on the track. I noticed this as we walked past the man, and I verbally praised Dino.

He missed the left veer into the yard at the bottom of the road, but I sawed that he could see the truck from that spot and started to head in that direction. I stopped him and brought him back. I said "check" as I pointed toward the ground. He picked up the scent and went into the yard. He missed the right turn around the tree and kept going. I didn't stop him. He went all the way up to the house (about 75 feet), looked around and then came back and sat in from of me. I clicked and treated. I brought him back to where he had the scent and said "check." He picked it up again and followed it out to the road. Again, he saw the car and wanted to go back to the car. This time, I gave him a firm "ACHK!" and said "get to work." He got back on the trail, and again veered to the right toward the car. Again I said "ACHK!" and "get to work" and pointed toward the ground and said "check." We were only a few feet away from the towel. He picked up the scent of the towel and ran toward it with full excitement and then ran back to me and jumped on me (which is his sign he found a cat). I brought him back to the towel and said "down" which he did. I gave him the treat bag food and played with the rawhide.