And the journey begins/continues

What an awesome first day! MaryAnn, Jennifer and I debriefed after both groups were done….and it sounds like we going to have a fun season! Some take aways from today (helpful for Tuesday class too!). Please text your assistant, MaryAnn & me when you post a blog. I’ll post our cell numbers in the schedule section.

1. When you get to your site, check and see if you’ll be driving anywhere (we sometimes drive around to the back of Holly Ridge). If not, please get ready—line out, unwrapped & untangled (clip it on your crate and stretch it out), harness out, vest on, treats in pocket, flags out, articles in pockets. This way when it’s your turn to either track or lay a track…you’re ready and we won’t have a delay waiting for you to assemble your stuff;

2. Stinky treats matter, especially for beginner dogs. The goal of lesson one is that the dog learns that food grows in the grass, and he can access that food by using his nose. We want to make the nose part super obvious—we could all hear Skylar snuffling in the grass by track 2. Small pieces matter too—we want the dog to swallow and move on rather than stop and chew. MaryAnn and I are both huge fans of chicken, beef, hot dogs, meatballs…all with garlic powder added to add to the smell.

3. We will spend a LOT of time establishing solid foundations—the stronger your foundation, the better tracking dog you will have. Please be patient with us! As part of that foundation—it’s critical that the dog travels directly from one food drop to the next—spine straight, in alignment with the track. We do NOT want to see the dog curving away from the track and come back for each food drop—each food drop serves as reinforcement for the action that preceded it—so we want that to be deep nose, straight spine.

4. You will accomplish step 3 by keeping your line SHORT—if you squat your knees should touch your dog’s butt. Move with the dog, and don’t push him. All we want right now is the dog learning the grass grows cookies, and he can find them by sniffing

5. For those of you who were in my group today, and are returning students, start doing the training rotation—starts, 3 turn track, Duration- long (600 yards), and articles. Walk your tracks twice as we did today, and don’t scuff.

6. Please train at LEAST twice a week in addition to class. TD work can be done daily. TDX dogs generally work about 3 times a week. Each time you train—BLOG!!! We won’t see you again for 2 weeks and we want to know how it’s going!

7. Please work on your walk up to the start flag. We prefer the dog walk quietly, not dragging you. The easiest way to accomplish that is to drop food behind you. Don’t wait for a behavior—just drop a trail of treats behind you for the dog to follow. About 10 ft from the start, do your start ritual and release the dog to go to the flag

8. Work your articles at home, off the track. Check the Training tab of the website, there are several article videos to help you train. In the end, the DOG must indicate the article without a cue from you—it should be a behavior cued by the presence of the article, irrespective of you. You should not matter or influence the dog at all! Your dog MUST have a clean, random down—one command, no prompts, dog’s back to you. That is step one!

I was absolutely thrilled with Carolyn, Andrea, Ellen, Anne today. Clearly you’ve been working over the summer, your dogs have made fantastic progress…as have you! Ann Li, Skylar was perfect today…do as we talked about and we will move to the next step in the next class.

MaryAnn tells me Flora’s dog was excellent, Joan’s new dog rocked it, and Tilly got it! Heidi, many dogs take a session or 2 to really understand the game…and it has no impact on the final product. We spend so much time telling our performance dogs “no sniff”….sometimes this is the biggest obstacle to overcome. Nimrod will get it and be a star—small smelly treats will help. Leigh, I agree with going back to short, straight tracks put in with baby steps and food every foot (or less), small smelly treats. Really want to see that nose deep and Buster going directly from treat to treat without ever leaving the track.

Feel free to post questions here!

MaryAnn, Judi, Jennifer, Anne