It Depends……

After our talk session today, I went onto my on line class…and many of the instructor’s comments began with, “It depends.” While we were talking today, and out on the tracks, I could feel some of you wanting more specific answers as to why I wanted you do something. So, as kind of a follow up to my Criteria blog….some thoughts.

I talked to some of you about seeing if your dog’s body was aligned with the track (I’ve also called this recognizing the straight line). A dog can be aligned with the track, but parallel to it, and be tracking. Will I let this go on? It depends….when Betty’s TDX dog paralleled the track to escape heavy cover, it was fine. If an inexperienced dog offers the same behavior, and his intensity wanes, I’ll probably add line tension to encourage the dog to look closer to the track. But if that same inexperienced dog is looking like he lacks confidence, I have to choose—let him work and not put more responsibility on him, or add tension, because getting closer to the track might give him more confidence. There isn’t a right answer—I have to make my best guess, suggest it to you, and see what happens. His behavior after I make the decision tells me the correctness of that decision in that moment. It could well be the wrong decision in 10 yards, or 10 minutes.

What about the dog who is drifting off the track? Well, his body isn’t aligned with the track, so I’m going to take note. If it’s Tobias, a relatively inexperienced dog, I’m going to apply line tension until he’s back on, and then follow. If it’s Thor, I might (!) give him a bit more distance before I step in. I’d like Thor, an experienced dog, to assume more responsibility for correcting back to the track. That also gives me a chance to see the dog solve the problem—and to see IF he solves the problem. Tobias doesn’t have enough knowledge to solve that problem yet, Thor does….but we don’t want him to get too far off in fixing it. We will set limits.

Sometimes the dog will just look different—today Thor utilized a back and forth style we haven’t seen before. The weather? Maybe. Doesn’t matter…what does matter is that Valerie worked with the new style, and it became very rhythmic and predictable—and it disappeared after the turn

A huge part of training tracking is carefully transferring responsibility to the dog. Often, that is easy and obvious. Sometimes, it’s difficult and vague. It’s rarely 100% on the dog (after all, you have a brain too, and you know the rules); it’s also rarely (?never?) 100% on the handler. You can not follow the track without the dog—even a visible track requires a dog who is willing to stay 20 feet out in front of you and indicate loss of scent. So you, as the handler/trainer, have to look for nuance while training. Is my sensitive dog moving briskly and confidently down the track? Great time to add line pressure for a few steps…release….apply. And then, forget line pressure when you get to the turn.

Denise Fenzi wrote a book titled, “Train the dog in front of you.” That simple title speaks volumes about training a dog to do anything, including tracking. Training the dog in front of you means you start with a plan, a goal, for the session—and you are 100% willing to change course if the dog who shows up to train isn’t the one you planned to train. The dog in front of you right now, may not be the same dog in front of you in 5 minutes. So our answers to our training challenges…..depend. They depend on the dog you are training right now—not the one you trained yesterday, or last week.

One more slightly off topic thought. When you train a skill, a behavior, you aren’t just training the physical skill, you are also training the dog’s feelings about that skill. They can’t be separated. It’s worth thinking about—Karen did an excellent job with that today when Lilah, still working hard, started shivering. I’m going to assume shivering means she wasn’t feeling great. It didn’t matter that she was still willing to try, it mattered that she was associating feeling miserable (presumed)with tracking. We don’t want that association, and we don’t get to choose how quickly the dog makes that association. Be aware of how your dog feels while he’s learning… it’s going to effect how willing he is to give you his best when he doesn’t feel terrific. Saber doesn’t like being wet, yet she has a long history of joyful tracking with Kelly. When her TD track required her hike over a half mile in the cold rain to get to the start, Kelly was using the emotions Saber associates with tracking (joy—you’ve all seen her track, LOL), to get them both through conditions Saber didn’t appreciate. And today, Kelly wisely left Saber home until she can have more joyful days, rather than demanding more of her on a crap day. Should we train in this weather? Absolutely—but with a strong dog, not a weak one.