We are still watching….

To be clear, we’d watch more if you’d text us when you’ve posted…..please????

For the videos I’ve seen, and after a quick text conversation with MaryAnn….could you guys all please shorten up your lines? No one is entering a test in the next 3 months—so let’s be working our dogs 6-10 feet behind them please! Put your 40’ lines away until Fall!!!

Please remember, you can train more effectively with short, targeted tracks. Reminder…here are the rotations:

TD: Starts (4); stairstep (6 turns); duration/length; articles; re-acquiring the track (advanced dogs only)

TDX: Starts (4); stairstep (8 turns); duration/length; re-acquiring the track; articles; obstacles. Please don’t take on cross tracks without guidance.

Starts: you can train age with start tracks (SHORT start tracks). Age them 30-60-90-120; or 2,3,4,5 hours, or 15,30,45,60-what ever. Increase the scuff on the older tracks—the older the track, the more scuffing you will do. So the first track might not have have any scuff (assuming your dog is totally fluent at that age); the last track might be 100% scuffed.

Let’s just assume we don’t know what the dog smells (cuz we don’t), and let’s not assume older is less scent. Maybe it is, I don’t know. I DO know the scent chemistry has changed, and I assume the dog needs to learn to identify the changed chemical signature of the older track. He can do that on a 25 yard track!

As we watch you, we ask you to remember, TRAIN DON’T TEST!!!!! Let the track teach the dog—that is your challenge! Set your track up to teach the dog the skill (singular) you want him to learn from that training session

Enjoy this wonderful, unseasonable weather!