Cheeky's Tracking Journal

 Cheeky did a left turn at Cold Harbor Battlefield.  It was 55°F, sunny and wind was 9 mph NW.   Cheeky's track was one leg of 90 scuff steps, a left turn and a second leg of 70 scuff steps with food every three steps.  

I  put in a track at the Battlefield Green Community Center near a line of trees.  It was overcast and 63°F. The track was 80 scuff steps, left turn and second leg was 60 scuff steps.   Cheeky was mostly happy and tracked well, but after the turn she really wanted to go backwards.  I stood still and waited for her to decide to go forward.  She was pretty determined.  She seemed anxious either because it was getting dark or because there were dogs barking nearby.   At one point before the turn I made the mistake of correcting her for sniffing some trash.  I don't know if that caused some of her anxiety too.  Eventually she did decide to move forward and did well on the remainder of the track.  The video is below.  You'll see her off screen for quite a while after the turn and that's the point where she was trying to pull me backwards.

 I laid another track with two 60-scuff step legs and a left turn and food every three steps.  Cheeky was a bit distracted at the start flag but she quickly started tracking and ate lots of hot dogs and kept her nose down.  About 8 feet or so before the article she stopped eating the hot dogs.  Cheeky continued to keep her nose down, but moved very quickly to the article.   Her track was the first one I’ve videod with the chest harness and my cell phone so the quality isn’t great, but you can see some of her tracking behavior. Below is the map of Cheeky's track:

We went tracking at the Community Center near 360 and practiced a left turn.  It was around 61°F at 3 pm.  I laid a track that was two 60-step legs (scuffing all steps) with a left turn and food every three steps.  Cheeky did a great job on her track and the turn.  She kept her nose down and working.  Here is my map of Cheeky's track.

Cheeky went to class today.  Temps were in the high 40s/low 50s.  It was foggy and we tracked in the soy bean field for the first time.  Cheeky did a great job finding her first left turn.  The track was about 70 scuff steps for the first leg and after the turn about 20 scuff steps with food drops every 3 steps.  This week we’ll continue doing left turns.

 We tracked at Cold Harbor Battlefield around 4 pm.  It was 64°F and wind was going to the left over the tracks at about 8-10 mph.  I laid three tracks that were 70/80/90 scuff steps with food every three steps.  Cheeky did a great job even though she was distracted a couple times and blown off to the left a few times.  Each time she got right back to work.  She's learning to pull me in the right direction even when I don't go with her fast enough.  I'm excited about starting turns with her tomorrow. Today I took a couple photos of my line-ups.  This was the double line-up in front of me. This was behind me.

We tracked back at the field by the Battlefield Green subdivision/Community Center and Valero on 360.  It was  52°F and wind was 10-15 mph north and we were going west down the tracks so wind was blowing Cheeky to the right a couple times.    Otherwise she stayed right on her tracks. I laid her track in a different part of the field and going in the opposite direction from where we usually go and that was good practice for her because she tried to pull me towards where we normally track until she picked up on the track in front of us.  I practiced keeping pressure on the line and she kept her nose down the entire time.  The first article was the only one she seemed to spot and run to from a few feet away.  She had to work to find the other two articles.  Today's tracks were  60/70/80 scuff steps with food  drops every 3 steps.

Today we went to Cold Harbor Battlefield for the first time this year.  We have tracked near there, but not actually at the Battlefield until today.  It was very busy around 2 pm (I guess because of the holiday).  I was a little concerned it was going to be very noisy, but the dog walking group that was meeting up while I was laying the tracks for Cheeky moved along before she got out of the van.  As we were walking over to our tracks, a man was about to walk his three dogs right into the start of our first track.  I asked him to steer clear and he was very nice about it.  Unfortunately, he lost his handle on his leashes not once but twice and his dogs came running over to Cheeky.  Both times she didn't seem bothered by it and I picked her up until he had control of his dogs and moved away.   It was 41°F and not windy when I laid three tracks for Cheeky that were 50/60/70 scuff steps and food drops every three steps.  She got right to wo...

We went to the fields near 360 and Valero outside our subdivision. I laid tracks for Cheeky and Sizzle 40/50/60 steps.  Cheeky were food drops every 2 steps.  Cheeky still tends to run to the article about 5-6 feet from it.  I’m not sure how to prevent that without standing still and causing her to get confused and look back at me.  I'm thinking this is something I'm causing or allows because Sizzle is doing the same thing.  Other than that, she is keeping her nose down and working on most of the track.