Cheeky's Tracking Journal

 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 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.

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...