Cheeky's Tracking Journal

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.

 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.