The Berners On Track gang has been doing amazing and fabulous work! It is awesome to see the progress of both dogs and humans over such a short time.
Some people are able to track with their dogs more than others, and so the group skill level is stretching out. This makes it hard to say what everyone “should” be doing this week since dogs are in different places.
Therefore, let’s make assignments based on competencies.
Baby Sadie is doing a 25 yard track with a gentle turn and food spaced at 12 - 18 inches (Video HERE). She is missing a lot of the food drops (a positive sign) and is doing a great job motoring down her track.
Therefore, Sadie and similar skilled dogs are ready for a longer track (increase by 10 - 20 yards) with one gentle turn and some experimentation with the food drop distances. This group should track 3 - 4 times a week if possible.
Other dogs are like Lily. She is easily ready for a 75-yard track and the angle of her turn can start to close a bit. Food should be placed such that it motivates and reinforces the track without distracting her. Dogs at this skill level should track 2 - 3 times in a week.
We are still not involving articles on the track but will introduce a fun article game next week to get ready.
The four TDX dogs are rocking it! Click HERE for a video we did today of Sundance’s track — it was aged 3+ hours, was about 550 yards and had four articles — he NAILED this track. The video focuses on turns and is fascinating to watch — Suzanne’s handling on this track is superb.
THIS is a link to a narrated video of parts of Claire’s track.