Here's a picture of her with her nose to the ground last week. Have a look at her tail - obviously she's loving it.
She's just passing one of the socks that I placed on the track; she's a bit off to one side of the sock because the wind changed direction after I laid the track.
Jenny taught us to lay the scent with the wind behind us. I forgot why that was, but I've just revised the reason at the page of the Golden Retriever Club of Victoria. We don't want the dogs to 'wind scent' with their heads up, which they'll do if the wind carries the scent to them; we want them to have their noses to the ground. And that's another reason I'm proud of this picture of Penny.
Jenny Pearce photographed the studentsl so we could check our progress. The dog's doing well - but I'm not so sure the handler has much of a technique! I'll have to practise with these long leads.
We had to keep the tension on the lead but not pull the dog back when she was on the track. I must say, I still find this quite tricky.
10 comments:
Oooh, tracking is sooo fun! Few months back I did my 1st training for scent detection. It's exactly like tracking except that I had to search for my tennis ball hidden in some areas of the training ground & I was not on a lead. My tail wagged vigorously & I managed to find my ball even when it was buried in sand & put high up in trees with no difficulties! But unfortunately, my nose isn't 100% pawfect & there was a few times when I just sniffed right passed it. Hehe! But I really enjoy this new game! It's a game to me! Just look at you pulling away Penny! Looks like you enjoyed it very very much becoz your tail looked like it was wagging like crazee. That's great to know! I wish to be a tracking dog someday like you & Niamh. Hope you had a fantabulous time!
Butt wiggles,
Solid Gold Dancer
Congratulations on the award!
We will be praying for your friend and his bike trek, what a long way to go.
The tracking class looks like fun and Penny looks great! Great form, nose to the ground, tail up. I'll be interested to watch her progress.
Penny is really good dog and you doing great with it.
That looks like so much fun! Gracie would love it.
Hope you had a great weekend!
Woofs, Johann
Amber-Mae, we're also having fun with scent detection. When we're out walking (off-lead) we quietly drop something, like a handkerchief or a piece of cloth, and then a few metres further along we make a huge fuss saying, 'Oh, no! It's lost, where is it? Penny, where is it?" and she rushes back to find it. We all have heaps of fun playing this game.
Rusty, my friend is driving a motor home across Australia right now. It will be the back-up vehicle for her nephew's trek, which I think starts next weekend. He's already raised twelve thousand dollars, before he even starts riding.
Slavenka, thanks. Penny sure is doing well - she's a natural at looking for scents. I'm a bit embarrassed to tell you that she has her nose to the ground on all our walks around the streets. I don't think she trusts us to keep feeding her...
Johann, you're right - Gracie would have lots of fun!
I accidentally tracked this down for you, parlance. Considering what you're up against in your neck of the woods, I reckon you'd really enjoy this blog, Dog Parks, featured on the blogger site: http://thedogparkbook.blogspot.com/
Enjoy.
Thanks, Mark. I visited the site and found it most interesting. It's one I would not have come across in the normal run of things, I reckon. I'll keep an eye on it in future, especially as it's about the role of parks in the lives of families with dogs.
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