Friday, August 27, 2010

Tracking article training

Blaze has been learning about tracking. And not about articles. He's still lacking the training needed to let me know if he finds dropped items on the track.

I've done one session. Hold out item. He touches. I cue Sit. Click. Treat. Repeat. He soon was not so keen on touching it and very keen on being attentive to me. too much criteria too fast. But it didn't make sense for a dog with his experience and working style.

Today at training, someone else was handling him. Shaping a down on an article. And there were some correct responses. A lot of swipes. A lot of handler focus. ANd progress was slow.

I was surprised that he gave the same type of performance despite different training plans...

Our current plan is a giant article circle, food in between to reinforce easy tracking. And when he gets to the article, a lure down and a bunch of food. The hope is we'll create a strong and nonvariable behavior. And quickly. And while maintaining a presentation similar to what he will see when working.

The plan is to give it a week and see what happens.

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