January
2009
A long overdue update0
Its been over 4 weeks since I last updated this. Life’s busy now I’m back at work and Thomas in nursery/barnehage 5days/week. We seem to have found some kind of routine, and working only 80% really helps as it gives us a bit more time for chores, dogwalking, training etc. etc.
Christmas/New Year was a good opportunity for some longer walks (and runs, for Mist with Jon!). Here’s Mist and Bina having fun at Alsvik:
And me, Thomas and Mist having a cake break (good pic, Nina 
)
So, a quick overview of training….
Sat 27th Dec
Rundering - Sviland
A rundering training that didn’t go as planned - I wanted to train empty loops but Mist’s loops were far too big for my liking (i.e. I had no idea where she was, and she was out a long time on some of them). Don’t remember exact details, but had a mix of probably 40:60 find:empty loop. Suspect I should have kept the ratio higher than that for now as Mist can be an independent little madam and clearly thinks taking in the whole forest is a good option when she doesn’t find someone immediately 
. Still, when I did get her back to me, there was no doubt that there was no motivation issue, as she wasn’t interested in any kind of reward from me, and just wanted to get out on the other side and search again.
In addition the lady with the puffin dogs (strange, 6-toed Norwegian dogs!) had parked in our rundering area and walked out with her pack of (?5 or 6?) dogs just as we were coming into the midline, and Mist was quite put off by it. Still, after a misunderstanding by me of what the others knew of where the lady and her dogs would be going, it became clear that she would not be nearby for very long and after a short break, we re-started and just ensured to have a body to find in the area where they’d just walked out into the forest.
I’d also chosen to use the rundering track ‘back-to-front’ and started up just past the junction, working back towards the carpark. Don’t know whether that contributed to Mist’s behaviour, but she should be able to runder wherever and in whichever direction I want!
Sat 3rd Jan
Rundering - Sviland
I asked Tone if she would help me with rundering today, as the previous rundering training didn’t go quite according to plan. Tone had control of the midline and set out the bodies and instructed me where to send Mist. And, of course, Mist was model student today 
. She searched well, she came when called, she found everyone she should, and indicated well. Problem…..? what problem?! I think we had about 50:50 finds and empty loops - I probably just need to be careful about increasing the number of empties I send her in a row. And feel confident about where the bodies are at this stage.
Weds 7th Jan
Tracking/practical - Dale
Parallel tracking - Nina, Ghita and I put out three ‘parallel’ trails on the big grassy field at Dale and Nina/Bina and me/Mist tracked at the same time. KristinM and Athena started soon after and caught us up at our ‘finishes’ as her trail went a lot further. It was interesting to see both dogs a little confused at what we were doing since they are very used to going for walks/playing together. But, despite many stops and looking over to see what the other one was doing, they both found and followed their trails to the finish (with a little help from a headwind near the end 
). Still, the point was tracking alongside another dog, and they both managed it .
We also shared a search square (30m x 30m) with Nina/Bina - the dogs took turns to go out and search. Mist was somewhat embarrassing, Bina was model student, so I knew there was something I needed to work on! Mist zoomed out and ran around like a loony, inside and outside the trampled area (she ought to know by now that she only finds things inside, and I thought she’d learned that pretty well). We also think she chose not to bring back some object(s) she found as she was stationary at one point a couple of times. Since it was dark I couldn’t see to be sure and tell her to pick it up. So, not the best planned exercise for us - I thought she was more capable/reliable than that. But, since it was working with distractions (another dog) that I wanted to train, we did get something out of it. Mist did ‘visit’ Bina once or twice when I called her in, but she was willing to come to me and be sentout again.
Sat 10th Jan
Tracking/practical - Dale
I chose to do a ‘practical’ exercise this morning as I think it’s important that Mist understands that she is searching for people even though she doesn’t have a find within minutes (as is normal in rundering training). Aud walked up the farmroad to the top of the valley and went up to hide in the big scree on the south side of the valley. I started searching with Mist from the Dalevannet path, up through the forest and then down into the fields at the top, and round the back of an old electricity building, round to the other side where there is lots of scree, and finally onto the scree. I’d hoped to be able to send Mist to search up there and keep my feet on solid ground! But, the wind was variable, and on that side of the valley, it was blowing up the hillside so I had to go up onto the scree too, in order to get Mist high enough up to find Aud.
It was interesting to see Mist’s confidence increase on the scree, from a little whining at the first big rocks, to jumping confidently ahead of me after a few minutes. She’s got good balance and isn’t particularly wimpy in most terrain, but she can get a bit nervous when she has to jump from rock to rock with big gaps inbetween! Excellent timing then, when she got scent of Aud just after we came off the worst of the scree. Indication was good. We’d searched for just over half an hour. I hope I can train this kind of search perhaps once a month, or 1 in 4 trainings so that we can increase the time to the find and Mist learns that we’re not just out for a walk if she doesn’t find someone immediately.
We also got to join Ghita/Tara training search square with Paul instructing. He was showing Ghita how to get Tara to slow down in her search, but getting someone to walk about in a small area in front of Ghita/Tara, pretending to put objects on the ground and placing only one or two in fact, within just a few metres of Ghita. It helps encourage the dog to search, nose down, from the word go, instead of legging it 30m+ out into the forest before starting to search.
Aud/Speedy and me/Mist had a go afterwards. We took both dogs out at once and took turns to tie one to a tree - neither of them liked that idea, but neither was bothered by another dog nearby either. I think it’s good to take opportunities to have more than one dog out at once, so that they do get used to having to watch, and to working side by side with others.
Both Speedy and Mist are a bit too quick in their searching and bound around the area which isn’t as effective as those who walk/trot calmly with nose to the ground. Hopefully both of them will learn that it pays to pay attention from the start!
Weds 14th Jan
Sviland
The parking place was packed when I arrived, just after 6 ( 
) so I chose to train search square in the Arboret instead. Ritva put out two ’squares’ for us - one 5×30m, one 10×10m. I’d tried the technique Paul showed Ghita on Saturday a few times since the weekend but wasn’t sure whether it had worked or not as Mist was sometimes still sprinting out, and sometimes searching from the start. I’d also got her to lie down before starting (therefore nose is closer to ground before setting off….).
The search squares were about 30-40mins when we started. We took the one in open forest (pine needles on the ground) first. And it went very well! She searched from the word go. Ok, so she bark indicated at one corner because I’d had the wise idea to hang up the reflective triangle that she wears when she’s working, so I could see where the corners were . But once I’d rewarded her for that, and brought in the triangle, she searched well and found all the articles in just a few minutes.
The second square was in more difficult terrain - lots of long grass and a gravel track that someone had actually walked along with a dog between when Ritva laid it out and Mist searched. But she managed well - she found 2 of 4 objects and I threw out another one so that she’d have another find before we gave up. She searched close to me when I set her off and worked her way out well. So, perhaps the previous few days of training had paid off!
Sat 17th Jan
Rundering - Vigreskogen
a.m. indication of rucksack/jacket in the ‘baby’ forest. Chose to send out to a ‘body’ first, but we’d not understood correctly where he was, so Mist didn’t find him, did an enormous loop coming out onto the path way ahead of me, got scent of the rucksack on the other side, and despite trying to call her in, she went out, ‘found’ it and indicated. Well, it was what we were training so was actually very pleased! Alternated between bodies and articles. All went well except for a pair of mittens hanging in a bush, which Mist managed to get hold of and bring back to me (she’s indicated successfully for gloves hanging in a tree before, but I think they were probably out of reach).
p.m. rundering (finds and empty loops) in the ‘grownup’ forest. We did about 400-450m with about 50:50 finds and empty loops (FBFBBFFBBBF). She ran out well, at least 50m each time, ran reasonable loops, a few times she took a while to come in when I called but it is her job to search and she wasn’t so long that I suspected she was doing other things (!). Even though it was blowing a hooly and it was very noisy in the forest with the trees and masts whistling and creaking away, I was pleased to be able to hear Mist’s indication each time without any problem.
Weds 21st Jan
Tracking - Dale
Just Paul, Steffen and me tonight in wet windy weather. I put out a trail for Paul, up the big field and into the woods and then managed to get disorientated and ended up clambering up wet slippy rocks and crags to get up to the path to walk back to the carpark! Steffen put out 4 trail searches for Mist - i.e. short trails that I would start at a distance from and get Mist to search at rightangles to, until she found them. Then she had to decide which way to go, and be rewarded pretty soon for finding/choosing correctly. It’s something I need to do more of as we need to be able to search 50m for B-assessment.
It’s a while since we’ve trained this specifically, although I always start Mist searching at least a few metres from a trail, so that I never set her straight on it. So, I was very pleased when, the minute I gave her the command to search for a trail, she set her nose down and walked calmly forwards, concentrating on her task and not darting off in other directions as I’ve experienced her doing before. When she found the trail she turned immediately in the right direction and pulled steadily on the line indicatng to me that she was onto something! Steffen asked if she was always so calm and concentrated? I admitted that no, not always, but I have to say she’s pretty good when tracking, to maintain a steady pace and it’s seldom she wants to go faster than is comfortable for me to walk. I made a big effort when I started training her tracking as a puppy, to keep her pace down, as I was pregnant and knew that if I wanted to be able to train with her as long as possible during pregnancy she would have to not drag me along!
We did 3 of the 4 that Steffen had put out -they went so well, that I didn’t want to risk getting it wrong on the 4th. She didn’t find the finish on one of them, so I just threw a toy to reward her since she was still on track. And she wasn’t too keen in picking up paper articles, so I need to train more of that (thinking about it, I rarely use paper/card, so it’s not so surprising). But, her search was really good and I was very happy with her 
) - teach her to hold an item for 1 second, then 2 seconds then 5, 10, etc. etc. Then teach her to hold it sitting at my side, then get her to take it from my hand while standing at my side and sit down….. this is where we got stuck! And it took months to get that far. She could hold an item I gave her as long as I wanted, but didn’t ‘offer’ anything more. If I indicated to her with my hand that I wanted her to sit, she dropped the item and sat!