23
February
2008
I wanted to train specifically searching today as we’ve only trained tracking and indication for quite a while now (over 2 months, maybe more…). Given there was a reasonable wind, I decided to train airscenting, letting Mist work freely. I also wanted to test whether she would indicate (bark) when she found the ‘body’, since we haven’t tried this before. I thought it was more likely to work in an open search setting, rather than trying for the first time in a rundering session. I’d hoped to use the open grass/gravel area, but as it turned out, a group turned up to ‘play’ paintball at the far side of the area, exactly the direction the wind was coming from.
So, for the morning session, Aud and Krissi hid in the forest area on the right-hand-side of the main rundering track. The wind kindly died down quite a lot just as we started, so it was more difficult than I’d expected. The moment I let Mist off the lead, she sprinted off down the track, and suddenly veered into the trees. I thought she’d ‘got’ someone already, but a while later she turned up again. Off she went again and was gone a few minutes without me seeing her (one of the reasons I’d wanted to use the open area was so I’d be able to see what she was doing 
). But then she was back again and hadn’t found anyone. I wondered if there were walkers on the other gravel road, but fortunately there didn’t seem to be (at that time anyway). Soon enough, while we walked along the road, Mist suddenly lifted.her nose and dashed off into the trees/bushes on the right. A few seconds later I heard barking - proper barking too 
Mist had found Krissi, and had started to indicate without needing any ‘help’ (I’d asked Aud and Krissi to give her the bark command if she didn’t bark of her own accord).
We went back to the road and continued. Mist heard ‘bodies’ playing with Bina in the forest on the other side, and I was worried she was about to take off to join in! But fortunately, a quick whistle brought her back and I walked in the terrain to the right of the road to try to show her it was there we were searching. The next distraction was the sound of a child on the other gravel road. I breathed a sigh of relief when Mist decided it was ok to come with me instead of running off to find the source of the voices! Luckily the wind wasn’t blowing from them to us, or else I think it would have been more difficult. Or maybe her recall is getting better 
The wind direction had changed, and Aud had told me over the radio that there was next to no wind at all where she was hiding. We therefore worked along the stream by the road, and up the track to the right where the road divides. It wasn’t long before Mist dived off again, and soon I heard more barking. Yes! Just at that moment, the voices we’d heard earlier appeared on the track above where Aud was hiding. Good timing, since Mist wasn’t to know that they weren’t the ‘right’ people to find.
In the afternoon the paintballers had gone, so I was able to use the gravel/grass area. Aud and Ritva hid just into the forest at the far side of the grass and Mist and I started searching from the near side of the grass. It didn’t take long for Mist to pick up the scent of someone…. and off she went. Soon, the barking started and she’d found Ritva. We searched a little longer and Mist found Aud too. Both times she didn’t need any command to start barking.
I was really pleased that Mist indicated as soon as she found the ‘body’, even though we haven’t previously put this part together with the search.
Posted: Airscenting / Overvær, Uncategorized
10
February
2008
Jon ran with Mist again and laid a trail on his way back (still with Mist) on the fields below Ragnhildsnuten. Mist therefore had already ‘done’ the trail (!) although he made her wait a little way off when he put out the finish. The field was super-wet and it was dark by the time we went out, about an hour later. Mist struggled with the trail search, and I’m not convinced she was ever properly on track, although she went in overall the right direction (but then she’d done it before, hadn’t she 
) and found the finish.
Think perhaps it was too difficult - Mist was alert to any noises given that it was dark, the terrain was completely waterlogged and she was tired. Whether the fact that she was with Jon when he laid it out had any effect, I don’t know. Will try to do some more training in those fields, in daylight. We haven’t trained much recently on grass.
Posted: Tracking / Spor, Uncategorized
9
February
2008
…just!
Having made plans based on Thomas waking and feeding at 6/7 as he has done the past 2 weeks, he kindly ’slept in’ till 8.30 today!! So, I was a bit late arriving. Still, we managed to get there by 1030 and, although I couldn’t be there for quite the whole day, was able to join in with most of the day’s training.
Mist got two short indication sessions. The first, I tried to do what I’d trained with Jon last Sunday - she would bark at me, then I’d give the Show command, she’d run to the ‘body’ and bark, and get to play. However, she was very submissive with me and although she did what I wanted the first time, the next time it was a real effort to get her to bark at me first. I took the ‘barking at me’ part alone, and rewarded her with the rope ball, and she seemed keen again, but was still half-hearted when I stood on the path and tried to do the same thing as before. So, the second session, I decided to just try to motivate her by getting her to run back and forth between me and JohnS, barking each time, and getting rewarded by each of us. This worked well, and she sprinted back and forth, bounding over branches and bushes and barking with little encouragement needed. Think I will do the same again before trying it from the path again. And I need to be very conscious of my body language - Mist is very sensitive to it at the moment (seems to be much more than before Christmas - related to the new situation at home? or just her maturing, given she has just had her first season?) - and be as non-threatening as possible.
Posted: Indication / Melding, Uncategorized
7
February
2008
Weds 6th Feb
Wet underfoot, quite cold, windy
Trail-layer - Jon
Waiting time - ~1hour
Length - 200m
End - rag on rope
Terrain - open deciduous forest, rocky, onto hill top
Articles - none
Jon laid out a trail after he’d been running (half an hour with Mist), on Ragnhildsnuten. Over the stile into the forest, straight on to find the start. Her trail search wasn’t particularly careful - she went over it to start with - but then circled and found it. The rest went well, Mist was very calm and found all the turns (marked with tape, so I knew where they were when we got there) without going past more than a couple of steps. As we got further up the (steep) hillside, and out of the trees/bushes, it became very windy and I wondered whether Mist would lose the trail. But, although she went off a couple of times, she continued carefully and found the end no problem
This was our first tracking training where I haven’t had the trail-layer with me, and I felt I could ‘read’ Mist more than I could a couple of months ago (i.e. before Thomas). It helped that she’d just been for a run, so was tracking quite slowly
Posted: Tracking / Spor
3
February
2008
Had a quick trip to Sviland for a short walk and some indication training. Wanted to start with the ‘back and forth’ part of the indication -i.e. Mist should run back and forth between me and the ‘body’ barking at each end, until I get to the body. Today, I wanted to add the part where she barks at me, before getting the ok to run back to the ‘body’ and bark there in order to get to play.
Jon stood, visible, out in the forest about 20-30m away while I held Mist with me on a training lead (no loop to get caught in the vegetation). I asked Mist to bark at me, then gave her the ‘Show’ command (show me where the ‘body’ is). This was the first time we’ve tried this, so I had asked Jon to jump up and down as soon as I shouted ‘Vis!’ (using Norwegian commands still ). This was enough to get Mist to run to him, and since he was passive and she got no immediate reaction, she barked at him…. and got her reward . After a couple of goes, he no longer needed to give her this cue and she ran to him as soon as I shouted ‘Vis!’.
We ran through this sequence 5 or 6 times, then went for a walk, repeating the same exercise at one point on the way back (3 repetitions). Will try to find an opportunity to do this with other ‘bodies’ before adding the next step which will be having Mist run from the ‘body’ to me before barking at me, then going back to the ‘body’.
(Throughout all this, Thomas slept soundly in his sling on my front!)
Posted: Indication / Melding
1
February
2008
Friday 1st Feb
Wet underfoot and raining, few degrees
Trail-layer - Dad
Waiting time - ~45min
Length - 250m
End - biteleather
Terrain - open deciduous forest, boulders, boggy ground, into rough grazing field.
Articles - a piece of tape, clothes peg (both accidental!)
Mist’s first tracking training since the arrival of Thomas. Not one to miss out, Thomas came with us, although under my goretex jacket he didn’t stand much chance of knowing where he was! We started a bit later than planned, and it was too close to T’s feeding time, so he whinged and cried for almost the whole session. Despite me talking to him almost continuously, it was good to see that Mist didn’t bat an eyelid and just got on with the job In fact, she was incredibly well-concentrated the whole way, taking the many turns without a problem and keeping a sensible, calm pace which allowed me, somewhat ‘front-heavy’, to clamber over the boulders my dad had laid the trail over! She found a stray marker tape at one point, and tried to pick it up, for which she got lots of praise (but nothing more, as I had forgotten to take any goodies with me 
), and also a clothes peg which dad had dropped just after the finish. Unfortunately, she had gone past the finish by a couple of metres when she found the clothes peg and I had to bring her back to find the finish, which isn’t ideal, but all in all it was a good training session and especially good to see that she doesn’t seem to have been at all affected by her no-training period this past month.
Thomas travels in style…. Spot the baby!
* NOT FOUND *
Posted: Tracking / Spor
