Mist

Grown-up rundering at Sviland20

It’s great being on holiday and at home For once, we have time to do everyday chores and train! When I heard there would be folk training on Sunday morning, I begged a ‘pass’ (in return for Jon getting a long run on Monday ) and signed up.

I’ve never been to ‘Sviland2′ before….. why?!? What a lovely area of forest - a mixture of open, mature trees, young thick forest, marshes and open grass/heather. Apparently it was used in the past but there are a lot of other users - including the GSD club, and horseriders. Maybe not a great location for sunny summer Saturdays, but surely suitable for Wednesday evenings, at least outside of ‘peak’ summer season. Anyway….. it was great to runder somewhere unfamiliar - a new challenge for both me and Mist.

Sylvelin, Ritva and I wanted to runder, and John planned to go tracking. We were all done in only a couple of hours (?) and had plenty of time therefore to enjoy some freshly baked cake courtesy of John - thanks, John

For Mist’s rundering, I wanted to train ‘empty loops’ with some focus on control on the midline (i.e. knowing roughly where Mist was, and being able to call her in). I sent her out to find John first, on the right, then she had a good loop on the left after which I called her to me. She crossed the midline just in front of me, but accepted being stopped and came to me, but absolutely didn’t want to play. Her reward was being allowed to continue searching and it seemed that was more than good enough. I sent her out on the left again, to cover the outside of a bend, and when she came in I stopped her again and managed to get her to play briefly before she made it quite clear that she’d rather carry on doing her job . Another empty loop on the right - with good progression forward and when I called her in she had to come back along the midline path a little towards me. Rather than stop her, since she’d done such a nice loop, I directed her out at 90degrees, which she managed fine….. and ran straight into the low branches of a big pine tree - and got pinged back. Oops She sorted herself out and ran out where I’d intended, the other side of the tree trunk! And found John again.

Back to the midline, and out to the right. Sylvelin had gone out to hide, and when I tried to send Mist out on a deer-trod, she put her nose down and started tracking. But Sylvelin hadn’t gone that way, so I ignored it and hoped Mist would realise it was getting her nowhere and continue the loop properly. Mist did give up tracking, but chose to come back the same way. So I caught her on the midline and sent her out again…. straight to Sylvelin.

Out once again to John on the left, and finally to Sylvelin on the right. This last time, I’d forgotten to give Sylvelin anything to reward with, so just agreed over the radio that I would bring it with me, and Mist would have to bark till I got there. An additional challenge was that Sylvelin was a walking ‘body’ ( ) - something Mist has previously found difficult (last time we tried, many months ago). As expected, she needed some help in the form of praise for her attempts at barking, but she stayed with the body and barked until I came.

Otherwise, her indication was good - I’d asked the bodies to reward briefly after a good few barks, then take away the toy and wait for further barking…. and so on until I got there. I want to make sure Mist doesn’t stop barking when I turn up - or else she might decide not to bother if she thinks I can see the body myself (may not always be the case in real life). I was very pleased with her indication today, and the empty loops that she took in her stride.

I thought it was a very ‘grown-up’ performance today (by Mist at least ). It made me feel positive about B-qualification in 2009 - my plan is hopefully to take the B assessed week (actually 4 days) in April/May, and the assessed tracking/rundering before the end of summer. We’ll see…

Posted: Rundering

Bags in trees on a windy day0

NRH training was off (for us) today as I’ve just been away for a week on work training (not half as fun as dog training, that’s for sure). Instead, Mist got a 70+minute terrain run with Jon while he collected in orienteering controls from a training event. Always a winner - she pretty much flaked out on the sofa for the day afterwards.

Still, it didn’t take an awful lot of persuasion to go for a walk in the afternoon. We decided to go while it was still daylight and take Thomas in the ‘backpack’, and just went up Ragnhildsnuten (behind our house). I took a rucksack with me with a view to doing some article indication training. First, Jon went straight up the hill through the trees while Mist and I went the longer way around (downwind) and once into the field I set her off to ‘find’. She immediately veered off towards the houses and I realised I could hear kids playing - oops Anyway, she did come when I called her and we just hurried on so that Jon would/should be the next scent she got! The wind was in a different direction by the hill, and we had to go a lot further onto the hill than I expected before she got wind of him. And then of course, there was a fence in between. It was interesting to see, though, how she reacted when she couldn’t just run straight to him. Lots of whining, tiny barks and trying to dig her way under the fence . In the end I found a place she could go under and she shot off to find her quarry. No problem barking, continuously until I got there.

Then I put the rucksack in a tree (about 1.5m above the ground) and sent her to find it. Barked immediately she found it, and stayed there barking intermittently until I got there. I try to keep to the rule that, while she’s barking I run/walk towards her, when she stops I stop. My intention is to teach her that the more she barks the quicker she gets what she wants.
I experimented a bit with hanging the bag lower, and placing it in a place that was accessible. Then, the barking was difficult, although I was pleased that she didn’t leave the bag, but only barked once then sat there looking at me. Still, her barking is intense and ongoing as long as the object is off the ground (and still if it’s reachable, i.e. only a metre or so above the ground). So, need to keep going with this - generalise with different articles - and gradually reduce the distance from the ground. What’s really good is that she’s confident enough to stay at the article rather than coming back to me. So far so good

Posted: Indication / Melding

Rundering again at last0

We were at Vigreskogen on Saturday, along with John, Ghita and KaiErik who had B-assessments. A fantastic morning all in all - all 3 passed their assessments and are now B-qualified. Well done and congratulations all of you

After lunch the forest was free for the rest of us to train. I had a reasonably long session with Mist - the plan was to test her bark indication on rundering, and include some ‘empty’ loops. Well, it must have been a day for success, because Mist did just what I wanted. She needed no help with indication even when Ritva was under a jervenduk. The empty loops she took in her stride - searched well and then came when I called. A couple of times I couldn’t see exactly where she was and she returned to me on the midline, from behind. So, I could do to include some practice in getting her to advance in the loop. But her runouts were excellent - more-or-less straight out every time and plenty far enough.
Pattern - F F B F B B F F B F. Or something like that! We’ve only tried empty loops once or twice before so I was very pleased.

After everyone had had a first session, Ola and I used the ‘baby forest’ to train article indication. At first it didn’t go so well and Mist picked up sticks in frustration and didn’t bark. But then we tried hanging the article (Ola’s jacket) in a tree, and it worked perfectly. Mist stood right under it and barked and barked until I came.

A good day

Posted: Congratulations / Gratulerer, Rundering

Free search at Orrestranden0

Aud, Kaare, Steffen and I met up at Orrestrand on afantastic clear, cold and moonlit night. Mist was first out. We had three bodies and I wanted to train bark indication (spontaneous). Since she often strikes from a long distance I asked the bodies to let her bark a few times then play a little, then take the toy back and be passive to get her to bark again, and repeat until I got there. It worked well - she barked without help each time, and at Kaare she barked almost continuously until I got there.

She also barked (quite a lot!) at an information post in the dunes. I heard her soon after we started, but knew it wasn’t a find as the barking sounds quite different. I had to go and back her up so that she could check it out, and it was a nice coincidence that pretty much immediately after having ’solved’ this problem, she got the scent of one of the bodies and ran to find them.

Posted: Indication / Melding, Airscenting / Overvær, Uncategorized

I used to think I was indecisive, now I’m not so sure…1

Yeah, yeah…. I know. It seems like I just can’t make up my mind. Today, with the relief of getting the obedience test out of the way, I changed my mind again about Mist’s indication method!

I’ve been thinking about it for ages - after finding out that the SARDA shuttling bark method isn’t an approved form here in NRH, and not wanting just a bark indication at the body, I started to train Mist in the ‘Swedish bit’ method. We’ve come a long way in the past few months, but progress hasn’t exactly raced along and it’s all been a bit like an obedience exercise (never my favourite).
All along I’ve had a gut feeling that it’s not for me or Mist, but I felt I had to try since it may be the only choice for me. I don’t want to use the standard Norwegian ‘bringsel’ because I worry that Mist could get a front leg stuck through it while in the terrain, and potentially injure herself (having found Thule stuck halfway up a cliff like that once ). But Mist just isn’t a natural ‘retriever’ and has always, in the 1year+ that we’ve been training retrieve, struggled to a certain extent with a fairly loose grip on whatever she carries. She’s fine holding tight onto something when she gets to me, when I can test her grip, but it’s while she’s running that I haven’t managed to teach her to hold onto whatever’s in her mouth, that bit tighter. So, whatever she’s carrying often just ‘falls out’, and while she does always (so far) go back to get it, I just feel it’s not a good starting point for an indication method that relies on her taking the bit in her mouth at the body and having it in her mouth when she gets back to me.

I have also realised (when checking the rules for the obedience test ) that the NRH programme/rules are due to run out at the beginning of 2010. Previously I thought they were up for revision during 2010, so didn’t want to risk having to A-qualify with ‘just’ a bark indication at the body. i.e. I want to have some sort of shuttling because I know that Mist will follow up a scent over many hundred metres, and I don’t believe I will be able to be 100% sure of hearing her (especially in bad weather, in mountainous terrain…). If the rules change start 2010, and assuming (a BIG assumption) that the SARDA method is accepted in the revised programme, then I could train in a barking at body indication through 2009 until I get B-qualified, and then begin with the shuttling and use the SARDA method by the time I A-qualify. It’s a risk, and I would want to encourage as much as possible, LOTS of barking at the body before she starts shuttling. That way, it may still be acceptable under the current regulations.

I talked it through with Sylvelin (thanks ) and she gave me some good advice, and not least an ear to bend. When it comes down to it, I don’t think Mist enjoys fetching the ‘bit’ - it’s an exercise she does because she’s learned to. Whereas, as demonstrated when Nina went and hid for Mist this afternoon, Mist really does enjoy barking at the body to get them to play with her. I do think barking is a more difficult indication if the dog is unsure/scared of the body for any reason, as it requires more courage than to pick up something from around their neck and run back to ‘mum’/'dad’. And, as Sylvelin said, training a dog to bark at object (coat, rucksack for example) can be challenging. But I feel that, on balance, these things are more acceptable to me than a constant uncomfortable feeling that the whole ‘bit’ thing just isn’t going to work because Mist just doesn’t enjoy it.

It was really fantastic to see Mist run after Nina and bark without any ‘help’ despite not having trained this since the summer, and then go really quite crazy when Nina had disappeared and she could go and search for her, only to bark immediately on finding her no problem whatsoever.

I’ll take the risk with what happens to the rules and regs in the next couple of years, and let Mist do what she so obviously thinks is fun (me too ). If it ends up that the rules don’t change I will have to find a way of ensuring that Mist barks long enough first time to ‘count’ as a ’standhals’ (barking at body) indication .

At the end of today I feel relieved both to have passed the obedience test, and to have made the decision to go back to what I always felt was right for Mist

Posted: Indication / Melding, Uncategorized

Yippee! We all passed.7

We took our first NRH ‘test’ today - an obedience test. And we passed
Ok, she was no competition obedience dog by any means but I’m extremely pleased it’s over.

What made it even better was that everyone who went up for assessment, passed. Congratulations Nina&Bina, Aud&Speedy, Kaare&Odin, Steffen&Betzy, Ola&Leo

Posted: Miscellaneous / Diverse

An old track in the snow0

So much for an easy track for Mist’s next tracking training . Was out anyway this morning on Vedafjell so took with me the bits and pieces needed to lay a trail, in case Nina wanted one for later today. She didn’t, but I put it out anyway and wondered how it would go if I took it with Mist when Jon got home (8hours later). It was cold and frosty with a little snow on the ground. Not enough to leave a visible trail, though.

Amazing! Mist was a model tracking dog! Ok, she didn’t pick up the articles, but she found the finish, and from the tracklog from my GPS she followed the trail almost perfectly the whole way. Even the 90degree turn near a stile

Ok, the next one will have to be easy. And I need to train article pick-up and bringing back to me.

Posted: Tracking / Spor

A weekend of tracking0

Saturday 29th Nov
Sviland gravel/tarmac area
Cold and frosty
Trail-layer - Kaare
Waiting time - 1-1.5hour
Length - a few hundred metres
End - 3 Kaare-articles (glove-szied)
Terrain - thick, nasty, young forest, sand, grass, gravel + a bit of tarmac
Articles - a few

I asked Kaare to put out 3 ’short’ trails, one after the other (i.e. one long one with three larger articles as ‘finishes’). I wanted to train crossing other trails - Nina and I had been down on the gravel/tarmac area training obedience beforehand so I knew there were quite fresh trails (as well as, no doubt, others too). Mist is always quite distracted there, so it would also be a general ‘tracking with distractions’ exercise. And just to make it a bit more interesting, I wanted some of it on gravel/tarmac. And I got what I’d ordered

Started from gravel track, just past the track down to the gravel area. Straight down through horrible thick forest, with brashings and fallen (small) trees everywhere . Not somewhere I’d ever choose to go that’s for sure . But Mist went that way so I followed, and Kaare confirmed that yes, that was where he’d gone. Wondered if it was revenge for the last trail I laid for Speedy…. up Trollarinda….
Out of the horrible forest, over the main gravel track where both Nina and I had walked with the dogs before training, and apparently so had Ghita and a potential NRH’er (sorry, forgotten his name) soon after Kaare had laid the trail. Mist checked out the trail along the gravel track for a few metres then returned and followed Kaare’s instead. Very good On over sand, back into forest to finish.
The next part crossed the main gravel track almost immediately, and Mist found it very difficult and would have taken me completely the wrong way if Kaare hadn’t been with us. I didn’t feel Mist had ‘got going’ after restarting, so asked where I could take a new ‘trailsearch’. This time it went ok and we set off on the right track. Alongside the river, across the river (no hesitation there), up and over the grassy ‘field’ and towards the tarmac. Again some problems going from grass to tarmac - Mist was definitely on another trail and I needed some guidance from Kaare to get her to search in the right direction. Once she found it, she followed quite acceptably on the tarmac/gravel to the finish.
The third trail Mist had similar mixed fortune - some very good, some completely off. But after losing the trail quite soon, we had a little help to get back on track and she tracked very well to the finish, most of which was on tarmac and gravel this time. So I was very pleased. We haven’t done very much tracking recently, and I can’t remember when we last tracked on gravel.
Generally, she indicated articles, but needed encouragement to bring them to me. I can train that separately (delivery). But I’m pleased that, for almost all, she stands still and looks back to me when she finds something. And she was so pleased with the final finish article that she didn’t want to play with her own toy!

Sunday 30th Nov
Melshei
Cold and frosty
Trail-layer - Jon
Waiting time - 2.5-3hour
Length - 800m+
End - big glove
Terrain - mixed forest, some paths (some crossing, some going along)
Articles - 5 (found 4)

Jon took Mist for a 1.5hour run in Melshei and ‘they’ put out a trail while out. Mist clearly doesn’t concentrate when out running as she certainly doesn’t remember anything when we then go tracking later the same day .
Jon drew the trail on the O-map for me so that I could restart a trailsearch if we lost it - which we did, many times. The start went ok and when we came to the first path near a stile Mist took very little time checking out ‘alternatives’ before returning to the correct trail. Further on, we could hear people in the forest and this distracted Mist (note - something else to train specifically). We soon came across them and lost the trail completely. I don’t know if they’d been across Jon’s trail - quite likely since they were wandering around picking mushrooms, but after going round in circles for a while, I took Mist a little further up the hill and tried again. After a while she found the trail and off we went again.
The trail went through an ‘activity area’ with ropes courses, swings, teepee and shelters and here Mist lost it again. I think we then found the mushroom pickers’ trail again . But using Jon’s map to search in the right area again, we found the trail again and continued. We eventually found the finish, after around an hour. Jon was about ready to come looking for us when we eventually got home!

It was obviously difficult for Mist - possibly due to a combination of her having run for 1.5hours first (she was curled up on the sofa fast asleep just before I took her out!), people in the forest, age of trail (could have perhaps gone after 1.5hours since it was relatively long for Mist), length of trail, and all in a popular area of forest where there were probably multiple crossings with other trails. Still, I think it was a really good learning experience for her as it’s the first time she has searched and re-searched for a trail after losing it, and then succeeded.

I need to remember that the next tracking training we do, should be set up so that she succeeds…. a motivational trail.

Posted: Tracking / Spor