Mist

A month without training!

Yes, it’s a month since we last trained! (due to a combination of being away with work, then being ill and then going on holiday). Not that I wrote about that day - when Mist did everything possible to make me seriously wonder whether we will B-qualify this year! We trained rundering in Vigreskogen and chose to not know where the ‘bodies’ were….. he he, first time I’ve tried this and yes it was a learning experience. Mist ran completely wild from the start, and not only searched a large part of the forest on her first ‘loop’, but also found more than one body and didn’t indicate, ignored my calls to come in, later needed help to indicate at an unfamiliar ‘body’, then finally legged it after something or other in the forest and didn’t come back for 5-10minutes (seemed like forever).
Well, at least Tone who was on the midline with me, got to see the ‘problem’ I’d asked for previously at Sviland, when Mist was playing model student .

So, today….. I’d planned on training ‘recall on empty loops’/rundering, but the list of people signed up to runder at Vigreskogen was incredibly long and I just wasn’t interested in fighting for space, and ending up in the ‘puppy forest’ for some half-hearted training. So, I changed my mind and signed up for Gravdal where there were only 4 others signed up.

What a good choice! Aud, Kaare, Frode D and Kristin T and I had an excellent day, with sausages cooked over a campfire at lunchtime, chocolate brownies, and plenty of space for us all to train what we wanted. Aud, Kaare and Frode stuck to the rules and trained tracking (that was what was training at Gravdal was supposed to be today). Kirstin wanted to do an area search and there was no problem with space so she got her wish. And I got to runder up from the cars, in open terrain where I could (mostly) see what the little minx was doing.
After some discussion on the way there (I shared a lift with KristinT), I followed Kristin’s suggestion of having a find (Kaare) on the first loop so that Mist wouldn’t search the whole area in a one-er. After a slight detour, where Mist shot off up the midline in the direction Kaare had walked, and I called her back successfully , she ran out well, found Kaare and indicated. I’d also sent out Frode on the other side for the 2nd loop, but when I sent Mist she didn’t find him, despite apparently (Aud was on a hilltop the other side of the road and saw everything!) searching all the way back down to the road, even across the road, and a large part of the hillside Frode was hiding. Anyway, what was good was that when I called her eventually, she came. And was rewarded with a long game of tug while Frode moved further on. Another empty loop on the wind-side was good - 50m out and turned and came when I called. And then straight out to Frode.
I’d asked the ‘bodies’ to help Mist with indication so that that wouldn’t be any hindrance in training today. I see that she can find it quite demanding to get started barking when she’s been running empty loops a while. So, they helped her by giving the bark command and also by rewarding immediately, then taking the toy away and asking her to bark to get it back.
At one point I tried to send Mist out on the other side while Frode was still in place, but she was very focused on him and in the end he had to come in so that she’d go out the other side. Then he ran (impressive stuff ), uphill in horrible terrain, while Mist was out the other side. Another two empty loops and Mist got to find Kaare for a final time, and we stopped there as I was more than satisfied.

Overall sequence - FBBFFBBFBBF.

My ‘recall’ today was quite dramatic - a pretty piercing whistle with fingers in mouth! I usually reserve it for ‘emergencies’ - it’s more a stop command than a recall, but it (usually) gets her attention. My intention is to gradually reduce the signal I need to use in order to ensure Mist comes in from empty loops, but for now I want to be sure it works!

In the afternoon, KristinT laid out a trail for Mist and waited at the end. It was just a few hundred metres long and we took it straight away. I just wanted something fun and motivating today, as I’ve trained far too much ‘difficult’ tracking recently, without much easy stuff. Apart from one point where she lost the trail, and had to work around in circles for a while to find it again, she was fast and accurate. Kristin was lying in a jervenduk (camouflage bivi bag kind of thing) and was so well camouflaged against the terrain that neither Mist nor I saw her before Mist was about a metre away, despite Kristin feeling very visible!

Thanks everyone for a very enjoyable day

Posted under: Tracking / Spor, Rundering