#happytrackingdad
Today was a good training day. I have really been working on giving Layla more independence on track. I spend much less time directing her or encouraging her during the track, as I want her to learn to work through difficult tracking situations by using her nose and her brain, rather than her handler. The past few tracks have been tough, due both to tracking conditions and difficult lines. We ran a 25 hour old track late last week in 80 plus degree temperatures. She was not terribly focused in her search, and it cost her in terms of energy. She had to stop and rest 3/4 of the way through the track due to heat and fatigue. I was hoping that it would teach her a valuable lesson though, namely that lackadaisical tracking is harder than focused searching. Today the lesson seemed to pay off.
This morning's track was put down 14 hours before the search. It was made using wild boar hooves. This was only the second time that Layla has run a track made with anything other than deer hooves. The change didn't seem to affect her much. The track was made more difficult in that I did a poor job of attaching the feet to my tracking shoes, and they made only light contact with the ground with each foot fall. I also used a small amount of blood. I felt like I was being relatively liberal with the blood, but at the end of the track, I had only used 1/4 oz, or just over a teaspoon of blood for the entire line. Most of that was at the beginning and completion of the track. The track was 692 yards, confirmed by GPS. It was laid in a field in the center of town, and distractions included live deer, a local group of stray cats that are fed here daily, and the usual passing of cars. There was actually a deer in the field when I laid the track, and I made it a point to cross the exact spot where it was standing when putting down the line. 1/2" of rain fell overnight on the track, and it began raining fairly hard shortly after we started on the line. Otherwise conditions were excellent with a 5-10 mph wind from the West and 68 degree temperatures.
The track began in a freshly mowed section of grass that ran for about 75 yards before the line entered a fallow field with 3' tall growth. Layla had a little trouble getting started, but after the first 30 yards she was dead on. When we came to the main deer trails entering the fields, she got off track just a bit as she checked each of the trails. This allowed me to see her give some good "negatives" as she quickly determined that our trail did not follow all the other deer scent. I did have to call her back a single time to put her back on the correct trail at her point of loss, but aside from that she managed to make all other corrections on her own.
With most of my training I like to mark the trail sparsely with flags, so that I can observe the dog work, and make corrections if necessary. At the end of each trail, I take some time to determine whether or not we would likely have been able to complete the trail if it were totally blind or unknown to us. With this track, I am certain that we could have completed the task.
Here you can see the line I laid with Layla's track overlaid. Unfortunately, both are in red, but the accuracy of Layla's tracking is evident. Close inspection shows that she had a bit of movement around the track at the beginning, and ran a small circle in an area where she had lost the trail momentarily as it moved though a woodline between two fields. She made the necessary correction there without requiring my help. At the end of the track it was evident that she smelled the hide, and tracked just down wind of the actual line. All in all a pretty nice line.
Here is a photo of Layla making her way down the line in the rain.
In this photo you can see that she is nailing the line, moving quickly to one of the 8 flags on this nearly 700 yard track.
I didn't have a boar hide, so we finished the track with our usual, raw deer meat and a deer hide. Layla loves to play tug with the hide at the end of the track. In all, I was very satisfied with her improvement on this track, and am looking forward to seeing how she continues to develop into this tracking season. For now, I am a happy tracking dad!