Tracking Practice - August 22, 2008

This was an email I sent to Donna:

I wanted to tell you about a fascinating training session I had with Dino today.

I had to go to San Mateo to pick something up. I stopped in a nearby neighborhood, parked the car and got Mercury out of the back. I walked with him in his carrier straight up the street away from the car, in the direction the car was facing. These are very long blocks. I crossed the next street and kept walking straight. At the next corner I made a right still on the same side of the street. I made a right at the next turn and went down the street. At the corner I crossed the street and, instead of making a sharp right across the street to head back towards the car. I made a diagonal in the same direction between some bushes. I went back down to the corner. My car was to my left half way down the block. I crossed the street again and made a left to go back down the street towards my car. I crossed back across the street to the back of my car and put Mercury inside.

I took Dino out and headed back down the street, away from my car, and away from where I laid Mercury's scent. I made a right at the next corner, a right at the next corner, crossed the next street, walked down to the end of the next corner and made a right and went down the street to the next block and crossed the street. This would put us at the top of where Mercury's scent was. I had taken a paper towel and rubbed it on Mercury before taking him out and walking him around. I had that in my pocket and showed it to Dino and said "take scent." His eyes seemed to pop out and his head was swinging back and forth looking for something. He turned and immediately went down the street on the route around the block where I walked Mercury. He was definitely following something. He made the turn at the next right and kept going. He did make some deviations to roll on the nice, lush lawns like Loki does. I said "get to work" and stayed behind him on the sidewalk and he kept going.

He crossed the street at the next corner, and started to go straight when he suddenly turned to the right and went down the street back toward my car. When he hit the point where I crossed diagonal onto the street he started moving faster. he had been going at a pretty fast pace before to make me jog to keep up with him.

The next corner is where he had problems for two reasons. As he approached the next corner, a woman was walking slowly along the same path. He caught up to her. The sidewalk was very narrow, so I didn't want to pass her and it was very narrow. I tried to slow him down without discouraging him or giving him a negative correction. He seemed to get distracted and confused by me doing this and now this person was directly in front of him. He lost his concentration and started to follow the lady right behind her. I wasn't surprised because he has done this in the past. He is so friendly with people that he just keeps following them event though I go in another direction. I let him cross the street because the scent was also in the area. When we got about twenty feet past the scent and he was still following this woman, I gently slowed him down and brought him back to the corner where the scent went in two directions (where we had just come from and back to the car). He was confused. He appeared to pick up both, and he sat and looked up at me. Without saying anything I started to walk slowly in the direction of the car, and then he took off in a fast pace again. He got to the location just across the street from the car, and kept going. then he stopped and came back. I had to stop him because there were several cars passing by. Once the cars passed, he darted over to the back of the car and jumped up on the tailgate to get inside. I made the tiny mistake of not opening up the back to let him get to Mercury, but I was so excited about what he just did. I just took out his rawhide and started throwing it. Dino was very excited.