Tracking work with the TM's

A nice breezy day to lay a few tracks down for the TM's to work today, now that it is serious time to fine tune some tracking skills the TM's are from today on going to be tracking down their dinners for a bit, then I will be pulling the food all together and start getting ready for trials:thumbs up
We have some class work to do still to have a shot for titles but either way, it sure is fun working with them considering this is the breed that is not supposed to want to do stuff like this:laughing:

Im anxiously awaiting the rain to work a track I laid through the bush this morning, so it can be good and old plus washed away a bit. Its a short one but a tricky one. I'm not sure who I will put on it yet, Marv did spectacularly today but I think it may overwhelm him a bit, could be a bit too much too soon.

First was Marv, today was his first day without food in the tracks but I did leave him a cue along the track to keep his interest in the final reward up.
He did amazingly:highfive:
He is a thorough tracker, very much nose to ground and can figure out his track pretty easily even with basic "tricks" along the way (which I have been slowly introducing to him)
The pics are going to be a bit boring I'm sure since there are no faces and all you get to see are black backs and a line but I hope with some explanation of what is going on I can keep some interest for my readers.

First up is Marv,
Here he is on the "scent pad" working out which way to go
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/001-1.jpg

Complete wrong direction but he did this because his last track went towards horse crap, I am thinking he thought horse poop means he is on the track. Atleast he is sniffing to find something
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/002-1.jpg

Here he picked up the scent and followed it, however the actual track is about a foot or so to the right of him but for wind direction he is picking it up right on.
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/005-1.jpg

Here he got to work out a bit of a trick, I went around this shrub twice when laying the track then back out the trail and jumped to the side. He figured it out FAST, so fast that it was almost not worth the energy for me to do it lol
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/006-1.jpg

On the right of the picture you can see a glove on the rock and a bit of food, this was his reassurance/reminder
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/007.jpg

Target reached
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/008.jpg

Now our track goes off into the bush a bit
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/010-2.jpg

He really picked up the track good here and he was working upwind so he wasn't smelling his dinner blowing in his face
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/011-1.jpg

And Marv rocked his first almost real track and gets his supper
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/012-1.jpg

hey wow!! that is so cool!! do they ever sniff the "air/wind?" or just tracking on the ground? I think thats all so interesting!

It varies from dog to dog, Karma's tracking pics are uploading as well as the one I forgot with Marv and the shrub but you will notice Karma tracks by air more so than ground.

Now the difference of Karmas tracking technique. She is more advanced than Marv mostly due to age and having actually been to classes, but today she was really out to lunch for her first run (basic straight track) She went way off to the right and was easily distracted by a mouse in the grass, you can't correct when training for this or they will look to you way too much on an actual track to see where you want them to go. In real life the handler has no idea where the track is, you follow your dog. So I had to wait out the mouse thing which was a 5 minute thing. She sat in front of me when she was done and I repeated "track" so she started looking for the track.

Here she is on her second run where she was more focused
On the scent pad
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/017-1.jpg

On the track head up working upwind
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/019-1.jpg

Here she lost the track (because I had turned a few steps back and she missed it) but drops her nose to work it out
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/022-1.jpg

And back on track again
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/033.jpg

I'm not sure exactly why she stops like this along the track but she does this frequently, she will stop and sniff the air. She runs the diffused scent more than anything and I think this is her way of working out which end is strongest to run the trail the right way. (Karma has never run back on a track ever so what ever she does it works)
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/037.jpg

A really nice shot of her working with her nose down, she wasn't on the trail here but was beside it and still following
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/039-1.jpg

I think in this pic you can see her dinner in the upper left slightly cropped out, I thought she saw it but she didn't and again was upwind from it
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/045.jpg

This is how I know she did not see it, she dropped her nose down and meticulously worked her way to the dish.
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/046-1.jpg

And, success! Way to go Karma
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/Dogs/047-1.jpg

Very cool pictures! I am very impressed with how well they both seem to take to tracking.

Sounds and looks like they're both doing well at it! What is it about Tibbies that makes people think them unsuitable for tracking?

Sounds and looks like they're both doing well at it! What is it about Tibbies that makes people think them unsuitable for tracking?
LOL , Their lack of interest in working with people. They are very independant and free thinkers, so they do things on their own terms and in their own time.
Karma is on her way to a pre trail class for her CD starting next week, now she can walk in the class and either blow me away by deciding to show off that she does know obedience work, or she will walk in and refuse to do even a sit for me. This is why most people with these guys don't even bother.
They're independant and I'm stubborn, so getting working titles on these guys is very rare (VERY RARE) but I don't care if Karma gets her CD title at the ripe age of 14, she will one day get it.
She does like to work with me some days, and we will just have to hope we can get enough consecutive runs at it for the title, same goes for her tracking title. I have a long ways to go with these guys but its fun so who cares if we even get there.

Wow Erykah,that's really interesting,you are really putting work in to these beautiful puppers:dog:

And finally for TM tracking... Miss Tibby herself.
She has done so well with everything I have thrown her way such as dog sledding, obiedience work ect, tracking........ I dont know, I'm not sure if she is having a hard time grasping the concept or what but she reminds me of that white poodle on the movie "Look who's talking now" when the scruffy mutt mix dog tells her to sniff and she snorts and has to talk her way through the concept of sniffing.
I have to engage Tibby's nose more, she is a visual dog and rarely seems to sniff so I will be working on some ways to get her sniffing first.

Tibby walking right off the scent pad, not even taking a second to sniff it
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/048.jpg

Each step I took while laying this track was done with "Crop circles" ( meaning walking a big circle around your step into a spiral and dropping the food in the middle to really emphasize that you want them following those scent cones) It is a short track but the hardest one for me to lay today
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/049.jpg

Here she looks to be tracking but rest assured she is not, I"m not sure if this is the pic or not that has the bit of food right beside her but she is standing in the crop circle and missing the point of it completely
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/051.jpg

This is how short this track is, I'm standing on the scent pad and her dinner is mid way up the picture in a rut in the middle... Tibby is off to the left side "snorting" her way to trying to figure out how to sniff, again you have to leave them be and wait it out for training
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/053.jpg

Now she finally came back to the track
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/055.jpg

OMG, she was sniffing the crop circle after eating her tidbit of food.
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/058.jpg

BINGO, she figured out the concept and heads to the food bowl ( I always work them upwind of a food reward, just my personal preference)
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/061.jpg

Success! She found her supper, good job Tibby :D
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/z28gurl_2007/062.jpg

Wow Erykah,that's really interesting,you are really putting work in to these beautiful puppers:dog:

Thanks Chico2, when people ask me why I spend so much free time doing this sort of stuff and being all over the place with what I do with the dogs, be it dogsledding, ringsport, tracking, obedience, herding or dock diving this summer I always say " I dont have 7 dogs because I dont want to do anything with them"
I really dont know which sport is my favorite yet, each and every one of them is so satisfying to see your dog first learn how to do what ever and secondly just kick butt at doing it and having the time of their life.

That's fascinating! Love how they all track differently! Ours are pointers so they tend to primarily follow scent with their heads up. I wonder if Karma would point if the opportunity arose? :D

Also fascinating is how tiny and tight their feet are! You can really see it in Karma's pics! I love her paws!!! :lovestruck: So petite for such big dogs!!

Karma has exceptionally tiny paws, but she's not a big girl really. Tibby has far more bone than her and well Marv is a different "type" all together (Tsang Khyi) so it isn't fair to compare him to the Do Khyi's.
Also, Karmas feet have been trimmed as have Marv's. Tibby I haven't had a chance to yet. But when I trim up their feet it makes them appear even more compact, but less hair dragging in the mud= less dirt in the house ;)

We trim toe hairs, too, especially during mud season! :D Karma has exceptionally cute paws!! :flirt:

I always get a good laugh when i shave the pads out and get all that winter hair build up out of there and they take their first few steps on the grass with nekkid feetsies :laughing: