Nice spot, new place for us. Two little girls seemed to follow us through this track, which was good for Blast. He paid no attention to them, which actually surprised me. Green grass for his scent pad, taking him in from an angle. The track heads out through all the pine trees, over pine needles and crunchy pine cones. He zoomed through this area.
We are nearly at the first corner, a left turn, working well.
I really can't remember what got his attention here. There were a few times people were walking through on the path in front of us, perhaps that's what it was. The little girls were off to the side, climbing trees, and he wasn't watching them. Distractions are still a problem at times with Blast, my problem not proofing enough.
Back working on the track, heading into a gravel parking area, there will be another left turn out there.
Another distraction. However, much as I want that nose down all the time and focus, he IS a 'proper' GSD and he is alert and protective. I imagine, if he ignored everything else, I would think he wasn't really 'alert' enough!?!
And the other issue is a quick glance at some articles, and moving on by. Yes, I saw the glance, and was moving up closer. Would the judge 'see the glance'? Or would it just look like I was picking it up?
I held the line tight, and made a fuss over the article to 'bring him back'. It was a block of wood, he really just wanted to continue on the track, so I made it brief.
Little girls were closing in on us from the left side, he still shows no interest in them.Good! At least he can discriminate that they are not any threat and he continues to work nicely. They ended up following us closely through this area.
A small veg. area and then into another gravel parking area. This was a short, but interesting track compared to his previous one this day. This one had a few more distractions, which I know is something we need more work on. He works well on both asphalt and gravel, nose down, usually right on the track or darn close. I don't want to de-motivate him with insisting on better indications at articles, but that does need some 'careful' work.
Same at the final article, he "knew" it was there, and looked at it, but turned left. I believe that was "I'd rather follow the direction you went"....so I stood my ground and had him lie down on the article and gave him a treat. Each time he went to get up, gave him a treat on the article again, and did that about 4 times. This article has to be important! Then I pulled the hidden pull toy out of my pocket and we played with that. It's a fine line, but he must indicate the articles even a tiny bit better, and partly a big reward in doing this will hopefully improve it.
A small veg. area and then into another gravel parking area. This was a short, but interesting track compared to his previous one this day. This one had a few more distractions, which I know is something we need more work on. He works well on both asphalt and gravel, nose down, usually right on the track or darn close. I don't want to de-motivate him with insisting on better indications at articles, but that does need some 'careful' work.
Same at the final article, he "knew" it was there, and looked at it, but turned left. I believe that was "I'd rather follow the direction you went"....so I stood my ground and had him lie down on the article and gave him a treat. Each time he went to get up, gave him a treat on the article again, and did that about 4 times. This article has to be important! Then I pulled the hidden pull toy out of my pocket and we played with that. It's a fine line, but he must indicate the articles even a tiny bit better, and partly a big reward in doing this will hopefully improve it.
