After a seven year hiatus from tracking, this morning I got my tracking gear out and Morley (Josh x Chime) got her first tracking lesson. Due do a full-time job, multiple dogs competing in multiple venues, and a lack of tracking partners, tracking has slid to the back burner over the years. Time to dust off my skills and train somebody up. Morley has demonstrated a strong nose in real life, I suspect "crittering" might be our downfall, but hopefully not!

So, first lesson this morning took place in the sun, nice heavy dew, absolutely no wind. Perfect conditions for the first time out. I staked her out to the fence, put in the first stake and shuffled out about 40 feet, putting a food drop about every 4 paces. Glove with steak inside at the end and I walked back along the track to leave more scent and avoid any distracting second track. Clipped a short leash to her harness, took her to the first stake and let  her explore the scent pad and then showed her with my hand where I wanted her to look. She found the first food drop and we slowly continued along the track to the glove, where I gave her the big chunk of steak and we had a small party. I let her follow the track out on our own.

I laid a second track, about the same length, same "clues" and noticed that this time she was watching me lay the track. She was a bit faster this time and I spent less time pointing out the direction we were to go. I could hear her snuffling in the grass the whole time and whenever she moved forward I quietly said "Good". I'm totally quiet all the rest of the time. I don't want to make too much noise as I expect my dogs to work with me silent in a test.

One more track (I usually do three on a first lesson), and this time I put food drops about every 6 paces, and made it about 50 feet long. She was watching intently this time and pulled me toward the start stake of the track. She spent a little time at the scent pad, then moved out toward the first food drop. I put some pressure on the harness, letting the pressure off whenever she stopped. I want her to get used to putting pressure on the harness when she's working.

All in all, it was a really nice first lesson.