We trained at Mendon ponds park today. I laid a track for Kathy with GSD Devon. Then Kathy and I laid a split track for Mary with Boo and Sister. We walked together a bit and then split off into 2 different directions. Sister found me and Boo found Kathy.
After Sis and Boo were done we got Nash out and did a couple of runaways. Mary did 2 runaways with him where he could see where she went and then we did a blind runaway, where he could not see where she went. His reward is getting play tug and lots of petting, patting, wrestling type stuff. Today it took him a little bit to get into the tugging. He seems to like to play tug, but doesn't always get into it right away. After the run aways we put Nash back into the car and then Kathy and Devon ran their track. It was cold sitting in the snow, but I love hiding for the dogs.
After we got back from that Mary did a short track and we got Nash out to let him run the track hot (fresh). He did good. I put the line on his collar, walked him in a circle around the start of the track, he did a head check in the direction of the track as we passed over it. Then I put his harness on, put the line on the harness and let him sniff the scent article (a piece of paper towel with Mary's scent put into a baggie). I told him to "go find" and he went right onto the track, had a great start. There was one 90* turn, he went wide off the turn but came back to the track quick. At one point he either lost the scent or just stopped working for a moment, but we were able to get him back on track quickly. I told him back to work and pointed down to the track and he went back to work. Towards the end of the track he was getting air scent and was following that instead of the track. He found Mary and got to play tug all the back to the car. This was Nash's first time tracking in snow.
