I didn't video-tape Sage today except this little one of her in the back of Sue's van. I thought I was taking a still shoot. She thought it was bitchen of herself to jump up there and annoy her big baby bouncing brother Thrill.
I laid a 10/20/40 yd track for Sage/Sue with food drops, then another 20/40/80, except at the 80 yd track there was a gravel road so her tracks were 20/40/40. Luckily Sue knew about the road and told me to stop beforehand. I wasn't sure what to do and was ready to call her on her cell phone but she doesn't have it sewn to her head like I do so thank God she stopped me before I made it too hard for little Sage Brush. It's all about EASY and MOTIVATING now.
She wasn't as lungy at the start of the first set of tracks, but tracked beautifully. The second set she got to watch me and was really good. So we are very, very pleased!
Thrill had a hard track that weaved around a fence and then went thru what looked like a Juniper forest of trees. No problem with him. I even walked behind with Sage and she yipped a couple of times, and also towards the end there was a family walking with a little doggie just 50 feet away from his end article. He was not distracted at all. So YEAH for Thrill and Sage today!!
As for your comment Michelle, maybe Sue can post a comment on the tracking method. I originally trained with a modified version of Glen Johnson's method from his book "Tracking Dog" with Kiita. (Like I wasn't going to quit Art Center to track.....waaaayyyyyyy to many tracks laid each day), but Sue probably could enlighten us all more on the details of how she trains. Whatever she does with her collies works so well and Thrill is so motivated even if he has a problem he still is working to find the track. Such a pleasure to watch.
