Some Advice from Allison

I haven't had a lot of time to take Zodi out but I did manage a track early last week. I particularly wanted to try out some advice I got from Allison. I emailed her when Zodi seemed to be varying between pulling so hard that she pulled right past the food and veering so far off track that I had to stop her whereupon she'd just stand there and look at me or even sit down and look at me. I wanted to provide more motivating tracks but more food didn't seem to be doing the trick.

Allison suggested that I make sure the wind was at my back when I put in the tracks and that instead of putting down more food to put down an extra glove somewhere on the track. Well, it worked great! I put in 2 tracks; one was a 1/4 circle to the right and one was a 1/4 circle to the left. The wind wasn't exactly at my back but it was pretty calm--not like the previous outing where it actually started to rain.

I put some food on the track but not more than one a leg and on the leg where I put the extra glove, I didn't do a food drop. Each track was about 50-70 yards long again but it doesn't seem the length of the track that bothers her. Allison said I could keep them that length as long as they held her attention.

As I started her on the track, it was clear that the lack of wind made a huge difference to her style. Where before she was quartering, this time she just kept her head down and pulled straight ahead.. She got most of the food drops and was quite happy to find the glove although she wasn't interested in playing with it. She just put her head back down and pulled through the rest of the track. I don't think she stopped at all or if she did it was momentary and not like before where she seemed to be quitting.

I started the second track fairly close to where the first ended so she pretty much continued tracking the whole time. She definitely seemed to be tracking this time and very close to the track. I had still scuffed both tracks because it makes it easier for me to see where the track is and I really need that right now. But I can tell that pretty soon she won't need me to scuff except for in transition spots and in windy conditions.

This was truly the first time I felt like she was really tracking and it was fun and exciting!