We did a 30m zig-zag track with soft turns, with the bait spaced a little further apart. She did good, but I think I'm gonna hold up on spacing the bait for now, as she was searching off to the side of the track a wee bit.
We took our little brush-up routine to a new location. She was awesome, but I'd withheld her meal to make sure her drive was good, and I got bit a couple of times. With this much food drive, withholding food doesn't seem to be necessary; it makes her almost too frantic.

Club night. OB for Sadie, and introduction to decoy work for me.
Sadie's second time on the obstacles. Her food drive is making it really easy for her. We started out with the wall opened up a little for her, but she liked it so much that we were able to raise it some before the end of the session. We're at about 30 inches on the jump.
I took my first bites on the sleeve. I was paired with a veteran protection dog, and wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be. I was better with the sleeve and in the blind than I was with the acting part.

 Quote: Duane Hull

We did a 30m zig-zag track with soft turns, with the bait spaced a little further apart. She did good, but I think I'm gonna hold up on spacing the bait for now, as she was searching off to the side of the track a wee bit.
We took our little brush-up routine to a new location. She was awesome, but I'd withheld her meal to make sure her drive was good, and I got bit a couple of times. With this much food drive, withholding food doesn't seem to be necessary; it makes her almost too frantic.

 Quote: Duane Hull

Club night. OB for Sadie, and introduction to decoy work for me.
Sadie's second time on the obstacles. Her food drive is making it really easy for her. We started out with the wall opened up a little for her, but she liked it so much that we were able to raise it some before the end of the session. We're at about 30 inches on the jump.
I took my first bites on the sleeve. I was paired with a veteran protection dog, and wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be. I was better with the sleeve and in the blind than I was with the acting part.

Good for you Duane! I always feel a little goofy in the suit, but I just ham it up for a few minutes and it goes away.

After a long break, I started Bommi and Helga on Heel walk and the send away today. I missed Kaiser terribly, my little "slow poke".

I was off on my timing and delivery, it was not pretty, but we managed to get through our session.

Tracking with the club. Later at home we worked on some OB exercises; hold it, bring, front, sit-down-stand, sit and down in motion, opieds, fuss, paw, etc, etc.

Laid two tracks this morning in deep green grass with heavy dew. Today I remembered to bring his kibble and a bowl and set a partial meal at the end of it. The first track went pretty well for us newbies, but the second he seemed a bit confused. Kept wanting stray out on the track as if he was loosing it and searching, and kept picking his head up to take deep breaths for air scenting. Maybe my spot was overused. It's hard to tell around here. Maybe the food at the end of the track had him very distracted after he figured it out the first time. Maybe I was doing something wrong and screwing him up. This evening we're going to a very different area to try again.

We worked on formal heel (fuss? I only know how to say it, I don't speak/spell German). About 10 yards of solid eye contact and no correction by the end! He responds better on a flat collar instead of a prong, so that's what I used this morning. We did a few left turns and he relied heavily on my corrections so we'll keep taking it slow. I'm going to start rewarding for correct position to show him where he needs to be when we start turning.

Played some tug to end it all and he had some nice deep grips without any chomping and never once worked up to my hand. Targeted exactly where he should. I've realized that it's been my mistakes that have caused him to start chomping. I've been using the 'out' too much, and now that I'm having him down (he spits out his toy when he follows a command) the chomping has started to decrease. He seems happier with this arrangement, which makes me happier.

Samantha, I put Harley food in a closed container at the end of the track and open it once it is found or he will just drag me right to the food once he can smell it

That's the beauty of having a dog with SUPER HIGH food drive. Sadie tracks on a full stomach. If not, she gets squirrelly.

We did the same routine as we have the past four days; Two soft turns over three legs of 50ft, toe-to-heel baited every third step. She's getting very solid, with one miss this morning over a bare spot (change of terrain) (my fault-in my quest for a different field, I settled for one with some bare spots). I'm going to maintain this pattern and start working on slight changes of terrain.
Brush-up routine (opied, crotch, fuss, sit-in-motion, back, paw, front, etc) before leaving for work.

Because of todays lovely sheet rain weather I worked on some examination desensitizing with Gambit. I can now do all 4 paws and nails (even paint them) and check ears and teeth with no problem. We worked on having his tail played with, teeth individually brushed and touched, mouth played with, etc. Later we did pet store OB and had a stranger do an examination with the "stand" command. He had his annual vet visit a week ago and while he was very sweet and friendly he was SUPER wiggly and excited so we're working on that to make it a little easier for vet to examine him next time. We're also working on a new trick "smirk" where he lifts have of his lip and sort of does an evil half smile. He makes this face when I scratch the side of his face so I'm trying to mark it.

Ryuk had a lazy day, he was a bit tired from our bikejoring brush up yesterday. Did a bit of work getting used to the new crate set up in the car and learning to load INTO the crate instead of over it but that's about it. Learned how to open my toolbox and take out the tools to hide under the bed but that's not something I'm encouraging or working on -_-