Mist

B qualified - yippee!

Well, I wasn’t expecting to write this for at least another two weeks! We didn’t know beforehand, but we got the chance to take our B-assessment on Sunday. And passed both tracking and rundering at the first attempt. Yippee!
Even better was that both Nina with Bina and Ola with Leo, who were on the same training weekend, also passed both assessments, and 5 from our district who took the orienteering test also passed (well done Krissi, Kai Erik, Trond, John and Frode). So it was full points for District06 (Sør-Rogaland) this weekend.

(and I have to admit to being very pleasantly surprised to get the feedback that Mist and I were the best dog-handler team of the day in rundering. I apparently chose well where to send her out, followed where she was and had a good overview of what terrain she’d covered. They teach us well in Dio06 )

B-qualification doesn’t mean anything externally (re: callout list etc), but it is a major milestone in NRH on the road to reaching A-qualification which is when a dog/handler team joins the callout list. It’s great to achieve it relatively early in the year as it means the most possible time until A-assessments next year, which should allow for good preparation. My goal was to qualify before the end of summer as I expect there will be little training from September for a few months, when number2 joins the family.

We were in Etne for a training weekend - Nina, Ola and me were participants in the B-course which, although not a pass/fail course, is still compulsory and involves an incredible amount of different training exercises in the course of 4 days.

We covered:
Tracking
- trail search from an object (rucksack, jacket etc.). Had never tried this before - maybe it was an advantage that Mist still isn’t 100% indicating on objects, especially when I’m nearby. I took her forward to the rucksack, she had a good sniff, then set off on the trail away from it, as if we’d trained it lots before! She did stop up and consider alternative options (wandered back to the rucksack and around) when I didn’t follow her immediately, which I interpret as being the result of her being very sensitive to what I do all the time. But when I gave the command to search for trail,

- trail search 300m. Didn’t go so well - Mist found at least one other trail during the 300m (no surprise as the area had been used the previous day for a tracking assessment), and I stopped when I got to a fence/gate in the road as I could see another handler and dog searching on the same side of the road just past the fence. When I found nothing else going up and down the stretch I’d covered, I passed the gate/fence and Mist found something. Unfortunately, it seems other trails were laid by accident in the vicinity, and Mist managed to switch to another and actually found the bodyusing sight. Not a particularly good ending - better to not have found anyone than to be rewarded for doing things wrong. But, it’s something for us to try more of….. now we have the rest of the year without having to take any more assessments (unless we want to - search square and rundering in the dark we can take this year or next).

- 24hour-old trail. Also a no-go. The start of the trail was along a fence line, with thick juniper on the other side. There was really nowhere else to choose other than along the deertrod by the fence. So, although Mist set off in the right direction I don’t think she even thought about tracking. I found an article dropped by the trailsetter, and then let Mist find it, in the hope she would then be able to pick up the trail. But it wasn’t to be. We have successfully tracked 24-hour-old trails before (once), so it’s just another thing to add to the list…. and it’s a lot more realistic than 1-2hour-old assessed trails which are almost never going to be a reality in a real-life search!

- multiple dog-handler teams following a newly laid trail, switching dogs every 100m or so after finding an object.
This came after the 24-hour-old trail, and I wasn’t expecting too much from Mist. But she turned out to be a credit to our group! We were 4 handlers and dogs (Line + GSD, Harald + BCxgordon setter, Ola + Leo, GSD and me+Mist). One dog/handler took the trail search from a car, which after a false start, went very well, and we were off. With hindsight, it would have been good to take my GPS (easy to say afterwards), both to compare trail log with the trailsetter’s afterwards, but also to mark where we found articles ‘en route’, which would have helped us get back to the trail when we lost it. We spent easily as much time off track, re-searching for the trail, as we did following where Gunnhild had gone. But I was really pleased with Mist who not only

- tracking through a group (in my case, with a group nearby, as they didn’t actually know where the trail was!)
Went fine. Mist glanced at the noisy bunch as we passed a few metres away, but otherwise was not bothered. Unfortunately though, she then went past the ‘finish’ and we spent ages wandering round trying to find the trail again. The instructor who set us off didn’t know where the finish was, nor where the trail was, so she couldn’t stop us!

- parallel tracking - 18 dogs/handlers, a few metres apart, simultaneously across a football pitch. I hope I can get a photo from Annette (instructor) who was the photographer.
Not sure how much was tracking and how much was a race to get to the other side first! But Mist (and most of the others) had her nose down well over half the time, and considering I think she’s often easily distracted, she did very well.

- tracking on gravel and tarmac
Gravel - fine. Tarmac - no chance! Have tried this before with minimal success. If I use food in the trail, she just starts searching for goodies rather than tracking…. probably due to me setting it up wrong way back when, when I first tried. Anyway, Karen Sofie showed me how to pretty much show Mist each footstep (we’d marked the tarmac with chalk every 2-4 steps), and make sure she then tracked a step or two before getting a goodie. Will try this at home (or in a carpark somewhere!)…

- terrain changes (gravel to grass to gravel)
Not bad - I know it’s difficult, so I was expecting her to have to work. Went ok though and she managed it even with crossing of other trails and other dogs tracking nearby at the same time. In fact, tracking on short grass seemed to be as difficult as gravel.

Rundering
- indication of body in tree. No probs.
- indication of rucksack. As often, I was visible so when she found the rucksack she sat down by it and tried to stare me out! I waited her out, and eventually she barked. Something to concentrate on, as it will be part of A assessment. I need to find a really good reward that I can fit into a rucksack, under a jacket…..as it’s clear it’s nowhere near as rewarding as finding a person. A dwarf perhaps?

- indication of inaccessible body (up on top of an enormous boulder)
Fine. Took a long while to locate, but that was the idea. Indication fine.

Lyttepost (have no idea what that should be in English - dog/handler sit in one place and listen….. when the dog registers a noise, it is released and should follow up and indicate a find.
As I suspected, Mist reacted immediately and very clearly to the noise. I said ‘ok’ to try to make it positive as I expected she would be sceptical. She ran out about halfway to where the person was hiding, banging a stick against a log, but then thought better of it and came back. With a bit of encouragement from me, and from the body once Mist was within sight, she ’solved’ the problem herself. But it’s not a strong point - she’s a chicken!

Area search
- Searching an area using air-scenting, dog running free
- Planning, setting up a search for multiple lost people.
For us, during the search phase, the biggest challenge was making forward progress in huge boulders, massive holes and juniper bushes. There were places that I had to lift Mist up crags, onto boulders….and then climb up myself. Not the best for a 5-month pregnant person with a knackered shoulder!! But hey…. We didn’t find anyone- good to hear afterwards that there was noone in the area we were allocated (the exercise was partly an exercise in planning how to divide an area in to smaller search areas, and the people doing the dividing didn’t know where the bodies were).

Helen Indication / Melding, Airscenting / Overvær, Tracking / Spor, Rundering 8 Comments »

Success at Sviland

Poor Mist has no real canine friends at home, so after a hard day’s tracking, has to make do cuddling up with Thomas’ toy dogs:

I signed up for tracking today, mainly because I had to be home by 1530 so Jon could take the train to Kristiansand for his training.

The plan was to do some ‘trail search’ and a B-assessment-like trail (~500m). It took quite some time to sort out who was doing what, where and ensure that all of us knew what others were doing so we wouldn’t mess up others’ training! Nina wanted to do pretty much the same as me, so we teamed up. It was 1115 by the time I got back from laying a trail for her up in the top (open) forest. Then we put laid the ‘trail-searches’ along the right-hand side of the main rundering track (noone was rundering today ). We put out 6 loops (3 each) from the track out into the terrain and back to the track, hanging a tape, visible from the track, once we were well out in the terrain and then leaving an article for the finish just 10-20metres further on. The idea was that, if the dog chose the wrong direction and ‘back-tracked’ then we would soon come back to the road where there would be so many trails that the dog wouldn’t be able to go any further. If they chose the correct direction, they would be rewarded promptly.

Mist was first to search for her trails. On the first attempt, she did exactly what we’d planned - she went the wrong way and led me back to the road where she looked at me confused! We went back to where we’d started, searched again and when she came across the track this time, she chose the right direction. Unfortunately she went past the ‘finish’ so I scooped it up, lobbed it in her direction and hoped for the best. Not the smoothest of rewards but never mind .
Whether she learned from that first mistake I won’t ever know, but on the 2nd trail-search she checked the wrong direction only 2metres before turning and going the right way. On the 3rd go, she took the right direction without hesitation. She found both finishes and seemed very pleased with her reward (a favourite home-made tug toy).

After Nina and Bina had done their trail-searches (very successfully ), we set off for the longer trail. We took a reasonably short trail-search (10m or so) and Mist set off in the right direction. Nina followed us, and collected in the tapes she’d hung to ensure she remembered where she’d been. The whole session went very well - she found and picked up all the articles (including a metal bike brake part, although I had did have to ask her to bring it to me… but she stopped at it and waited anyway) except for one which she missed on a turn (something to work on). She had to work hard when we first came out of the green forest into an open area just before a path. The path itself wasn’t much of a problem, but going from forest terrain to grass/heather etc. was something that required concentration. At one point Nina said we were off track, but Mist seemed sure so I followed her (I reckoned if she was pulling that hard, either she was right or she was onto something else and I should follow her and let her ‘fail’). Turned out she was right - we came across a couple of tapes before long. It is so easy to forget where you’ve been when you lay trails in forest terrain!

Right at the end, she was obviously tired and we went back into pine-needle terrain (difficult), and I misunderstood something Nina said to me. I thought we’d gone past the finish - which didn’t sound surprising since we were within 20-30m of the road. So I got Mist’s toy and chucked it in front of her. You’d think I’d practiced! It landed right in front of her on the track, and about 2metres from the finish…. which I only saw when Nina went to collect it. What Nina had actually been commenting on was that Mist was on a secondary trail because of a reasonable sidewind, and Mist crossed a wall further along than Nina actually had done. Ah well. If it had been ‘for real’ I would have found the finish as I wouldn’t have just rewarded Mist without her finding something and she was actually right by it! And not least because it was a brightly coloured lunchbox which was easily visible .

All in all, a really good training session . I will look for more opportunities to use the same method for teaching Mist to go the right way when she comes across a trail. And need to work on turns to ensure we don’t miss articles due to going too far past a turn.

Helen Tracking / Spor 5 Comments »

A recall that works - even when I don’t want it to….

I wanted to continue my efforts with ‘recall from empty loops’ in rundering, and chose to use the open forest (Sviland) as I wanted to see at least some of the time where Mist was. I met Gro for the first time this evening - she has a lovely 10-month old black lab like Bina, who seems to be making a promising start. It was an opportunity for Mist to find an ‘unfamiliar body’, so Gro was sent out to be found on the first loop. Since it was dark, and I wanted to make things as simple as possible, Mist got a sound cue (clap) so that she was sure of where the ‘body’ was. I was a bit uncertain whether she was struggling to start barking since her lights stopped at Gro but the barking didn’t start right away. But Gro assured me afterwards that Mist was just giving her a getting-to-know-you kiss before she stepped back and started indicating . She didn’t need any ‘help’ which was good to know.

So, we started the empty loops and apart from Mist looping back rather than forward once or twice, they went very well. She was always out at least 50m (never been a problem!) and she came when I called . So much so that, when John was hiding the other side of the marshy area, I managed to call her in just as she sat down in front of him to start barking. Doh I was convinced he must be further back and that, given the wind direction, Mist wouldn’t find him because she was in front…. but no, he’d managed to sprint in the dark through the forest all the way past the marsh and up onto the hill. Well ok, so I messed up that time. But Mist was still focused out that side and when I sent her again, she went straight back to John and indicated immediately. Yes, I’d have failed on the rundering assessment for her not indicating first time, but more importantly I think, is that I feel confident that, if in a real life search, she found someone and I called her away from them just at the wrong moment, then she’d go back as soon as she got a chance.

In terms of rewarding her for coming when called, I alternated between playing tug, just taking her harness and sending her straight out again, or, if she was heading in the right direction sending her without stopping. By switching tactics each time, I hope it means she’ll concentrate on me to see what’s coming, rather than deciding things herself!

All in all the sequence was FBBF(no ind.)F(same body)FBBBF.
(Probably never written it before - F=find, B=blind/empty loop)

If I can get to feel confident that she’ll come in from empty loops, I think we’re well on the way to what we need for B-assessment. Distance isn’t a big issue as Mist’s in good shape, and running in the forest is quite a reward for her in itself. She does find it more difficult to start barking when she’s been going a while, but once she starts it’s generally not a problem. So, just need to practice with plenty of variation to keep her interest, and perhaps a few more ‘easy’ sessions (or loops at least) now and again (i.e. using sounds cues, or without indication) to keep motivation high.

Helen Rundering No Comments »

A welcome break in Hovden

Time for some pics to make the site look a bit more interesting! We were in Hovden last week for 5days - staying in the BP hytte, with friends and their 18month old daughter. Managed to get in lots of skiing (cross-country) and Mist did pretty well at keeping out of the way of skis/pulks/other people, carrying her panniers, not bothering the kids etc. etc. ….Except for one notable incident where she was allowed to run loose (there was a very long downhill stretch and I was worried she’d suddenly get stuck in the deep snow off to the side and I’d catapult her downhill as I carried on - it did happen once another day )… a man went past quite fast and Mist decided to run after him. She’d not been bothered by the many others who’d past us but this guy was for some reason of interest. Him shouting at her and trying to fend her off with his poles only made her more excited, and she had great fun playing her ‘game’ for a few hundred metres, before realising we were far away and she’d better go back and find us. My only consolation was that we were probably safe from getting a good telling off, as there was no way he’d ski all the way back up the hill to tell us what he thought of us . Oops! Otherwise I was a responsible dog owner and Mist was on lead all the time except when Jon took her out early in the morning or late evening when noone else was around.

Helen Miscellaneous / Diverse No Comments »

A month without training!

Yes, it’s a month since we last trained! (due to a combination of being away with work, then being ill and then going on holiday). Not that I wrote about that day - when Mist did everything possible to make me seriously wonder whether we will B-qualify this year! We trained rundering in Vigreskogen and chose to not know where the ‘bodies’ were….. he he, first time I’ve tried this and yes it was a learning experience. Mist ran completely wild from the start, and not only searched a large part of the forest on her first ‘loop’, but also found more than one body and didn’t indicate, ignored my calls to come in, later needed help to indicate at an unfamiliar ‘body’, then finally legged it after something or other in the forest and didn’t come back for 5-10minutes (seemed like forever).
Well, at least Tone who was on the midline with me, got to see the ‘problem’ I’d asked for previously at Sviland, when Mist was playing model student .

So, today….. I’d planned on training ‘recall on empty loops’/rundering, but the list of people signed up to runder at Vigreskogen was incredibly long and I just wasn’t interested in fighting for space, and ending up in the ‘puppy forest’ for some half-hearted training. So, I changed my mind and signed up for Gravdal where there were only 4 others signed up.

What a good choice! Aud, Kaare, Frode D and Kristin T and I had an excellent day, with sausages cooked over a campfire at lunchtime, chocolate brownies, and plenty of space for us all to train what we wanted. Aud, Kaare and Frode stuck to the rules and trained tracking (that was what was training at Gravdal was supposed to be today). Kirstin wanted to do an area search and there was no problem with space so she got her wish. And I got to runder up from the cars, in open terrain where I could (mostly) see what the little minx was doing.
After some discussion on the way there (I shared a lift with KristinT), I followed Kristin’s suggestion of having a find (Kaare) on the first loop so that Mist wouldn’t search the whole area in a one-er. After a slight detour, where Mist shot off up the midline in the direction Kaare had walked, and I called her back successfully , she ran out well, found Kaare and indicated. I’d also sent out Frode on the other side for the 2nd loop, but when I sent Mist she didn’t find him, despite apparently (Aud was on a hilltop the other side of the road and saw everything!) searching all the way back down to the road, even across the road, and a large part of the hillside Frode was hiding. Anyway, what was good was that when I called her eventually, she came. And was rewarded with a long game of tug while Frode moved further on. Another empty loop on the wind-side was good - 50m out and turned and came when I called. And then straight out to Frode.
I’d asked the ‘bodies’ to help Mist with indication so that that wouldn’t be any hindrance in training today. I see that she can find it quite demanding to get started barking when she’s been running empty loops a while. So, they helped her by giving the bark command and also by rewarding immediately, then taking the toy away and asking her to bark to get it back.
At one point I tried to send Mist out on the other side while Frode was still in place, but she was very focused on him and in the end he had to come in so that she’d go out the other side. Then he ran (impressive stuff ), uphill in horrible terrain, while Mist was out the other side. Another two empty loops and Mist got to find Kaare for a final time, and we stopped there as I was more than satisfied.

Overall sequence - FBBFFBBFBBF.

My ‘recall’ today was quite dramatic - a pretty piercing whistle with fingers in mouth! I usually reserve it for ‘emergencies’ - it’s more a stop command than a recall, but it (usually) gets her attention. My intention is to gradually reduce the signal I need to use in order to ensure Mist comes in from empty loops, but for now I want to be sure it works!

In the afternoon, KristinT laid out a trail for Mist and waited at the end. It was just a few hundred metres long and we took it straight away. I just wanted something fun and motivating today, as I’ve trained far too much ‘difficult’ tracking recently, without much easy stuff. Apart from one point where she lost the trail, and had to work around in circles for a while to find it again, she was fast and accurate. Kristin was lying in a jervenduk (camouflage bivi bag kind of thing) and was so well camouflaged against the terrain that neither Mist nor I saw her before Mist was about a metre away, despite Kristin feeling very visible!

Thanks everyone for a very enjoyable day

Helen Tracking / Spor, Rundering 2 Comments »

Utfordringen / challenge

I’ve been ‘utfordret’ (challenged) by Ghita to find the 4th picture in the 4th folder in My Pictures and post the picture here and write about it.

So, here it is (even though I haven’t updated Mist’s training for a veeeery long time and am not going to get around to it for even longer as we’re off to Hovden for the week tomorrow). Have been ill with flu the last 1wk+ and am finally feeling almost human again - just in time for some skiing/fun in the snow.

The picture was taken on the top of Vedafjell (the hill behind where we live) on New Year’s Day 2008 - the day before Thomas was born. It took a little longer than normal to get there, but it was such a lovely day and we knew there wouldn’t be many such opportunities left before our lives would change for good! Mist had her first season and was caught up by a loose gordon setter on the way home. Fortunately she was downhill of me when I saw the dog coming, and I managed to intercept her and get her on the lead before they met! A few minutes later the dog’s owners appeared - and 4 or 5 days later we had another visit from the same admirer on our terrass (and could hear the owners calling frustratedly from the top of Ragnhildsnuten with no idea where their dog had disappeared to) .

Helen Uncategorized 1 Comment »

A long overdue update

Its been over 4 weeks since I last updated this. Life’s busy now I’m back at work and Thomas in nursery/barnehage 5days/week. We seem to have found some kind of routine, and working only 80% really helps as it gives us a bit more time for chores, dogwalking, training etc. etc.

Christmas/New Year was a good opportunity for some longer walks (and runs, for Mist with Jon!). Here’s Mist and Bina having fun at Alsvik:

And me, Thomas and Mist having a cake break (good pic, Nina )

So, a quick overview of training….

Sat 27th Dec
Rundering - Sviland
A rundering training that didn’t go as planned - I wanted to train empty loops but Mist’s loops were far too big for my liking (i.e. I had no idea where she was, and she was out a long time on some of them). Don’t remember exact details, but had a mix of probably 40:60 find:empty loop. Suspect I should have kept the ratio higher than that for now as Mist can be an independent little madam and clearly thinks taking in the whole forest is a good option when she doesn’t find someone immediately . Still, when I did get her back to me, there was no doubt that there was no motivation issue, as she wasn’t interested in any kind of reward from me, and just wanted to get out on the other side and search again.
In addition the lady with the puffin dogs (strange, 6-toed Norwegian dogs!) had parked in our rundering area and walked out with her pack of (?5 or 6?) dogs just as we were coming into the midline, and Mist was quite put off by it. Still, after a misunderstanding by me of what the others knew of where the lady and her dogs would be going, it became clear that she would not be nearby for very long and after a short break, we re-started and just ensured to have a body to find in the area where they’d just walked out into the forest.
I’d also chosen to use the rundering track ‘back-to-front’ and started up just past the junction, working back towards the carpark. Don’t know whether that contributed to Mist’s behaviour, but she should be able to runder wherever and in whichever direction I want!

Sat 3rd Jan
Rundering - Sviland
I asked Tone if she would help me with rundering today, as the previous rundering training didn’t go quite according to plan. Tone had control of the midline and set out the bodies and instructed me where to send Mist. And, of course, Mist was model student today . She searched well, she came when called, she found everyone she should, and indicated well. Problem…..? what problem?! I think we had about 50:50 finds and empty loops - I probably just need to be careful about increasing the number of empties I send her in a row. And feel confident about where the bodies are at this stage.

Weds 7th Jan
Tracking/practical - Dale
Parallel tracking - Nina, Ghita and I put out three ‘parallel’ trails on the big grassy field at Dale and Nina/Bina and me/Mist tracked at the same time. KristinM and Athena started soon after and caught us up at our ‘finishes’ as her trail went a lot further. It was interesting to see both dogs a little confused at what we were doing since they are very used to going for walks/playing together. But, despite many stops and looking over to see what the other one was doing, they both found and followed their trails to the finish (with a little help from a headwind near the end ). Still, the point was tracking alongside another dog, and they both managed it .

We also shared a search square (30m x 30m) with Nina/Bina - the dogs took turns to go out and search. Mist was somewhat embarrassing, Bina was model student, so I knew there was something I needed to work on! Mist zoomed out and ran around like a loony, inside and outside the trampled area (she ought to know by now that she only finds things inside, and I thought she’d learned that pretty well). We also think she chose not to bring back some object(s) she found as she was stationary at one point a couple of times. Since it was dark I couldn’t see to be sure and tell her to pick it up. So, not the best planned exercise for us - I thought she was more capable/reliable than that. But, since it was working with distractions (another dog) that I wanted to train, we did get something out of it. Mist did ‘visit’ Bina once or twice when I called her in, but she was willing to come to me and be sentout again.

Sat 10th Jan
Tracking/practical - Dale
I chose to do a ‘practical’ exercise this morning as I think it’s important that Mist understands that she is searching for people even though she doesn’t have a find within minutes (as is normal in rundering training). Aud walked up the farmroad to the top of the valley and went up to hide in the big scree on the south side of the valley. I started searching with Mist from the Dalevannet path, up through the forest and then down into the fields at the top, and round the back of an old electricity building, round to the other side where there is lots of scree, and finally onto the scree. I’d hoped to be able to send Mist to search up there and keep my feet on solid ground! But, the wind was variable, and on that side of the valley, it was blowing up the hillside so I had to go up onto the scree too, in order to get Mist high enough up to find Aud.
It was interesting to see Mist’s confidence increase on the scree, from a little whining at the first big rocks, to jumping confidently ahead of me after a few minutes. She’s got good balance and isn’t particularly wimpy in most terrain, but she can get a bit nervous when she has to jump from rock to rock with big gaps inbetween! Excellent timing then, when she got scent of Aud just after we came off the worst of the scree. Indication was good. We’d searched for just over half an hour. I hope I can train this kind of search perhaps once a month, or 1 in 4 trainings so that we can increase the time to the find and Mist learns that we’re not just out for a walk if she doesn’t find someone immediately.

We also got to join Ghita/Tara training search square with Paul instructing. He was showing Ghita how to get Tara to slow down in her search, but getting someone to walk about in a small area in front of Ghita/Tara, pretending to put objects on the ground and placing only one or two in fact, within just a few metres of Ghita. It helps encourage the dog to search, nose down, from the word go, instead of legging it 30m+ out into the forest before starting to search.
Aud/Speedy and me/Mist had a go afterwards. We took both dogs out at once and took turns to tie one to a tree - neither of them liked that idea, but neither was bothered by another dog nearby either. I think it’s good to take opportunities to have more than one dog out at once, so that they do get used to having to watch, and to working side by side with others.
Both Speedy and Mist are a bit too quick in their searching and bound around the area which isn’t as effective as those who walk/trot calmly with nose to the ground. Hopefully both of them will learn that it pays to pay attention from the start!

Weds 14th Jan
Sviland
The parking place was packed when I arrived, just after 6 ( ) so I chose to train search square in the Arboret instead. Ritva put out two ’squares’ for us - one 5×30m, one 10×10m. I’d tried the technique Paul showed Ghita on Saturday a few times since the weekend but wasn’t sure whether it had worked or not as Mist was sometimes still sprinting out, and sometimes searching from the start. I’d also got her to lie down before starting (therefore nose is closer to ground before setting off….).
The search squares were about 30-40mins when we started. We took the one in open forest (pine needles on the ground) first. And it went very well! She searched from the word go. Ok, so she bark indicated at one corner because I’d had the wise idea to hang up the reflective triangle that she wears when she’s working, so I could see where the corners were . But once I’d rewarded her for that, and brought in the triangle, she searched well and found all the articles in just a few minutes.
The second square was in more difficult terrain - lots of long grass and a gravel track that someone had actually walked along with a dog between when Ritva laid it out and Mist searched. But she managed well - she found 2 of 4 objects and I threw out another one so that she’d have another find before we gave up. She searched close to me when I set her off and worked her way out well. So, perhaps the previous few days of training had paid off!

Sat 17th Jan
Rundering - Vigreskogen
a.m. indication of rucksack/jacket in the ‘baby’ forest. Chose to send out to a ‘body’ first, but we’d not understood correctly where he was, so Mist didn’t find him, did an enormous loop coming out onto the path way ahead of me, got scent of the rucksack on the other side, and despite trying to call her in, she went out, ‘found’ it and indicated. Well, it was what we were training so was actually very pleased! Alternated between bodies and articles. All went well except for a pair of mittens hanging in a bush, which Mist managed to get hold of and bring back to me (she’s indicated successfully for gloves hanging in a tree before, but I think they were probably out of reach).
p.m. rundering (finds and empty loops) in the ‘grownup’ forest. We did about 400-450m with about 50:50 finds and empty loops (FBFBBFFBBBF). She ran out well, at least 50m each time, ran reasonable loops, a few times she took a while to come in when I called but it is her job to search and she wasn’t so long that I suspected she was doing other things (!). Even though it was blowing a hooly and it was very noisy in the forest with the trees and masts whistling and creaking away, I was pleased to be able to hear Mist’s indication each time without any problem.

Weds 21st Jan
Tracking - Dale
Just Paul, Steffen and me tonight in wet windy weather. I put out a trail for Paul, up the big field and into the woods and then managed to get disorientated and ended up clambering up wet slippy rocks and crags to get up to the path to walk back to the carpark! Steffen put out 4 trail searches for Mist - i.e. short trails that I would start at a distance from and get Mist to search at rightangles to, until she found them. Then she had to decide which way to go, and be rewarded pretty soon for finding/choosing correctly. It’s something I need to do more of as we need to be able to search 50m for B-assessment.
It’s a while since we’ve trained this specifically, although I always start Mist searching at least a few metres from a trail, so that I never set her straight on it. So, I was very pleased when, the minute I gave her the command to search for a trail, she set her nose down and walked calmly forwards, concentrating on her task and not darting off in other directions as I’ve experienced her doing before. When she found the trail she turned immediately in the right direction and pulled steadily on the line indicatng to me that she was onto something! Steffen asked if she was always so calm and concentrated? I admitted that no, not always, but I have to say she’s pretty good when tracking, to maintain a steady pace and it’s seldom she wants to go faster than is comfortable for me to walk. I made a big effort when I started training her tracking as a puppy, to keep her pace down, as I was pregnant and knew that if I wanted to be able to train with her as long as possible during pregnancy she would have to not drag me along!
We did 3 of the 4 that Steffen had put out -they went so well, that I didn’t want to risk getting it wrong on the 4th. She didn’t find the finish on one of them, so I just threw a toy to reward her since she was still on track. And she wasn’t too keen in picking up paper articles, so I need to train more of that (thinking about it, I rarely use paper/card, so it’s not so surprising). But, her search was really good and I was very happy with her

Helen Indication / Melding, Article search / Feltsøk, Tracking / Spor, Rundering No Comments »

Grown-up rundering at Sviland2

It’s great being on holiday and at home For once, we have time to do everyday chores and train! When I heard there would be folk training on Sunday morning, I begged a ‘pass’ (in return for Jon getting a long run on Monday ) and signed up.

I’ve never been to ‘Sviland2′ before….. why?!? What a lovely area of forest - a mixture of open, mature trees, young thick forest, marshes and open grass/heather. Apparently it was used in the past but there are a lot of other users - including the GSD club, and horseriders. Maybe not a great location for sunny summer Saturdays, but surely suitable for Wednesday evenings, at least outside of ‘peak’ summer season. Anyway….. it was great to runder somewhere unfamiliar - a new challenge for both me and Mist.

Sylvelin, Ritva and I wanted to runder, and John planned to go tracking. We were all done in only a couple of hours (?) and had plenty of time therefore to enjoy some freshly baked cake courtesy of John - thanks, John

For Mist’s rundering, I wanted to train ‘empty loops’ with some focus on control on the midline (i.e. knowing roughly where Mist was, and being able to call her in). I sent her out to find John first, on the right, then she had a good loop on the left after which I called her to me. She crossed the midline just in front of me, but accepted being stopped and came to me, but absolutely didn’t want to play. Her reward was being allowed to continue searching and it seemed that was more than good enough. I sent her out on the left again, to cover the outside of a bend, and when she came in I stopped her again and managed to get her to play briefly before she made it quite clear that she’d rather carry on doing her job . Another empty loop on the right - with good progression forward and when I called her in she had to come back along the midline path a little towards me. Rather than stop her, since she’d done such a nice loop, I directed her out at 90degrees, which she managed fine….. and ran straight into the low branches of a big pine tree - and got pinged back. Oops She sorted herself out and ran out where I’d intended, the other side of the tree trunk! And found John again.

Back to the midline, and out to the right. Sylvelin had gone out to hide, and when I tried to send Mist out on a deer-trod, she put her nose down and started tracking. But Sylvelin hadn’t gone that way, so I ignored it and hoped Mist would realise it was getting her nowhere and continue the loop properly. Mist did give up tracking, but chose to come back the same way. So I caught her on the midline and sent her out again…. straight to Sylvelin.

Out once again to John on the left, and finally to Sylvelin on the right. This last time, I’d forgotten to give Sylvelin anything to reward with, so just agreed over the radio that I would bring it with me, and Mist would have to bark till I got there. An additional challenge was that Sylvelin was a walking ‘body’ ( ) - something Mist has previously found difficult (last time we tried, many months ago). As expected, she needed some help in the form of praise for her attempts at barking, but she stayed with the body and barked until I came.

Otherwise, her indication was good - I’d asked the bodies to reward briefly after a good few barks, then take away the toy and wait for further barking…. and so on until I got there. I want to make sure Mist doesn’t stop barking when I turn up - or else she might decide not to bother if she thinks I can see the body myself (may not always be the case in real life). I was very pleased with her indication today, and the empty loops that she took in her stride.

I thought it was a very ‘grown-up’ performance today (by Mist at least ). It made me feel positive about B-qualification in 2009 - my plan is hopefully to take the B assessed week (actually 4 days) in April/May, and the assessed tracking/rundering before the end of summer. We’ll see…

Helen Rundering No Comments »

Bags in trees on a windy day

NRH training was off (for us) today as I’ve just been away for a week on work training (not half as fun as dog training, that’s for sure). Instead, Mist got a 70+minute terrain run with Jon while he collected in orienteering controls from a training event. Always a winner - she pretty much flaked out on the sofa for the day afterwards.

Still, it didn’t take an awful lot of persuasion to go for a walk in the afternoon. We decided to go while it was still daylight and take Thomas in the ‘backpack’, and just went up Ragnhildsnuten (behind our house). I took a rucksack with me with a view to doing some article indication training. First, Jon went straight up the hill through the trees while Mist and I went the longer way around (downwind) and once into the field I set her off to ‘find’. She immediately veered off towards the houses and I realised I could hear kids playing - oops Anyway, she did come when I called her and we just hurried on so that Jon would/should be the next scent she got! The wind was in a different direction by the hill, and we had to go a lot further onto the hill than I expected before she got wind of him. And then of course, there was a fence in between. It was interesting to see, though, how she reacted when she couldn’t just run straight to him. Lots of whining, tiny barks and trying to dig her way under the fence . In the end I found a place she could go under and she shot off to find her quarry. No problem barking, continuously until I got there.

Then I put the rucksack in a tree (about 1.5m above the ground) and sent her to find it. Barked immediately she found it, and stayed there barking intermittently until I got there. I try to keep to the rule that, while she’s barking I run/walk towards her, when she stops I stop. My intention is to teach her that the more she barks the quicker she gets what she wants.
I experimented a bit with hanging the bag lower, and placing it in a place that was accessible. Then, the barking was difficult, although I was pleased that she didn’t leave the bag, but only barked once then sat there looking at me. Still, her barking is intense and ongoing as long as the object is off the ground (and still if it’s reachable, i.e. only a metre or so above the ground). So, need to keep going with this - generalise with different articles - and gradually reduce the distance from the ground. What’s really good is that she’s confident enough to stay at the article rather than coming back to me. So far so good

Helen Indication / Melding No Comments »

Rundering again at last

We were at Vigreskogen on Saturday, along with John, Ghita and KaiErik who had B-assessments. A fantastic morning all in all - all 3 passed their assessments and are now B-qualified. Well done and congratulations all of you

After lunch the forest was free for the rest of us to train. I had a reasonably long session with Mist - the plan was to test her bark indication on rundering, and include some ‘empty’ loops. Well, it must have been a day for success, because Mist did just what I wanted. She needed no help with indication even when Ritva was under a jervenduk. The empty loops she took in her stride - searched well and then came when I called. A couple of times I couldn’t see exactly where she was and she returned to me on the midline, from behind. So, I could do to include some practice in getting her to advance in the loop. But her runouts were excellent - more-or-less straight out every time and plenty far enough.
Pattern - F F B F B B F F B F. Or something like that! We’ve only tried empty loops once or twice before so I was very pleased.

After everyone had had a first session, Ola and I used the ‘baby forest’ to train article indication. At first it didn’t go so well and Mist picked up sticks in frustration and didn’t bark. But then we tried hanging the article (Ola’s jacket) in a tree, and it worked perfectly. Mist stood right under it and barked and barked until I came.

A good day

Helen Congratulations / Gratulerer, Rundering No Comments »