I started Eden's tracking out with scent pads. A square somewhere between 3'x3' and 5'x5' depending on where we were. Then I transitioned to a triangular pad to make it a little more difficult. It's harder for the dogs to find the corners when they get so narrow so quickly. She did extremely well with the transition. I continued with doing various scent pads until very little, if anything could distract her. If she does glance up at something interesting, she redirects back down to the job at hand with gentle leash pressure and a repeat of the command. She's very bright and loves to please so knowing that I prefer her to keep her head down and tracking, she tries very hard.
Once the level of distractions could be quite high without her responding (people coming up and talking, dogs going by, squirrels in the woods nearby etc), it was time to move her to a straight-line track. We took her to a local park and set up three very short tracks laid with kibble for her to work. The kibble wasn't smelly enough for her to find in this tall/lush of grass so there was some skipping forward. I will be switching to something with more smell and a larger size to make it easier for her to find. She grasps the concept of following the track with her head down fine but I want to see very obvious footstep-to-footstep movement and that's hard to lure if she can't smell/find the food easily.
Her enthusiasm/drive/excitement makes her a little rushed. Overall, extremely, extremely pleased with her progress thus far!!! :-D
On the third leg, where she lifts her head suddenly - there were loud fireworks going off suddenly. She restarts with a simple verbal redirect cue!!! Yay Eden!
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