February 23rd, 2014, Steel Lake, Searching for Komu

Today's trail was short and fresh, searching for his best buddy, Komu.  While it was not a challenge at all, it is important to just have fun, easy finds once in a while to keep his motivation up.  The weather conditions were about ideal.  Fozzie nailed all the turns, as expected, and pulled hard all the way. 

February 20th, Bothell, Searching for Franklin

20140220 Fozzie Training

This scent trail for Frankie the Dachshund had aged 24 hours.  This was the first trail in the dark for Fozzie.  From the start, Fozzie did not seem to focus on the task at hand.  He missed two turns, and at one point in the middle, he just stopped searching all together.  He just stood there nibbling at the grass, and it took over a minute of prompting for him to resume the scent trail.  This was a sharp contrast to other recent training sessions.  In the past, he has always been focused, motivated, and intent.  This night, he followed most of the trail okay, but it was an afterthought. 

In the last block, he showed enthusiasm and drive.  He enjoyed playing with Frank and Harley when he found them.  I can’t explain his lack of effort.  The conditions were perfect for scent trailing, and it was only 24 hours old, so it should not have been difficult. The trail was 1.68 miles long, on pavement, grass, and trails.

Date and time                   Temp    Dew       Hum      Chill        Dir          Spd        Vis

20 Feb 8:53 pm PST         45           37           74           39           SW         14           10.00    

20 Feb 7:53 pm PST         45           38           76           40           SW         9              10.00                    

20 Feb 6:53 pm PST         46           39           76           40           SW         14G20   10.00                    

20 Feb 6:22 pm PST         46           39           76           40           SW         13           10.00

February 16th, 2014

This trail was about 24 hours old, in an environment of lawns and shrubs, some gravel, some paved paths. 

Today, Fozzie searched for Rita, who he has found many times before.  When he came to the first Y, where Rita first went left and then came back and went right, Fozzie paused for a few seconds and evaluated the options.  He looked left and right and left and right, then he chose left.  He ran that path to it's dead end, and then came back to the Y and went the other direction.  At the northwest corner and the northeast corner of the trail, he went wide, following the scent about 30 feet off the actual trail.  This may because of the prevailing south winds over the past 24 hours.  Kelsy often follows trails parallel and 20 to 40 feet off the actual trail.  At the end of the trail, Fozzie pulled hard to Rita's hiding place.  Fozzie didn't miss any turns. 

February 14th, 2014

Fozzie has been training for over a year.  He is doing quite well.  I have not kept up with his training log, as I've been so busy.  I think Fozzie could be ready for certification soon, so I want to start documenting his training again. 

Today he found Mazzy.  Mazzy is a repeat customer.  She was lost shortly after she arrived in Seattle.  It took about a week to find her that first time.  Her owner put a GPS collar on her.  She was very careful with Mazzy, but on one short trip from the car to the door of the doggie daycare, the leash was attached to Mazzy's collar, and Mazzy backed out of her collar for an unknown reason.  Mazzy ran off and left her GPS unit behind.  We caught her in a humane trap about a week later.  Mazzy looks good these days.  She is still a bit skittish, but much more bonded to her people than she was. 

This trail was about 24 hours old, about 1.25 miles long, on mostly paved surfaces.  It had rained about an inch in the 24 hours between the trail being laid and us following it.  The route was known to me, so I could praise Fozzie for choosing the right course or anchor him if he went too far astray.  The weather conditions were about ideal.  Fozzie just took a quick sniff of the scent article and started right on the trail.  He wove in and out of yards.  Afterward, Tracy told me that Mazzy had dipped into many yards along the way.  Fozzie didn't miss any turns.  He didn't pull as hard as Kelsy can sometimes, but he worked diligently on the scent trail.  I only had to tell him to leave it a couple of times when he spent a little too long checking out irrelevant scents.  When he found Mazzy, she was like, "Who the heck are you?"  I gave Fozzie his cheese, and a puppy happened along about that time, so he got to play, as a reward, too.  As usual, Fozzie seemed to enjoy the game.