An audience of fox and deer

Very nice track on some (finally!) green grass located on a strip in the middle of the corn field. Most of the turns were a bit sloppy, we need to work on them. I think I need to start baiting all his turns until he's showing "absolute" precision and then gradually cut back here and there. However, I was proud of myself in that I offered no help, and allowed Treck to figure out the track on his own. I was happy to see he stayed calm throughout.

Date: 3/23/09
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Temp.: 43*
Weather: clear, wind 10-15 mph
Length: 300 paces
Age: 15 minutes
Conditions: dead grass and new, spring grass, corn husks/ears
Turns: 6
Articles: 1 cloth, 1 wood, 1 leather

Treck's article indications were awesome. This no food on the article thing is working for us. Straight and fast! I did make a mistake on one of his articles when I told him to 'such' after he had finished eating his article reward. With him its best to tell him to 'such' while he is still eating as it makes him calmer. If not, then he leaps up from his platz to continue the track. This happened in both his SchH1 and SchH2 trials. No food reward for finding the article causes him to be too fast and hectic when commanded to 'such' again. I'm wondering how I can prepare for that?

I'll note that for this track and for his last track I did not use a prong collar, only his fursaver. In the past I've always tracked him with the line attached to both. I have noticed more calmness during his tracks. I think all the prong suceeded in doing was increasing his drive and excitement level. Good for obedience, but not for tracking. At least not for Treck, as he loves to track.

Sorry for the long winded post and no pretty pictures. :( My camera died while I was laying it. Also causing me to miss a photo opportunity as I had both a fox and a doe watch me lay the track! :)