Each Saturday I will present the week’s plan for our Berners On Track class here on the Blog. I am doing this for two reasons. First, it allows more people to be engaged and that builds community around those who are actively working dogs in this class. Second, it is just an easy and convenient place to post informative content.
In addition to the Saturday blog overviews, we are using a Facebook group called Berners On Track and a YouTube channel with the same name.
Those signed up for the class will be receiving invitations to the Facebook group but since auditors are welcome in this class, you can request membership in that group via Facebook or by emailing me (sontag.bowman@gmail.com).
Our specific objective for this week is for all dogs to be skilled at running a straight 15 - 20 yard food track. [Note: I am terrible at judging distances and so am randomly picking that range. The point is that it is short and straight]. A video will introduce this and be posted tomorrow (Sunday). Suzanne and her puppy, Sadie, will be helping and so the video is guaranteed to be adorably fun.
The hope is that everyone (in the class — not everyone in the world!) will post a video of their dog running the straight, short food track on the Facebook group page by next weekend — or if a video is not possible, we will get a report about progress.
To get started, everyone will need easy-to-chew treats (for the dog — human treats are optional), and a small covered container — you can use a cleaned Altoids tin. You want the container to be low to the ground.
Treats should be small, easy to spot, and light enough to stay on top of whatever cover is on the ground. Heavy treats fall through grass (or snow) and the dog then spends too much time snuffling around for them. Tiny pieces of cheese can work and so does popcorn or goldfish crackers. You will need A LOT of whatever you use.
Your covered food container is a jackpot for the end of the track and so put something amazingly different in there. I like to do two tracks at this stage, and so double everything.
You will not need any articles — we train articles separately (there is a video about that).
A harness will be needed but not at this stage — a collar and leash are fine.
Optimally, you will do these training tracks 3 - 4 days this week. It will take maybe ten minutes per day — plus the time getting there/back.
Where to Track: Find a location that is not well-used — public parks are generally a bad idea. Industrial parks, churches, or businesses often have grassy areas that can work — you want grass that is not long, or better yet: snow! You do not need much space at this point so it should be relatively easy to find a location for these baby tracks.
Again, a video will walk you through the steps — watch for that tomorrow.
A couple more things…
Least Trainable Units (LTUs): I mention these in the material that accompanies the glove video — basically, this means we consider the micro behaviors associated with a desired end behavior, and train each of those intentionally and separately. Think Baby Steps.
Elements of Tracking include age, length, cover, turns, articles - and reinforcers.
At this point the TD cohort is making things so so easy: No age, super short length, super easy cover, no turns, no articles — and heavy reinforcers.
The LTU we are working on is simply getting the dog to follow a track, and we will do that using food. Easy Peasy for a Berner!
