Outstanding In Her Field

I have been spending time standing out in a field, thus outstanding in her field.  This week I’ve been working on cross tracks with Magnum.  We started on Sunday with my friend M laying the track and Alan doing cross tracks.  Now Alan lays the track and I do the cross track.  The track is a total of 860 yards with 4 long legs of 200 yards that are parallel each (except for the last leg) with a turn at the end and a short leg of 20 yards.  The person laying the cross tracks walks out 60 feet past where the tracker layer is starting, then puts flags in at 20 yards, 60 yards and 180 yards.  Then the person laying the cross tracks just hangs out in the field waiting for the tracklayer to get to the last leg.  On the last leg the cross tracklayer again is 60 feet out and walks along with the track layer and put a flag in at 20 yards and 180 yards.  The cross track layer then waits the designated time and then walks from cross flag to cross flag so there are a total of 16 cross tracks.   The cross tracks are aged progressively each day starting with 30 min., 45 min., 1 hr., 1 ¼ hr. and then 1 ½ hr.  The age of the track is double the age of the cross track.

Glen Johnson comments in his book that cross tracks is like starting over tracking with your dog.  Good thing I had the warning.   He also states that if your dog doesn’t pay attention to the cross tracks, then it is a wasted lesson because your dog isn’t paying attention to the track.  Needless to say, it was not a wasted lesson for Magnum.   

First time out, Magnum tried to follow almost every cross track.  The handler knows where the track is and sees the flags for the cross tracks.  So the job of the handler is to refocus the dog, in a positive way, back on the track.  Each day it has been a little easier with him getting back on the track himself without my encouragement for some of the tracks.  I am trying to figure out if he is cueing the cross track differently from following a track and making a turn.  I think his behavior is a little more excited with the cross track.  He looks more serious and focused on the track.  Or as serious as a dog can look who is quite excited to be tracking.

The first time out the track was in higher grass just hitting mid calf.  Second time out on mowed grass.  Third time we went back to higher grass and our 4^th time were in a plowed field.  The plowed field was muddy, so Magnum was a mess.  We’ll try the plowed field on Friday again.  I believe from here on out we’ll be doing cross tracks on all tracks we practice on, but not 16 cross tracks, just the standard 2 cross tracks.

At the Tracking test in September in St. Louis where Magnum passed his Tracking Dog test, 3 of the 4 dogs attempting Tracking Dog Excellent messed up on the cross tracks.  So, it is clear that cross tracks are a major challenge for dogs.