In the Woods

Went on a hike in the woods with the girls this evening and got DH to tag along. Happily, he also agreed to play "victim" at the beginning of the hike so we got 3 reps in tonight. We saw better results than our earlier object searches thankfully!

Search 1: DH walked down the road to the trail and hid behind some brush about 40 feet away. He doesn't understand how to rev up a dog, so I encouraged Z myself; she was very interested in following him. :) I let her go on the cue, "Ok, Go Search!" and she ran full speed ahead, over ran his spot by about 8 feet, then turned quickly and located him. He gave her a treat, she did a nice little refind, bobbled a bit on the "Show Me" cue, but eventually ran back to him for the rest of her reward. (he was pretty boring and missed giving her some of the treats - def not an ideal victim unfortunately)

Search 2: After some coaching we ran a second rep after getting on the trail. I had DH go around a bend in the trail about 70 feet away and repeated the reving and cue from the first search. Z once again bolted after him, got her cookie, did her refind, and got her "Show Me" cue a bit better. Her reward was better, but still not perfect.

Search 3: This search was a short one - just about 30 feet with DH around a bend in the trail again. Z did well on the release with cue as usual, found DH, and then completed half the refind before being distracted by some horse apples on the return trail. I gave her a "leave it" and she came back to me and did a decent "Show Me" given the distraction an short distance. Her reward was more animated thankfully.

Overall a decent round of searching, with a few bobbles to work on. As usual, distractions are not our friend, but she did well in the woods off leash in a location where she's not used to many rules (it's our usual off leash hiking trail). Hopefully with a more animated and experienced victim we'll see a strong refind and less susceptibility to distractions. :)