Tracking And More....

I finally done did it! I got the dogs out tracking last night!! I got the harnesses adjusted (and then realized they actually need to be adjusted again for the dogs in a head down, sniffing position where certain areas tighten up), gathered up my gear, and then took them out separately. Heffner was unfortunately the guinea pig. Unfortunately, because I didn't pick the best terrain initially for him and I sort of over estimated the amount of spacing between each treat drop. Aaaaaaaaaaaand I put his tracks closer together than I really should have. D'oh! At least I learned and Bess had a better time of it.
The terrain was more pitted and the grass was longer than I should have started him back up on. It's been over a year since I laid a track for either dog. I laid three simple, straight tracks. But for Heffner, they were definitely closer together than they should have been. I could tell that he was getting confused by the scent coming from the tracks I had laid to the right on our first one. We still carried on and he did quite well, it just wasn't as overly positive of an experience as I would have liked.
I did a much better job with Bess. I kept the treat spacing more frequent and spaced her tracks out a lot more. The last time I did any tracking with her, it was difficult to get her to keep her mind on the track and she showed more interest in trying to play in the field. This time around she was ALL business! It was great! I'm pretty sure she found every single treat I dropped.LOL She did stray sometimes off the side of the track and I held back from immediately correcting her to see if she would find her way back and she did! All three tracks were a success.

Today Heffner had another chiropractic adjustment and it was fabulous! Sandi seriously has magic hands! It's just amazing to see the immediate difference that the adjustment makes. I almost think that today's adjustment showed a more noticeable improvement in his walking than last week's. It was just amazing! He is almost walking like Bess now. He's still throwing his hip a little when walking, but it's sooooooo much less than it was. He also held the last adjustment really well, which helped to make a more visible improvement today.

He currently is on 24 hours with no exercise. If we can go 48 hours, she said that's even better. He's also still on the limited exercise of only walks. She did say that after one more adjustment she thought I would be able to start jogging him again!! Ideally I would see her again next week, but the Rose City Classic (RCC) combined with the holiday on Monday is making that very difficult. If I can't set something up with her, then he'll have to wait until the following week. Obviously I really want to try to find some day that works because I want to start reconditioning him and getting him back into tip top shape. We'll just have to see what I can swing.

I am currently thrilled to be having a pretty low key weekend ahead of me. This is EXACTLY what I need leading up to RCC. There's going to be a whole lot going on, very long days, and the house is a freaking disaster area right now. I always start to feel like things are out of control when I can't keep the house in the minimum condition that I want it to be in. Down weekends are good for this! Not that we are completely without plans, but I'll talk about those plans in other posts.;0)

I hope that everyone had a fabulous Friday and here's looking to a great weekend!!