Open Area

Yesterday we did three training problems, they were all open areas. The first training problem was a self confirm problem and Rogue did perfect. He had his COB from 15-20 feet away and did a great job working the odor to source. The second problem was a little different. We weren’t given any search parameters. We were told to start walking down a very wide path. We did miss the second aid. It was hanging in a tree at about 5. My trainer believes that because I had Rogue on a 6 foot leash I might have gotten in his way. She suggested that when doing a big area like this that I either do it off leash or use a 360 leash. I don’t trust Rogue yet while off leash and in a large area, he likes to chase small animals. I will work on doing searches off leash. The last aid of this problem had been out for a long time and the area was saturated with odor. Rogue had it narrowed down to a 30 foot radius but couldn’t pinpoint it. He worked it for 5-10 minutes before he stepped on it and found it. There was a miss in the third problem. I don’t know if he was exhaling when he walked past it or what but on the second pass he had no problems finding it. It was in a tree at about 4 feet high. Rogue was standing on his hind legs trying to get closer to source.