2007 Wallace Payne Seminar

Hundesport Alaska starts the 2007-training season with 4 days of hard work, abundance of new knowledge, and a lot of fun. Our 4-day training seminar began with tracking. We had planned to work on all 3 phases each day. Wallace quickly saw that we were all ready to train, that we had goals and a purpose however we lacked foundation work and tracking,

There being no excuses for it as we are blessed with excellent tracking conditions. We informed Wallace that we have been told this at every trial, and we have been instructed to track more. What we quickly found out is that we were just making the same mistakes over and over again, getting the same results which resulted in low to insufficient tracking scores. Well some of us found out that you could teach old dogs and old handlers new skills. The younger handlers caught on a lot quicker. The first day we spent a full day of tracking and we were all exhausted.

The next day started with a test in tracking to see how much we retained from the day before, and we were instructed where and how to lay our tracks. I was excited to track my dog as I had gone over the details in my head a hundred times, I had my hot dogs cut according to size, correct scent pad, very clear scuffed foot steps, all my land marks were clear to me. I have a young dog that I had done little with in hope not to mess her up before Wallace got here, she is a quick learner and is always focused on food, with excellent concentration so I knew I had possibilities for an excellent tracking dog.

Day 2, I thought okay I got it. The minute I approached the scent pad Wallace gave out a big disappointing sigh- OH NO? I was thinking now what? Well the food wasn't buried. The goal was for my dog to track the hot-dogs not see the hot-dogs, I was instructed to pick up every piece of food and relay the track with each piece buried out of sight. UGH! That was the hardest part placing the food in EVERY step. The next track despite my lack of handling skills the track was laid correctly, and we progressed. YES! Following other members successes we quickly returned to the park for phases 2 & 3.

At lunch we all listened intently and took notes from Wallace's theory. Then it was our chance to work our dogs in obedience. Well the first day I didn't even graduate to taking a step. It was all I could do to get my dog in proper fuss position. I had to hold my leash correctly, hold her attention, listen for the click, verbally praise her, and properly reward her with a piece of hot dog. I thought I was good at multitasking. I felt much better about things as my club members turns came up and they too fumbled, and bobbled their way through the exercises. Each of us having different strengths and weaknesses. Thank goodness for Wallace's military back ground, and patience. We were able to progress a little, and move on to phase 3.

In phase 3 the handlers, didn't create too much of a problem, our helpers have been well schooled by Mark Chaffin in their work and abilities, and the dogs & helpers all worked well, with good bites. The Helpers were soon coached to make the handlers do the hustling to return the sleeve, and to properly handle the dogs. Wallace then worked to have the dogs bring more to the game, and for us to set our protection goals higher this year. With the older dogs they focused on obedience in protection with reward bites. Each dog needed a little different work, some needed more heat, while others more prey. We all retired following dinner.