Practice search for Kody

Yesterday, Kelsy searched for Kody in a short practice trail.  Kelsy has been working hard lately and getting little reward.  I did praise her and reward her after the search for Cookie, where she found conclusive evidence, but that is not as rewarding as finding a happy, wiggly dog at the end of the trail.  Kat and Kody laid a short trail before our two hour meeting, and I put Kelsy on the trail after the meeting was over.  The trail just went around the block.  When I started Kelsy, she took off like a rocket, and I had to hold onto the leash with both hands.  She overshot the first turn, which I could tell because she was looking around in the dark for Kody, instead of using her nose.  When I took her back, she hit the right trail and started pulling even harder.  Again, she overshot when she saw a group of people, strangers, and leapt to the assumption that they had Kody.  After she saw they didn't have her, I was able to back Kelsy up, and she found the right trail again.  On the last leg of the trail, toward Kody's hiding place, Kelsy pulled the hardest yet, and we were fortunate that there was no traffic as she dragged me across the street.  Kelsy whipped around the corner and found Kody, and she asked for her reward, confident she had done a good job.  I gave her big chunks of cheese.  We went to get back in the truck, and Kelsy reminded me, just with a certain look, that we hadn't played fetch, yet.  I got the ball out, and we had a few quick throws in the dark parking lot. 

For that last leg of the trail, Kelsy was lit up, on fire.  That's how I like to see her.  She is powerful, motivated, on a mission, and I just hold on and try not to trip.  Kelsy works so hard on the difficult cases, trying to follow my instructions, which are often contradictory and confusing.  Go, stop, hurry up, slow down, wait, get to work.  To see her run through the dark like that, all fired up, is very gratifying to me.  This little practice trail was not difficult.  It was only intended to reward Kelsy, and I think it served that purpose well.  However, I did learn a little something, even though I wasn't expecting to: when Kelsy is on a hot scent, she will overshoot the turns, and I can tell she is overshooting them because she is looking instead of smelling.  In the past, I would have just read her hard pulling as evidence we were on the right trail.  Now I know to pay attention to whether she is looking or smelling her way forward.  Actually, I think we learned this lesson before, but this trail reminded me. 

Kelsy is snoring now, sleeping deeply.  I think the good search for Kody is helping her sleep even better than usual.