Taking small steps with a slow starting puppy can be the key to making progress. It took Maggy a couple minutes to start treeing a caged squirrel once I raised the cage off the ground. The next step is to get her to tree non-caged squirrels. She does have a beautiful tree bark and its nice to hear her finally open up on squirrels.

This past fall was my first season with Max, my 11month old pup. I can't tell you how many times I felt the same as you. I captured a couple videos during some of my hunts so I can remember my hunts and watch how Max progresses. A couple things I've noticed:

When I stick close to Max, I tend to be able to see the squirrel more often. One particular time, he was working at a quick jog from about 50 yards to the left of me to about 50 yards to my right and working back and forth, nose to the ground. As he passed to my right for the second time, I noticed a squirrel darting across the ground and right into a hole at the base of a tree that Max had worked a good 2-3times. He didn't see the squirrel but I just stood there and watched, trying to learn how Max worked. He did the exact same thing your pup was doing. He slowly got closer and closer, circling the area that I saw the squirrel come down from. He made a couple soft barks, staring up at a couple trees then slowly narrowed down to 2-3 ...