Seren tracking

 Trevvitt School. Partly cloudy, 61 degrees, 8mph, 73%. 8:30 am. Same thing for both dogs, working on getting them to pull into harness & to be on track immediately from the start flag. I used new line for Dylan. Each had an approximately 100 yard straight line track, completely scuffed & run fresh. Food every 30 scuffs (~20 feet). Start & end articles. Dog had to be exactly on track for at least 2 steps before I let out any line at the start. Kept line @ 10-15 feet & didn’t move until dog was pulling hard. I was surprised that Seren had no issue with this exercise, pulling almost from the very beginning. She kept getting blown off ~1 foot to the right by crosswind, but repeatedly corrected herself. Dylan also did fine, which did not surprise me. Will repeat this again next time, & if still good will move to scuff 15, walk 10, food, repeat. after that. No video

 Library Seren- short 3 turn track mostly in woods which I hoped she would think was fun. Age 3 hr 15 min. The end of the wall after the 1st turn posed an unexpected challenge. There were some odd wind eddies, perhaps blowing the scent of the end article toward her. She handled it well, I thought. Also, she really didn’t want to lie down on the branch by the article in the woods, but figured out how to orient her body to avoid that. Expected challenges were the big path going into the woods & the edge of the woods are popular dog walking areas tho we didn’t see any today. I think I was successful in making this as fun track, as she wanted to keep going after the end article. Note: poison ivy is out☹️ https://youtu.be/ZJ3cqXgpGU4?feature=shared

 JSR Park Made essentially the same track for Seren that Dylan had on 4-9, except hers was 4 hours old. The only problems I noted were that she found something nasty off to the right as we came out of the woods & then she encountered a patch of butterfly weed shoots which she thought were quite tasty. I’m hoping they haven’t sprouted yet in OH. Start, articles, & turns were all good. https://youtu.be/w1IyUsYnViQ?feature=shared

 Trevvitt school Both dogs had a 2 turn track with an article on each turn. Two dogs & a human walked across the area right before I started laying the tracks. Seren - age 3 hr. Nice start & articles. No problem finding new direction after articles. Some moments where she seemed to be distracted by things that I couldn’t perceive    https://youtu.be/OMgSUdEm83Y?feature=shared Dylan did better at concentrating on the job at hand than in our last couple of sessions, & he is improving at working in contaminated areas. Started tangentially to actual track at start & 1st turn. Articles 50-50. No problem with direction change at articles. Age 2 hr. https://youtu.be/dtkzN3i0lMg?feature=shared

 Surry P&R Aim for both dogs was a short, young track that I hoped they would have fun with. Both had 2 turn track, turns not flagged, age about 1 hour for Seren, 45 min for Dylan Seren thought this was a piece of cake after yesterday’s track. I could see LOS immediately at both turns, tho it took her a couple of steps to find correct direction. https://youtube.com/watch?v=62k-zAOJ7JQ&feature=shared Dylan thought 1st leg & turn were difficult (?wind, pollen up his nose?), but after he settled in it was quite nice. 2nd turn was dead on. https://youtube.com/watch?v=LX0zjl6vGHQ&feature=shared

 Dorey Park Seren: 8 turn stairstep, age 4 hr Arrived back at Seren’s track to find mowing going on over it. Decided to give it a go but to be prepared to quit at any point. She did remarkably well. Some of the food drops (very lightweight freeze dried liver) had been scattered. She tried to find what she could but didn’t get far off the track. Article on leg 3 (yellow sock) so she just indicated the next piece of trash she came upon. Article on leg 7 was all chopped up but she indicated a piece of it. End article was gone, so I threw out my ‘spare’ This track was far from perfect, but I was very proud of my dog https://youtube.com/watch?v=cNQNlI7vXzw&feature=shared Dylan: 4 one turn starts, ages 1.5, 2, 2.5, & 3hr. Turns not flagged He had a hard time with #1 as other dog walkers appeared in the distance from opposite directions just as we were starting. When he was able to disregard the distractions he had no trouble following the track. one of the dog/human pairs walked ...