Posts

4-13-26t

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 Taylor Park Seren:  road crossing obstacle track. Age 3 hr, 1 intermediate article Not bad. She was affected by the wind somewhat, but groundskeepers working right on her track & the warm temperature did not seem to be a problem. Interesting- several times recently she has downed as soon as she catches the scent from of the next article. I don’t know what to make of that   https://youtu.be/ybpnBsk-O60?feature=shared Dylan: 8 turn stairstep, 6 turns flagged, 2 with clothespin as ground markers. Age 1 hour. Loose dog with person had been all over at least the 1st part of the track about 15 min before it was run, & shelter dogs being, walked provided significant distractions while we were running track. However, no article were  missing & all food drops appeared to be in place. Fairly mediocre performance. Had some issues with turns 2&3, I think not so much that he didn’t know where track was, but more that he had difficulty keeping his mind on the task...

4-12-26

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 Trevvett School Article tracks for both dogs. Article every 25 paces, food 10 paces past article. Seren’s track had a couple of articles tossed off to the side. Seren’s track aged 1 hour, Dylan’s 45min. Seren did well except missed soap dish article, which has always been difficult for her. Dylan needed  verbal cue to down at 50% of articles Seren video    https://youtu.be/0wQqd0-tCYM?feature=shared Dylan video     https://youtu.be/ANvB2grHDNs?feature=shared  

4-9-26

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 Dylan:  young, short track with significant cover changes, 2 intermediate articles. Articles sucked today, but tracking itself was quite good. Cover changes did not appear to be an issue. Space & time considerations will determine whether we do an article track or a stairstep next https://youtu.be/5_XU8AiM6Cc?feature=shared

4-8-26

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 Surry Parks & Rec Seren:  Long distance track, incorporating some woods, age 35 min, 3 turns, 4 intermediate articles. I saw no evidence that the distance was a problem. She had a little difficulty around the tractor just after the 2nd  turn but worked it out. There was a strong petroleum odor around there when we ran the track, which of course I didn’t notice during tracklaying. She did get blown off some by the wind at times, most notably at the end when she lay down about 15 feet downwind from the article. The sun was in my eyes when we came out of the woods & I didn’t perceive that she was that far off the actual track.  Will work on off-track articles more - both dogs could use this. https://youtu.be/SEZmCxt8HjQ?feature=shared

4-7-26

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 Dorey Park Seren:  Taking another stab at doing a 4 hr start track. One food drop on 1st leg, alternating food & scuff every 10 steps on 2nd. I thought this was pretty good. Very nice start, didn’t find food on 1st leg (new variety) & quickly gave up on it. Significantly overshot turn, I think because wind was at our back on 1st leg & was blowing pretty hard just then. LOS was subtle but then she stopped almost immediately. A little difficulty finding leg 2, but eventually did & I think was adequately reinforced. So this track was good for building attitude & confidence https://youtu.be/JbDY3BvbG3A?feature=shared

3-30-26

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 Trevvett Elementary School  Seren:  8 turn stairstep, all in the open. Age 3.5hr Not particularly proud of this one, tho it had its moments. I’m thinking the heat is more of an issue for her than when she was younger. Will definitely do some starts next https://youtu.be/i6OYhdh46g0?feature=shared

4-6-26

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 Capital Park Seren:  4 one turn start tracks #1 - age 1 hour. 52 degrees. This went well. She overshot turn, which was not marked, but re-aquired the track easily. I have never thought she was cued by flags, but I may be mistaken about this. Will pay more attention in the future https://youtu.be/JZP4JGmTHg4?feature=shared #2 - age 2hr. 54 degrees. Again, went quite well. Did better with the turn on this one. https://youtu.be/DqinnBDhHi8?feature=shared #3 - age 3hr. 55 degrees. Ended up running what is marked as #4 on the map for this one as by the time 3 hours came around a guy had taken up residence on #3 & was practicing his soccer moves. Seren has gotten better about her soccer ball noise aversion, but not good enough to want to approach the start flag, so we just moved on to the next track. She did quite well going away from soccer guy, but the turn would have caused us to go parallel to where he was playing & she didn’t think that was a good idea even though I co...