10-27-23

 Closed church. Clear, 66 degrees, short dewey grass, 8mph wind. Tracks laid 10am & aged 30 min.

Intent was to work start tracks (only room for 2 at this site) with each turn to be what I thought would be challenging for Seren. Resisting the urge to test rather than train, I scuffed 10 steps into & out of both turns, & also had 2 food drops on first & 1 on second leg of each track.

Track 1 was in alley behind church with building on left & hedgerow on right. Wind was to our back for 1st leg, which was 85 yards long. Turned left at corner of building in a large bare dirt patch under a tree to 50 yard 2nd leg.

Approached start from the left, she indicated start article nicely & had lovely start as soon as I picked up the article.  About halfway down the leg she veered off to the right to investigate a pile of poop, left it immediately & went back to track when I told her to leave it (surprize!) Made turn perfectly, then smelled more poop off to the left. This time she did not ‘leave it’ when requested, but did bring it to me when I called her (ick), & then continued down track to end article which she indicated nicely. So this was a track re-acquisition lesson as well as a tricky turn lesson

Track 2 paralleled the road, ~ 15 yards from it, again with wind at our back. Approached start from the right, lovely article indication & start. Briefly looked up to see one of the passing cars but ignored the rest - did not lie down for any of them. Crossed sidewalks without seeming to pay any attention to them. Made turn, which was to the right, perfectly but after a couple of steps decided to double check - only in the original direction, not to the left - then went back to where she had originally turned. Followed 2nd leg (50yd toward the building & almost to it) nicely to end article, which she indicated perfectly. The car traffic was less distracting than I thought it would be.

Next session, I’ll try to figure out some challenging starts to train through.

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