11-14-23

 Chamberlayne Elem. School. 59 degrees, no wind, sky clear but entire track in shade. Short grass, green & brown. Wanted to work on turns involving woods, tho the wooded area available is not all that impressive. Track laid @ 3:15 & aged 25 minutes.

Started out paralleling woods 40yds to right turn, which maintained the paralleling for another 50yds, food drop @30. Then left turn into open field with a bluestone running track. Food drop after crossing the bluestone track. After 60yds, right turn back toward woods, crossing the bluestone again (no food this time). Hit edge of woods at 66 yards, made left turn which I scuffed out of, into field. Food @ 35, end article @ 65yd. Great article indication at end. Seren had no difficulty with any of the turns, but she wasn’t as dedicated to the track itself as I would like - lots of checking out scents off to the sides. However, she always came back to work without prompting. School had just let out when I laid the track, so possibly there was a lot of fresh contamination in the area. Wonder if I would be deemed suspicious if I hung out in the area to see how much foot traffic that portion of the grounds gets 😄. We have only ever worked there on weekends in the past. The start was interesting- there were lots of magnolia cones (or whatever they are called) in the area of the start, & Seren chose one to play with & chew on rather than to indicate the start article & go. Once I got that particular cone away from her, she started just fine, even tho there were dozens more cones right there. She had no difficulty finding the track (I always scuff my starts), just didn’t seem motivated to do so at first.

Next time out, I will try to use a less contaminated area. Haven’t decided on age yet, could use advice


Comments

  1. JudiNovember 18, 2023 at 5:20 PM

    Ahh yes, breaking news. Elderly woman stalking elementary school. OK, next time, if you have a clean field, go for a little age. Next time you try contamination, run it fresh, scuff a lot, and use food! We have to teach her to choose ‘the’ scent amongst all the scents there.

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