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Showing posts from December, 2023

Video from class on 12-5-23

 link to video from 12-5-23 class: https://youtube.com/watch?v=aLMHrFpgLyg&feature=shared

12-30-23

 Tracking class. Track laid by Judi, after being plotted the night before. Blind TD track, in her hayfield. Track laid @7:35 & aged 1hour, 15 min. 35 degrees, sunny, little to no wind. Grass wet. Distractions included people ~50 yds away, RTV pretty close to the end of the track, hounds baying in the distance. Used 30 yd flag for the 1st time. Leg 1 60yd, left turn close to hedgerow. Leg 2 50yd, rt. turn. Leg 3 150yd, left turn. Leg 4 50 yd, left turn. Leg 5 150 yd. Food drops at middle of legs 4&5. Total length 460 Nailed it!

Video from class on 10-3-23

 link to 10-3-23 video https://youtube.com/watch?v=6Y5fCRS-6GY&feature=shared

12-28-23

 Soccer fields near home. 50 degrees, overcast, no wind, short grass w/ mix of green & brown, ground saturated. Track laid @8:45 & aged 30 minutes  This was a duration track. First leg 425yd with food @200&325. This leg meandered a bit around goals, tarps, cones, buildings but was pretty straight. Ended with a left turn to a 125yd leg with food @75. Then another left turn to 465yd leg, food @ 100, 200, 300, & 400. Total distance 1015. Start article indication & start were good. Seren stopped to roll in something which I couldn’t see, much less identify, at about 125yd. Don’t know how long she would have continued that activity, but after maybe 30 sec. I asked her to get back to work & she did. No issues with the meanders around ‘stuff’. When we got to the turn, she checked to the right first, & seemed determined to find the track going that way, but never actually tried to go in that direction. I said nothing, & eventually she checked left, had ...

videos from 11-21-23

 link for 11-21-23 track 1 https://youtube.com/watch?v=OQm6hFbTths&feature=shared link for 11-21-23 track 2 https://youtube.com/watch?v=WTGmo6_IsmU&feature=shared link for 11-21-23 track 3 https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ao1n6vCUtjY&feature=shared Link for 11-21-23 track 4 https://youtube.com/watch?v=jHxduKOSgx8&feature=shared

Video for 11-26-23

 Link for video 11-26-23 https://youtu.be/1iocfAWVDUc?feature=shared

video for 12-2-23, maybe

  https://youtu.be/2Ls40vsbH1E?feature=shared

More videos, if it worked😄

 12-12-23 track 1 https://youtube.com/watch?v=zA3L8PCspK0&feature=shared 12-12-23 track 2 https://youtube.com/watch?v=ev1BZ93OLx4&feature=shared 12-12-23 track 3 https://youtube.com/watch?v=na5rnxv6HZY&feature=shared 12-12-23 track 4 https://youtube.com/watch?v=IBsdvhs14ag&feature=shared

VIDEO!

 To see the video for 12-17-23: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVNrBMwl5Rs

12-22-23

 Klehr field. 34 degrees, no wind, thin clouds. Short brown grass, ground damp. Track laid @ 9:10 & aged 30 minutes. Two turn track, first to the right, second to the left. Legs 95, 100, & 85 yds long. One food drop each on 2nd & 3rd legs. Good indication of start article, even though it was a belt, & nice start. It appeared that there were a lot of scent distractions on the 1st leg, as Seren had a hard time staying precisely on the track & overshot the first turn significantly, to the point that I needed to back up for her to find the second leg. Second leg & 2nd turn were good. Kept wanting to drift to the right on the 3rd leg, but was drawn back by the end article, which she indicated nicely. I’m not sure what to think about this one. It turned out not to be as simple as I had expected it to be. I know there was no contamination of the field while the track aged, as I was watching the whole time. Next session I think I’ll try for a long distance with few/...

12-20-23

 Crump Park. 26degrees, no wind, sunny, short, frosty grass. Track laid @ 8:05 & aged 90 minutes This was a TD-type track. First leg 125yd to right turn. Second leg 100 yd, food @ 50, to left turn. Third leg 50 yd to right turn. Fourth leg 50yd to open right turn. Fifth leg 130yd, article @30, food @40, between 2 cedar trees ~5 ft apart @70, food @ 80, left turn @130. Sixth leg 90yd to end article. While track was aging, went for a walk down power line path, where we found a groundhog hole! Seren checked it out, but we will come back & lay a track near it soon. Then we sat in the car a while to warm up. While I was harnessing Seren up after track had aged, a man came off the field where our track was with his Golden & a tennis ball Chuck-it. They definitely crossed our 1st leg at least twice & I don’t know where else they had been. I asked him if his dog had picked up anything on the field that wasn’t his, & he said no. A good trainer probably would have bagged ...

12-17-23

Courthouse Park. 44 degrees, overcast/foggy, no wind. Track laid @8:10 & aged 45 minutes.  This was a modified stairstep track - 6 turns, alternating right & left, using the scuffing pattern outlined in the ‘training exercises’ section. Each leg was 80-115 yards long, total length 680 yards. One food drop on 3rd & 5th legs, 3 on 6th, 2 on 7th. Two types of cover: farm field with ankle high grass & weeds and closely mown soccer field. Cover changes on legs 1, 4,5,6, &7. Also shallow ditch crossing on 6&7. Seren did quite well. I had to cue the down at the start (but not the end) article. Started nicely but did a fair bit of waffling on & off the track, in both directions, on the 1st leg. Got much steadier after the 1st turn. She paid no attention to cows mooing next door or train in the distance. Big truck on park road gave her a moment’s concern but she quickly decided it was safe. Cover changes & ditch were not an issue. Our next session I will aim ...

12-12-23

 Pole Green Park. Sunny, lite wind, 37degrees, short grass. Tracklaying began at 10:10, tracks aged 1 hour. Four start tracks. Used tall, test-type flags at the start of #1 & #3 #1 100yd 1st leg, right turn, 50yd 2nd leg with food at 25 #2 50yd 1st leg, right turn, 75yd 2nd leg. Food midway on both legs #3 50yd 1st leg, left turn, 100yd 2nd leg. Food midway on both legs #4 100yd 1st leg with food at 50, left turn, 50yd 2nd leg Seren did well today. A few cars came by while we were on 1st track & she stopped briefly as if trying to decide if she needed to react to them. Got back to work promptly when reminded. Throughout the exercise, there was some weaving back & forth, but it was easy to tell when she returned to the track. Did not overshoot turns or try to go the wrong direction. Made it obvious when she got to an article, but several times had to be reminded to lie down. During track #3, I thought she was walking oddly at times, & on #4 she actually stopped to ch...

12-6-23

 Pole Green Park. 40 degrees, misty, no wind. Short, wet, brown grass. Track laid @ 7:30 & aged 1 hour, 25 minutes. Stairstep track with food on legs 2,4&6. The stupid handler forgot to put flags in the car - OK, more thought than I had really wanted to put into this, but OK, it was a blind stairstep. The real kicker  was that my start article disappeard while the track was aging. Apparently for Seren, moving the line from the collar to the harness is insufficient cue that we are tracking😂, so the start was rather ragged. However, once we got going, she did well, made all the turns nicely, ate all the food drops, indicated the end article. Perfection will come another day😊 I think next we’ll do some starts, aged about an hour, & then a long distance track at 30 minutes

12-5-23

 Tracking class, Holly Ridge Farm. Sunny, lite wind, ~50 degrees. Cut hay field with minor cover changes. T-type track, top hat with total yardage 453, 4 turns. Seren did very well until last turn, where she tried to make a right turn shortly after the last left. When we were called off the false leg, she was able to recover the last leg & finish the track. Article indications were good, cover change not a problem Judi suggested a stairstep for tomorrow, more very long distance tracks in the future

12-2-23

 Hanover HS, 60 degrees, cloudy, lite wind, short dead grass, dirt moist. Track laid @ 1:00 & aged 45 minutes. This was an article track.  Start was leather belt, food @ 15yds. Plastic soap dish @ 25, food @ 10 after that. At 50, fabric sock tossed~10 feet to the right, food @10 after back on track. Plastic poop bag holder @75, food @85. Right turn @100, also a set of metal keys right on turn. Food 12 yards down 2nd leg. Fabric mask @25, food @35..Another right turn @ 50 yards, with leather glasses case tossed ~8 feet to the left of the turn. Food 10 yards down the 3rd leg, fabric slipper @ 25yd, food @ 35. Metal pipe cover @ 50, food @ 65, plastic ipod @75, food @85. Leather glove @100yds - the end Seren did not indicate the start article very well (Vickie never thought this belt was a proper article either). Also a little weak at the soap dish. At 3rd article, sniffed extensively in area where article would have been if it was on the track, was more insistent than I have...