1-4-24

 Klehr Field. Overcast, 45degrees, 13mph wind, short brown grass, dirt moist. Track laid 11:15 & aged 30 minutes

Did 2 one-turn tracks, one right & one left. First leg 50yd with food @25, 2nd leg 30 yd. Deliberately overshot each turn by ~10yd, then came back & actually made the turn. First one to the left, 2nd to the right.

On the 1st track, Seren stopped when she ran out of scent, then cast to the left but didn’t go far enough to catch the 2nd leg, tho I was willing to give her more line. Got distracted by some noise in nearby woods. I encouraged her to track with little effect, then re-scented her with the start article & that did the trick. I had backed up almost to the turn by this point, so she easily picked up the scent & went with it.

On the 2nd track she first casted to the right when she lost the scent. Didn’t work all the way back to the 2nd leg until I backed up a bit, but then picked it up readily.

Question for me to ponder & test when circumstances allow - was her casting initially in the direction of the turn just coincidence or had she subliminally picked up the scent going in that direction when she first passed it?

I learned a lot from this exercise. Chiefly was Seren’s loss of scent looks like, as I don’t often get to see it. Also, she is much less prone to slide the line through my hands when she is unsure of where she is going than when she is confident she is on the track. In those instances, backing up is a better option for me to take. And, re-scenting can be of value even if we have only been working for 3 minutes.