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Showing posts from February, 2024

2-28-24

 Pole Green park. Very short dry grass, ground damp. 62 degrees, overcast with intermittent rainfall, 20mph gusty wind. Track laid @ 7:25 & aged 45 min Stairstep track with normal scuffing at turns (6), some variation in leg length, food on legs 2,5,&6. Seren tended to fringe ~2ft downwind of track. No other issues

2-26-24

 Hanover Wayside. Lawn-type grass, dry but with damp ground. Sunny, lite wind, 50 degrees. Track laid @ 9:35 & aged 45min. This was an overshoot the turn track, with extra articles on 1st 2 legs & the unanticipated distraction of maintenance guys blowing leaves, etc. 50-100 yards away. Extra articles (belt & phone on1st leg, hat & slipper on 2nd) were followed by food 10 yds beyond article. First leg was 85 yds with left turn, 2nd was 90 yds with right turn, 3rd leg was 60 yds to glove. Seren had a good start tho had to be reminded to down at 1st 3 articles. Did not show loss of scent until well beyond where I had turned around & come back. Once she did, I had to back up to allow her to find the turn as there wasn’t enough line left for her to do so. Articles on 2nd leg & end article much better, as was 2nd turn. Did not seem concerned about the maintenance men.

2-25-24

 Windsor Business Park. Rough cut grass & weeds, wet with some standing water. Sunny, minimal wind, started laying tracks @8:20 Did 2 one-turn tracks:  #1 first leg 165yd, food every 35, to left turn. Second leg 50yd, no food, to glove. Aged 1 hour. At the start, Seren left flag going in wrong direction about 3 feet to investigate & pee on some sort of poop before starting down the track. Stayed steady on the track, made turn nicely. Had to be told to lie down as she preferred to rip the glove to shreds, but all-in-all, quite pleasing. #2 first leg 80 yds, no food, to right turn. Second leg 110yds, food every 40, to glove. Aged 95 minutes. Good start. Stopped for a few seconds on first leg to look at a fairly wide opening in the brush/woods off to the left maybe 30 yards but her feet never left the track. Good turn & 2nd leg. Again wanted to destroy end article . (If she gets faster at that, could be a problem at a test😂 - I swear there was an article there, judge...

2-23-24

 Surry Park. 56degrees, light rain, minimal wind. Track laid @11:50 & aged 40 min. Classic stairstep, starting on the right. Food on legs 1, 3, 5, & 7 Everything went well Next will do a short track with some age on it

2-21-24

 Having abandoned an ‘overshoot the turn’ track yesterday upon discovering the field was full of sandspurs (after it had already aged an hour!😡), I thought we should try again today. Went to Courthouse Park & put in a 2 turn (1st left, 2nd right) track, overshooting & doubling back to each turn. Food 20 yards after each turn. 1st leg 50 yd, 2nd 100, 3rd 40.Track laid @9:10. Sunny, 40degrees, minimal wind. Slight dew on grass. While that track was aging I laid a 100yd straight track with food every 20 yd to run fresh, just to convince myself that Seren had not been traumatized by the sandspurs. (she hadn’t) Also while my track was aging, a couple of folks with 3 OFF LEASH dogs arrived to play tennis ball. I asked them to move down the (huge) field a bit, explained what I was doing. The guy said sure & then proceeded to let his dogs run up to Seren, got them back with difficulty, & then move down the field, trampling all over my track (2 people, 3 dogs) rather than g...

2-15-24

 Surry County Park. Lawn-type grass, ground damp. Overcast, 50 degrees, 15mph wind with gusts. Track laid @ 12:15 & aged 30 min. Two start tracks with right turns. #1 had 100yd 1st leg & 50 yd 2nd leg. #2 had 50yd 1st leg & 100yd 2nd. Both 100yd legs had food halfway. Seren did great, nothing to complain about

2-14-24

 Judi’s cornfield. Partly cloudy, no wind, 37degrees. Track laid @8:45 & aged 35min. Intent was to pass by fox den to see if Seren could keep her mind on the job at hand. First leg 90yd, starting in grass & crossing into cornfield. Then made right turn towards woods, going across the cornrows. After 110yd, left turn to parallel the woods 150yd to glove. Food every 15-20 yds on 2nd & 3rd legs, plus a lot of scuffing, mostly inadventent.😂 Seren indicated start article & started nicely. Did not seem to think the transition from grass to corn stubble was much of an obstacle. 1/3 to 1/2 of the way down 2nd leg, she went ~10feet off to the left to investigate a VERY intriguing smell - she was sniffing so hard I could feel the vibration in my line. Came back to the track on her own& without peeing or rolling on the spot. Was that fox scent🤷? Went on to do a nice left turn & go down the cornrows to the glove, which was perfectly indicated. So far we know that Sere...

2-13-24

 Surry County Parks & Rec. Lawn-type grass, ground wet. Mostly cloudy, 44 degrees, 30mph steady wind. Track laid @ 12:35 & aged 30 min. Two start tracks, both with left turns. #1 1st leg 100yd, food @ 50. 2nd leg 50yd. #2 1st leg 50 w/ food @25, 2nd leg 100, food @50. Seren did well. Cast very briefly to find the start of #1, everything excellent after that. Seemed much less affected by the wind than in the past - don’t know if it was because it was a steady, rather than gusty, wind or if she is getting better at coping with wind in general. Articles good.

2-11-24

 Pole Green Park rear athletic fields. I thought I was finally going to do a track in real rain, but by the time it had aged 45min it had gone from moderately heavy to a fairly light rain. Oh well. 55degrees, no wind. Lots of large areas of standing water, but I avoided crossing wide areas of running water. This was a simple 2 turn track. 1st leg 95yd to right turn. 2nd leg 130 yd (food @30) to left turn. 3rdleg 125 yd (food @90) to glove just before a 20’ wide area of running water. Seren’s start wasn’t as good as usual - took her a few seconds to find the track, making me wish I had put a food drop about 20-30 yds from the start. First turn was a few feet from the top edge of a small gentle slope & she handled that fine. After paralleling the top of the small slope, at the 2nd turn she would have much preferred to turn right rather than go down the slope to the left, to the point  that I had to restrain her when she got to the end of the line, but she did finally turn ...

Video from 2-10-24

 Here’s the link to the video from tracking class 2-10-24   https://youtube.com/watch?v=GlPiLXWZTaY&feature=shared

2-8-24

 Courthouse Park. Short pasture-type grass with a small portion of last leg ending in soccer field. Track laid @9:50 & aged 2hr. When track was run, 51degrees & 10mph wind, overcast. Start was in corner of field bordered on 2 sides by road & row of cedar trees. Went 120 yards, with food @ 50, to a right turn. 2nd leg 45yd to left turn. 3rd leg 100yd, crossing over ~6yd of asphalt with food in middle of asphalt + 10yd past it, to right turn. Last leg 95yd, with cover change from pasture grass to soccer field. Total length 360 Seren had to work at this one. We approached start at an open angle, as we always do, & she cast in both directions before finding the track, unusual for her. She checked in both directions where tire tracks went across 1st leg,  & to a lesser degree where same tire tracks crossed 2nd leg. Did a fair amount of wobbling back & forth (<5ft) across track in general. No issues with asphalt or cover change, & handled turns nicely....

2-6-24

 Soccer fields. 35 degrees, sunny, 15mph wind with frequent stronger gusts. Short green grass. Track laid @ 9:10 & aged 45min TD type track with an extra article on 3rd leg, food drops on 2nd & 4th legs. 1st leg 85yd to left turn. 2nd leg 130 yd to right turn, going up a small short rise along the way. 3rd leg 55yd to left turn. 4th leg 155 yd, going down short gentle slope on the way, to left turn 5th leg 80yd. Seren generally did well. All articles good. Was mildly affected by the wind. Overshot 3rd turn by ~10 feet to check out intriguing smell past the turn but got back to work on her own. At 4th turn lost scent right at the turn, checked right first, went all the way behind me before giving up, turning around to get back in front & turn left. I think for our next track I will do 3 turns with some significant age on it.

2-3-24

 Article track in tracking class. Judi’s field by road. Tracklayer Anne Morris. Track laid @ 7:59 & aged 30 min. Sunny, 34 degrees, slight breeze. Nine articles in straight line, 25 yds apart, food 10 yds after each article. Bandana, crochet thing, cloth glove, leather glove (off track), leather scrap, umbrella holder, wallet (off track), bandana, plastic bag holder. 1st 3 articles clearly indicated but needed reminder to actually lie down. After that, downed nicely. At 1st off track article, downed on track, then scooted over to it & downed again. At 2nd off track one, left track to find it before lying down. Missed final article completely, had to be called back to it - apparently didn’t feel that it was an appropriate tracking article 😂 This was a fun exercise.