Seren tracking

 Chamberlayne Elementary. Short grass & open woods. 78degrees, 10mph wind. Mostly cloudy, intermittent rain while track aging. Track laid @ 9:00 & aged 2 hours Started on grass, went 70 yd (food@40) to right turn Leg 2 115yd, crossing running track & going into woods. Food @65, after 2nd track crossing & at 95, just after entering woods. Ended @ right turn in woods. Leg 3 80 yd, article @ 25, food @ 35, then went over medium sized fallen tree. Ended with a left turn. Leg 4 120yd, food @55, going out of woods to end on grass. Good start & articles. Seemed to have no trouble knowing where track was or finding turns, but just very distracted by what I assume were extraneous scents. Next time I use this site I think I will do a few very short tracks, with or without a turn, with lots of scuffing & food.

 Library. Cloudy, 70degrees, 5mph wind. Track laid @9am & aged 10 min. Two 1 turn tracks, all on asphalt. Tracks sprayed, food every 15. #1 90yd, left turn, 50yd. #2 80yd, right turn, 10yd to opposite curb, end article on grass at upper edge of curb. No start flags Much better attitude than yesterday. Overshot both turns significantly but came back on her own & easily found 2nd legs. Good articles except end of #2 - briefly glanced at it but did not down, wanted to keep tracking across the lawn where I exited.

 Pole Green park. Short grass, wet with dew. Sunny, 6mph wind, 71degrees. Track laid @7:45 & aged 45min. This was a 6 turn stairstep, 1st turn to the left, each leg 60-75 yd long. Metal article on leg 3, plastic on leg 5, food on 2, 4, &6. All articles excellent. Rest of track meh. Seren didn’t make errors, but she showed no enthusiasm, stopped several times to just meditate & had to be reminded to get back to work. I think next time we should do 2-4 start tracks with 0-1 turn each, run fresh to try to improve motivation 

 Chamberlayne Elementary School. 63 degrees, minimal wind, overcast, not raining but quite wet. Short grass & open woods with minimal underbrush. Track laid @10:10 & aged 70 minutes.  Leg 1 80 yds on grass, crossing fairly deep ditch @40, food @50, ending in a left turn. Leg 2 crossed ditch again @10 (it had turned & was shallower here), then entered woods, food @25, went over log @95, then right turn at 100yd. Leg 3 crossed another log @10 with article tucked behind it, food @20, total 75 yd to left turn. Leg4 went out of woods, food @30, crossed bluestone running track, turned left after 70. Leg 5 was 50 yds to end article. Not our finest performance! Start & 1st leg were good, no issues with deep portion of ditch. At 1st turn, checked right initially, then picked the correct direction. Began to struggle at 2nd ditch crossing & woods entrance, lots of side excursions on 2nd leg, went around instead of over first fallen log, but that was only about 5ft. In...

 Hanover Courthouse. Short grass. Sunny with a few clouds, 12mph wind, 74 degrees. Track laid @9:30 & aged 3hr 15min. This was a ‘building up age’ track. Leg 1 85yd to left turn. Leg 2 60yd (food@25) to open right turn. Leg 3 60yd, metal article @25& food @35, ending in an open left turn. Leg 4 60yd, plastic article @35& food @45 , ending in right turn. Leg 5 35yd, food @20, ending in right turn. Leg 6 80yd, food @30&60, crossed gravel road 65-70. End article leather, start fabric. At first I was a little discouraged with this. Start article was good, but then it took Seren a few seconds to find the track. I attributed this to the gusty crosswind. Overshot 2nd turn by about 20 feet & then had a hard time finding 3rd leg. I re- scented her twice, & she was going the right way, but didn’t seem confident, lots of small side excursions. I was on the lookout for the metal article, which I knew was coming up when she went off to the left to a picnic table about 15...

 Here’s the link to the video of today’s track:  https://youtu.be/b9mHiOnRaq0?feature=shared  https://youtu.be/b9mHiOnRaq0?feature=shared

 Hanover CH. Sunny, 63degrees, 10mph wind. Track laid @ 10:05 & aged 50 minutes This was a semi-blind track, laid by Valerie, on grass & asphalt pavement. On asphalt used spray & food every 5-10 steps. 1st leg 100yd on grass, then right turn toward parking lot. 2nd leg crossed into parking lot in driving lane between rows of parking spots. Small raised grassy areas with curbs separated the parking slots. Plastic article on 2nd leg. After 75 yd, left turn centered between rows of parking slots. 3rd leg went 50 yd to end article.  Seren did very well with this. Great start & articles. Had some difficulty staying on the track after it passed between the first set of raised curbed areas, but after the 1st set she had that scenting problem figured out. A good learning experience for both of us!

 North Park Library. 70 degrees, thin clouds, 6mph wind.Track laid @ 7:25&aged 45 min. Did 2 start tracks with 1st leg against curb & turn out into open parking lot. No start flags. Sprayed entire tracks, food every 10 steps. #1 had 100 yd 1st leg, left turn, 25yd 2nd leg. #2 100 yd 1st leg, right turn, 30yd 2nd leg. Used dry treats, but ants were still an issue. Nothing to be unhappy about with this exercise today. Seren is catching on to the idea that you don’t need a flag to start

 Windsor Business Park. Wet grass, sparse in places, varied from knee to waist high, lots of weeds, including some young blackberries. Overcast, 68 degrees when run, 6mph wind. Not a heavily trafficked area. Track laid @8:55& aged 3 hours. occasional light rain while track aging. Simple 2 turn track to work on age. Leg 1 50yd to right turn. Leg 2 75yd, food @ 30, to left turn. Leg 3 100yd to end. Seren was excellent! My only criticism was that she spent longer than necessary eating some grass on the 3rd leg. My path was easily visible in the grass so I could see how right on it she was, as well as what a crooked line I walked😂. I think it’s OK to bump up the age a little the next time it’s convenient to run an older track.

 Hanover Courthouse. Overcast, 60 degrees, 5mph wind. Mostly short, damp grass, but crossed 2 brick roads & 1 gravel road. Also crossed 4 concrete sidewalks, 2 brick sidewalks, & 1 made of asphalt. Track laid @ 9:15& aged 1 hour I thought this was a good day to do an endurance track. Although I wasn’t able to get in as much distance as I had planned, this was still considerably longer than we have done recently. Leg 1 was 100 yd, food @ 55, ending in a left turn. Leg 2 was 130, crossing an asphalt road, food @20&120, ending in a right turn. Leg 3 was 75yd, plastic article @50, ending in a right turn. Leg4 was 150 yd, food @20,45&100, crossing 3 concrete sidewalks & a gravel road, ending in a left turn. Leg 5 180yd, crossing asphalt walkway, a road, a concrete sidewalk, & 2 brick sidewalks. Metal article @35, food after each walkway or road. Seren did quite well. All articles perfect! Start & all turns good. Had a little trouble picking up track again...

 Klehr Field. Sunny, 70 degrees, 3mph wind, mostly short grass. Track laid @8:45& aged 25 min. This was a short track with multiple obstacles, most of which Seren had seen before. First leg 115 yd, crossed a small (I could step over it) stream, continued on to where stream had turned & had large stones in stream bed & on bank, then across an asphalt walkway, between some bleachers & a small building, & past some sort of metal rack. Ended in right turn. Leg 2 90 yd with metal article & crossed asphalt walkway, ending in left turn right past the walkway. Leg 3 (125 yd) went past some bleachers, crossed walkway at a diagonal, plastic article, up some steps made of landscape timbers & dirt, across walkway to retaining wall surrounding a small building. Wall was ~1ft high on the down side, knee-high on upside ~ 5yd later, then 10yd to the end. I lost track of all the scuffing & food drops I did (it was a lot), but I did not spray any of the small non-vege...