5-16-24

 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 feet off the track. On the top of the table (NOT the bench) was the article! She couldn’t figure out how to indicate it, so she finally decided to stand on the ground with her back feet & paw at it. I was very proud of her! The rest of the track went beautifully. Obviously at least one person had been on the track in the vicinity of the 1st turn, and Seren was able to ‘problem solve’ her way through the challenge. I will, though, repeat this age at least one more time before increasing it further.

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