8-31-24

 Cool Spring Elementary School. 73 degrees, 3mph wind, 81% humidity, cloudy. Short grass wet with dew. Track laid @ 9:20 & aged 25 min

Since we had taken a few weeks off, & because it was a relatively cool day, my plan was to do a simple track on grass only (maybe crossing a sidewalk or two) where the only challenge was a pretty long length. However, my plan was thwarted by ongoing construction & associated fencing in the area where I wanted to work, so track laying was kind of a ‘wing it’ situation.

Start was on grass & 1st leg went 170yd, with food @ 40 & every 10 where it crossed a concrete sidewalk, asphalt road, another sidewalk. Ended with right turn. 2nd leg 140yd on grass, plastic article @30, food @40&100, another right turn. 3rd leg up a slight hill into open woods with minimal underbrush, fabric article @40, food @50. Out of woods to cross asphalt road (food in middle) back to grass. Ended in another right turn after 75 yd. 4th leg went back into woods, fabric article @30, food @50, left turn in woods after 50 yd. 5th leg went 55yd total, came out of woods to road, metal article on road @25, food @35 on sidewalk, back to grass, ending on yet another right turn. 6th leg went 45 yd on grass, ending in corner of L-shaped building with leather article. As tracklayer, my only way out was to parallel the 1st leg for ~100yd of it, from about 15 yd away.

Seren did quite well with this. Start was excellent. She did investigate my return route at a couple of places, where I restrained her from going too far but did not speak to her until she was back on track & going in the right direction, when I told her ‘good’. At the metal article in the road, she nosed & pawed but did not lie down until I told her to. All other articles were excellent. As we approached our 1st turn a man with 2 pit-looking dogs was walking perpendicular to our track & beyond the turn, maybe 40yd away. The dogs were snarling, barking, & pulling on their leads, but luckily the man was strong & seemed sensible. Seren totally ignored them

While not what I had in mind for today, (total length was 535yd - I had wanted about 1000) I was pleased with Seren’s performance. Will aim for something easy next time

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