11-17-24

 Hanover Courthouse. 58degrees, 3mph wind, 59% humidity, high thin clouds. Did the crosstrack exercise on the website. Main track laid @8:55& aged 3 hours, XT fresh.

Great start, all articles excellent. Overshot 1st turn by ~5ft, quickly recovered on her own. At 1st XT, Seren turned left (backtracking!🤷). I let out 30ft. of line & as soon as I quit playing out the line, she turned around, came back across the main track & went 30ft to the right. When she ran out of line she came back & picked up main track with no difficulty. Second turn was at edge of road, & Seren REALLY wanted the track to cross the road. This time I only gave her about 10 extra feet of line & she reluctantly came back to 3rd leg, which paralleled the road. All remaining turns were up to usual Seren standards. Second XT, she turned left, which was the way the track went this time, & came back after 20 feet, continuing down main track. Third XT, she turn her head in each direction but did not attempt to turn. Fourth XT didn’t even get a head turn.

It would seem that this exercise was as educational as it was meant to be! It will be interesting to see what the next step holds.


Comments

  1. JudiNovember 17, 2024 at 3:51 PM

    Perfect! I’d be careful about letting her go 30’ down a cross track—once you stopped her she made a better decision so I’d encourage the better decision rather than let the error continue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seren trackingNovember 17, 2024 at 5:13 PM

      What’s the maximum distance I should let her go the wrong way? And is it different for casting or just making a wrong turn?

      Delete
  2. Anne (Mila)November 17, 2024 at 4:14 PM

    Nice Betty and Seren! I don't have much to add about x-tracks, other than I look forward to seeing what the next attempt shows. Mila is such a latent learner that I always give her a day off after I can tell she burned some mental juices. I'd be inclined to give Seren a day off from tracking tomorrow...JMO...other can chime in and say disregard this w/out hurting my feelings!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seren trackingNovember 17, 2024 at 5:21 PM

      Generally speaking, time interval between tracking days doesn’t seem to matter much to Seren, but I am always on the lookout for burnout, so that is good advice. I also have to take into account the time available for tracking - aging training tracks is a royal pain, even more so when taking into account main track & XT

      Delete
    2. Anne (Mila)November 18, 2024 at 7:01 AM

      Also, I checked with Judi and the x cross track exercise is for consecutive days so disregard :). And yes, Seren has more mental fortitude that Mila :)! Happy tracking!

      Delete
  3. Jack's JourneyNovember 18, 2024 at 4:18 AM

    Looks like she was getting the idea as she went along. I would not let her go down the crosstrack leg at all in training. If you use this track design, I would have the article following the first crosstrack 15 FEET beyond - not yards. I want a visual and I want her to pick up speed getting to it. Then the second article after the second crosstrack 20 FEET. Then keep moving it out. I can remember Judi telling me to RUN with him as he learned that the article was up ahead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seren trackingNovember 18, 2024 at 9:56 AM

      Too bad I didn’t see this before we went out today, but there’s always tomorrow. The shorter distances might be good, especially for 1st XT. I have been using very visible articles & ones with lots of scent, tho. I will say, however, that if I were to run with Seren, even my crippled old self would get there first😂

      Delete

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