Seren tracking

 Taylor Park. Sunny, short damp grass, 55 degrees, 6mph wind, 80% humidity when run. Track laid @7:35&aged 2hr This was a 250yd straight line track with a couple of random extra flags & 6 articles- 2fabric, 2leather, 1plastic, 1metal. Articles were about 40 yards apart with food 10-15 yards after each, except for end article  Seren did fine except she missed the plastic article & I didn’t see it until she was well past it, so I just let it go. The ones she did find she indicated nicely I will work more plastic articles Dylan did a 150yd straight line track with only end article, & it was a glove with food instead of his slipper. Also had 2 meaningless flags. Conditions same but 39 degrees & grass frosty. Pattern was S8, W8, F, W8, S8… there was a bluestone sidewalk towards the end where I scuffed across & put food every other step. This also went well. Several times Dylan lifted his head in response to dogs barking or traffic noise in the distance, but ...

 Windsor Business Park. Weeds recently bush-hogged. Drizzle, 48degrees, no wind, 98%humidity. Track laid @8:30&aged 3.5 hours. Simple 4turn track with food on legs 2&3. Scuffed out of all turns Seren was even slower than her usual methodical self, but accurate. I had to tell her to down at start article. She had trouble finding next leg at the 3rd turn, but I perceived her loss of scent right away. No issues with end article For next session I’m thinking about a youngish article track, which should be fun for her. While Seren’s track was aging, Dylan had another 2turn track in a separate area but with same conditions. Same as yesterday except 1st turn was a right angle to the right & 2nd turn was open angle to the left. Today he skipped almost all the food drops (but not the deer poop) for the entire track. Kept his head down, no difficulty with turns. Still on very short line.

 Brookland Middle school. Short grass, overcast, 45degrees, 2mph, 85% humidity. Track laid @8:50&aged 2hr, 53min Short 4 turn track, food on leg 2, metal article on leg 4.Seren had a nice start, all 3 articles good. Turns good. There was more distracting side scent than I would have expected with school having been out for a week, but she worked through it. I felt like I was reading her well Dylan had a 2 turn track. 1st was 90 degrees to the left, 2nd open angle to the right. At turns scuffed 5 in & 5 out, with food every other scuff. Other than at turns, pattern was S8, W8, F, W8…                             He skipped a lot of food on 1st leg, less as we went along. At turns cast in a 2’ diameter circle both directions before choosing correct way to go. He was on a very short line, head down, moving quickly. Indicated article.            I’m not inclined to change his scuf...

 Judi’s field. Sunny, 34 degrees, 50%humidity, 4mph wind. Track laid @9:30&aged 3hr This was a duration track - see photo for an approximation, start is to the right. Food every 50-100 yd, random. Also several articles. Seren did great. Very nice start. 2nd & 3rd turns showed no loss of scent, she just turned. At 1st turn, which was slightly acute, she went about 2 steps after head bob to the right, then turned. Her only flaw was on a couple of articles, while she definitely indicated them, I had to tell her to down. Did not want to drink on the track or back at the car, showed no evidence of tiring While Seren’s track was aging, Dylan went to Glen Allen High School & did a 100 yd straight line track with pattern of S5, W8, F, W8….. That went very well. He didn’t skip any food drops like he has been doing recently 

 Hanover CH. short grass, sunny, 33 degrees, 5mph, 40% humidity. Track laid 9:55&aged 2.5hr Two 1-turn start tracks. #1 1st leg 75, rt. turn, 2nd leg 100, food @ 15&50. #2 1st leg 125, food 30&75, left turn, 2nd leg 30 Perfect! Dylan: yesterday @ Klehr field. Sunny, 43 degrees, 11mph, 64%. Left him in car while I laid 2 tracks - #1 with a 90 degree right turn, #2 90 degree left. S10, W7, f, W7, repeat a few times. At turns S5 in & out of turn with food every other step. Very interesting — at the first turn, when he got to the turn he sat (dead on the turn) & pondered a few seconds, then went down the 2nd leg. (I did nothing) I have never seen a dog react that way. Track 2, he just took the turn, right on. Today, at HCH, I did the same thing except track 1 had a left turn & #2 a right. Did both turns nicely. While tracking, Dylan stopped & lifted his head several times in response to traffic noise. I did just stopped & waited for him to start up again...

 Taylor Park. Short grass Seren did a 3 turn track with last leg going thru a narrow strip of woods. Aged 3 hours. All articles, including clear soap dish, good. Tentative start, perhaps due to some weird wind currents in that area that I did not think about when laying track. Steadily gained confidence down the first leg. I didn’t see loss of scent indication until ~10ft past 1st turn. I then stopped & she only checked left, finding 2nd leg easily & taking it. 2nd turn dead on, as was 3rd. But after she made the last turn, she had second thoughts, went back & checked to the left briefly, came back & continued on last leg into woods & out to end article. During long straight legs, I let line out to 20’. I continue to gain confidence in reading my dog & reacting appropriately. Day or 2 off, then do some starts. Dylan did the same tracks as yesterday. He made the turns nicely & downed on his own for all articles. I did his tracks across the street from the...

 Surry P&R. Short, wet grass. See map for details. Seren did great! Lovely start, needed verbal cue for start article, not for middle or end one. I felt like I’m getting better at quickly perceiving her loss of scent indication & reacting appropriately. She overshot both turns by 5-6 feet, I followed, she corrected her course herself. Line varied  between 8 & 15 feet.  Dylan’s tracks run fresh. Scuff into & out of turns 10 steps, with food every 3 scuffs. Very accurate with his turns. Gave verbal cue for down 1st track, did it on his own 2nd & 3rd

 Tracking Class at Cool Water. Short grass, overcast, 40degrees, minimal wind. 2 short tracks to work on turns & my handling at such. #1 had 2 left turns & a shallow ditch as an obstacle, laid by Judi. #2 was a 4 turn zig-zag with 1 blind turn, laid by Andrea. Age on both approximately 1 hour. Link for video for #1:    # https://youtu.be/Jizj2p-zuWI?feature=shared Link to video for #2:     https://youtu.be/rNlVI8_aTAw?feature=shared

 Taylor Park. Short grass, sunny, 40degrees, 2mph wind, 60% humidity. Track laid @9:00&aged 2 hrs This was a ‘by the book’ stairstep track. Leash generally held at ~10ft Great start & articles. Seren overshot turn 4  - I let out line to 30’ before she showed loss of scent. She then came back on her own & found next leg easily. On last turn, she turned at the correct spot but made the turn much more acute than 90 degrees. I let out line while turning my head to watch her, then stopped her when line got past the 30’ mark. At this point she was essentially behind me. She just stood there for a few seconds. I called her back to me (I was standing on the track) & with verbal encouragement she eventually looked for & found the last leg, where she got rewarded by finding her favorite glove. Interesting that both turns where there was a problem were going from the same direction to the same direction. Probably just coincidence, but maybe not? Dylan’s lesson was sim...

 Soccer fields. Short, soggy grass, sunny, 43degrees, 15-20mph wind, 50% humidity. 4 start tracks, each leg 50 yd. #’s 1&3 had food on 1st leg & a left turn. #’s 2&4 had food on 2nd leg & a right turn. #1 aged 1 hr, #2 90 min, #3 2hr, #4 2hr 40 min. When tracks were ~1\2 hr old, 2 people with 2 dogs walked almost exactly down 1st leg of track 1, one of the dogs ate the treat & the other peed on the track😒 I used a 10’ line for all. No surprise that start of #1 was a bit of a mess, but it got good after the turn, which Seren readily found. On #4 she overshot the turn & I let the line out to 20’ before stopping her, at which point she came back & found the turn easily. Attitude good throughout, all articles good. I need to start logging what I do with Dylan so that I can remember where I’m at with him. Today 1 straight track scuff 5, walk 5, food, walk 5, scuff 5, etc. Then same pattern with open left turn, scuffing into & out of turn. Then same patte...

 Courthouse Park. Short grass, light rain, 55degrees, 86% humidity, 12mph wind with frequent stronger gusts. Track laid @10:00 & aged 2 hours. I was lacking imagination today, so we just did a by-the-book stairstep track. This was not Seren’s best day. The articles & start were good, & a couple of the turns going into the wind were dead on, but there was a distinct lack of precision for most of the track. Could have been the wind, or that area could have been heavily trafficked yesterday. Or any number of other factors. Will try this again in another location 

 I’m cocky enough to think that Seren’s articles are pretty good (at least at the moment). I can think of a couple of games we could have fun with, but they would involve finding appropriate spaces outside, figuring out how to set up the tripod out there, yada, yada, yada. So I took the easy way out to complete the assignment & cheated by using the dog who actually needs this exercise & used Dylan, even though he isn’t in the class. So that he can start generalizing his indication behavior,  I used 2 articles, each stuffed with food. One is the slipper that I use for his little starter tracks, the other a glove he found at the park last week. He isn’t real fluent with his verbal lie down cue yet, so I stayed pretty close to him. That worked out well as my food tossing skills are not to be bragged about either. In retrospect, I probably should have set the articles up ahead of time, as I’m not sure if the movement or the scent made him go to them. But he was definitely ...

Chamberlayne Elementary.short grass & open woods with no underbrush. Sunny, 35degrees, 6mph wind, 43% humidity. Track laid @ 8:55 & aged 2 hours.  Simple track with 2 turns in the woods. Extra article on leg 2, with food 20 paces after that. 1st & 3rd legs both had a food drop. Nice start & articles. After crossing the running track & before entering the woods, Seren turned to the right, went about 10’ & urine marked, then came back to track. 1st turn very accurate, 2nd one she overshot by ~6 feet but arced back to 3rd leg.

 Klehr field. Short grass, cloudy, 42degrees, 17mph wind, 50% humidity. Track laid @8:45 & aged 1hr45min. We did 2 L-shaped tracks, 1 with a left turn & the other with a right. Each leg ~50yd, 1 food drop per leg. Aced it.

 Hanover Courthouse. Short grass, sunny, 40 degrees, 7mph wind, 40% humidity. Track laid @12:25 & aged 2hr 35min This was a modification of the obstacle exercise on the website, as I couldn’t find a road or parking lot with a long stretch of asphalt suitable for use during the week to do it the ‘right’ way. This site also has a wire field fence along the side by the woods & a privacy fence bordering the last leg. (Seren has worked up against fences many times in the past.) I scuffed out of all turns. In addition to start & end articles, I placed one on legs 2, 5, & 10, with food 10 steps beyond each article. Also 1 food drop on leg 4 & 7. I was pretty pleased with this session. The only areas where Seren had trouble was when cars moved around in the parking lot when we were near that area. She was distracted to the point of being mesmerized at times, but got back to work with some prompting after the vehicle left the scene. She has had this issue in the past ...