1-1-25

 Courthouse Park. Track laid @8:55&aged 3 hours. Sunny. When run, 51 degrees, 50% humidity, wind 16mph with gusts to 30

This was a ‘change of cover’ track, with 1 or 2 turns in the new cover. Google Earth’s photo is out of date, so I had to improvise a lot, but the spirit of the exercise was still there. Wind was blowing from left to right on the map. Start & leg 1  was in a strip of short grass between parking lot & tall grass. 

Seren had a terrible start & 1st leg. She kept going off to the right, & stepping over behind her did not make her come back to the track like it usually does. Could have been wind effect, contamination, or the lure of deer poop in the tall grass, who knows. I was using a 10 foot line. She made the 1st turn early & gradually got further off to the right munching on deer poop the whole way. I never saw a loss of scent indication, I think because she never was actually following my scent. When I realized how far off the track we were, I stopped her & backed up to the 1st turn & after re-scenting, restarted from there. Much better! She found & indicated the article on the 2nd leg (same one she missed yesterday) & was stellar from then on. After the 2nd turn, I could see 2 people & 2 dogs walking down 4th leg, I don’t think actually on our track, but close & parallel to it. They appeared to have no effect on Seren. She made the 3rd turn nicely & moved briskly down 4th leg, indicating another plastic article. Went into woods without hesitation & made the 2 turns in the woods quite precisely. Coming out of the woods she briefly checked left & right (just a head turn) & continued straight to end article.

So a happy ending despite the agonizing beginning!




Dylan got to do his track before the wind got too bad. Two turns to the left, 1st open, 2nd 90 degrees. Short soccer field grass, S8,W8,F,W8, S8, etc. Scuff in & out of turns, food every other scuff.
He did great, was not distracted by anything, ate all the food drops. Downed on his own at the article.

I plan to do the same track with turns in the other direction, then start playing with the scuff/walk pattern


Comments

  1. Jack's JourneyJanuary 1, 2025 at 4:05 PM

    sounds like there were some challenges on her track. and yes, who knows why she was off on the first two legs. glad you backed up to the turn to get things righted. have you done any track re-acquisition work where you walk straight and then take two giant steps to the right (for example) and then proceed straight. so the loss of scent is more startle-ing and she has to search for it. if you do one, i would surely do a jackpot food drop or an article within 30 yds of the new parallel track.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seren trackingJanuary 2, 2025 at 3:08 AM

      I have done this, but not in a long time. Thanks for the reminder

      Delete
  2. JudiJanuary 1, 2025 at 4:59 PM

    The other re-acquisition game to play is to put multiple articles on the track. As she indicates, move off the track to reward her—up to 6’ off the track. And let her refind it. obviously you’ll lay the track after the article such that she’s likely to find it. Over time, turn and face away from the track, or face the direction from which you came. Make it her responsibility to find and take the track.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seren trackingJanuary 2, 2025 at 3:16 AM

      This one I have not done, as I do not reward her (except with praise) at the article itself, but with food a little ways down the track. Maybe I could modify it by having the article a little ways off the track, go to her to pick it up, pet & praise, & have her refind the track from there. If that goes well, then add in the turning away part?

      Delete

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