Seren tracking

 Surry P&R. Sunny, 47 degrees, 3mph, 65%. Short grass wet with dew Seren did not track today Dylan did a 3 turn track, laid @8:25& aged 30 min. S5,W15,F,W15,S5… Scuffed in & out of turns, with food drop at end of ‘out’ scuffing. Meaningless flag placed on leg 3.  Dylan did great with the new turn protocol. Downed at both articles. Leg 2 passed by some bare dirt mounds which may have been dissolved/melted crayfish towers & he felt the need to briefly check those out. Also lifted head fairly often in response to environmental noises, but went back to work. Think I’ll try more frequent food next time we’re in an unfamiliar place to see if that helps. However, he didn’t eat all the food on this track. I remembered to offer water at end article & he drank it.

 Taylor Park. Overcast, 61 degrees, 7mph wind, 43% humidity. Seren did a 2 turn track, each leg 50 yd. Laid @7:50& aged 4 hrs. 2nd leg had a jackpot food drop in the center. I was concerned about ants, so I put the food in a zippered fabric coin purse. I was quite pleased with our performance. At start article, Seren was in a hurry to get started, so she just did a curtsey down & tried to go. I insisted she get her belly on the ground. Her actual start was lovely, as was the 1st turn. Article (containing about 3/4 cup Fresh Pet) indication on leg 2 was lovely. And, she stayed down until I got up there & emptied the food out. I saw loss of scent right at 2nd turn, with a little head snap to the right, but she felt the need to check to the left 3 times, as well as straight ahead, before she actually took the right turn. End article just fine, even without food. No more tracking until Sunday Dylan did a 3 turn track, laid @ 8:05 & aged 30 min. S5,W15,F,W15,S5… Turns sc...

 Seren did not get to track today, but Dylan did a 3 turn track at Klehr field. Sunny, 38 degrees, 2mph, 52%. S5,W15,F,W15,S5… Turns S5 in & out, food in middle of each scuffed part. Food in start & end articles. Dylan did well. Needed help to lie down at start, did it on his own at end . Sniffed corner of chainlink fence when we passed it & came back to track. Was a little distracted by passing cars, but no where near as badly as the last time we were here. Plan is to do similar track again, then decrease food a bit

 Cool Water. In class Seren & I worked on crossing the airstrip and on me letting out line for her to fully take charge of the crossing & of turns. Short grass, sunny, 37 degrees, 4mph wind, 45% humidity. Track laid @10:00&aged 1hr20min. Contrary to what the map shows, last turn was an open angle. Two intermediate articles. Seren did well - no issues with landing strip. She did get muddled up some in an area where there had been another track run earlier in the morning, but got through it. Good start & articles. Link to video: https://youtu.be/9HUwNXau8MU?feature=shared Plan is to do a short 2-turn track, aged ~4hr, on 2-25, nothing else until after the test Dylan did a two turn, one blind & one semi blind, track laid by Ellen. Aged 30 min, temp was in the twenties. S5, W15, F, W15, S5…. Turns scuffed in & out, with food in each scuffed part. He did very well, articles still need work. Will add another turn next session, then cut back to 1-2 food drops per l...

 Cool Water. Seren & I did a blind track in the woods. Track laid by Mary Ann link to video:   https://youtu.be/rUx0sGpY9x8?si=FtXVTcxjv6ibSyNU Dylan & I did a blind 2 turn track, laid by Judi link to video:  https://youtu.be/U8K3ekpnNh4?feature=shared

 Taylor park. Slushy snow & saturated ground. Overcast. Seren’s track laid 9:10 & aged 3 hours. When run, 47 degrees, 15mph wind, 81% humidity. I debated about whether to do this today. I wanted something easy - snow is easy, melting snow is not. But of course I went for it & put in a simple 2 turn track where the only’obstacle’ was a bluestone walkway on leg 2. Leg 1 was 75yd with food every 30, leg  100 yd with food every 20, & leg 3 was 50 with food every 15. I am very glad we went ahead & did this, as it was very reassuring. I got to see exactly how perfect Seren’s turns were, & how she reacted at a cross track, tho that was probably laid yesterday so may not be relevant. She turned her head in the direction the xtrack went, said’nope’ & immediately came back to her track.. Great attitude - she wanted to keep going! I fumbled moving line from harness to collar at the end & she just took off down my leaving the track trail, following the big ...

 Klehr field. Short grass, ground damp. Overcast, 41 degrees, 7mph wind, 57% humidity. Track laid @ 9:10&aged 2hr 10min. This was a stairstep track, scuffed as in the training exercise on the website. In addition to start & end articles, there was an article on leg2 (metal lid), 4 (plastic soap dish), & 6 (leather belt). Each article had a food drop 10 yd after the article.  Seren took a couple of seconds to find the start but then was dead on. I practiced looking away when she got to a turn, she always made the right choice. She got pulled away from the track by ‘stuff’ in the field a couple of times. First time she came quickly back on her own, next time I had to tell her to get back to work. All articles very good. I do plan to do a start track on Thursday. Would love to go out tomorrow & lay a track before the snow starts, then run it after the ground is covered, just for kicks. But the timing is probably not good for that & I do have concerns about dri...

 Forgot to say Seren’s track was 3 hours old

 Judi’s hay field & woods. Anne laid a 3 turn blind track for us. Details are on map.  Not terrible, but certainly could have been better. Seren tried to make a couple of fake turns, & I would have gone with her if Anne hadn’t been there telling me not to. But, one kind of cool thing was that after a fake turn when we got to the real thing, Seren actually pulled hard on the line! It was like she was telling me ‘Just kidding before, but this time I really mean it’. I need to work with that some. I also need to do more semi blind/blind track to sharpen my ‘read my dog’ skills Link to video:  https://youtu.be/k4TsKBnC5_g?feature=shared Dylan did a 2 turn track 20 min. old in the soybean/corn field.  S5,W15,F,W15,S5… He did fine. I’m going to start carrying water & offering it to him at end article - great idea, thank you Anne. (I don’t want to interrupt his tracking rhythm but want to add drinking to his repertoire before he actually needs it.) Link to video...

 Courthouse Park. Overcast, 40 degrees, 6mph, 60%. Track laid @8:40&aged 100min. This was a cover change with turns track. At least 1 food drop per leg, sometimes more. All turns except 5th one scuffed, & there was a fair bit of scuffing on the straightaways in the woods, too - not necessarily intentional. Numbers on map indicate my steps, which are considerably less than a yard, especially in the woods. I estimate total length 450-500 yards. We did pretty well with this one. Seren’s tracking wasn’t her best but I felt like I was reading her well so we didn’t go wrong. I recovered all my flags & clothespins🙂. Start was good. Parallelling the hedgerow was more challenging than it usually is for Seren, but she worked it out. Turn into the woods was good. Hard to say if she indicated metal article in the woods, as there was a pile of animal poop about 18” from it that she tried to roll in. So she did lie down, but… Very nice tracking in the woods. Indicated fabric article...

 Courthouse Park. Short grass, 55 degrees, 6mph wind, 64% humidity. Sunny. Track laid @8:20 & aged 3 hours. We did the acute angle turn exercise today. #1’s 1st leg was 70yd with food at 35, right turn. 2nd leg 50 yd w/ food @ 25.  #2’s 1st leg was 85yd, food @50, left turn to 30yd 2nd leg. Seren’s 1st start was stunningly perfect. At a point ~10yd after food drop she wanted to check to the side in both directions, but especially to the right. I kept her from getting very far off the track & she continued on down the leg, lifting her head at exactly the turn around point, made a tight right turn to get on 2nd leg & on to the end. Did not try to deviate from track on 2nd leg. 2nd start was good, but not as good as the 1st one. Tried to get off track (more to the left this time) at about same spot as on track 1, also tried to cut the corner at the turn. I didn’t let either happen. Loss of scent not as precise as on track 1, but checked left first & found 2nd leg ...