Seren tracking

 Klehr Field. Seren had a 4 turn track with an article on each turn, food 20-35 yd beyond each article. Turns scuffed. Age 30 min She did well. Tried to go straight after the 1st article, but only went 4-5 feet before she realized track didn’t go that way & quickly found 2nd leg. Needed verbal cue to down at one of the articles, others good. Twice had to remind her to stay down until I got to article Dylan had a long straight line track with 3 extra flags, food every 50, scuffed bare spots. Age 20 min He did well, showed no sign of tiring

 Hanover Courthouse. Sunny. Seren did a 2 turn track with 2 road crossings & 1 intermediate article. Age 2 hours. I made a mistake & walked across it in the vicinity of the 1st road crossing & intermediate article while leaving another dog’s track She had a great start & attitude. Needed verbal cue to down for all articles. Had some issues where track was contaminated as well as at 2nd road crossing but she worked through them & never acted like she wanted to quit. All in all a very pleasing session Dylan had a 2 turn blind track laid by Anne. Age 50 min. An error in remembering line-ups caused us to try & make him go off track, but he wouldn’t do it. He also recovered nicely after we corrected our error. Needed verbal cue to down at both articles.

 Courthouse Park. Short, wet grass Seren had a short, 2 turn track aged 55 min. Nice start & 1st turn. Needed verbal to down at 1st 2 articles. At 2nd turn she felt the need to investigate storm drain ~15 feet beyond the turn, then looked like she forgot what she was doing & needed verbal encouragement to get back to work. Good indication at end article. Dylan also had a 2 turn track, but aged 20 min. His challenge was to work close-ish to a moderately busy road. Needed verbal to down at start, did it on his own at end with me 10 feet back. The road turned out to not be an issue when tracking, but when I moved the line to his collar at the end, hang on!

 Taylor Park. Short grass, sunny. Seren had a 3 turn track aged 2 hrs. 2nd leg went through a narrow strip of woods with article just as she exited. Lovely start, 1st turn, woods entry. At article coming out of woods I had to tell her to down & when I looked up there was a man with 2 large dogs on lead standing on the track about 10 feet away. He was probably as surprised to see us as we were to see him. He seemed to want to chat, so I told him we were training & it would be nice if he just kept moving, which he did. Seren had to work 2nd turn & kept veering off of track after that. Got back on when I got behind her & I shortened the line. Nice end & she played with the glove Dylan had a 2 turn track aged 1 hour. He did well, minimally distracted by dog park & vehicle noise. He veered off to the right during second leg, went back to track after I got behind him

 Hanover Courthouse Seren had a 2 turn track aged 1hr & did a lovely job. The only flaw was she needed a verbal to down at start article Dylan had a stairstep track, aged 25 min. & modified to fit the space available. He was quite impressive, minimally distracted by vehicle traffic, & downed on his own at end article with me 10 feet back

 Klehr field. Short wet grass, sunny. Seren had a short, straight line track with 5 intermediate articles, all containing food, plus start & end. Two extra flags along the way, scuffed midway between each article.  What looked like was going to be an enthusiastic start was interrupted by a large group of firetrucks going by with sirens & lights, so the track as a whole turned out to be mediocre. Articles were good, & my plan to keep ants out worked. Have to think more about what to do next time. Dylan did not track today

 Courthouse Park Seren had a 3 turn track, aged 90 min. Needed verbal for down at start, other 2 articles fine. Very nice start & good turns, some ditzing around on straightaways, so I kept her on a 10 foot line. Next time, plan for 2.5hr, shorter track, more scuffing Dylan had a 4 turn track with a cover change (short to tall grass & back). No food in articles. 1-2 food drops per leg, scuff in & out of turns. Age 30 min Going from tall to short grass was a challenge for him. Needed verbal down for both articles. All the rest was good

 Windsor business Park Mostly knee high grass. Sunny. 72 degrees, 2mph wind, 56% humidity. Age 2 hours Seren had 2 turns, food every 20-30, scuff start, turns, & in middle of last 2 legs She did very well. Needed verbal cue for start article tho Dylan also 2 turns, scuff start & in & out of turns. Food every 40, none in articles. Age 65min Quite good! Needed verbal cue to down for both articles. Missed about half of food drops

 Oak Knoll Middle School. Short, wet grass. Seren had a short, 2 turn motivational track, aged 50 min. Scuffed turns. Food every 30 on 1st leg, every 20 on 2nd & 3rd. Start & articles excellent. Cut 1st turn by about 5 feet. Got sidetracked by some scent around trees on 3rd leg, took slight verbal encouragement for her to get back to work. Next session I’ll aim for ~2hrs old. Dylan had a re-gaining scent exercise where I walked past the turns, came back & made turn (scuffed out). Two turns. 1 food drop per leg. Age 15 min. His loss of scent indication was immediate & obvious. Both times he checked left 1st. On 1st turn, took him 2 tries to find the correct direction, got it faster on turn 2. Next track for him, I’ll go for more age.

 Surry P&R. Had planned a short track in the grass with significant age for Seren, but when we got there they were mowing the fields, so I moved her track to the woods as I didn’t want to do another mowed track so soon. Woods had no significant underbrush, but there was a fallen log on the last leg. Track laid @ 9:50 & aged 4hr 35 min. 73 degrees, 47%, 9mph. This was not one of our better sessions. Don’t know if it was just too old, she was tired from herding, or if it had gotten contaminated by the people walking in the vicinity that I saw when we got back to run it. Seren had a really hard time with the start & 1st leg, After the 1st turn things improved & she had no difficulty with 2nd turn. At the log, she could have gone under or over, but not around. She chose over. Good articles. Did not want water on the track or at the car. Dylan had a 2 turn track aged 25 min. High, thin clouds, 65 degrees, 8mph, 61%. Scuffed start & out of turns,  food every 40 s...

 Chamberlayne Elem. After 10 days off, & on a pretty good day for tracking, I made what I thought would be a pretty easy track for Seren. Grass & open woods, crossing some sidewalks & driveways. Track laid @8:40, aged 3 hrs. Drizzly, 70degrees, 12mph, 81%. Intermediate article on 3rd leg. Food & scuffing as shown on map. Again, a not very impressive performance that got better after middle article My plan is to take another several days off & challenge myself to see how easy a track I can make for her. Dylan had a 2 turn track, age 50 min., in knee high wet grass at Windsor Business park.Scuffed start & out of turns, 1 food drop per leg He did great

 Pole Green Park. Short, wet grass with a 10 foot patch of bare dirt. 65 degrees, 6mph, 81%. Dylan did a straight line track with an article every 25-30 yd, food or scuffing ~10yd after each article. Total 9 articles. He was fairly distracted but tracked ok. Needed verbal cue for every article  No track for Seren today