Seren tracking

 Cool Water Dylan tracking class. Age 30min. Cloudy, cold, windy https://youtu.be/VikyowNKhpY?feature=shared

 Capitol Park Seren did 4 start tracks. #1 was 2hr old, weather overcast, 38 degrees, 2mph, 60%. Laid @7:35 video:  https://youtu.be/Dlgh4lw0tCY?feature=shared #2 was 3hr old, 44 degrees, 3mph, 49% laid@7:39 overcast video:  https://youtu.be/Co4is0C8Vos?feature=shared #3 was 4 hr old, sunny, 4mph, 39%  laid @7:43 https://youtu.be/b-Oe0lBNbYM ?feature=shared #4 was 5hr old, sunny, 5mph, 30%   double laid @7:47   https://youtu.be/m2NOZMEdA7s?feature=shared Her worst start was on the 2 hr track, maybe because there was some construction noise coming from a long ways off. I thought the 3 hr one was best.

 Dorey Park, Dylan only. Two turns, age 30min. Sunny, 46degrees, 10mpg, 52%. This was a modified article track, with an article in the middle of each of 3 legs & one at each corner. Only start was scuffed. No food in articles but food 15-30 steps after each article except start & end. Design was to help me learn to keep my feet still until proper time, reinforce Dylan’s auto-down & practice his track re-acquisition. Lots of dog walkers at the park this morning. Dylan felt the need to keep an eye on them. Didn’t get into too many side-scents, tho. Downed without verbal cue for 71% of articles. On the video I noted one spot where I started moving too soon. https://youtu.be/1rUDaJ4s2ZM?feature=shared ,  with

 Judi’s field Dylan did a 3 turn track going past groundhog hole at 1st turn. Scuffing & lots of food at groundhog area. Age 40min. Sunny, 28degrees, 5mph, 40%. He has apparently forgotten about the automatic down at articles, so that needs some review, but generally did well. While he found plenty of scents that needed checking out off to the side, he paid no attention to the groundhog home or most of the food all over that turn. Maybe one of these days I will be able to reliably intuit ahead of time what my dogs consider difficult and easy. He overshot 2nd turn a bit - he may find open turns as confusing as I do. There was no flag at that turn, so he may be using them to signal an upcoming turn. Other 2 turns were dead on, even tho I had put in flag for turn 1 way earlier than usual. video  https://youtu.be/uhpByZvACS8?feature=shared

 

 

 I made what I hoped would be a fun track for Seren. At North Park library, mostly in woods, 4 turn track aged 3hr45min. Two articles in woods, 1st with food. Sunny, 38 degrees, 11mph, 56%. Two dog walkers leaving area as we arrived to run track. Lots of fresh footprints in mud around start, so Seren was a little slow to get going, but did well after that. Guess I should work on starts next session as this is 2 in a row with funky starts. Walked right over end article!!?? Can’t attach photos, link to video: https://youtu.be/oz7T46x8GvM?feature=shared After a week away at sheep camp for him, I made a 2 turn track for Dylan that went along 2 sides of a pond. 45 min old, lots of food along the water, most of which he ignored. Lots of distractions from side scents - critters, other dog scents…? but reacquired track easily. Wasn’t bothered by water. Articles could have been better. Short grass with light snow. Sunny, 30 degrees, 7mph, 69%. Lovely turns. Unable to attach photos of maps, ...

 Poor Fam Park Seren did a 4 turn track which crossed a ditch with water in it, tho less water than when I scouted it a few days ago. Article on 4th leg, after the ditch, had food in it. There was some dog walking & playing fetch activity on the track, particularly 4th leg, as well as humans without dogs. Given the level of fresh contamination, I thought she did pretty well, always coming back to the track after distractions. All articles & food drops remained, surprisingly. Start was kind of wonky, articles were good. No issues with water crossing. We’ll do this again in a couple of weeks  https://youtu.be/WJBNkpnaiMM?feature=shared  video

 Seren tracking class at Cool Water She had a 4 hour old track with 2 left turns, some mild cover changes, & a crosstrack on 2nd leg. MaryAnn laid track, I forgot who did crosstrack for us.  video  https://youtu.be/Fk2GLPeEvZo?feature=shared   

 Dylan’s tracking class at Holly Ridge Dylan had an article track, laid by Anne. Age 40 min. Raining, no wind. He laid down on his own for 50% of the articles. Later he did an abbreviated stairstep, same tracklayer & conditions. Did very well, I thought. 

 Pole Green Park Having another try at change of cover from short to tall grass for Seren. Did a better job of scouting & found tall grass that was more manageable than the last time I tried this here. Track age 3 hours, 2 turns. Both turns scuffed in & out. No food in start article, was food in intermediate & end ones. Coming out of tall grass crossed dirt road that had a little human traffic, including dog walker immediately after track was laid. From road went a few yards into woods. Road heavily fooded. I was pretty happy with this. She hesitated going into the tall grass & then found a mouse a little ways in - don’t know why she’s so into crittering lately, Dylan must have taught her. No issues with turns or crossing road into woods. Articles good. I’ll do some more cover transitions in the coming month & gradually increase age, maybe 3 hrs 30-45 min. next time. Before that, tho, I want to do some crosstracks & a stream crossing video  https://yout...

 Judi’s field Seren had a 3 turn track, 2 intermediate articles (1st with food). Designed for the only challenge to be age, which was 5 hours. After looking at the video, I’m not as disappointed as I felt in real time. She had a lovely start & 1st turn. There were some wobbles on the 1st leg, I assume checking side scents. Her 2nd turn looked like it was going well until she got distracted by the groundhog hole (which of course I didn’t see when laying the track) & then had trouble getting back on track. Major part of this snag was my poor handling - I was vague on line-ups as the light had changed dramatically (turn was flagged but over the hill), I was too slow to throw out the start article & call it. But, when I took the line off the harness so we could just go collect articles, she seemed eager to get back into it. So when we got to the article on 3rd leg & she indicated it, I hooked the harness back up & she finished strongly. Also, I should have offered w...

 Poor Farm Park Seren had a short, easy, 2 turn track, age 2 hr 45 min. Intermediate article (metal) on 2nd leg. She did very well. https://youtu.be/UQ-gVYUKQQY ?feature=shared Dylan passed his certification track today. No map or video

 Pole Green Park Seren had a short 3 turn track incorporating tall weeds & brush - no briars, but unanticipated fallen vines & weeds difficult to walk in so used lots of food & made track shorter than planned. Planned Age 2 hrs 45min. About an hour before time to run track, the cross country kids showed up & began a series of  20-30 kids running down 1st leg & crossing 4th. After I observed that they intended to do this multiple times I decided the combination of very challenging cover & severe human contamination, after doing a fairly difficult track last time out, had too high a potential of being severely demotivating & gave up on this track. Took Seren with me on lead (no harness) to pick up flags & articles, to give her something to do & do see how she handled the tall cover. It was interesting- she indicated start article, but made no attempt to track on 1st leg. Once into the tall grass, she followed the track & indicated the arti...