1-8-26
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 water sooner. I did while the camera was off, but she didn’t want any, nor did she want any back at the car.
Next session I plan on the short to tall grass transition at about 3 hours. I have found a better location for this exercise, I hope.
Dylan did a 2 turn track at 1 hour age. The road was not too far away, & he handled the sparse traffic well. He indicated end article on his own, needed reminder to down at the start
That was lovely! Even with the verbal cue for the start article (which he was super interested in 😊), he gave a lovely start. I feel like you hit the sweet spot with that first car distraction of allowing him enough time to process but not so much to let it take over, so nice timing on the 'ok'...and Dylan always seems to return to the track so nicely even after those types of distractions and really nice use of 'good' after return to work following the 2nd car distraction. I also feel like your decisions on when to move up the line (and manner of getting done) were executed well.
ReplyDeleteAt turn 1 I really liked how your cadence stayed the same until you saw LOS (I felt like the flag played more of a role in turn 2). One request for info to include on the map or elsewhere...was there food or scuff anywhere? I can't tell from the map. It looked like there might have been food after turn one, but not sure if he self-reinforced with something that just happened to be there. That end article was spot on…what an indication! I think the only thing I might have done was a few more food drops as extra 'nice job' at that end article though that might just be something that makes the handler feel better :). And, I know you also play with it his "woobie" slipper which is an added bonus.