Seren tracking

 Library Seren- short 3 turn track mostly in woods which I hoped she would think was fun. Age 3 hr 15 min. The end of the wall after the 1st turn posed an unexpected challenge. There were some odd wind eddies, perhaps blowing the scent of the end article toward her. She handled it well, I thought. Also, she really didn’t want to lie down on the branch by the article in the woods, but figured out how to orient her body to avoid that. Expected challenges were the big path going into the woods & the edge of the woods are popular dog walking areas tho we didn’t see any today. I think I was successful in making this as fun track, as she wanted to keep going after the end article. Note: poison ivy is out☹️ https://youtu.be/ZJ3cqXgpGU4?feature=shared

 JSR Park Made essentially the same track for Seren that Dylan had on 4-9, except hers was 4 hours old. The only problems I noted were that she found something nasty off to the right as we came out of the woods & then she encountered a patch of butterfly weed shoots which she thought were quite tasty. I’m hoping they haven’t sprouted yet in OH. Start, articles, & turns were all good. https://youtu.be/w1IyUsYnViQ?feature=shared

 Trevvitt school Both dogs had a 2 turn track with an article on each turn. Two dogs & a human walked across the area right before I started laying the tracks. Seren - age 3 hr. Nice start & articles. No problem finding new direction after articles. Some moments where she seemed to be distracted by things that I couldn’t perceive    https://youtu.be/OMgSUdEm83Y?feature=shared Dylan did better at concentrating on the job at hand than in our last couple of sessions, & he is improving at working in contaminated areas. Started tangentially to actual track at start & 1st turn. Articles 50-50. No problem with direction change at articles. Age 2 hr. https://youtu.be/dtkzN3i0lMg?feature=shared

 Surry P&R Aim for both dogs was a short, young track that I hoped they would have fun with. Both had 2 turn track, turns not flagged, age about 1 hour for Seren, 45 min for Dylan Seren thought this was a piece of cake after yesterday’s track. I could see LOS immediately at both turns, tho it took her a couple of steps to find correct direction. https://youtube.com/watch?v=62k-zAOJ7JQ&feature=shared Dylan thought 1st leg & turn were difficult (?wind, pollen up his nose?), but after he settled in it was quite nice. 2nd turn was dead on. https://youtube.com/watch?v=LX0zjl6vGHQ&feature=shared

 Dorey Park Seren: 8 turn stairstep, age 4 hr Arrived back at Seren’s track to find mowing going on over it. Decided to give it a go but to be prepared to quit at any point. She did remarkably well. Some of the food drops (very lightweight freeze dried liver) had been scattered. She tried to find what she could but didn’t get far off the track. Article on leg 3 (yellow sock) so she just indicated the next piece of trash she came upon. Article on leg 7 was all chopped up but she indicated a piece of it. End article was gone, so I threw out my ‘spare’ This track was far from perfect, but I was very proud of my dog https://youtube.com/watch?v=cNQNlI7vXzw&feature=shared Dylan: 4 one turn starts, ages 1.5, 2, 2.5, & 3hr. Turns not flagged He had a hard time with #1 as other dog walkers appeared in the distance from opposite directions just as we were starting. When he was able to disregard the distractions he had no trouble following the track. one of the dog/human pairs walked ...

 Kelly’s farm Seren:  track re-acquisition practice. 4 turn track, age 1 hour. 2 of the turns were acute, one of the right angle turns had an article on it. She had some trouble with the 2nd turn, I believe because it was too close to the end article & the scent from that confused her. (a problem with using ground markers). Other turns were good, tho, as was start & articles https://youtu.be/kL4Q6Gjbg-k?feature=shared Dylan:  simple 3 turn track to work on increasing age. Turns not flagged. Age 2.5 hours. Overshot all turns, especially 2nd, but figured them out. was very attracted to the light post, but did not lift his leg on it. https://youtu.be/wTDlvZEfoIM?feature=shared

 Taylor Park Seren:  road crossing obstacle track. Age 3 hr, 1 intermediate article Not bad. She was affected by the wind somewhat, but groundskeepers working right on her track & the warm temperature did not seem to be a problem. Interesting- several times recently she has downed as soon as she catches the scent from of the next article. I don’t know what to make of that   https://youtu.be/ybpnBsk-O60?feature=shared Dylan: 8 turn stairstep, 6 turns flagged, 2 with clothespin as ground markers. Age 1 hour. Loose dog with person had been all over at least the 1st part of the track about 15 min before it was run, & shelter dogs being, walked provided significant distractions while we were running track. However, no article were  missing & all food drops appeared to be in place. Fairly mediocre performance. Had some issues with turns 2&3, I think not so much that he didn’t know where track was, but more that he had difficulty keeping his mind on the task...

 Trevvett School Article tracks for both dogs. Article every 25 paces, food 10 paces past article. Seren’s track had a couple of articles tossed off to the side. Seren’s track aged 1 hour, Dylan’s 45min. Seren did well except missed soap dish article, which has always been difficult for her. Dylan needed  verbal cue to down at 50% of articles Seren video    https://youtu.be/0wQqd0-tCYM?feature=shared Dylan video     https://youtu.be/ANvB2grHDNs?feature=shared  

 Dylan:  young, short track with significant cover changes, 2 intermediate articles. Articles sucked today, but tracking itself was quite good. Cover changes did not appear to be an issue. Space & time considerations will determine whether we do an article track or a stairstep next https://youtu.be/5_XU8AiM6Cc?feature=shared

 Surry Parks & Rec Seren:  Long distance track, incorporating some woods, age 35 min, 3 turns, 4 intermediate articles. I saw no evidence that the distance was a problem. She had a little difficulty around the tractor just after the 2nd  turn but worked it out. There was a strong petroleum odor around there when we ran the track, which of course I didn’t notice during tracklaying. She did get blown off some by the wind at times, most notably at the end when she lay down about 15 feet downwind from the article. The sun was in my eyes when we came out of the woods & I didn’t perceive that she was that far off the actual track.  Will work on off-track articles more - both dogs could use this. https://youtu.be/SEZmCxt8HjQ?feature=shared

 Dorey Park Seren:  Taking another stab at doing a 4 hr start track. One food drop on 1st leg, alternating food & scuff every 10 steps on 2nd. I thought this was pretty good. Very nice start, didn’t find food on 1st leg (new variety) & quickly gave up on it. Significantly overshot turn, I think because wind was at our back on 1st leg & was blowing pretty hard just then. LOS was subtle but then she stopped almost immediately. A little difficulty finding leg 2, but eventually did & I think was adequately reinforced. So this track was good for building attitude & confidence https://youtu.be/JbDY3BvbG3A?feature=shared

 Trevvett Elementary School  Seren:  8 turn stairstep, all in the open. Age 3.5hr Not particularly proud of this one, tho it had its moments. I’m thinking the heat is more of an issue for her than when she was younger. Will definitely do some starts next https://youtu.be/i6OYhdh46g0?feature=shared

 Capital Park Seren:  4 one turn start tracks #1 - age 1 hour. 52 degrees. This went well. She overshot turn, which was not marked, but re-aquired the track easily. I have never thought she was cued by flags, but I may be mistaken about this. Will pay more attention in the future https://youtu.be/JZP4JGmTHg4?feature=shared #2 - age 2hr. 54 degrees. Again, went quite well. Did better with the turn on this one. https://youtu.be/DqinnBDhHi8?feature=shared #3 - age 3hr. 55 degrees. Ended up running what is marked as #4 on the map for this one as by the time 3 hours came around a guy had taken up residence on #3 & was practicing his soccer moves. Seren has gotten better about her soccer ball noise aversion, but not good enough to want to approach the start flag, so we just moved on to the next track. She did quite well going away from soccer guy, but the turn would have caused us to go parallel to where he was playing & she didn’t think that was a good idea even though I co...