Seren tracking

 Hanover Courthouse. Sunny, 80degrees, 7mph wind. Track laid 12:25& aged 75min This was a short VST-type track with emphasis on working around buildings. 1st leg started on grass, went 80yd with food @40, & ended in a left turn. 2nd leg went 10yd on grass then crossed onto asphalt for 25yd. Then up onto grassy median for 5yd (plastic article in middle) & back onto asphalt for 25yd. Then crossed onto grass for 90yd, going right beside building, 2-4 feet off it. Then a right turn to start leg 3, on a sidewalk with concrete & brick paved areas. Metal article about midway down sidewalk. This leg ended after 85 yd in a right turn onto grass about 10ft off the side of the building Passed a couple of drains & went over a couple short areas of gravel. Leg 4 90 yd to end article. All non-vegetated surfaces were sprayed & had food every 10 steps Seren did very well on this one, working out some problem areas on her own. She still doesn’t think much of my can opener as...

 Poor Farm park. Short grass wet with dew, overcast, 56degrees, no wind. Track laid @7:50 & aged 30 min. This was a modified turn track. Leg 1 50 yd to right turn. Leg 2 45yd with plastic article @20 & food @30, ending with left turn. Leg 3 skirted edge of woods for 60 yd, food @35, ending with left turn. Leg 4 35yd with metal article @25& food @30, ending in right turn. Leg 5 95 yd, crossing sand volleyball court, food @70&80 in the sand, then right turn in the grass. Leg 6 50yd, going into another sand volleyball court, food @ 30&40, to left turn in the sand. Leg 7 45yd, leaving sand, food@20 just out of sand. Seren did a very good job with this. Would have been excellent except missed article on leg 4 (can opener), as did I. Not sure how we missed it - when we went back to pick up flags it was right where I left it, in plain sight…. My only excuse is that I was watching my dog😂. Don’t know what hers is, she did super indications of the other 3 articles After...

  North Park library. Sunny, 68degrees, 5mph wind. Track laid @9:00& aged 45 min. 2 start tracks, both with right turns, entirely on asphalt, 1st leg at curb, turn into the open. Sprayed entire track, food q5-10. #1 first leg 40, 2nd 35. #2 first leg 50, 2nd 35. Put a start flag in grass next to the curb for both tracks. Flag seemed to alleviate  ?confusion? I saw the first time we did this exercise. Nice starts both times. Overshot turn on #1 slightly, & on #2 by about 10feet, but Seren recovered the track on her own - checked right first on both tracks. Good articles. Ants are a problem  Will try a start on grass with no flag sometime soon, just for curiosity’s sake

 First, forgot to say yesterday that track 2 had 40yd legs & a right turn For today, worked on age. Hanover Courthouse, short grass, overcast, 6mph wind. Grass was damp when track laid @ 8:30. 60 degrees when track laid, 69degrees when run 3 hours later. Leg 1 190 yds, food @25,80,130. Went between privacy fence & woods for a while @~100yd.  Open left turn, food @15&75, article @50. After 100yd, right turn to 3rd leg, which was 25yds long, food @10. Lovely 1st article & start. Got hung up near privacy fence eating ? - took too long to be just deer or rabbit poop so I called Seren back to be & told her to get to work, without re-scenting her. She easily picked up track & went on. Overshot 1st turn to the point that when she finally indicated loss of scent I had to back up about 10 steps, but once she found it, all was good. Nice indication of middle article even though she took a second to decide that it really was an article (sunglasses). Overshot 2nd t...

 Klehr Field. Track laid @8:45& aged 40 min. 65 degrees, partly cloudy, light wind  Two start tracks, entirely on asphalt. 1st leg up against curb, 2nd in the open. Track 1 had35yd legs & a left turn. Sprayed entire track, food q 5-10. While track was aging, a group of ~6 people gathered for a group exercise class of some sort & they stretched & danced? directly on 2nd leg of 1st track. Then as they were leaving, one of them kicked Seren’s start article for that track ~2ft off to the side. Once again, more challenges than I had planned for. Seren had some difficulty with the start on track 1. I really think she uses the start flag as a cue that we are tracking. I got her going by tossing food down the track for about 10 yds, & then she was ok. No issues whatsoever on trampled upon 2nd leg. Will have to investigate the start flag hypothesis. Some of the food drops were ant covered. Track 2 went quite well. I plan to do this exercise again soon

 Hanover High School. Mostly short green grass, with one leg in a tangled, briarly mess of a hedgerow. Partly cloudy, mid 70’s, winds gusting up to 35mph. Track laid @ 10:20& aged 90 min. This was the obstacle track outlined under training exercises on the website. The grassy area had close-by fences & hills as additional challenges. I didn’t realize until I was already in it what a nasty mess the portion of the track going in the woods was, & I regret doing that to Seren There were numerous very difficult spots on this track, compounded by the wind & noise from students playing baseball with metal bats not far away, but she handled it like a champ. The area with the blackberry briars was too much for her, & I ended up going right beside her & stomping down the underbrush. Once we got through that, she picked up the ‘easy’ part of the track readily & went on. We’ll do something easy next time! Here’s the link for today’s video. Note that it is mis-labeld...

 Poor Farm Park. Short green grass with lots of standing water on leg 1 & early leg 2. Track laid @8:00 & aged 3 hours. When track was put in, 60 degrees & 10mph wind. When track run, 70degrees & 15 mph wind Short 2 turn track to work on age. Leg 1 75yd, with left turn to leg 2 of 100 yd with food @40&75, article @65. Right turn to 60yd third leg.      All 3 articles very good. Nice start. Couple of small side excursions to check out other scents, got back to work easily on her own. Overshot 1st turn by ~15 feet - thought I was going to have to stop her, but she came back on her own, checked left & found the turn. (combination of age + standing water?) As we were going down 2nd leg, guy with 2 dogs (off lead, of course) crossed the field ahead of us, ~100 yd beyond our track. Seren was quite interested in the dogs, watched them with her head up for several seconds before going back to her track. 2nd turn was lovely. Assessment: not ready to in...