Goal: Straight long track (endurance) with a new food drop pattern of S5w40 (dropping food in between walk steps).
Track 1 :
Time laid: 5:02 PM
Time ran: 5:15 PM
Length: ~ 362 yards
Temperature: 41 F
Humidity: 42%
Wind: 7 mph SSW
We have a good start. She picks up the first article after eating her FD which is great but I don't get a chance to give her extra treats since I notice that her line is still on her collar. As I'm switching it out, I think about how I want to work on staying up close to her today. I try to keep this in mind as we get going. Unfortunately I'm so close to her that for some of this track she is out of the frame. Boy is she moving fast today. I find myself working hard to keep up. She is casting about a little bit as we approach the small tree. Looks like she lost the track for a bit but finds a food drop and recovers nicely. I'm having a hard time feeding out the line and staying still. At 3:16 I could have let her go out longer before moving. We continue "barreling" down the hill until at 3:37 she gets distracted by something on the ground, investigates, and decides to go back to the track (good pup)! At 4:21 she displays loss of scent (this is where someone playing disk golf had crossed our track a few minutes before we ran it). For a few moments she tries to follow the cross track to the right but I hold fast. As soon as she picks the correct direction I let her go. There again, I could have let out my line more and then follow. We finally make it to the article and with some verbal encouragement she picks it up. This was the best track we've done in the past couple of weeks. She was moving forward, on the job, having a great time. I was hoping to make this a fun track for us since we've been struggling some this week. I'm super happy with the outcome.
A beautiful sunset:
I had a few minutes while waiting for someone to join zoom meeting. This looked great! That was so forward going for her. You're identifying the "I could have let more line out" before falling so I think you'll just get better at that. I saw your answers to may questions in the other post. Since I haven't been with you in person for a while, talk to Jen and Mary Ann about the two approaches (drop scuff vs keep scuff but increase distance bt food drops). I'd also ask about adding distance between the scent pads, and trying to increase age (I know you're trying to get sessions in before full dark so young track is better than no track!).
ReplyDeleteThanks Anne! I'll talk to them on Saturday :) Yes, increasing age will be more possible when daylights savings is back and I'm not chasing the sun. Good reminder though since I haven't added that to my rotation yet and need to.
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