December 10, 2022 - Stair Step

 

Location: DRH (field next to road and warmup rings) 

Conditions: cloudy, slight breeze, moist air, 48F

Cover Type: thick grass with spread manure

TL: 9:48am TR: 11:48am 

Tracks: 1 stair step track ~350 yards (legs 3 and 5 were only about 40 yards because I ran out of room; legs 1, 2, 4, 6, & 7 were about 55 yards each.

Articles: S: leather piece; 2. blue canvas/suede glove; 3. wallet; E: bandana (all w/food and I worked hard to wait those full three seconds before saying good😀)

I placed food after turns per your suggestion in the prior HW (closer to turn initially and then further from turn as we progressed).

L1 - scuffed 5 for start; F@29,30 started with some distracted smellsploration. I could tell she knew where the track was but she wanted to sniff around a bit before getting serious - once she decided she was ready, she was workmanlike the rest of the time. (And... I stayed silent while she worked it out and gave one good when she went to work.)

        -->T1 - 90R, scuffed in & out; F@4/5; she cut the inside a bit

L2 - in addition to food for after turn, there was F@29,30

      --> T2 - 90L, walked in, scuffed out; F@steps 6/7; nailed it

L3 - in addition to food after turn; there was an article @29 (wallet) - nicely indicated - 15 steps after article to the turn

        -->T3 - 90R, walked in, scuffed out (near a tree line & spread manure), F@7/8 - LOS, went left to check out the manure line and smelled around a bit, then did the 'quick turn' back to right

L4 - ran along the manure spread line (of course!) and the tree line was about 5 yards along the right side. I didn't go into the tree line because it runs along the road. Despite the smell-stractions, she tracked well. At around where I wanted to put the article, there was a big drop of manure and shavings so I put the article just beyond that at step 37 - nicely indicated.

       -->T4 - 90R, scuffed in & out, F@9/10; nailed it

L5 - in addition to food after turn; there was food at 29/30

        -->T5 - scuff in & walked out; article @ 16 (had to get past manure again) - she overshot this turn and returned to track at the article

L6 - in addition to food after turn; there was F@29/30 - no problems after the overshoot

        -->T6 - OL, scuffed in & out; F@15/16 - LOS to the right - I had to do an open left here instead of what should have been a 90R because I realized that would take me into where I walked into the field when I laid the track; I couldn't do a 90L because I'd get to close to where I parked. 

L7 - in addition to food after turn; F@29/30 - no problems after LOS at the turn

I think working on transitions into and out of woods and/or obstacles is probably a good idea to do soon.

December 3, 2022 - Tracking Class (Article Track)

Location: Judi's - The Big Field (along edge with corn feeders to back corner that is near the house with dogs)

Conditions: Upper 40's (felt colder) and rain, rain, rain 

Cover type: Thick grass

TL: 9:50am  TR: Can't recall exact time but was a little over 1.5 hours

Track: Article Track (8 articles - it was going to be 10 so a few of the articles ended up being slightly different that my 'main' 7, but they were in the same family of article type)

Length: Approx 250 yards (was meant to be 300 but I ran out of room - turned out to probably be a good thing, because I could tell she was getting tired towards the end) (3 legs - last two were short)

Pattern: Article every 30 yards, S5, walk a 2-3 steps, food for two steps; begin next 30 yard set; repeat "re-start" pattern after each article

Articles:

1. Start - washcloth
2. Wallet
3. Green leather glove
4. Umbrella holder (only article that was a different material from the article type I'd been using)
5. Blue canvas/suede glove
6. Gray sock

O-R turn - initially was headed toward RTV tracks and I followed that but Mila found the turn and the correct track (short track)

7. Brown leather glove (on next turn - also O-R turn)

Short track - this track ran near the woods and the ATV tracks - Mila really wanted to check out the edge of the woods so we let her. Both Judi and I felt it was fairly likely that she was going to return to the track but in the midst of her checking it out dogs starting barking in the distance and there were some other noises so then it because a distraction. Judi had me take a few steps back and then Mila returned to me and waited next to me a bit and then resumed tracking (I stepped with her at first indication of movement down track).  The rest of all the tracking was strong tracking.

8. Brown knit glove

November 24, 2022 - Article Track

Location: DRH (field next to road and warmup rings) 

Conditions: part sun, cool, track was in shade the whole time, 38F 

Cover Type: thick grass with spread manure

TL: 8:58am TR: 10:10am 

Tracks: 1 ~ 150 - 160 yrds total

Articles: Used my 7 articles that I am sticking with for a while

Pattern: S10W15; articles at steps 8/9 (same pattern I've been using with food)

Leg 1 ~ 85-90 yrds

• Start - leather piece w/ food on top (acknowledged)
  
• Brown knit glove w/ food (nicely indicated)
  
• Green leather glove w/ food (nicely indicated)
  
• Bandana - no food (nicely indicated - did food on item, moved/indicated/food on item x 3 --> enthusiastic return to tracking
  

Open left turn - (had a fair bit of spread manure and near tree line) - LOS, went right a bit, returned quickly, went right again and spent more time smelling, then did a quick return and straight down the leg

 Leg 2 ~65-70 yards

• Wallet w/ food (nicely indicated)
  
• Brown leather glove - no food (missed - had to point it out to her - once I pointed it out she seemed more interested, moved/indicated/food on item 3x -->not quite the same level of enthusiasm but I didn't detect loss of drive per se (it should be noted that she typically "likes" the bandana, which was part of the reason I made it the first 'no-food' article.
  
• End - blue canvas/suede glove w/ food (nicely indicated)

 

Questions:

1. Should I wait to switch in a new article till she does not "miss" any articles on an article track? I'm happy to stick w/ the ones I've been using for another track or two, but don't want to do so too long (for reasons you've explained to me :))
2. When she misses and I see it - making her return was the correct thing to do, right?

 

Mea culpas: Sorry I didn't get to track again this week.  I was hoping to end my day early today actually, but couldn't so I did do conditioning walk (2.5 mi) instead since I can do that in the dark.