Week 16 - Practice 1

3/5/2025

Today we met up with Team Finwe, and Lauritz at a Yorktown.

Oh my goodness... I thought I was going to blow away!

The dogs were extra frisky and loving the pre-storm weather though.

Finwe, Wren, and Max the poodle were extra sassy!

Session:

• Weather: 64F, 34% Humidity, Overcast, Wind S 22mph with Gusts of 43mph!

• Located at open fields at Yorktown.

• I am working mostly 10 to 15 feet down the line from Wren.

• Placed food a step after turns, placed a extra piece one step past a deer scat pile, placed two extra pieces a few steps apart in the area a dog/owner laid a fresh cross track on my track.

  • Track One - Double laid. 2 Open Left Turns

    • Rough cut field grass/briars.

    • Laid: 10:40 am

    • Aged: 23 minutes

    • 200 yd

    • Treats spaced every 30 paces. (Did not bump up to 35 paces due to unsure how the extra wind would affect her)

    • End Flags are in a V 20 paces past the End Article

    • Food inside End Article

      
      

  • Due to needing to get home to secure chickens and yard stuff with the incoming gusts, Wren and I only did 1 track since we went last. I instead decided to play article games during the storm at home. (not recorded)

    
    

GOAL FOR THE TRACK:

• Continue spacing food, but when i saw the extra wind I kept it at 30 paces instead of bumping up to 35. (this is track 3 at 30 paces)

• Continue working on end article fun in distracting environments.

How did it feel?

• Wow. I felt great! I felt Wren did great! I'm trying to think of something profound and all I can come up with is "Good dog, handler felt somewhat competent today"

• She's such a good girl. I was so proud of her for disengaging when two dogs were lunging/growling/barking at us from the walk path.

  • I'm sorry for looking away from my dog. I was concerned the harnesses the owner had on her dogs weren't fitted right and may lead to one slipping out.

• Best little partner ever.

  
  

List three things the dog did well:

1. Picking up the turns.

2. Working despite dog distraction.

3. Staying pretty true to the track despite the crazy wind directions.

   
   

List things you’d like to improve:

1. Providing better support in (visually) highly distraction environments.

2. Better my handling skills/knowledge on how to work down the line when she's weaving. Knowing how to hold steady or move to help her recenter without building a bad habit of guiding. Sometimes I feel like I'm just slamming on the breaks and frustrating her by holding her back when she is darting off to the side. I want to be better on how to help her track center more when these moments of darting happen without 'pissing her off' with my deadweight. She's doing so well, I don't want to be a bad partner.

   
   
   
   

Goal for next track:

• Continue hyping up the article in food/yes marker and get that value built.

• Continue stretching the food drop distance further along the tracks. As laid out in my Homework Notes from class: (Click Here)

Please tell me if you love/hate/don't mind either way the double camera view.

I was having fun with editing (since i already have this stuff from other hobbies)

Bonus puppy play video below.