Week 37 - Practice 2

8/2/2025

In the immortal words of Britney Spears, "Oops I did it again..."

Wren and I have been tracking a lot, but we haven't been blogging... woopsy.

Session:

• Weather: 75F, 62% Humidity, Partially Cloudy, Wind NE 16mph with gusts of 28mph.

• Located at open fields at a park with kids' playground, and dog parks.

• I am working mostly 5-10 feet down the line from Wren. More given at turns when she circles.

  • Track One - Double laid. Straight

    • Short cut field.

    • Laid: 9:50 am / Ran: 10:30 am

    • Aged: 40 Minutes

    • 200 yd

    • Start Article: glove (rubber/cloth), End Article: Koozie

      
      

GOAL FOR THE TRACK:

• To practice a 'medium' length track after the short track we have been doing during the heat wave.

• We have been practicing in public spaces with cross tracks occurring naturally before and after my track is laid.

  
  

How did it feel?

• Felt great! I want to note Wren & Stella got a tummy bug they are recovering from too so Wren's tummy is still a little off during this track. She was going Wild at home when she saw me move her tracking harness so I thought 'Ah what the heck. why not? she clearly still feels fine'

• I am especially proud of her for working through the very confusion heavy cross tracking that occurred on top of the loud road traffic, busy playground, and chaotic dog parks all close by since everyone seemed to be enjoying a break from the heat with this cooler weather.

  • We had two guys that came up to exercise. They ran multiple (3-4) circles around the field and Both of my turns for their laps so I was like "Oh gosh! That might get confusion for her nose..."

  • While we have had some pretty good cross tracks in practice, this have been on shorter tracks with less age during the hot days, and those cross tracks were simple 1x crosses instead of this repeated following of my track/crossing turns. I am so proud of her!

    
    

List three things the dog did well:

1. Being mostly clear when she's tracking verses just sniffing something interesting.

2. Ignoring the distractions! With sights, sounds, AND the smells!

3. Circling for those turns in the midst of some very contaminated tracks.

4. Articlesssssssss for us this is a huge thing! Even if it feels a little 'leveled off' since June, the fact she is grabbing and checking them out without food inside is a biigggg woohoo for my lil bay that used to want to keep tracking on off past the article. "Why stop when I smell more track?"

   
   

List things you’d like to improve:

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

2. Handling skills with supporting her tracking true to the line verses drifting parallel to the true track.

   
   
   
   

Goal for next track:

• Providing better training support in turns she might overshoot.

• Continue reading her loss of scent cue better.

• Find less traveled fields (for less crosstracks) to stretch track AGE out since we haven't been giving that aspect as much love as we should.