Week 51 - Practice 1

11/04/2025

Went back to good ol' Fort Eustis to steal their parade grounds for tracking shenanigans. Today I got to drag along my...I mean my sweet husband volunteered to hold the camera and didn't get grumpy even when I kept bossing him to not crowd our turns. (We love you Elliott!)

• Weather: 64F, 37% Humidity, Sunny, Wind W10 MPH, Gusts of 20 MPH.

• Track 1

  • Located at open field used for drill.

  • I am working mostly 10-15feet down the line from Wren. More given at turns when she circles.

    • Single laid. 1 Turn 90° Left

      • Short cut field, wet wet wet!!

      • Laid: 10:30 am / Ran: 10:50 am

      • Aged: 20 Minutes

      • 90 yds total.

      • Start Article: glove (cloth), End Article: Rabbit Tug Toy (I forgot my 8th article in the van so I used her tug toy as a the end article for track 1)

      • Food Drop Pattern: Shuffle 10 paces, Walk 5 paces, 1 food drop on step 3 of the walk pattern, repeat.

        Extra food drops during the water puddle early in the track.

• Track 2

  • Located at open field used for drill.

  • I am working mostly 10-15feet down the line from Wren. More given at turns when she circles.

    • Single laid. 1 Turn 90° Left

      • Short cut field, wet wet wet!!

      • Laid: 10:34 am / Ran: 10:55 am

      • Aged: 20ish Minutes

      • 80 yds

      • Start Article: wallet slip (leather), End Article: glove (cloth)

      • Food Drop Pattern: Shuffle 10 paces, Walk 5 paces, 1 food drop on step 3 of the walk pattern, repeat.

        Extra food drop parallel to the electric pole, and extra food drop a few steps past the electric pole.

• Track 3

  • (Whoopsie. I was going to use 1 double line up and changed my mind to use a different one for my turn..SO...I lost my turn on this one for a moment because I wrote down the 1st choice instead of the double lineup I actually used.)

  • Located at open field used for drill.

  • I am working mostly 10-15feet down the line from Wren. More given at turns when she circles.

    • Single laid. 1 Turn 90° Right

      • Short cut field, wet wet wet!!

      • Laid: 10:37 am / Ran: 11:00 am

      • Aged: 23 Minutes

      • 85 yds

      • Start Article: wallet slip (leather), End Article: glove (cloth)

      • Food Drop Pattern: Shuffle 10 paces, Walk 5 paces, 1 food drop on step 3 of the walk pattern, repeat.

        Extra food drops during the water puddle early in the track.

• Track 4

  • I know on my written map I kinda plopped this track on a different angle than the others. I think I was having a moment...where I did a mostly bullet point notes verses drawing reference points for my map today.

  • Located at open field used for drill.

  • I am working mostly 10-15feet down the line from Wren. More given at turns when she circles.

    • Single laid. 1 Turn 90° Right

      • Short cut field, wet wet wet!!

      • Laid: 10:40 am / Ran: 11:07 am

      • Aged: 27 Minutes

      • 80 yds

      • Start Article: glove (cloth), End Article: glove (leather)

      • Food Drop Pattern: Shuffle 10 paces, Walk 5 paces, 1 food drop on step 3 of the walk pattern, repeat.

        
        

GOAL FOR THE TRACK:

• Continue working on Single Lay Tracks.

• Complete some L tracks per advice from our Week 50 post

• Continue working on being consistent in which behavior I am asking for article indications.

  
  

How did it feel?

• Felt good!

  • Even on Track 3 where I used the wrong double line up for my turn.... I feel pretty good about it.

  • Can you tell Wren skipped her breakfast this morning? (as she occasionally does) She was extra into making sure she found every chicken bite along the way. haha

  • I feel like consciously reminding myself to go back to my handling style (left arm back, right arm out as the line holder) definitely feels so much more natural. I think a few months back during the blogs where I 'jumped in my own head' that I messed myself up on how I was falling short of the support my partner, Wren, needed. I felt a little clunky today but much better.

List three things the dog did well:

1. Look at my little baby go! I am so proud of her for going back to tracking during a couple of super loud percussion booms (camera doesn't do it justice how loud it was in person). I also am really proud of her article indication compared to where we were even several months ago. Even after that one large dropped shipping container at end article Track #4 only having to ask on that one to get her back into task.

2. I am also proud of her for committing to her tracks where there were lots of oh so lovely to chaise birds!

3. There were a few times that I felt I got a little too far behind her but didn't want to run up the line while she was in a stop. I am proud of her for continuing to work her tracks even when I was much further back than I wanted to be in a few spots.

   
   

List things you’d like to improve:

1. As mentioned above, I think I swapped line handling styles half way through the summer and it messed with me. I feel much better with the style I popped back into today and need to continue getting back into that set. (and out of my head)

2. Looks like I need to throw down a couple 'Quarter Tracks' for me to run without Wren and reacquaint myself with making accurate map notes for myself!

   
   

Goal for next track:

• Continue working on that article indication being consistent.

• Better handler support for my little partner.