Week 55 - practice 1

12/1/2025

Off Lead Dogs, and Jets, and Construction, Oh my!

• Weather: 45F, 43% Humidity, Sunny getting dimmer, Wind NE 9 MPH.

• Track 1

  • Located at open field that gets lots of dog and human cross tracks.

    • Double laid with Flora and I walking it at the same time.

    • 1 Turn 90° Left. 3 Large Steps to the Right then a 2nd Straight leg of 30 yards.

      • Short cut field, and sanding patches.

      • Laid:

      • Aged: 29 Minutes

      • 90 yds total.

      • Start Article: gator neck thingy, Midway Article: Flora's wool hat with a pom pom. The pom pom is apparently detachable by design! haha End Article: A tug toy.

      • Food Drop Pattern: Shuffle 5 steps, Walk 25 strides w/ food at step 12-15ish. Repeat. Shuffle into turn. No food on turn.

        At the '2nd track' I did not put food at the start of it, but put a scent pad at the start of it, then continued my food drop pattern above.

• Track 2

  • Located at open field that gets lots of dog and human cross tracks.

    • Double laid with Flora and I walking it at the same time. Straight.

      • Short cut field, stopping just before a paved walking path.

      • Laid:

      • Aged: 25 Minutes

      • 43 yds total.

      • Start Article: n/a, End Article: rubber/cloth glove.

      • Food Drop Pattern: Scent Pad at start with food, Scent Pad w/food at: 3yds, 8yds, 18yds, 28yds, 38yds. Article placed 5 yds after that.

GOAL FOR THE TRACKs:

• Work on an easier track length in a higher distracting area.

  • Wren has had a negative/scary experience in this park before with the Military jet afterburners. I have visited this park with her a couple times since then to just play/sniff and leave. This is our first time back here to try a track again.

• Work in a higher distraction area in smaller session.

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

  
  

How did it feel?

• Felt chaotic on my end, but we still had fun.

  • I 100% was all over mentally during this.  I don't know if it was my brain still in work mode or what but boy oh boy. In her first track I was convinced it went one way at the start, and she told me it went another way. Dog is right, handler is a potato. We had just laid these tracks not long ago too. It should have, by all counts, been an easy breezy, track to remember. I even glanced at my notes at the car when I got her out to remind myself. Clearly my glasses must be for decoration and not actually reading..

  • When she picked up the midway article in Track 1, I was so distracted by the internal horror that my dog broke the hat, that I didn't stick to a more rewarding party.

  • I did stay closer to her with the intentions of supporting her moves to stay on track more, but instead feel I made a little zoomie bronco with my confusing handling of the line, frustrating my dog when she was just ecstatic to get out of the house after two days of me locking myself in a home office.

List three things the dog did well:

1. Article Indications, I have been working on this all week that we traveled out of state for Thanksgiving. Instead of calm and quiet waiting now switching to Party time. I see her joy in it more. (even in a 100 yard stare moment of distraction.)

2. Wanting to work despite this being a historically scary park. Getting back to work despite the off leash dogs and humans all running around the edges of the fields. This is a high contamination tracking ground.

3. Finding her track despite me loosing it. (*Insert face palm here*)

   
   

List things you’d like to improve:

1. My track laying was just nonsense today.

2. Not fumbling my lead. Don't know why today I couldn't stop tripping. I feel like that's not like me.

3. Being better prepared. I didn't bring enough flags, I didn't have enough articles and I didn't stop, breathe and mentally prepare myself at the first step offs. I feel I got a lot of good feedback in rewatching my videos, and need to sit down to be more mindful and purposeful in my track laying. I also feel the feedback watching gives me a better idea on the type of set up to plan making for more meaningful practice.

Goal for next track:

• Throw in two short 'Quarter Practice' tracks for me to place, run Wren on her track, and then run the Quarter tracks by myself to practice reliable map making/double lineups.

  • Make this a habit. I used to do it earlier this year at every practice then slacked off and I feel I need this separate practice from the dog to make myself more accountable in Knowing my tracks.

• Better handler support for my little partner, and my human tracking partner when it comes to knowing where my track is.

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