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11/29/25 - Woods bounce-offs and parallels

After her strong interest to go into vs away from woods last class day, I asked Mary Ann to lay a track that parallels woods and does bounce-offs from woods. Mary Ann nailed the assignment (and shout out to Kelley who co-laid and was MVP for double lineups!). We ran the track at 1hr 15min old. Notes - what went well: Great start and 1st turn on the rails! Her article indications were really nice today.  I think our slowed down routine at articles is slowing her down and keeping energy / excitement from running wild. She feels more measured at restarts now. Turns - She was really clear to read on all with the exception of the last turn. In reviewing video, she gave a head turn at the final turn before going forward a little and then looking at woods.  Line work was good today - getting back up the line quickly + a behind the back line work on the final turn - felt like I supported her well when she committed.  She drank well before start and at articles Notes - To work on:...
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Nov 27 - SPC

We out for a few shorter tracks with our new pattern of S5W5F3 at the Salisbury Presby Church. The goal was to get her more engaged by shortening the scuff lengths. When we got parked, I remembered that the field was the start/finish of the big turkey trot 4 days earlier so between that and the soggy wet field, I wasn’t sure how this would go but Evie worked through it all including the two different groups of people with dogs that walked across the tracks and got within 5 yards.

Time: 4pm

Weather: 66*, mild clouds, calm SW winds

Field: short dead grass, soggy and wet, recent high contamination and dog walkers cross tracking while we were out there

Plan: I wanted to start adding some new articles this week that were not fabric-based so fished around kiddo’s art studio for some trinkets and used a paintbrush with 1” wide wood handle ruined by dried on paint. I used a fabric face mask and wash cloth for T1 and T2 (familiar articles) so she would only have the new pattern to deal with and the paintbrush on T3. Each track was considerably shorter than last outing  d/t shorter scuff and less units total. I also made a game time decision to not approach T2 and T3 head on at the flag to see if she would pick the track angle herself (was reading about this as an issue sometimes when they get to TDX in Tracking From the Ground Up).

  • T1: 5x S5W5F3
  • T2: 7x S5W5F3
  • T3: 9x S5W5F3
Notes: Overall, I think she handled it all very well. Her nose was down much more and she was very focused today. There were a few moments of strong off-track pull but we were close to areas where the other groups had just walked through. I held my position and she came back to work the track each time without any encouragement needed. She did beautiful with the angled starts on T2 and T3. Evie also seemed to “investigate” the “new” article more. She refused to do a complete down with shoulder pressure but it was pretty soggy so we’ll work through that on another day when she’s being princessy. Video clips below:

T1:

T2:

T3:


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