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10/18/26 - (Turns Track 2/2)

  Weather: Cool crisp morning, in the upper 40s but warm in sun. Windy from N, air was dry. Pulled out the fleece-lined pants for the first time this season. Goal : Turns using the Turns Practice from resources page with decreasing augmentation in turns. I laid two of these but kept legs 40-50yds for the most part. Track 2: Age was 1hr 50min. 330 steps/300yards; Only start and end article. Used her favorite treat for articles. Food drops q25 yds. My walk out was a little close to the start flag, so I shortened Leg 1 and moved the start flag further down the leg right before we ran the track. While I was laying this track, there were people all over the first few legs (parents / kids playing) so a good opportunity to run a quiet track that had high traffic while aging. Start / Leg 1: Much better this track. We approached from small angle. She got to the flag, looked/sniffed down Leg 1, then downed at start article. Paid big There was a quick food drop because I had moved the start f...
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Feb 13 - A Case of the Mondays

Took Evie out to track during lunch on a long track aged 60". The soccer field was fairly soggy given yesterday's rain. 

The plot was to go around the 2 fields in a broken figure 8 such that I would follow field lines with the exception of one flag needed to mark the transition over to the 2nd field - this made tracklaying and running very easy.


Notes:

  • Impossibly distracted today. It took us 25 minutes to complete this track! She wanted to sniff every blade of grass, go to middle of the field, investigate the woods, etc. There was a lot of "traffic" from dogs off leash and students walking across fields which was likely a contributing factor here.
  • Start - not great. She indicated start article and then wanted to meander around. I noted a group of students walking right across Leg 1 and Leg 2 before we got to the flag. About 20 yd down Leg 1, I called her back to me and let her re-scent the start article which helped her refocus for a little bit.
  • Once I got her halfway down Leg 3, things started to get more focused but then came upon a dog just before turn to Leg 5 that then walked along Leg 6. While they were walking off the field, I brought out my extra article and played an article indication game in place to keep her distracted and focused on me - this was a biggest win of the day.
  • Fringe distractions were an issue again - she wanted to check out the wood line about 10 yd off track as well as the soccer goals, etc. Just not well focused throughout until the last 100 yards.
  • When she was tracking, it was beautiful.
  • Had to restart her at turn onto Leg 6. I was letting her overshoot turns today and working on walking her back. At Leg 6 turn, she just got beyond frustrated and sat looking at me and whimpered. I gave her happy voice, tossed an article 5 yards down Leg 6 and treated it then gave her tons of verbal encouragement down Leg 6 anytime she went back to track. 
  • Good article indications at start, during article game, restart, and end.
Not really sure if it was the ground conditions, track too old (she's great at 60" for starts usually), sunny spring day, length or contamination but things didn't click into place as they usually do...(Edited to add...Sunday was rainy and she didn't get normal exercise - no wonder focus was off - she was a wound up spring of energy on Monday!)

May try to rerun this same track backwards in a few days at younger age or maybe a more simple stair step.

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