Back in the saddle again

After the end of tracking class, we had several more good track days before fields started sprouting and heat picked up. Given our summer schedule I decided to give her a break until Labor Day when (hopefully) the weather cools a bit more. In the meantime, Doggo Dad has been running with her ~3-4 days a week including some long runs up to 12 miles in the heat so my girl will definitely have some endurance fitness and I may need to hold on for dear life down the track :)

Today we set out with a goal of simple 1-turn tracks with super high reinforcement and short age!

Location: Robious Athletic Fields (RAF)

Cover: short grass

Track layer: self

Age: ~35-40 min in high heat

Weather: 93*, sunny, not many clouds or breeze

Track Map:

Track Videos:

Track 1 - Great start after 4 months off. She stopped to check out things around where the soccer goal (and lots of other scents) would be + sniffed goose poop but decided tracking was the better option :)

Track 2 - "More info" as Judi says

Track 3 - Getting hot! When she stopped engaging, freely took water and finished with an independent down at the article :)

Notes:

• Hot holiday with an empty field at a normally busy day - a good sign to start! Given the heat, I left Evie home, laid the tracks and hustled back to get her. That let the tracks age ~35-40 min which in this heat would be ~60 min in season (I think - right?)
• I'll give her/us an A- today after a summer break from tracking. She definitely was excited to see the tracking bag and get out to the field! 
• Even though she's been running a lot this summer (~20 mi/wk), the heat with tracking was definitely a challenge. On the 3rd track, she was tiring out and went from pulling on the harness to plodding along. I gave her water between each track and was really happy she took ice cold water *during* Track 3. 
• 3 things she did well:
• Downs! This was something we were still working on for consistency at the end of last season. I gently reminder her on Track 1, gave her a bit more time on Track 2 before reminding, and on Track 3 she collapsed on her own.
• Drinking Water! I packed her Pup Flask with ice water and gave it to her before each track. When she was a bit distracted (and clearly hot) on T3 Leg 1, I pulled out the water and she gratefully drank and reset. 
• Eagerness/Persistence - She was excited to track and even though hot, she wanted to complete that last leg and was a happy girl back to the car having completed the work. She wasn't taking all the food but I know it was reassuring to her so will space it a bit more (S5W15F8) but keep high reinforcement while we readjust.
• 3 things to work on:
• Starts - Her initial start was good but I'd like to sharpen it up a bit because when she got loss of scent (LOS) after the scuffs, she'd meander a bit and then re-find the walked track.
• Corners/Turns - I scuffed in and out of turns and put a scent pad at the end of the scuff to hopefully give a big bang for taking the turn. On T2, she definitely shows LOS and then comes back down the first leg before taking the shortcut over to the scent pad. If I do a pad again, I'll place it further down. Will keep scuff in/out for now as well.
• Heat Endurance - Hopefully cool weather is ahead but want to get some more practices in with the heat in case a trial day is hot.
• Section Notes:
• Walk up - Great each time - very happy to head to the flag and start
• Start - "OK" - She found the right direction each time with an angled approach but would meander when she got LOS after the initial scent.
• First turn - Cut all 3 corners after LOS and back tracking to end of Leg 1 and went to scent pad. Always left the scent pad in the right heading though.
• Articles - Great stop at article each time but after a few beats, I told her to "down" on T1 and T2. On T3, she downed all on her own :)

Excited to get back to this and will keep journal entries logged leading up to classes.