Working on challenging turns

Given her cutting corners on last tracking day, I wanted to work on turns and decided to do one longer track run fresh (~20') on damp grass hoping the track would be "easier" given conditions and then we could focus more on the turns.

Location: Greenfield Elementary Baseball fields

Cover: short grass, infield dirt

Track layer: self

Age: ~20 min in high heat

Weather: 73*, overcast, light breeze

Pattern: S5W10F5 (keeping reinforcement high while we restart this season)

Article: Cheese filled leather glove

Track Map:

    

~260 yards total

Track Videos (video cut into 2 parts):  

Part 1

Part 2

Notes:

• Gloomy and overcast day with wet fields so completely different than our last tracks! I knew the scents would hold harder so I laid a longer high reinforcement track and we ran it pretty fresh. She definitely loves this type of tracking weather.
• I'm seeing a giant leap in her maturity now that she's almost 2. She focuses so quick and is patient in working through challenges! She also has a high drive to do this work even when there are easy distractions nearby on the track. She looses her mind at home while I pack the bag and then instantly calms in the car on the way then charges to the start flag when it's time to run it - so glad we found this work for her! 
• I moved the scent pads further out from the turn so she didn't charge to them and cut the corners - this definitely helped today.
• Learned that she does NOT like her cheese on the dirty infield, lol.
• Rate of reinforcement still felt more than enough (she doesn't take ~ 1/2 the food drops but does stop to enjoy the scent pads).
• Length of track + # turns seemed to be no issue at all today - I actually think she enjoyed getting to do a longer track today rather than 3 starts. 
• 3 things she did well:
• Down (again)! She paused at the article and checked it out for a bit then went to explore nearby fun new scents on the infield and I remembered Judi's post yesterday with Fletch so I waited her out silently and she came back and downed all on her own :)
• Worked through turn challenges - The changes in cover were hard for her but she checked around and always took the right direction with confidence
• Cross tracks - The adjacent soccer fields had games going so there were several people who walked across the track while I was laying it. On L4 she definitely stops to stiff a cross track or other scent intently and then went back to her track. (Ex at 1:15 on Part 2) It's interesting because when she gets a food drop, she turns perpendicular to the track to eat it and she did the same thing at a cross track.
• Bonus - Worked through distractions - Ms Social was clearly focused hard on tracking and then at T2 the soccer field erupted in cheers and she paused to check it out and then decided to go back to working through the turn challenge. Later on, there was a duo playing catch and we were headed towards them and she noticed and started to want to engage (2:20, Part 2) but then went back to the work at hand. Very happy with her determination to track to the end!
• 3 things to work on:
• Starts - Like last time, she charged the start flag, took the initial line and then after about 10 yards made a wide swing to check around. She always comes back to the line but I'd like to see her confidence increase on this initial decision for her. 
• Tracks on boundaries - L1 was along a trench and L6 was close to a cover change and I would guess this impacted how the scent rolls a bit. Last season she had trouble along treelines so I want to keep working on these types of challenges for her. 
• Articles - will need to start re-introducing some other articles later on but sticking with just an initial familiar ones for now.
• Bonus - Changes in Cover (knowing VST will be in her future) - She found the turn at the infield and followed the scuffs to the scent pad well but in the walk section, she struggled a little bit until she got back to the grass (where I left an early reinforcement after the cover change). 
• Section Notes:
• Walk up - Great - very happy to head to the flag and start
• Start - "OK" - She found the right direction with an angled approach but meandered when she got LOS after the initial scent.
• First turn - Strong.
• Articles - Good initial investigation and returned to it after checking out nearby scents. Very glad I read Judi's post yesterday and gave her silence and a chance to demonstrate a full finish independently.

We both have some areas to work on but I'm happy with where we're at right now with restarting.