Aged starts (Nov 12)

Today we worked aged starts with increasing reinforcement.

Location: Greenfield Elementary field

Weather: 55* and partly cloudy with 5 mph breeze from N

Cover: short cut grass / athletic field

Track 1: 30” - No food on track, no food in article

Track 2: 60” - No food on track, food in article

Track 3: 90” - No food on 1st half of Leg 1 then S5W15F7, food in article

Track 4: 120” - High reinforcement (S5W5F3), Food in article 

My “real time” maps:

Satellite map:

Track general notes: 

• Soccer games going on in far field and people all around - definitely added to distractions but it’s the land I’ve got easiest access to
• I initially thought to put Track 2 with a left turn away from Track 3 but then decided against it so that I’d have 2 left and 2 right tracks. In hindsight, I think that part of the field was “ scent crowded” with the wind. Better choice would’ve been to make Track 2 go left.

I planned the tracks so I laid them in reverse (4 to 1) so we could run them back to back at 5 min intervals once I brought Evie to the field.

Track 1: 

• Really strong start- she was flying
• Got a little confused at the turn. In looking at satellite map + wind, I’m wondering if the wind might have been cutting through or swirling some there at building corner. We were also approaching a basketball court ppl were playing on which caught her attention
• After working the turn, she was casting a bit left but hooked in and corrected before article
• She noted the article and 100% noted it was not baited 😆. It took me a while and a lot of cueing but she finally downed. Probably should’ve stayed more quiet and been patient but wanted to keep on schedule 

Track 2:

• Got to flag and after a few steps, she noted an unleashed dog playing across the field and some kids playing catch to our right (plus basketball game on our left). I restarted her 3 separate times. 
• On the fourth, she got her head down and went to work only for the unleashed dog to charge us. Of course the owner “called” the dog back with no real effort or urgency while Evie had hackles up and started growling a bit. After a min of trying to separate the dogs, I may or may not have yelled an explicit curt call to her to come get her dog and  leash it. She shooed the dog back to the other side of the field and after 5 min of calling it to come to her, she finally got it leashed and left. I get really touchy about this because Oliver had 2 dogs charge him while he was leashed on separate occasions that led to him getting stitches. Clearly, she and I were both stirred up and Track 2 was a bit chaotic but she got to the article and we partied.

Track 3:

• Really good start and focus on her part. 
• After turn flag, she indicated LOS and we were both quite thrown for a minute (I was still a bit frazzled). Things we did: walk backwards to flag and go again, after she went Left and stopped I tried to take a step to see if she’d continue.
• Finally she started going and was showing more casting behavior than on track behavior. Even though I was on the lineup, she wanted to cast far left. Turns out I had the wrong green pole for the lineup and the track was in fact left and we had overrun it a little at the turn. I normally check lineups on my notes before we run a track but didn’t because I was frazzled still. Operators error for sure. As we neared the article, she plowed towards it and downed nicely.

Track 4:

• Perhaps our best of Tracks 2-4 and done at 2 hr+10min. The high reinforcement definitely helped though she skipped most food drops.
• This track had been walked over several times in the aging period and the unleashed dog had been playing here so I’m not even sure if our cheese was even still on the track.
• We played a bunch with the final article here and she seemed to perk up some

Takeaways and questions

• Evie was not her usual sassy self after a tracking session. I think she was feeling my frustration with the situation but I made sure to give her lots of love and praise so she knew she was Good.
• When laying the tracks over 2 hours, no one was on the field but when I came back with her, everyone and their dog was there even though I’d been gone only 15 min to get Evie. It takes so much time to do this type of session and immediately after, I wanted to “redo” it all but it doesn’t work that way. I’m going to try to find some better quiet but public areas we can train at because I just think today didn’t give her the best setup for success.
• At what point do we “tap out” and stop a session? I’m guessing it’s just something you get a feel for and it’s a balance of perfection and progression. Our training time is so limited and I just want to make each one worthy of the time we’re putting in together
• No reinforcement- she definitely was not excited about the 1st track article without cheese. How can we work on this outside of an article track exercise (where she is rewarded for treat bag)? On our regular track days, should I start mixing in unbaited articles and the reward from my treat bag? Thinking to a test, this would give me a more reliable response but I’d just be unable to reward on the track?!?
• Aging tracks is fun + quiet me time in the car with  a blanket, an audiobook and knitting :)
• Looking ahead to doing our full length and duration tracks as we near certification - do I still stay at 10’ or do I need to start working her back at 20’?