Rainy fun (Dec 10)

Took the opportunity to do some training in the rain. If Mattaponi can hold a trial in this weather, then we should definitely practice in it! Snuck a track in before the kiddo's extracurriculars for the day and before the awful downpours.

Location: Robious Athletic Fields

Cover: mowed field grass, soggy/wet

Weather: 63*, light to moderate rain,  Winds S 9mph and gusty

Pattern: S5W50F25 with scuff 5 out of turns and no food on leg 3

Age: 50min

Length: ~420yds

Notes:

• I got Evie up to the field and she got some business done so we had to hike back to the parking lot to the nearest trash can since soccer season is over and the ample bins have disappeared again. As we hiked back there was the MOST BEAUTIFUL large fox playing on the 3rd field my track was on (legs 2-4). It bolted but man, it could've won best in show.
• I pleaded to the tracking karma that the fox hadn't stolen the end article and we made our way back to the start.
• Start: Auto down at article, some investigations to find leg, and then off to the races. I made the 1st leg long (200 yd) like the track we had at Cool Water to hopefully help reinforce positively that 1st legs can be long and I will in fact listen to her.😉
• 1st turn: Took a little investigation but not much and confidently took 2nd leg
• 2nd leg: This leg went over a small culvert (1ft wide), up a little hill and beside bleachers/ on tree roots. The change in cover definitely gave her pause and she spent some time at the bleachers/tree root sniffing around but carried on.
• 3rd leg: Great turn onto Leg 3 which was ~55yds and no food. She veered off track about halfway down this leg and sniffed around then marked the area - definitely found the fox scent! I let her continue to investigate for a little bit since it was captivating for her but then called her back and she went back to work.
• 4th leg: Initially overran the turn a bit but after she checked around, I took 5 steps back. She caught the scent then and took the turn beautifully. She found more fox smells along this leg and eventually made it down to the article with a nice un-cued down.
• Parting thoughts - a good day in interesting conditions! I wasn't sure how things would go with the interesting fox happenstance but it was good to see her work through it. Rain was definitely not a concern in her book. 

Up next: article track and starts with dead-ends this week then maybe a stairstep track?

Update: Had some time blocked on Tues to take Ms Evie out and ended up at the vet for a pretty badly cracked nail (poor gal!). Going to give her a few days off as she's limping a little bit