11/23/25 - Distance track

Missed blogging a few session but getting this one logged!

Goal for today was to run a 900 yd track at 2 hrs. 

I laid it with Non-Veg in front third and full Veg in later legs so that challenge was over as she tired.  My track plan was to only have 5 turns but when laying, the last field was being used so I added an extra hook into track (squiggled out last part of track is what was changed).

Blue line is what I had planned vs yellow is what I ended up switching to

Non-veg was food drop every 10 steps. Veg was W10-S-W10-F.

Track Age was 2hr 10min when run. As always, I worry about articles and food getting taken while the track ages - this time by the bald eagle and 2 crows chasing it that I kept my eye on while track laying. When I returned to run the track, the bald eagle flew overhead with a squirrel dangling. First few articles were safe and Mr/Mrs Eagle was having a good lunch. So cool to see!

Start was good (Novel article). Good first leg with a little struggle at the turn.  She wasn't sure about leaving the lot but the article just down the sidewalk was a good reward. She was a little meandering down the sidewalk stretch but it was windy and the ground crew was out blowing too so not sure how much those were factors. 

The change to field grass seemed a little jolting for lack of a better word. She was pulling HARD and not as crisp as she normally is on this type of grass - I could almost feel relief at being on V vs NV and she was a little frantic/excited and less sharp to the line. 

Great novel metal article indication on track field but then she struggled at the L turn.  She was looking left a few times but not taking it confidently so I didn't support resulting in her laying down twice. Eventually took it nicely.

Great haul down the trail with an article on the middle. Her tracking was good on the rest of Leg 3 and 4 including articles. Leg 4 ended at 700yds and I could tell she was starting to putter out around 650yds. 

The turn to Leg 5 was a struggle.  I kept thinking to 'Call It' but didn't. I threw some food and eventually an article and she then seemed ready to go again but she wasn't taking water as happily as before. In hindsight I should've called it at 700yds. I pushed her to work through 850yds before she had a 4 min standoff where she really really really wanted to go into the field where someone had put orange survey flags.  I did eventually toss an article and gave her lots of praise when she plopped down on it.  We strolled ahead down the last 50 yd to find that my final article had been tossed in a trash can anyway!

Next up: Stairstep w young age to work on sharp turns

Track video isn't great - I forgot to reload the go pro SD card so I tucked my phone into my belt bag in portrait mode (a bit bumpy with zipper in shot for some of it).  It cut off at the 700yd turn and I picked it back for Pt 2 after turn onto Leg 6.

Pt 1:

Pt 1 Highlights:

• 2:28 - NV turn at 1st white stripe
• 3:15 - Commits to moving up to sidewalk after checking L/R and then auto downs on article :)
• 6:25 - Hooks into Article #3 (pink sock) with nice indication
• 9:30 - Great indication at Article #4 (metal plate - novel), Great restart and sharp to the line until we got to the turn
• 11:10-12:30 - This is where she had trouble working turn. The turn was a L at the blue line
• 13:00-13:30 - Cross over track to trail with familiar article. She was beside woods and definitely knew there was an article but didn't down as automatically here and was a little unsure of how to handle her body into the down on this uneven terrain. (Will need to work on indications at inclines/trails)
• 15:40-16:40 - I took a break to read my map so I knew where upcoming articles were
• 17:10-17:30 - Much better turn (at white line) after a few sweeps while I backed up. She then took an angle to left but corrected back in quickly
• 17:45 - Awesome article indication here for green crochet square
• 20:05 - Found novel bandana article

I cut off the video accidentally here and Pt 2 doesn't pick up until after her standoff at next turn where she was staring off to the woods.

Pt 2:

Pt 2 Highlights:

• Ok turn pretty quickly after video started
• Next turn (1:10) she worked for a few clips but committed very nicely. You can see my line handling in shadow well, lol. In hindsight, she had a little too much line at the turn to start her search.
• 1:45 - She charged ahead down the final leg to an article just after the turn (leather square).
• At this leather article, and at the one before, she stopped drinking from the bottle - she was trying to tell me she was done-zo here.
• Pace was much slower after restarting - again, done-zo doggo.
• 3:15-5:45 - Standoff of her wanting to check out field flags and turning her ears off.
• At 5:45 I threw an article and asked her to show me. She downed nicely and I gave her happy mom praise to end it early vs what was planned. (Ended at ~850 yds instead of 900 yds)