11/24/25
- Maureen Woolley, Duck & River
- Nov 25, 2025
- 1 min read
Top hat track aged 1 hour; about 250 yds; 59F, no noticeable breeze; 45% humidity
Legs 1&2 of track have clover groundcover.
Objective was to see if different scuff, food at turns changes how River did at the turn.
Turn 1: scuff&food in/out
this was and felt ugly; plus she drifted left and I followed to get her back but then she pulled right a lot. After that turn I took a deep breath as we are supposed to have fun.
Turn2: scuff in only
River turned about a yard, ahead of the turn flag
Turn3: scuff out only
much more precise turn here
Turn 4: no scuff
final turn was also precise.
Single food drop mid leg.
We had nice down indications for start and end. Ball was in end article. Followed end with ball fetch to maintain tracking joy in River.
Next track may be a stairstep with only scuff out or no scuff just walking.
At some points, after turn 2, she seemed to have her head lifted from the ground. Reason for Concern? Welcome some feedback on this and what you see in the video.
YouTube link
This is my hunchback video as my sweatshirt hoodwas rolled up under my blue vest…lol
Watering dog and got some on the map. Again, I am the worlds worst track layer and map maker.
Anne's right - we'll take a wet map any day if it means your dog got water! (Personally, I thought it was a strong commitment to map making with the inclusion of a watercolor stream at first glance! Ha!)
River looked great here and I love your thoughtful observations on how she worked the different turns. The next time you do one like this, consider switching up where low vs high reinforcement is in turns. In this session, with an "n of 1" observation, was it that she handled the no scuff turn best due to scenting or was it because she was "warmed up" at that point? So on the next top hat, maybe put scuff in and out…
Glad you were watering so it's worth a wet map! Based on your description I was expecting something not as good as what I saw! The parts you weren't happy with weren't all that bad. Turn 1 looked a bit like up that the latter part of the leg and near the turn, there was something to the right of the leg that she found more reinforcing than the track itself (looked like she even attempt to eat/lick at something). Maybe shortening your line there would have helped and certainly at the turn (where you knew your turn did not go right) I might have limited her option to continue to go right to check it out. Other than t…