12/11/25

Maureen Woolley, Duck & River
1 day ago
1 min read

Hidden Rock Park, 42F, 41% humidity, wind gusts diagonal across track for 3rd leg of her 225 yd total track. Aged an hour.

This had some, 3, tennis ball distractions on the first leg, so I hoped to use leave it. Added food at change of surface as she hasn’t crossed from grass to road pavement, also at the gravel path. Third leg went along slightly higher grass.

Video link:

https://youtu.be/5fog4jwP-ME?feature=shared

Positives:

Lovely down indication to start and she accepted a pet then got up to track. She went right by the tennis ball so I didn’t need leave it. Approaching the second ball, she went for the food drop instead. Sniffed the ground just before the turn, not sure if maybe I accidentally dropped a piece of hotdog.

She was very easy to read at the 1st right turn, head went up and she went to the right. Approaching the road, I had her wait as a vehicle was coming but when it turned off I told her to track and she did right away and she did get the food drops. Then the track went a bit uphill and we hit the gravel. She picked up the food and we got to the right turn. She went a yard beyond so I stopped and she casted right. I was going to follow her but she turned around to check to her left so I just stood. After the brief check down, she came and was just before the turn but she made it obvious with her pull that the track went right. The remainder was a nice easy trot to the article.

2 Comments

22ttmorris

2 hours ago

Sorry if I missed where someone else suggested using the balls on the track since I did not think it would be a good idea for you to set this up yourself and this essentially sounds more like testing. Howover, I'm glad it sounds like it went well and that you are building strength in reading her turn behaviors!! However, I'd continue to practice the leave it training exercise Judi described AWAY from the track and not test her on the track. Remember you can add difficulty into those training (emphasis on training) sessions to build a stronger leave it and not undermine River's beautiful tracking progression! Trust me, you will get plenty of chances to see how well you…

Maureen Woolley, Duck & River

an hour ago

Replying to

The leg was along a dog park that has tennis balls for the visiting dogs to use, sometimes they show up outside the fence and the people don’t go to pick them up. River is never interested in a ball that is not hers. So, I was confident that if she detoured to any of them , she would sniff and ignore.

With regard to the leave it game, we played again today, 12/12, in the home environment but she just stands and will watch me put the food down. Obviously I need coaching on this .

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