September 17-20, 2023

It's been a long time since River has done a track. Injury to left ileopsoas with rehab, then injury to right side and more rehab. She did nosework class, tried to track. She was so confused by lack of start article. We no longer use the recommended harness, just a collar. Very different start routine than others in the class. But, as a result we have a start routine that clearly is distinct from tracking. As such, she figured out there were 2 different activities.

Figured I would really back up and try to give her success, so I decreased track length and dropped down to S8 W14 F7 . She downed for start article. Huge win as she doesn't have to relearn that part. She was and still is slow, methodological .... tending to hang 1 foot off the actual track. Oddly enough, off leash searching she runs in circles in quadrants with her tail whipping back and forth. She continues to be just on the side of the track. First track she did was straight shot. Something must have crossed it before I plotted, as she went off to the right. She loves to circle and she went all around me to get back to the track. She was direct on it and then shifted to just to the left. Got to end article & downed.

Second tracking outing, was same S8 W14 F7 with 1 turn on 2 tracks. On 1st track, end article had ball inside. Hoped that this would generate a more peppy track walk on the 2nd track. She hung just off to the left of the track line. At the turn, she went only a few feet past the turn and then went right and coursed back the left, not around my back, for the turn. Not bad, I had scuffed out of the turn to help her, but did not add additional food. She was SO excited for the ball at the end. But, big mistake as she remained focused on ball after only a minute of fetch and did not want to track. So, her 2nd track aged for 15 minutes more as I gave her water & told her time out, waiting for return to a calm, neutral state. Took off from down at the article and again off to left of the track by a foot, just like last year when she either did that or weaved back and forth across the track. She took the open angle right turn easily, I had scuffed out of the turn, and then downed for the article. This time she got a food reward only. Think that she's ramping up and will change SWF slightly.

Third track outing, S8 W20 F10 on single track with 2 left 90 degree turns. Did fine starting and on first leg there was a loud crash in the trees, animal hitting something or tree branch falling...not sure, but she held point into the direction. I told her to leave it and she actually went back to the track. She really took the first turn well, caught it precisely. At the 2nd one, she picked her head up at the turn, and checked to the right, circled around behind me and caught the left turn on the track very close to the corner. She may be remembering this tracking game. Her reward at the down for article indication was food. After removing the tracking harness, we played fetch.