January tracking

1/30/23

Tracks put in at class by Judi Edwards at Ruritan Club fields Beaverdam, VA.

Pleasant temp, 45-50 range, mostly sunny.

No food drops, but food at end article. Duck was totally awesome without food drops!!

Really good handling experience for me. I felt very confident in Ducks movement on the track line, except for 2 areas. From this I learned a few things that I will work on. A huge plus, he was decisive and I felt him move decisively. He moved quickly, but not in a hurry hurry hurry pace. It was really enjoyable and I could feel the zen calm especially at our starts. Per Judi, perfect starts. Once again, practicing components pays off.

At the end of the first track, he got distracted by dogs barking, vehicle pulling into parking lot, River being noisy in the car. He wandered passsing the article and circled it. I actually ended up standing on it....duh...so goal for me is to become more aware of article presence in case Duck doesn't down for it in a test. Also, on the second track he wandered off a bit and I should've let him explore as there was a fence and he likely just wanted to mark on it and he would have done that and come back to the track.

Need to practice tracking with distractions. Need to let him explore a wrong direction and see how he corrects back to the track. Need to practice tracks that randomly omitted food drops.