1/12/2025
- Kelly Gannon
- Jan 12
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 13
Saber
Location: South Anna ES
Weather: 41 degrees, WSW winds 3 mph
Cover: Bare ground/pine needles, asphalt, concrete, snow covered grass
Time in: 2;20 pm
Age: 30 min
Length: 173 yds
Video:
I started with an exercise on the asphalt that aged about 20 minutes. Food was 10 steps apart. Open turn to open turn with food 5 steps apart. Saber did not start on this. She couldn’t figure it out. I ended up aborting.
The track itself aged 30 minutes and she did pretty well. It started on veg and made a left. She turn a hair early and was 1-2 feet from the actual track. The food drop on the asphalt pulled her back to the track. You could see her find it in the other side. I purposely had Matt step one foot on the side walk and one for in the snow/grass for the little grass section. You could see recognition by Saber. She continued down the side walk. She did stop to check the doorway and the other side walk but dismissed both on her own to continue in the correct direction.
Article indication was good. Continued down the track. I went with her past the turn. I let her check out the area and started backing up. She finally recrossed the track a little past the turn and went with confidence. I think she would have happily taken me in the ring direction down to the baseball field but I didn’t give her that as an option.
Map: start is at the front of the school
Syd
Location: Holly Ridge
Weather: 38 degrees, WSW winds 3 mph
Cover: Melting snow/grass
Time in: 3:50 pm
Age: 1 hour
Track design: I asked Matt for 3 turns/4 legs with a food drop on leg 2 or 3. (He also added one to leg 4 but not sure that was intentional lol).No food in the end article. Total it was about 175 yds.
Video:
Syd’s start was good. His first turn he went just past but corrected himself and found the track. The second turn he tried to corner cut. I could see the tracks in the snow. On grass you probably wouldn’t have known but I want him to stay true to the track. Impeding his forward progress led to a lab’s version of quiet quitting. I’m gonna need help with this response. 😂
Once he got back to work he finished strong. The last turn was perfect. Article indication was in point.
Saber looks GREAT!!!! She’s a different dog on hard surface from what I’ve last seen. Only hint is to maybe do as Kyla suggests and praise negative indications—praise her for giving up on the wrong direction. Not all the time….but sometimes!
OK. First, before he quit he got wobbly on the track—I would have moved up and shortened there so he stayed true. I suspect the wobbly led to the attempt to cut. Once they’ve quit (Fletch used to do this a LOT), your goal is to very quietly get them back to work. Let them sit for a few seconds…if they don’t start, and they are on the track…toss some food ahead. if off the track like he was, toss food ahead, and then call him back, say hi, and send him on. He’ll hit food right away…and likely get back into the game. I always let Fletch sit for a couple of seconds, because sometimes he seemed…