12-13-2025 Saber

Location: Echo Lake ES

Weather: 41 degrees, sunny, SSW 8 mph winds

Age: 2.5 hours

I did not love the track design on the second half of this. I should have done transitions and gone through the grass in the bus loop. My plan was to run this at 3 hours, but my schedule changed so it only aged for 2.5 hours. Overall, I was pretty happy with her.

I loved Saber's start, first turn and entrance to the hard surface. She confidently stepped into the road. She drifted right, but not far off the track. I think she finds safety in islands. She gravitated back to the article and had a good indication. I praised and did not feed. She happily went back to work! There were restart cookies about 15 steps past the article, which she was happy to find.

Her second turn was near perfect. I could tell she was directly on the track. The she saw a giant painted rock. She thought it was so suspicious that she spent a minute barking at it and warning it that she would accept no funny business. She begrudgingly indicated article. It was a plastic duck head that I have not used before. She was very distracted by the rock. I had trouble getting her focus back.

She made her way across to the school. She finished but it was not a strong finish. She was very distracted and sniffy of things that were not the track. Her performance reaffirmed my track design flaws.