2/4/2023 Class: Abort Mission

2/4/2023 @ 11:40 AM

Location: Holly Ridge Farm

Weather: 27 degrees, Sunny, 4 mph winds from the SW

Cover: Grass

Age: 3 hrs

Tracklayer: Ralph

The plan was to introduce crosstracks. Ralph was going to lay the track and Judi was going to come in and lay the cross tracks. The first misstep was relying the track design in correctly to Ralph. Once I realized that mistake, I decided to just let this be a fun easy track and I would put the track in correctly on Sunday. Everytime I say it's going to be fun and easy I am wrong. So on a positive note I have a 100% success rate at creating not easy tracks!

We got to the start and Saber started casting about wildly. There was no start article, which led me down a rabbit hole of thought driving home. I know we start without articles but really the goal is to teach them nose down follow a straight line and hopefully they are connecting that with a strong scent. But starting without an article how does the dog know which wonderful scent to follow. I think Saber's techni-smell nose found a lot yesterday even if it wasn't what I was going for.

Anyway we made are way down the first of nine legs. I think she made the turn. I mean I know she made a turn but was it the right one, I'm not sure. It was close enough she was probably on the second leg. At some point she did find it because she made a beautiful turn on to leg three. Then she followed ATV tracks and whatever other wonderous smells her nose sucked up. She was casting about wildly and pulling like a runaway freight train trying to find the (a?) track. Judi said to abort mission. I threw out an article she found and we played. Her enthusiasm was undeterred. Judi thinks longer age being new to her she just couldn't lock in on the track. We will save cross tracks for next weekend. Tomorrow - starts!