Adding Age

10/23/2022 - 8:35 am

Location: Holly Ridge Farm in Ashland, VA

Weather/Conditions: 51 degrees, sunny, 6 mph wind from the N

Cover: Grass

Age: 1 hour 30 minutes

Tracklayer: myself

My goal was to add some age to Saber's tracks. I think this is something that is hard for her so today I made it inadvertently harder!

I put what I thought was a simple 2 turn track. I did 10 scuff, 10 steps and scuff to and from the turns. I did a food drop about 25-30 steps after the turns and had food in the end article. There was only a start and end article.

I let the track age an hour and 30 minutes.

We head up to the track. Saber is her sassy self. She sees the flag and is excited! (I love that)

She picks up the start article and downs. I rewarded her because we've worked hard on article indication and I can. She starts down the track. I'm excited but not moving. She gets about 10 feet out (I have a knot for that) and circles around me left. At this point I notice I made a critical error. Kris followed us up and is trying to figure out how to get through the gate/fence. Saber is already distracted so I make a second error. I let Kris in the gate. I couldn't leave him that close to the road. I take Saber back to the track. She wants to work but wants to know what Kris is doing. I'm telling her to find it (get back to work) and her attention is everywhere. Kris is sniffing the field. Probably looking for birds because that is what find it means to him.

As I am about to abort mission Saber starts tracking, weakly but working. She makes the first turn. Kris is still meandering nearby. She waffles a little around the food drops but doesn't eat them. About half way down the second leg she gets into it. She does the second turn beautifully and finishes strong down the last leg. The end article was her favorite hat. She ate the cheese from it and had a good time playing with it. She skipped all the food drops. I'll admit that is a bit concerning because I've never seen her pass up food but she seems fine. I guess she likes hot dogs more than cheese.

Some how this ended ok. Lesson learned - lock up my favorite little shadow. My plan is to do another 2 turn track with minimal age this week to make it fun and if I can fit in a second track before the weekend do a 1 turn track aged for an hour and a half.