Back to VST work

It's so great to have a weekend at home to train. Thanks to Devon passing her JH in four straight tests, I didn't need this weekend to do another hunt test. Devon got to do VST tracks Friday and Saturday evenings. It's been 5 weeks since the last time we tracked. Friday Devon started strong on her track. I gave her 100 yards of grass before hard surface, and it was aged three hours. She did great onto the parking lot and even did well against the building; however, a worker came out and told us to stay out of the flower beds (we weren't even in them), and that broke both of our concentration. Devon got back on track and headed around the building for her article, and then shortly after pooped. I think this bothered her and it got even worst when I dropped the article to mark the spot so I can could come back and clean it up. She worried over the article being dropped and us leaving it; she knows they are supposed to come with us. She did work through it and found her glove. I think the article distraction was the biggest issue; something I'll remember not to do in the future (I need to carry a poop back in my tracking bag). She tracked her hard surfaces great and had no problem with the age.

Yesterday I laid a longer track with less veg and more hard surface; I also ran this at 3 hours. I took Devon to the start flag at a 90 degree angle, and it took her a long time to start. I waited until she was fully committed before I followed. It was interesting because I had assumed her starts were solid and this one was not. I think I'm giving her all the information for where her track is because I always know where the start is. I'll have to do this more often.

Devon worked very well but didn't want to track the sidewalk on her second leg. She wanted to fringe onto the grass on either side. I tried to hold her to the sidewalk, and that's where I think I started losing her a little. She struggled on the non-veg turn, and I finally showed her where it was. I had used good water and hand print there, so I was confused why she had such difficulty. I think it was because I was trying to hard to make her "honest" to the track versus letting her fringe and do it her way. When I let her have her way at the next non-veg turn, she did fine. She then followed that leg nicely onto another sidewalk, across a tether ball court, past a toddler and her grandmother playing and into the curb. She even caught the angle across the road well. 

Then I screwed up. I kept her in the opposite curb when I should have given her the veg for about 70 yards instead. After that turn we were in a tennis court for some challenging non-veg. I should have relaxed her with the veg and easy scenting instead of back to back hard surface challenges. Devon broke down about two-thirds of the way through the tennis courts, and we limped to the glove. Bad mom!

Overall she did a good job. I could have given her a lot more help with my track laying on Saturday. I did a good job on Friday of giving her veg breaks, and I did a poor job on Saturday. I'm pretty sure I can get some tracking in on Monday evening, so I'll plan a better track for her then.