Wednesday's VST track

When I laid this track at 2:15 p.m., it was sunny. Ok, it was also in the mid-30s, but with the sun it didn't feel so bad. When I went back to run it at 5:25 p.m., it was overcast and the wind was blowing at 17 mph and gusting to above 20 mph. The wind chill was 25 degrees! UGH! I thought my whole face and my fingers were going to freeze! The things we do for training!

This track was 408 yards long, with 258 yards of non-veg or 63%. It started on a narrow strip of grass then moved into a parking lot for a long 178 yard "leg" of a serpentine and two right turns. Devon handled the straighter portion of the track much better than the serpentine. However, these islands were not bounded by curbs, and with the strong wind the scent was being pushed around so that's likely why she was over the grass islands more than usual. 

Next we had a grassy leg with two turns before moving back out on the parking lot.The track wrapped around a building with the wind swirling, but Devon handles veg so well she was on a rail through this section. 

After the grass, Devon handled the transition onto the parking lot well. However, there was a right turn on the parking lot about 3 feet before the parking lot ended into grass. The grass sloped away from the parking lot to a small ditch. Again, with the wind and no curb, I know the wind pushed the scent down the hill and with the better scenting of the grass, Devon struggled. 

At this point I also was about frozen and really ready to end the track. We spent a great deal of time on this turn and Devon stalled badly even after rescenting. I know I was "helping" with body language and too much encouragement. After what seemed like an eternity to my frozen fingers and ears, she finally trotted off down the parking lot on the track (I momentarily had the thought of strangling her since as she went she acted like she knew where the track was the entire time; must have been my frozen brain that thought of such horrors). When I laid the track, I forgot to put her white plastic article on the grass by the building. This turned out to be very fortunate, because it was ahead of her on the parking lot, "hidden" on a white stripe. She saw it pretty quickly so she got a great reward for choosing to track on the parking lot!

After this rough patch, it was onto a small strip of grass, then crossing what turned out to be a busy drive and along a curb for a few yards, then back onto grass for her glove. Unfortunately, there was a lot of traffic along this drive she had to cross. As she worked the transition, I had to be mindful of traffic that wasn't watching me or my dog. Twice I had to call her away from the drive just as I knew she was ready to commit to the track due to a fast moving car! Frustrating, but worth the practice for a test. She worked through it to her glove.

This was not the best track mainly due to my frustration at being very, very cold. I gave up winter tracking (and field work), because I couldn't tolerate the cold with my early arthritis in my hands. Because of the very warm weather over the weekend, I was tricked into thinking it was warmer than it was! From now on, I'm checking the wind chill forecast before I track!

I'm hoping to put in a track tomorrow (today was again much too cold). On that track I plan on working transitions from veg to non-veg and then lines of non-veg. I'm going to a church where I can zigzag across a long parking lot. I also plan to decrease my finger touches as we track. I do like what Devon is doing on non-veg by checking the cracks and curbs to find where scent pools.