Sunday was really a lovely day, and we spent most of it at the White River Golden Retriever Club meeting. But in the evening, I couldn't help myself. I wanted to see what Page would do on a "big dog" VST track.
I put in a track for Page that I would usually give Devon. It was 577 yards long with 45% non-veg. It was aged 2 hours and 15 minutes. It included curb work and serpentines, which are staples in our VST work. I started with hand prints every 3-4 steps on the first section of non-veg and faded them to every 10+ steps.
I gave Page an angled start, and she again handled it very well. She's locking into her starts better than Devon is! She handled the first turn well, and with only a little searching went out into the non veg.
It took her a little bit to figure out the island work, but once she did she did the serpentines like she'd been doing them for years. Once on the veg, she actually took longer to lock into that leg than the non-veg. The angle across the driveway was simple for her, and she pulled me across with her nose down and back arched.
Page easily handled the track along the side of the building. She worked nose down and easily took the track into the curb and down the back of the building. I had less hand prints through this section, but you couldn't tell based on they way she worked the track. She angled out of the curb, across the sidewalk and onto the grass with her nose exactly in my footsteps. It was amazing.
The only place she really worked was the turn onto the sidewalk before the playground. This took several minutes and a couple of rescents before she locked in. However, once she did, she easily handled this section. I was very impressed she didn't even look out into the playground when she had just tracked through there two days before. She was really tracking and not just wandering and getting lucky.
The last leg of this track was the hardest because there was no light on this side of the building. I always forget that when I lay night-time tracks here. With her less than solid article indications, I wondered if she'd find the last article. She worked hard through this section, getting distracted and bringing me back mulch and wood chips (at least that's what I'm telling myself I was pulling out of her mouth; I really don't know and I don't think I want to know!).
Finally, she locked into the track and did a sit at the final article. Yippee!! Page did an awesome job with her first "big dog" VST track. She really is an amazing little girl!
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