On Saturday, Steve and I decided to track Archie and Devon. I brought Page along and put in a short track for her. I was also looking forward to Steve's opinion of where Page was with VST.
This track was aged 1.5 hours. It was 252 yards long with 45% non-veg. I put hand prints every 3-4 steps to start, then spaced them out to every 10 steps in the later non-veg. The weather was unseasonably cool, and it had rained earlier in the day.
I gave Page a one flag start and brought her in at a slight angle. She nailed the start and the first turn. She worked out onto the first parking lot area well. However, when she got to the turn on the sidewalk, she really struggled. She wanted to pull up to the building, and we did wonder if the building was warmer pulling the scent up to it.
After several circles and what seemed like the second or third time I rescented her, it suddenly clicked and she locked in and turn left. From this point, there was no stopping Page. She tracked nose down the rest of the way, including an amazing turn from the grassy island onto the last stretch of parking lot. She tracked the parking lot nose down, back arched pulling in a straight line dead on the track.
Steve felt the goofiness on the second turn was just Page being a 5 month old puppy and lacking focus. Once she locked in, she was fantastic. He encouraged me to age her up to at least 2 hours and 15 minutes for her next track. Scent seems to settle in for VST tracks after that magic 2 hour mark, but it was one I haven't yet broken for my "baby dog." Ah well, every other challenge I've thrown at Page she's handled with ease, so why not this one?
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