January 8th, 2025
We met Heather and Wren on a freezing late afternoon in Williamsburg. Heather laid Finwe's tracks with no articles. I laid Wren's tracks with my articles.
Track 1 was a double laid 60 yard track. Heather's 20 inches seems to be different than my 20 inches. So the drops were closer together than we had being doing. However, I thought this might work out since he was essentially tracking someone else other than myself. The track went between a tennis court and a thicket. He was a bit distracted in the beginning. He did eventually push through and started to focus more towards the end of the track. Where some deer popped up!
Track 2 was double laid by Heather at 70 yards. Again her spacing was closer together than what we were practicing on our own. Less distractions on this track and it showed he was much more focused.
Track 3 was 80 yards. By the time we were running these last tracks, it had gotten dark. This is more difficult than I thought it was going to be. For some reason, the sound is cut out in the beginning. It does eventually come back. As we started, I thought the track was at a certain angle, so I was holding him back a little bit, thinking that he was incorrect. I was the one that was wrong and I should’ve trusted him. He ended up on the track with no issue and completed it rather quickly in the dark once I let him take the right track angle.
i think #2 was his best effort. #3 is hard due to darkness and you have a lot of slack in your line. he is used to a little bit more tension and so he may not have really had his tracking mojo on. I think you need to look over your food drop pattern and decide if he has been successful two times at this pattern - if yes (and i believe he has) it is time to increase the distance between food drops. i think on the tracks Heather laid you felt her ruler is shorter than yours, LOL. that's ok, going forward think about how you will stretch that out. i also think that on #1, the pinch in near the courts and the hedge added a level of difficulty - both in the way scent was holding there and in his distraction to the hedge and maybe he was a little nervous as it pinched in. i am glad that you are top loading the end flag with treats on treats. i personally would be doing at the start flag as well.
ReplyDelete