June 16th, 2025

We were back out at Newport News Park in the morning for a tracking session and it was a wet one. It had poured the night before, and the ground was still soggy when we got started. On top of that, it was misting lightly and the humidity was very high. Cooler temps helped, though, and it actually ended up being a really nice morning to train.

The focus for today was starts. I laid out three short tracks, each double-laid and aged in 15-minute increments. The idea was to run them back-to-back and keep things fun and light after a bit of a break from practice. I spaced food drops closer than usual about every 10 paces. Chicken was used since he seems to be enjoying that at the moment the best.

I also got to try out my Meta AI glasses for the first time! Heather filmed behind me like she always does, and I was able to sync the two perspectives into one video for each track. Super cool to compare my view with hers and see how my handling looks from both angles.

Track 1 – 25 yards, 10 minutes old

This was our first time back after a few weeks off, so I wasn’t sure how he’d respond but he was on it. He pulled me straight to the start flag and handled the track really well. The article was a leather glove with a ground squirrel pelt tucked inside. The article for this practice were not tied to a lure. Logistically with the three tracks it was easier to just lay the articles down since we were also laying Wren's tracks.  I also wanted to see how he’d respond to a static article. He clearly recognized it and showed nice interest even without movement. The short, fun tracks with lots of rewards seemed to be exactly what he needed to ease back into the groove. 

Track 2 – 35 yards, aged 20 minutes

This one was just a bit longer and aged a bit more. The article was a hat, and overall he did pretty well here too. He did wander off track a little at one point clearly on a mission to locate the next food drop but then he re-engaged with the track on his own.

Track 3 – 25 yards, aged 45 minutes

There was a noticeable difference in his behavior at the start of this one. I’m not sure if it was the increased age of the track, or if he was just starting to lose a bit of momentum after the first two, but he was definitely less focused. He picked up food at the start flag, then veered off the track almost immediately. His nose was to the ground, but he was also scanning around a bit with his head up. I gave him a prompt to continue forward, which got him moving again but he veered off once more before finally settling back in. Once he got back to the track, he locked in aside from getting offended by some foreign dog poop close by (honestly, same). He recovered quickly, though, and ended on a high note, pounced on the final article (a tug toy) and picked it right up. That kind of confident finish was exactly what I wanted to see after a shaky start.