August 15th, 2025

 Location: Riverview Farm Park

Time: 10:00-11:00

Weather: 80° 90% Humidity 7 mph winds

This week’s practice was all about aged starts. I laid three tracks in 15-minute increments, each a little different to see how things played out.

Track 1 : 45 minutes aged, 35 yards
This was the oldest track of the morning, so I decided to make it special and used his favorite toy as the article. Looking back, that was probably a mistake. Since it was our first track, I should’ve saved the toy as a big finish at the end instead. About halfway through, he spotted it and pulled hard to get to it instead of really tracking his way there. Lesson learned!

Track 2 : 30 minutes aged, 40 yards
For this one I used a clothing item that always stays in my tracking bag. He definitely needed more encouragement to settle into the track and seemed a little frustrated at the start. When we reached the article, he completely ignored it which he hasn’t done in quite a while. Honestly, I froze a bit and wasn’t sure how to handle that moment. Guess I’m a little rusty myself!

Track 3 : 15 minutes aged, 45 yards
The last track ran through some trees, so I placed food closer together to discourage him from leaving the track to sniff and mark. This time the article was a recently worn clothing item, hoping the fresh scent would help. Instead, he did a lot of weaving, and I could tell his focus just wasn’t as strong as it had been earlier. He also ignored this article. We will have to go back to putting non toy articles on a lure. 

Overall, it wasn’t our strongest practice, but I’m glad we got the reps in. The park was heavily contaminated. Lots of foot traffic, dogs, construction noise, and even jets flying overhead. It was also very humid which is something that really affects him. With all that going on, it makes sense that his concentration was up and down. Still, every training session teaches me something new (even if it’s just what not to do next time).