I went to Mt. Solon yesterday to track with a friend on her cattle farm. Edgar had a 2 turn track. I had asked for scuffing out of the turn but things happen. I used a line without the "Oh sh1t" knots. He did great. I think he likes this line better simply because I can't stop him as easily. He wasn't the least bit bothered by the cow manure. I'm convinced that's because he ate a decent amount of it earlier. Kipp gave me the map. I thought I had put it in the console. Of course, now I can't find it.
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The track today was a stair step. Michele Gillette put it in a small field. She felt he did his best with the scuff out of the turn. I tried Anne's trick of using lots of treats to keep his attention on me. I'm such a klutz that he was getting treats and the expense of my skin. Michele suggested something that she learned from the Julie Daniels seminar. It has the same principle as Anne's. I drop 1 treat at a time and then he looks to me for the next treat. For his articles I picked up the article, put the food reward on top of the article, and he had to sit to get the article. We'll play Michele's article game several times a week.
Today I tracked with Michele Gillette at J.Sarge. The cover was short and the wind was very gusty. The gust were up to 30 mph according to the weather service. Michele gave me several good ideas. The first was to take Edgar out of the car and walk him around for a few minutes and then put him back in the car. This should help him get some self control. He had an article track. The track was 10 paces, article, 10 paces food drop, 10 paces article, lather rinse and repeat. To get his sit solid she suggested putting the food on the article and hold it up to him as long as he's sitting. Also, to do this with the article game. Michele also got to see his airs above ground at the start. He's like a jumbo economy size toned down Rudy.
Back on Tuesday I took Edgar out to Hidden Rock park. I should have used a ground clip for my turn. I watered Edgar and was getting ready to throw out an article when Edgar hit the line so strongly it was all I could do to keep up. He didn't want to indicate the article. Tomorrow I'll be tracking again and it will be an article track. Things I learned, if I don't have a good ground marker and/or a good double line up to mark the turn. Give him routine food drops especially when going downhill. Keep working article indication.
Today, very painful body and all, I took the dogs out to Dorey to track. I made an extra effort to keep my weight on Edgar's leash so he had to stand still. I tried to film it but mostly it was just my ear band. We did a 3 turn stair step. The track went in at 11:55 and we ran it 12:30. The conditions were very short, damp grass, partly cloudy and no wind. I had put the food every 12 steps since that had worked at Kipp's. I need to go back to food every 8 steps. Coming out of the turns I tried walk 5 food for five and then one at 12 and continue. I did that for the first 2 turns and it went good. The last turn I did five food and then the routine drops. The first worked better. This evening I played Julia Priest's article game. As he got into the game he sat at his articles more quickly to get to play with squeaky cow.
12/5/25 Yesterday I drove up to Mt. Solon to track with a friend who lives on a cattle farm. I was very specific on what I wanted. I even drew a map. A stair step with the legs 50 yards long. I didn't get that. The map was very unspecific. I didn't have a start time or the length of the legs. I had 4 turns with two of them being open angled. The guess at the time was somewhere around an hour. I had managed to forget my cooler with chicken so my friend cut up extra venison hotdogs. Those things have a strong smell! So the food drops were every 15. He ran over a lot of the food. He was good on the turns. He was moving so fast and strong I was just hanging on to the line or why my right shoulder hurts so much so often. Things I need to work on: not trusting on the flags. I tend to get dependent on the flags. I'll need blind tracks or very discretely marked turns. Edgar and I also need to work on article indication. I've let that slide to get in the 2 days of tracking. My...
Hopefully I can get my tracks from yesterday to post here. I was surprised to see a blank spot where my track had been. Well, I give up for tonight. Track one went in at 9:25 and was run at 10:06. The first leg was 150 paces, so approximately 135 yards. The second leg 45 paces so ~40 yards. I brought him up to the start flag at a slight angle. Track2 went in at 9:45 and was run at 10:13. He did a nice, unprompted sit at the start article. First leg~85 yards, nice strong start. The open angle left turn had food going out of the turn. He passed very close to a sewer grate and had no trouble. He did 3 paces on the asphalt. He had no trouble with the transition. Good sit at end article. If my map had loaded all of this was on the map. How frustrating for me. I don't normally scuff.