I'm picking up the thread here after several months without posting. We have worked steadily all summer, Ilsa on alternating non-vegetated surfaces and contaminated public lawns, and Millie on rotating components of TD work -- stairsteps, long-aged tracks, long distance (500+) tracks, with TD-like tracks thrown in. Millie had to take a few weeks off for minor surgery, but on the whole each has worked 2-3 time a week since May.
New Feature. What has taken me so long to get September up is that I have been struggling with the twenty-first century. I have decided to try to post both maps and, more challenging, a few videos of their tracks. I have by no means posted every video I've taken; this month I have posted links to 2 each for Millie and Ilsa. It has been a real learning experience trying to get their videos off of my computer and downloaded. Apparently the only real way to do this is through youtube. Not that any of you might be tempted to do so, but I'd prefer that you not share the links with anyone outside the class, at least for the time being.
September
2
Ilsa – Non-vegetated Practice. Prince
Edward County Middle School Parking. 300 yards. 7 turns (1 veg, 2 along curb, 4
MoT- like in open parking lot). Aged 1:40. Open areas in parking lot (not
sections along curb) hydrated intermittently. 4 articles, and intermittent (≈1
per leg) food drops. Sunny, 59°, calm.
Clean
start without hesitation, good left turn on veg after circling to check. No
hesitation going onto asphalt; made first turn in open nicely after going about
10 feet past corner. Very clean subsequent turn on asphalt. Crossed grass
median, found article (leather) and went straight across grass median and
parking lot to far curb. Picked up track along curb (drifted slightly at one
point) and found article (metal) until track turned back into center of parking
lot. Overshot corner in middle of parking lot, but picked it up immediately
after circling. Had to search hard at last corner, making a very wide full
circle, before finally picking up the track and following it to the final
article
She seems to be able to negotiate MOT-like turns very well, but regularly overshoots by 10-15 feet before searching for and picking up the next leg (almost always with success). Hopefully she will sharpen that up as we go along, but at least for the moment I might try following at about 15 feet rather than 10 to minimize the need to back up. Otherwise this was a very promising track.
Video link:
September
4
Millie – Modified 6 turn stairstep, 355
yards, 30 minutes old. 3 articles on or at the end of track; one food drop in
middle of each leg without an article. Flags 5 yards before each corner. Short
to medium-long grass. Sunny, 70°, calm. Very Humid.
Good
clean start; made first turn left after searching right; the turn was at a
transition from short to medium-long grass, which she negotiated well. Found and
sort of indicated article halfway down second leg. Second leg stops just before
tree line with lots of pine straw and debris (very popular with critters). This
has often given Millie difficulty, but not this time. She searched a bit, and
then made a clean right turn, and stuck to the third leg, which ran parallel to
the tree line. She cut the corner slightly on third (left) turn, but had no
problem picking up the leg. Fourth leg fine—found article, and had no problem
with medium-long-to-short -to-medium long transition before corner, which she
took cleanly. Fifth turn taken well, and again on fifth leg no problem with
cover changes. Rest of the track run very nicely, except for some brief
circling to search in nice smelly area. No an awful lot to criticize in her
performance today.
September
5
Ilsa – A long (815 yards) and very
challenging (too challenging, as it turned out) track to see how well
Ilsa could do on highly contaminated vegetated surface. Two days earlier there
had been a college football game with hordes of tailgaters partying on the
lawns. That sounded like the degree of difficulty I wanted to test her on, but
as it turns out an hour before she ran the track college trash collectors had
run their trucks over the site, and about 8 of them had stood right in the
middle of where we were to go emptying can after can. This proved a bit more
than Ilsa could handle.
She got off to a good strong start,
and had no problem with the first two legs or the corner (although she did miss
an article on the second leg). The second corner and the first 1/3 of the third
leg was where the trash truck had been parked and all the trash collectors had
been working. It was not a complete disaster—she knew where the track was
going, but all those intense smells kept pulling her off. The third leg was not
a failure, but not much better than a D-.
The rest of the track was OK if
unremarkable. After missing the third corner, she recovered and found the track
again, and stuck with it for the rest of the time in spite of the fact that her
brain was clearly running on empty. She show signs of tiredness at points (I
tried without success to get her to take water), but she stuck with it
tenaciously. We have a lot to work on, but her determination was manifest, a
very good sign.
September
7
Millie – Short motivational track; 3
turns, 280 yards; 30 minutes old. Misty, 70°, calm. 2 articles
Millie
ran this well all the way around. I wanted to give her something simple in
anticipation of more challenging tracks coming up
September
8
Ilsa – Contaminated Campus Lawn Work.
Mostly vegetated with some asphalt and brick stretches. 470 yards. Aged 1:25.
Sunny, 76°, calm.
Tentative start next to building and air conditioner, but then worked the rest of the track with confidence. No difficulty on turns (all on vegetated surface); at third turn which is mixed vegetation and dirt with a lot of squirrel activity she circled several times to sniff, but then got back on track with no encouragement. She easily found and indicated all articles (she’s finally sitting regularly to indicate!), except for the last article which had been pinched. Crossed asphalt road without hesitating and right on track; negotiated brick walk and esplanade with no problem. Worked the parking lot nicely, following track between two parked cars that had not been there when the track was laid.
September 13
Millie – Four-Turn, 470 yard track, aged 50 minutes. One food drop on short leg, 2 food drops on long legs, and 3 articles. Short and mostly thick, medium grass, wet. Overcast, 68°, calm.
Very humid.Start dead on, confident and enthusiastic, as was the whole of first leg; first corner taken very cleanly. Easily handled transition from short to long grass on second leg; tracked a few feet wide, but found article. She got a little confused on sparse, sandy area, but recovered to find the second turn without much problem. Persevered on very long (210 yards) third leg, in spite of having to negotiate medium but very thick grass, and found second article. (She did stop to roll in something. We all have our priorities!) I need to be aware that she likes to detour around heavy clumps of vegetation, and not be fooled into thinking prematurely that it is a turn (10:51). Negotiated last two turns (open) and last two short legs without much of a problem, although she had to work a bit on the last turn.
September
14
Ilsa – Easy, fun VST Practice. Three-Turn,
420 yard track (137 non-veg=32%), aged 1:05. For the first time no augmentation
on any of the nv surfaces.
A very encouraging track all around. Did well on concrete and asphalt surfaces, including the road crossing and following the track down the length of the parking lot. The only problem was that she came off the asphalt a bit wide to the left and tracked parallel about 8' until she intercepted the track on the final leg. We need to work on transitions from nv to v, but on the whole her work on nv was very promising.
September
18
Millie – A short (305 yards) four turn “chair”,
aged 1:40. Cover ranging from short to very long (read over my knees)
grass. Longwood University Disc Golf Course. Overcast, 64°, calm.
Pretty poor all the way around. She
got off to a good, confident start, but between being distracted by the smells
of innumerable critters and dealing with the long grass, most of the track was
abysmal; I had to help her along about 3 or 4 times. The long grass was a
particular problem—she couldn’t handle the transition when the track ran from
short grass right into a wall of thick grass 18-24 inches high, which is
well over her head. Entirely my fault for asking her to deal with something so
extreme. I have to give her a nice confidence-building track next time.
September
20
Ilsa – 5-turn mostly vegetated
practice on contaminated campus lawn (track laid 7:30 am, classes changed 8:30,
track run 8:50). 535 yards. Wet grass with some road/parking lot crossings. All
turns on grass. Partly Cloudy, 60°, light air.
Very strong,
confident start; nice precise turn on first corner. Good second leg, although
she missed a very small plastic article in grass. She seemed to find the second
corner right away, but then spent a long time circling and checking; for a
moment she looked perplexed, but then got back to work and took the track.
On
fourth leg into parking lot she was a bit confused by a car parked right across
the track, and needed a bit of encouragement, but eventually did fine.
Ran the
rest of the track with no problems; negotiated last leg which ran between two
buildings (about 30 yards apart) with no difficulty whatsoever.
I need to work with her on solving unexpected VST-specific problems, like the car parked across the track.
September
22
Millie – Four-turn, 475-yard track on
cut hayfield in more-or-less ideal conditions (Overcast, 60°, force 2-3 breeze,
very damp). One food drop on each leg (2 on legs without articles); 4 articles.
Aged 0:45. Flag 5 yards before each corner.
After last time I wanted to give her a track that was not too difficult, but I didn’t want something silly easy. Regulation distance, regulation turns, short end of regulation time, but with ideal conditions and cover (no TDX style transitions). Both confidence and mine were restored—she ran the track almost flawlessly. No very hard working at turns, no missed articles. Exactly what I was hoping for. The only glitch was that she initially stopped about 5 yards short of the last article; we were almost dead downwind from it, and she certainly was picking up its scent at that distance. With encouragement she went ahead far enough that we could see it. All in all this was a very strong performance.
Good practice with distractions—traffic on road parallel to first leg; barking dogs in paddock close to second corner, tempting woods at third corner, etc.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/3zpT7tqwtKQ
September
24
Ilsa – Practice Non-Veg (45%) and Veg
(55%) and transitions. Prince Edward County Middle School. 510 yards. Aged
2:00. Non-Veg a mixture of Asphalt, Concrete, a little Gravel, and some plain
Dirt. Veg manicured grass. Partly cloudy, 65 °, light breeze. 85% Humidity.
Good
start, excellent first leg, first turn along curb, and second leg (no problem
finding metal article). She had to work long and hard on the second corner
(left turn into parking lot from curb), but she finally worked it out. Nice
work on third leg (alternating across parking lots and grassy medians; one
transition from asphalt to grass gave her a bit of difficulty, but she worked
it out). A little slow to pick up fourth leg, but again worked it out after
some searching.
She took the fourth corner easily,
but instead of following the sidewalk down the fifth leg, she tracked about 2
feet wide parallel to it. Did ok negotiating wide parking lot (she needed some “encouragement”
to ignore the rotten apple), and then found the track on the grass. The rest of
the track was very strong, including passing through the gate onto softball
field and crossing the grass/mud infield; found the last (plastic) article by
the outfield fence.
She
needs to become more accustomed to and reliable on heavily contaminated
surfaces, especially vegetated surfaces. She got around well today, but
she struggled a bit on the third corner and fourth leg, in an area where
students wait for their busses in the afternoon five days a week. She had
similar problems in the area at the college lawns where there had been
tailgaters the previous day.
September
25
Millie – Longwood University Disc Golf
Course, 11:35 am. Short (240 yards), young (40 minutes old), easy track, with 2
articles and 3 turns.
All
summer we have been working early in the morning, usually before 9, sometimes
before 8. It struck me that it would be best to give Millie work at other times
of the day; if we get a high draw at a trial with a lot of TDs (I have sent in
an entry to one with ten TD slots), we could wind up tracking quite
late.
In any event, she stuck to the track
and hit all the turns well, and found both articles. In the coming week she is
going to have at least three sessions of challenging practice, so I wanted to
give her something to build her confidence.
September
25
Ilsa – Contaminated lawn practice.
485 yards of moderately-heavily contaminated campus lawn. 4 turns, 2 hours old.
4 article.
Start and first three legs on
moderately contaminated lawn all very good (my first article had been snatched).
All areas that had been trod upon by students changing classes between when I
laid the track and when she ran it. Then we entered heavily contaminated area
(dedicated tailgating area with lingering smells, five spot-a-pots just to the
left of the track, and a grounds keeper had just gone through with a
high-velocity blower). There she had some difficulty. I had to wait several
minutes until she decided that she had the track for sure; in the end she did,
but I have my doubts as to whether I would have been fooled by false
indications—we really need to work on blind tracks! The rest of the track she
ran well, making the last two turns and finding two of three articles. (She ran
right through the final article.) Still not a great performance, but good, and
the kind of work we need to pursue.
September 28
Millie – Four-turn blind track. 450 yards, aged 1:00. Short to medium-long grass, with several transitions from one to the other. Mostly cloudy, 63°, calm.
Our first blind track since the
Spring (Thanks, Mary Ann!). Nice start in longish grass. Negotiated the first
leg medium-long grass and lots of pine straw and pine cones) and first corner
with confidence. Tracked well, if a little wide, on second leg. She hesitated
for a moment when the track went from normal cover to a ±25’ strip of short
closely-cut grass, but no real problem. Made a good second turn (again on
closely-cut grass, which continued for the length of the third leg). Indicated
article, and got a water break. A bit slow to restart, but in the end figured
it out. Third turn again clean, and no trouble early in fourth leg making
transition from short grass to long, thick stuff. Made final turn ok (at first
I didn’t believe her because there was a food drop at the corner), and charged
through the short last leg to the article.
This was an important track for
building confidence, both hers and mine, on our first blind track in a long
time.
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