February 15

Brigid -- Goals: 1. start building track age; 2. get her used to a combination of very short and long track legs. Short track (260 yards), 2 turns, legs of 60, 150 and 50 yards. Age 1:10 old. Articles on every leg (two on long leg). Food drops every 20 yards, high-value food drops (pieces of roast lamb) thrown onto articles. No scuffing. Short to medium cover, with some sections of pine straw and pine debris. Clear, 46°, wind force 2. 59% humidity.

Brigid is starting strongly, and was not phased by rather drastic change of cover 10 yards after start. First turn was near tempting line of trees with critter-laden debris, and she did let herself get drawn beyond turn, but eventually found the track on her own. I'm not sure I wouldn't have followed the false track if it were blind, We have to continue to work through that sort of tempting cover. She stuck nicely to the long second leg, and found and indicated both articles; third turn was nice and clean, but she had problems on third leg which, again, crossed through the debris field. Did recover to find her way to final article.

Some of her problems on the first corner may have been due to the age of the track, but the track as a whole was strong enough that I'm comfortable with slowly adding age (although with short-aged practices in between older ones.) Article indication is good, and the reinforcement of "food from the sky" seems to be giving her improved incentive.


February 17

Brigid -- Four-turn short (250 yard) track; 40 minutes old. Goal: to work her on more difficult cover, including the tempting pine debris. Frequent changes of cover from short to long grass, grass studded with scrubby vegetation, pine straw and debris, and new terrain features (gully, sandy patch, etc.). Partly cloudy, 41°, calm; humidity 72%. Food drops every 30-40 yards. No scuffing.

    Very strong start and first leg. She showed clear loss-of-scent behavior on first and all subsequent corners (R/L/L/L), and did not struggle unduly in finding the next leg. Stuck to track more closely than usual, in spite of the infrequent food drops. Found and indicated article at the end and was duly rewarded with "food from the sky". Seemed unphased throughout the entire track by unfamiliar cover. All in all a very encouraging performance.


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