Millie 11/21 Obstacles

Goal--to give Millie experience working TDX-like obstacles on a young track, including crossing asphalt road and handling transition from one type of cover to another (in this case back and forth between groomed field and roughly bushhogged brush). Five turns, 364 yards, 2 intermediate articles. Aged 45 minutes. Cover groomed grass, medium field grass, rough-cut brush. Several very new accidental cross-tracks Cover slightly damp. Mostly cloudy, 63°, light breeze, rh 83%.

Good start, stuck nicely to first leg (although here and elsewhere she frequently stops and looks to side searching for the food drops that she knows must be there). Clear loss of scent at corner, but had to work a bit to find the line. Finally started in the right direction, although we had to stop to bark at a cross-country runner. My mistake in getting momentarily confused by the wrong line-up, but when she got the the road Millie corrected my mistake and crossed at exactly the right place.

What I liked:

    1. Excellent road-crossings--she found the right line in spite of being misdirected on the first crossing, she charged through the second crossing at exactly the right place, and she did the diagonal crossing on the last leg beautifully. 

    2, Corner behavior is becoming clearer-the head comes up exactly where she loses scent, she searches effectively, and she shows me clearly when she is back on the track by getting her nose down and really leaning into the harness. I'm comfortable with the fact that her style is that of a deliberate searcher--even if she thinks she knows where the track goes, she still checks the other way to make sure. This is way not moving until she makes a commitment is essential. She does almost always make the right decision. This time only the first corner was a bit dicey.

    3. I've been working to improve several aspects of my handling. This time I tried to make her show a real commitment to a direction at the turn, letting the line run out a bit, before I followed. And aside from trying to calm her down after she saw the runner, I am getting better  at keeping my mouth shut and letting her work.

What needs work:

    1, Indication, indication, indication. I think we need to go back to the basics that we worked on in March, and then to alternate between other forms of practice tracks and article tracks. She does indicate in a clear and recognizable way, but it is not a bulletproof as a down.

    2. Distractibility. Leaving aside the incident of the nearby runner (I was actually pleased by the way she shook it off and quickly got back to work), I had to stop her from getting pulled off track by some distraction to the left on the fourth leg.

    3. Although she worked the road crossings very nicely, she may have been a little too sure in charging across. I need to add in exercises where we go to the road but don't cross it.