https://youtu.be/apvLt_HPUWM?si=YHksdT4xfWOMT4DK Fletch has now been on high dose steroids for one month. Plan: stairstep at 4 hours. Goal: build his confidence with age. Reality: I ran it at 3’45”. I got nervous about how old it was going to be! Laid it with a S10-20, walk 20-30, food at 10-15, pattern. Scuffed all turns, woods entrance, and little projection of deeper cover by pink flags. Food in article in woods, and article after woods (very small article). Restar

He’s finally feeling better, thought we’d give it a try. 2’35” old. Start and turns scuffed. One intermediate article. Goal: parallel woods smoothly. Quite happy with this. Nice start, lovely turns, and ignored the woods line. Great articles! https://youtu.be/CFS7N6KEBa8?si=xOZT_-8fqqrfczl0

4 starts, 1,2,3,4 hours old. He was distracted on the first legs, and pretty darn good after the article on the turn. Don’t love the distraction piece, will stay at 6’ next time out. Articles are improving, next track will be articles, and not at home. His energy feels a bit low, and his little hop is missing. Thinking I might not let the line run, but rather ask for a bit of a pull next time. While I didn’t love the distraction, I also didn’t see much difference between

HSC. 60 degrees, sunny. 37” old. I designed track direction, with the final turn blind. NV was sprayed. He really struggled with first leg and first turn. My take away is more start work in contaminated areas. Didn’t love his first section of NV, was quite happy with his NV turn Next: starts. Once X type with age, once at public areas. https://youtu.be/F4rjzF7uwpE?si=-KqzU6oxn0IzFrJR

First track on high dose steroids. And (thank you Kelly) we are changing course—we are taking aim at a TDU while we see how he does on the ‘roids. I was over the moon thrilled with this. Classic example of food being information even though he didn't eat it. We shall continue training X and TDU. https://youtu.be/FFzyfTcMlDw?si=jpEh7Ri64i9FowPy

The goal was an article track in melting snow. It sorta happened. When the track was laid, the snow was vigorously melting. 2 hours, later, the temp had taken a dive and everything had refrozen. This went well. Awesome start, my plan was to cue all articles to assure the down happened. He resisted on 2 (both fabric), and downed before the cue on one (metal). We did lose one metal article, rewalked twice to look for it, but I’m sure nothing stole it, so will look again t

2’20” old. Low 40s, light beeeze, overcast. Track laid by Ellen O. He struggled. Moments of brilliance, but for the most part, I was handling him a lot. I need more clarity for articles—down. 3 seconds. Feed. Get it get it get it. Play, feed. ‘Track it up’. Make sure there are restart cookies. Weak start and weak articles 2 tracks in a row. Need to work those on next two outings, and bump them up in the rotation. https://youtu.be/r_wdy94v0pE?si=Qx39mWnkqz6yTwin

1 hr old. Overcast, 36 degrees. Light frost, melted. Overall I liked this. Didn’t like the start, certainly didn’t like the articles. Loved his attitude and persistence when I made a choice not to follow. https://youtu.be/8B_DIVUpgRQ?si=UYxiIkoNSzb0gMdo

HCH. 40 degrees, intermittent rain. No wind. First video, 2 hours old. This was always a hard area for Gusto, thought we’d give it a try! https://youtu.be/5QjP94AFPSM?si=kt8U8nGIIr0-nFMR Second video, fresh track. Sprayed and scuffed. I thought putting the turn on brick might be easier, maybe not. None the less, he consistently told me where it did NOT go, just took a bit for him to find it. https://youtu.be/COCyG3M6M0M?si=cYfXwnodo3zqFB7C

Holly Ridge. Cold, sunny, dry. No wind. 3 hours old. Goal: parallel woods and enter woods at difficult (dense cover) entry. Paralleling these woods has been difficult for him; he was better today, still quite distracted. Woods entry was HARD, with a bit of a push he got it, was strong in the woods. NOTE: missed an article parallel to the woods, was distracted and couldn’t even indicate it after he stepped on it! https://youtu.be/-NL9QKMIkAA?si=pmcTXmOJzZl5Covy

Cool Water. Laid by me. 58 degrees, overcast. 70% humidity. 3’20” old. Goal:track recovery after taking him off with the article. Outcome: that really confused him! Of note: sitting on cue in the woods (maybe while tracking?) is weak. https://youtu.be/2Ez9MAcT_eI?si=h-KmJX04kM6-JHpQ

Another VST light, this time at Chick. MS. 61 degrees, sunny, gusty wind, 10mph, 53% RH, dew point 44 degrees. 45 minutes old. Goal: Turns around buildings, and entry onto NV with article to reinforce that decision. Outcome: Strong start, had difficulty with random smells near the trees. Did some marking at various places along the track, but is willing to move on if pushed. Appeared to find first turn in building corner, but was reticent to take it, did on second go ar

Rare event, tracked 2 days in a row. Was at Hanover HS/Oak Knoll MS for someone else….so decided to do a little “VST light” with Fletch. This was about 30” old. All NV was augmented with water. The section he struggled with makes sense to me, combination of probable swirling scents and well peed upon shrubs, when he found his way out, his re-establishment of tracking behavior was very clear. https://youtu.be/R5VUl28VsHE?si=jXIutUJpQnbKY3VH

Repeated Tuesday’s tracks in a different location in the fields, and with almost no wind. Totally different dog! I am not drawing any conclusions from this, except maybe he is now more comfortable in freshly cut soy. https://youtu.be/y94ClypEx8A?si=Mouceq_49d74DL6L https://youtu.be/jqxwsGIGBIE?si=n8ctehPKyKcXfRtV https://youtu.be/V9XJ3ljWQ3Q?si=4zdTde4PtKBdRn2t

Cool Water. Cold (27). First real cold snap we’ve had. Freshly cut soy in big field, high winds. Plan was 3 starts. Added 4th track as this was hard for him. Not sure specifically what the challenge he was, he was quite taken with the wide expanse of cut field. Was quite happy with the last track (did more scuff). Will probably do the same thing on Saturday, will be very different weather. Interesting to hear how anxious I became with people following me. Good practice!!...

Very happy with this! He indicated metal and plastic without cue. LOS was excellent, turns were nice. No loss of drive or enthusiasm. https://youtu.be/CO_BvLC8CPs?si=6D61hp1wgi-cDuRy

Woods. 3’05”, about an hour older than planned. 4 turns, entire track in the woods. 55 degrees, overcast, Very windy. Front moving in. https://youtu.be/G9YroseC5Dw?si=Sss4M644YlvNWr54

Plans smashed when we arrived at site to find massive construction. So, made the best of it! B’dam elementary school, combo article, turn, surface track. 90” old, overcast, 60 degrees. No wind. Drought. Went well: start, turns, attitude, contamination Needs work: articles (he stops solidly, doesn’t down), transition to wood chips was a learning process for sure. Overall, very happy with what we had. https://youtu.be/i9Ifmlv1oys?si=xwogtP0x0yQMHwEr

OK, it’s time to get serious! 90” old track. 70 degrees, windy, sunny. Dry, dry, dry. Great start, stopped to investigate something, and went happily back to work on his own. I faced the wrong direction at the turn, and turned to face any direction any time he cast off (sometimes supporting the cast, sometimes in the opposite direction, or turned to face where we’d come from). None of that bothered him in the least. There was an article on the last turn, he stopped, ne

73 degrees, cloudy, humid. Tall wet grass. Holly Ridge, back field. TL:9:15, TR: 11:15. Started at seam of short and tall grass, going...