Practice Session, 4.17.2026

We've been pretty busy with NASDA training and trials, but we ventured out to a new location to do some tracking on Friday. 

With gas prices as they are, some of our 'further afield' locations are getting prohibitively expensive to visit often, so I contacted Chesterfield County Parks & Recreation to ask for suggestions. Their first recommendation was Beulah Park, so we went there to check it out.

There was a big open area, but the grass (and soil) were extremely dry. Some areas had no grass or vegetation at all. I wasn't sure how challenging this might be for Quinn, so I laid a test-track: straight, S10W20FD10 (a pattern he is very comfortable with), and double laid the track just in case.  The first track was around 75 yards long. 

• Temperature: 77° F 
• Wind: WNW 1 MPH, gusts to 8 MPH
• Humidity: 50%
• Overall: Sunny and warm, fairly dry

Track 1: Laid 10:56 AM, Run 11:08 AM 

Quinn stayed cool in the car (with AC!) while I set the track. I let him have a brief bathroom break, then clipped the line to his harness and off we went! He was very happy to go to work and seemed pretty confident (despite his handler, who did NOT do an exceptional job of keeping the contact on the line.)

He worked very handily despite some distractions: mowing/landscaping crew to the right, children on a playground to the left. Overall he seemed very happy to be working so I thought we'd try an additional track as the terrain didn't seem to bother him in the least. (The map on Google Earth is not up to date. There's a playground to the left of where we were working, and a fenced baseball field at the end of the area - so our tracks worked within those boundaries.)

 

Track 2: Laid: 11:16 AM, Run 11:22 AM

I let Quinn chill (literally) in the car and set the second track: same pattern, but about 60 yards to a turn, followed by about 55 yards to the article. 

He seemed slightly more distracted once or twice, but otherwise worked very nicely and got the job done in good order. Good boy, Quinn! 

 

 Three things Quinn did well:

1. Clearly remembered and enjoyed the game! We've been focusing on another sport recently but he was obviously happy to get back to tracking and seemed confident and keen to work.

2. Ignored distractions really well! In addition to playground noise and landscaping noise, there is a walking track around the perimeter of the area and several walkers/joggers went by. Other than a passing glance, Quinn ignored everything to keep working.

3. Handled the new terrain (and warm/dry weather) better than expected. I was prepared to encourage him far more than I needed to. He was very confident and efficient considering various challenging elements.

Three things to improve:

1. This is entirely my fault - we have not been practicing the automatic down at the article. The indications we need for NASDA are different and we have been working hard on those, so he did not offer a down at the articles on this day. He did down, slowly, on command. After the tracks, we went to a shady area and played 'can you' and refreshed the idea of laying down when you find something on a track! He was readily agreeable to this so it's just on me to keep it fresh for him.  

2. Line handling. I just didn't do that well, but will keep working on it. There are times on the video that I see a little slack in the line but I didn't appear to fix it very quickly. Fortunately, my dog is a genius and at this stage does not seem hampered by my ineptitude.  

3. Not necessarily to improve exactly, but to continue working on: training in lots of different locations and presenting him with new (manageable) questions to solve. I was so pleased and impressed with his work on the dry/bare soil; I really thought it might trip him up to the point where he needed more support or for me to scrap the plan entirely. Likewise with the distractions - usually if he hears children playing/yelling, he wants to go check on everyone! But other than a few glances over at the playground, he really didn't bother about it at all. He continually surprises me in wonderful ways. 

Goal for next track:

We are off on a two week road trip to Arizona for Josh's graduation, but I am taking our tracking gear in case we find any big fields next to hotels! (This has happened before, so I am optimistic.) If we have an opportunity to track, we will. And if not, we will continue work on our heat acclimation as we explore, and plan to track more as soon as we get home.