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December 27

Today we went to Cold Harbor Battlefield for the first time this year.  We have tracked near there, but not actually at the Battlefield until today.  It was very busy around 2 pm (I guess because of the holiday).  I was a little concerned it was going to be very noisy, but the dog walking group that was meeting up while I was laying the tracks for Cheeky moved along before she got out of the van.  As we were walking over to our tracks, a man was about to walk his three dogs right into the start of our first track.  I asked him to steer clear and he was very nice about it.  Unfortunately, he lost his handle on his leashes not once but twice and his dogs came running over to Cheeky.  Both times she didn't seem bothered by it and I picked her up until he had control of his dogs and moved away.  

It was 41°F and not windy when I laid three tracks for Cheeky that were 50/60/70 scuff steps and food drops every three steps.  She got right to work despite the early interruptions.  She did great and ate a lot of the food.  She stayed right on the tracks and was excited to find the articles.  Today since we were at the battlefield I used clothes pins instead of flags at the start and about 6 steps before the article.  I was really proud of Cheeky for not being bothered by the cars in the lot and the few people who were around when she ran her tracks.

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December 11

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January 5: Left Turn Track Day Four

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December 3: Cheeky's first tracking class

 In the pouring rain and about 50°F, Judi laid three short tracks for Cheeky.  She walked backward so Cheeky could see what Judi was doing.  Cheeky seemed to pick up on the idea right away especially on the second track.  She was sniffing and eating most of the hot dogs.  We can work on recognizing the articles at home. She was distracted by people are dogs walking by but she's just a puppy and we can work on that.