[GraceAAA]

Today was my fourth track with Joy and our very first time tracking away from home! Our previous three tracks have been around our farm property (we have about 4 acres...2 of which I have tried to utilize for short tracks).

It has been kind of limiting as we are tracking through the horse paddocks in very short grass (horses don't leave much for pickings!) and ended up having to work over sand and gravel and pavement and the front lawn and around our indoor arena, etc...just to get some distance.

So, today...NO hunting on Sunday's in Massachusetts!...we headed for the local wildlife reservation where I laid our first track off the farm! Joy was absolutely jigging to get out in the field! She is use to off-leash free running at this reservation so I wasn't sure if she would switch gears to focus on tracking. But she was awesome! She hit the start flag with her nose on the ground and didn't lift it once! She flew down the first leg, took a 90degree left turn, zoomed up the straight leg for a right turn to shoot down the last straight away to her article! All in all I paced it out as about 250 yards!

I was really proud of her! Not only was this her first time tracking off of our property and only her fourth time ever tracking...but there was an insane Soft-coated Wheaton Terrier buzzing around the field where I had laid her track. It's a public reservation so I really couldn't ask them to stay off of her track...but she paid the dog no mind! She kept her nose to the ground and acted like he wasn't even there! Accepting one time when he was yakking at her and she looked up at him wih a look of disgust! I swear if she could have talked she would have said "Oh, knock it off already...I am working, you imbecile!"