There are 2 types of tracking, "foot step tracking" and "tracking
thru drive." Foot step tracking is taught with food and a ball. It is
designed for sport dogs. Tracking thru drive is designed for service dogs.
Here the dog is taught to follow the track at a dead run and there is always
a man at the end of every track. Tracking thru drive is the only way to train
a police service dog.
If you are a K-9 officer who trains his service dog with
food & a ball you already know that you only catch 3% or 4% of the people
you track. The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) catch 45% to 50% of all
the people they track (this includes suburban and urban tracking). If a suspect
runs in the country, they catch 95% of them.
This 2 hour video was filmed in Alberta, Canada at the police dog
training center for the RCMP. The RCMP instructors are the best tracking dog
instructors in the world. They have been training police tracking dogs since
1935. I filmed three videos with them. This is the first video. This video
will show how the RCMP can train a dog (in 60 training tracks) to follow a
1 hour
old, 5 KM unknown track that contains back tracks, road crossings, fence crossings
and articles.
The RCMP has 3 Levels of tracking. This video covers Level
One or tracking in a rural environment. Level two and three (Video 208) deals
with suburban and urban tracking.