May 19, 2011
I want to train my police dog to track, but I don’t want to use food...
Full Question:
Hello Ed,My name is Robert Harris, I have been reading your training articles and have really enjoyed some of them, also the questions that you answer are interesting too. I know your big on food reward and ball reward so here is a question I wonder if you could answer. If a dog is trained to track by food reward, not the dog that needs his daily food to track but the dog that just needs a little help with food treats, to track and the dog is a service dog , how do you stop the dog from picking up garbage(food) on a city track. Also in one of your answers to a question you say you use other people with food at the end of a track, will this put the dog in danger for taking food from a stranger in a none training situation, like at home or in the car etc...
I ask these 2 important questions because I'm thinking about training my dog in tracking and don't want to teach him it is ok to take food from strangers. Can this be done? I just would not want my dog to take food from a stranger who really wants to poison him (everyday life situations.)
Thanks in advance,
Robert
Ed's Answer:
Robert,
If you are going to train a service dog you don't really use food on the track. You should be doing the tracking through drive like the RCMP does in the videos that I have produced with them. Food is only used in sport tracking not in police tracking.
I will counter this by saying that the RCMP will cull a dog out of the program in a hurry. They only keep the best of the best in tracking. If a dog doesn't make it - its gone. Local officers in the States do not have that luxury. They simply can not throw in the towel on a dog they have and go out and get a new dog (only Federal Police with deep pockets can do this). So when your dog develops a problem you need to work through it - it may require you doing things that the RCMP would never do - i.e. use a little food at corners or something.
Usually the sport people will get to the point in about 30 or 40 training tracks - where there is only food at the end of the track and not along the track. Then when your dog has gained some experience and realizes that he is actually hunting people - the food along the way does not mean anything.
If your dog is a service dog he is going to know who the bad guy is at the end of the track - it doesn't take a lot for these dogs to learn what "fear scent is" and food is not an issue.
If you are going to train a service dog you don't really use food on the track. You should be doing the tracking through drive like the RCMP does in the videos that I have produced with them. Food is only used in sport tracking not in police tracking.
I will counter this by saying that the RCMP will cull a dog out of the program in a hurry. They only keep the best of the best in tracking. If a dog doesn't make it - its gone. Local officers in the States do not have that luxury. They simply can not throw in the towel on a dog they have and go out and get a new dog (only Federal Police with deep pockets can do this). So when your dog develops a problem you need to work through it - it may require you doing things that the RCMP would never do - i.e. use a little food at corners or something.
Usually the sport people will get to the point in about 30 or 40 training tracks - where there is only food at the end of the track and not along the track. Then when your dog has gained some experience and realizes that he is actually hunting people - the food along the way does not mean anything.
If your dog is a service dog he is going to know who the bad guy is at the end of the track - it doesn't take a lot for these dogs to learn what "fear scent is" and food is not an issue.
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