May 19, 2011
I have a very high drive sport dog. He has scored very high in SchH I, but I am having a problem slowing him on the track. All the methods suggested to me have not worked.
Full Question:
I have a very high drive dog in obedience, and super fighting drive in protection. My problem is he has the same kind of drive in tracking.This is the 3rd time that I present him in a trial. He did very well in SchH I he placed 1st place with 96-90-90. In the SchH I regional of Canada with 1st place 91-95-97 & best in protection work.
I went for my SchH II. He didn't do so well 59-88-98. In my obedience I know the mistake I made, but here is my question. I guess when you have a dog with drive for sale in the three disciplines what can I do to slow him down in tracking. (By the way my SchH II judge was Jan Rhouda hard but fair judge so I don't blame him.) The judge told me that we were a very promising team for the future.
Now here's what I tried in tracking:
1. A lot of food
2. A lot of patches
3. A lot of corners
4. A lot of S figures
5. No food at all and round of corners and square corners
I own your tape on tracking also another tape from Belgium on tracking. I track with a lot of other people, but nobody seems to be able to help me.
His major problem is that he has a tendency to storm on the track and for that reason he over shoots some corners or circles in the corners.
PS I bought the dog at 2? years old, but no work was done on him. Now my worry is I might have to resume to force tracking, or pay myself a personal seminar with somebody from Germany or elsewhere. So I hope you have suggestions for me.
Thank you,
Marc
Ed's Answer:
You have done the right things to try and slow the dog. Now that you know they do not work you have to make the dog understand that tracking is an obedience exercise and the dog must track slow. So you still use food but you also use a prong collar and teach the dog the meaning of the word "SLOW." This does not have to be taking the dogs head off - it just means corrections for charging and praise when going slow with good rewards at the end (his food for the day).
Sport people seem to miss the point that tracking is an obedience exercise that just happens to include some minor very, very simple tracking. If you ever train a service dog to track you will know what real tracking is. But sport work is teaching a dog to track very slowly. On dogs like yours (and mine) this has to be done with force of some kind. The mistake most people make is to not understand the level of force to use. They use too much and take all the drive out of the dog. They also do not reward the dog enough when he has slowed down.
I have an article on my web site about how to teach corners. Go to it and learn how this is done. It takes time but it works very well.
Sport people seem to miss the point that tracking is an obedience exercise that just happens to include some minor very, very simple tracking. If you ever train a service dog to track you will know what real tracking is. But sport work is teaching a dog to track very slowly. On dogs like yours (and mine) this has to be done with force of some kind. The mistake most people make is to not understand the level of force to use. They use too much and take all the drive out of the dog. They also do not reward the dog enough when he has slowed down.
I have an article on my web site about how to teach corners. Go to it and learn how this is done. It takes time but it works very well.
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