Hi All,

Is there anywhere I can learn the fundamentals of tracking without buying DVD's or books so that I can decide if it's something I can commit to before buying the material.

I'm interested mainly in search and rescue I think, and as a hobby not a sport. Read a story recently about a guy who's son went missing and he had a tracking trained dog, found the boy at his friends house <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />.

Any Advice appreciated.

Cheers

John

Forgot to ask....my dog is 8 months old, is this too late to start? Like I say it's not for competition, just my interest and fun for the dog.

No, you can teach tracking to older dogs too.

SAR work is a huge commitment of time for both the training of the dog ( tracking and deployment, call outs, etc. ) and the training of the handler ( dog work, compass and map training, first aid training, wilderness survival skills, etc, etc, etc.... )

SAR = Search and Rescue

If you have any question about being able to do the commitment, then don't do it. Often there are lives at stake , so I don't think that anybody should approach training for SAR unless they will make the time and sweat commitment.

Just train for sport tracking instead, you can do it as you please! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Will is right about the committment and the expectations that surround being deployed on a search.

The casual person who thinks their sports trained "tracking dog" can help in a search may cause more far more harm than good. Valuable clues can be destroyed and time lost.

Maybe there is an occassional success story ......and a good trailing dog is a valuable early resource, .....but that is a far sight from most sports dogs.

If you have an interest in search and rescue, I would find a local team or talk with local law enforcement and inquire about what is involved. Consider at LEAST one evening a week and most entire weekends will be spent training.

Also consider as well that, in today's society, just being a good guy is not enough. We carry a hefty LIABILITY insurance policy and have to keep up with training records etc., lest we wind up in court.

Things can change drastically when someone is not alive at the end of the search and you may be facing a crime scene and need to be trained for dealing with that contingency as well as many other ones.

 Quote:

I don't think that anybody should approach training for SAR unless they will make the time and sweat commitment.

the people who do SAR won't let you join up anyway unless you and your dog pass their very demanding criteria. i asked the local SAR people about it when i first got my pup, and they set me straight quickly and very nicely with no problem.

a dog you might think would make an excellent SAR dog could easily be just the opposite.

alice,
that's a good point overall, but there are some...let's just say "less than professional" SAR teams out there that are total poser's that might accept the less-than-serious member.
Of course, God help the lost person if these wannabe's ever had to actually look for somebody..... ( I'm thinking of a kook in Texas that holds himself out to be a SAR type but is not held in high regards by the more serious SAR folks in his area. Fortunately, everyone knows that he's a fake and he's had zero call outs in about ten years....*snicker* )

OK Sport tracking it is then <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />.

So apply my question above to sport tracking? Where can I find the info without having to shell out on DVD's etc. before I know my dog can do the work?

Cheers

John

John,
Here's the easy answer ( and I'm not kidding in any way )
Does your dog eat?
If so, you can train him to track.
It's as simple as that.

Try this for sport
http://www.schutzhundvillage.com/nose1.html