HELP !!!!! My male GSD is about 2 1/2 yrs, and we are in Schutzhund. We started tracking, and when the prairie weather and my shifts allowed, he was doing fine. This year, I thought we were off to a great start. But, the last few times out, he gets about 10 ft or so into the track, and then he comes and heels beside me. I try to get him going again, and then he has had the havit of laying down, and won't go any further. Any suggestions??? Has anyone had a similar problem?????

Go back a few steps. As a general rule this never hurts in any training. Go back to putting food into every footstep. And work back through the process of varring up the food drops.

The reason he is coming back right now is because he is unsure for some reason, and He has learned that heel position is a safe place to be, the laying down is avoidance. The are two rules of thought here; one is to help him develope more confidence and become more sure on the track, I am not going to go over the second option.

If you have used force on the track, then going back to motivation may no longer be an option. In that case you need to work with a specialist that can get your dog through this stage.

Yes, I have this problem too! It seems like my dog is either backing up to heel or downing as a false indication. Avoidance.. that never even occurred to me. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> At least now I feel a bit more confident that the article is a stress free zone for the dog. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> (No compulsion yet so I wouldn't go so far as to say a safe zone.)

Anyway, Orville, what methods can you use to increase the dog's confidence? and.. the second option that you won't mention, is that "force tracking"?

When I hear this my thoughts automatically go to this.
First, he has had experiences that made him associate food with obedience (not wrong at all) or at least rewards for the behaviors he is trying (heel and down). Expect a confused dog to try these behaviors.

The other thing is the statement that you try to get him started again. I read this as the dog doesn't understand tracking and that you need to be the good dog trainer and set him up to succeed by himself, without any more input than getting him to the track. You will have to stop trying to teach him, you will have to set him up to learn it by himslef. Shut up (this is both a term I use for the handlers mouth and body language).
He'll need to be hungry hungry hungry. If he stops and tries any other behavior than track you first ignore him, second if that doesn't work grab his collar and quietly walk off the tracking field and put him up for a few hours or a day. No more food.
He must undersstand that it is his behavior with zero input from you (no coaxing, pointing, steering, dragging, cheering, nothing) that gains him the advantage and makes him feel good. Until the dog can focus himself for a good twenty minutes on a track of varying composition and direction I do nothing more than when he is tracking very well, very focused...the picture of a tracking dog... I name the behavior with a quiet but cheerful encouragement such a "track" or "zook" making the association only with the picutre perfect behavior never never never as a means of getting the dog to track at this point. Until this is built up no articles, no obedience prior to or after the track.
Test yourself. Close your eyes are you influencing the dog on the track without knowing it? Pull the dog off the track and observe the results? Does the dog fix himself because it knows what it needs to do or stop and look at you (bad). Can you drop the leash and the tracking look exactly like you had the leash in your hands?
Jus some advise I give everyone about tracking.

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HELP !!!!! My male GSD is about 2 1/2 yrs, and we are in Schutzhund. We started tracking, and when the prairie weather and my shifts allowed, he was doing fine. This year, I thought we were off to a great start. But, the last few times out, he gets about 10 ft or so into the track, and then he comes and heels beside me. I try to get him going again, and then he has had the havit of laying down, and won't go any further. Any suggestions??? Has anyone had a similar problem?????

He needs easy sucessfull tracks to build his confidence back. Make them short, with the wind, with lots of food. Build his confindence back first. Then you can work back to the tracks you are attempting now.

My gsd just turned two. We just put articles in the track and now I'm getting the above mentioned behavior. He'll get about two articles into the track and then he can't seem to think of anything but heeling or just downing wherever. I went back to just training articles for a week and he was perfect but back on the track yesterday and he was backing up again. I'm doing a track with 9 articles anywhere from 5-9 feet apart.