Okay, hope this is the right forum for this.

Background: My 15 week old GSD pup, Carbon is a working-line German pup, with an excellent working-line pedigree.

Since he's too young for "formal" excercise, to burn off his energy, I take him for long-line walks through the woods that are everywhere around my rural home. We just sort of wander, with him rambling and sticking by me on his own (the line is a just-in-case thing). He can exercise at his own pace.

A weird thing about him was that he was kind of resistant to go on these walks, he would whine a lot and seemed a little unsure and constantly looking to me for security instead of enjoying the walk.

And then when we turned around would be hellbent on getting home as quickly as possible. While on these return trips, his nose is down sniffing all the time, whereas on the walk out, he doesn't sniff at all.

As a result, I started bringing his food and feeding him his morning meal when we get to our "turnaround point" during the walk, and doing some fun and simple obedience exercises.

The difference is amazing...now he's thrilled to go on a walk and looks forward to getting there almost as much as heading back, with NO whining at all anymore... although he still seems a bit more enthusiastic about going home.

Well, today (I was off in space, apparently) I got completely turned around and wasn't sure which way was was back to the car. I wound up just turning around and walking in our immediate last tracks and Carbon started his "return trip" sniffing. So, I thought, why not just let him lead...it wouldn't hurt anyway.

It was SO cool. This 15 week old pup, with no sign of any hesitation, just constant sniffing, took us right back on the weaving, twisting way we had come and directly back to my car. There was no "path" we had originally taken, we were seriously just ambling all over, over fallen trees and everything with no clear direction. And he got us back right away with such focus and confidence. It really was amazing.

My background is in obedience. I've never had a tracking dog before. I know Carbon comes from dogs with excellent tracking scores, but to experience this was very, very cool.

What should I do next? I wasn't planning on doing tracking with him...but obviously he has it in him. How should I proceed. Is the tracking video something that would be appropriate for his age?

Sorry so long, but this was so cool and fun for me and I would love to follow through with his natural talents.

Thanks for the advice.

If you decide you want to track him then the videos will give you the info you need to get off the ground. That's really cool that a 15 wk pup was able to trace your walk all the back to the beginning! Has anyone else with a workingline pup had a similar experience with their dogs?

Amber ,that is great!! I think tracking is amazing.I have seen so many dogs at trials do amazing traking.Anyway, why not track him when you can ,if he shows interest in tracking I woud focus on it.Why not lay a track for him? a small one to start. Use tiny bits of hot dogs or whatever you want to use and make a track any where.15 weeks is not too young to lay a track.I layed tracks around the house when I had my dogs (past and present) as soon as 8 weeks! I love to track my dogs, it's the most relaxing and rewarding exercise for me and it involves no compulsion
I think you should track him, I just received Eds video on tracking for sport to add to my library of dog stuff , you should get one too to get you started if you can.This year is my last year with Yaggo doing Schutzhund, after that we are moving on to other types of training , I want to have him track for human sent w/human at the end of track instead of articles,and focus more on his PPD work.But I have 2 others that I will continue on with Schutzhund.Start traking that boy!!

Thanks Bradley. I wasn't sure if the video covered tracking groundwork for a pup.

I think it was REALLY cool that he did that. I was SO excited about it! Sometimes dogs really amaze me.

I would also be interested to hear about any similar experiences with a young pup.

I always thought it was a negative that he was so anxious to get home, but if he hadn't been, I don't think I would have caught on to his potential. He was self-motivated, I had nothing to do with it.

I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how I can somehow transfer his tracking to get home into tracking through command. For instance, somehow marking us reaching the car? Would that be a good idea or should I just leave well enough alone for now?

And I was trying to get him to stop the sniffing on the way home...to focus more on me and the task at hand... but i don't want him to accidentally associate me discouraging him from rushing to get home with the tracking behaviour that I think is so amazing.

Suggestions?

Edited: Angelique, I think we posted at the same time! I know nothing about tracking so this should be really fun to learn. Could you let me know a little more about the hot dog track? What happens at the end of the track and when do you mark the behavior? I will get the DVD for sure now, but something fun to do in the meantime? Many thanks!

Amber, your statement hellbent on getting home, is this a GSD trait? My old girl, Gretchen use to do this when we went tracking or hiking. Even though she enjoyed what we were doing, when it was time to go home, she couldnt get back to the truck fast enough. Now I notice Ruger, my 3 yr old, doing the same thing. Can't wait to get there, can't wait to get back home.

Horses are like that too ,coming back to the barn, they speed up like nobody's business

I'll PM for U

Thanks Angelique.

Well, I obviously wasn't paying attention. It says on the tracking video description that it's appropriate for puppies. I had read the description and was apparently as lost in space as I was when I got lost today.

Kenneth, I'm glad to hear that your dogs do it too! I was starting to think that it was commentary on my walks!! I wonder why they'd be like that? Any other dog I've dealt with is actually slower going home.

my dogs would bolt as we get around the last corner before home, and drag me too, if i'd let them. it's funny angelique mentioned horses, i was raised around horses and it's stuck in my head that for some reason it's bad practice to let a horse speed up to go home.

i've applied this to my dogs too, i make sure that the last leg of our walk is a relaxed one, despite their feelings to the contrary. not sure if this is effective or even appropriate for dogs, it's just what i do personally.

i think it's great your dog shows such natural talent for tracking (to my untrained "eye" at least). the best i can hope for is my dog can dig a strawberry milk container out of the snow, not sure whether she's following my trail, or my tracks though. :P

amber,
my pup showed the same behavior as yours when he was 12 wks old, and hasn't stopped since then (he's now 1 yr). i started track-imprinting w/him at 10 weeks old; you can certainly take advantage of his natural instincts at his age.

i would suggest you explore the sections on this forum on tracking; there is a LOT of wonderful advice on starting/continuing tracking there.