I am new to tracking and I am trying to train my new 11 week old for SAR. I do not have a SAR group close to me, the closest is 150 miles away. I am lucky enough how ever to have some law enforcement friends that went to school for tracking and the various other K9 duties. He had his dog for about 11 years and is a great resource.

I was wondering what books you would suggest that would help me. I have been doing footstep tracking with him so far with double lays and he has been doing great.

I Had a helper lay out a simple square track yesterday and I did not notice that there were truck tracks going through the dogs trail. My dog sniffed the truck trail and came right back to the human scent trail on each occasion and I was so great full that my mistake did not mislead him. Should I avoid and distractions like that for a while or should I not worry about it?

My next question is how do I get my puppy to ignore new things on his scent trail like Moose poop, or anything other than the human scent?

Thanks for any advice,
Dale

Love your sig photo, he sure is a cutie. You have had this puppy for 2 weeks (assuming you got him at 8 weeks) and are training him for SAR already? I would let him grow up a little first. Let him be a puppy for awhile. Gently expose him to new locations, sights, sounds and area smells without overwhelming him. Let his little bones do some growing before asking him to pull in a tracking harness. JMO.

I was told by the breeder to get him out tracking ASAP. She said it is a great way for a high drive dog to bond and mentally tire out.
We are not doing huge tracks right now. We are doing about 30 yard double lay tracks. So far he can successfully do 30 yards up and 3 sides of a rectangle at 30 yards a piece with a 5 minute old scent laid into the wind with food at the end. I have been successful with myself as a track layer and helpers. His Breeder has a program where she exposes them to loud noises and many other things so they are ready to go and I must say it worked well. He is a confident puppy with high drive. When we go on walks I have been having him search culverts and he loves to check them out now. My pup is about 12.5 weeks old and I make sure to not over exercise him.

Dale,

With young pups like this I usually start with socialization and bonding.

Take them as many places as you can, introduce them to people and just in general have FUN with them.

Two weeks is a short time, IMHO, to really bond with your pup.

What are your SAR goals with this pup? Trailing, Wilderness Air Scent, Cadaver (odor detection), Disaster.....?

I agree that training a trailing dog should start with footstep to footstep tracking as that will bring the dogs nose down. Even some pups that are in training for air scenting (nose up usually) we run tracks for.

11 wks is really a bit young to start tracking, AND there is a possibility of burning him out by the time he is ready to really start heavy training.

Puppies need to be allowed to be puppies. Encourage games of fetch, tug and also encourage being confident and let him go away from you to explore (these are things that will wear him out as well), also, the training with markers article here is great. There is nothing worse that a "velcro" dog or a dog that looks to their handler for guidance because they are unsure or timid.

Marker training will help stimulate and tire out that little puppy brain, and actually helps them develop.

And as always, introduce things slowly, one at a time and make sure the pup is secure and confident before adding another thing.

Most SAR dogs cannot certify until they are 18 months old, which is a rule I totally agree with, as this allows for the dog to mature a bit and "come into their own" so to speak. They grow through adolescence which can possibly bring on fear periods that need to be worked through.

No matter how confident your pup is right now, you can expect setbacks as he grows. It is all part of dog training in any discipline.

ok thanks for the info. I plan on having him do trailing and air scenting. I was told to never have a Search and rescue dog train for cadaver work unless that is all they will be doing. I am currently training him on marker training and fetch with a 20 foot line attached. My dog is working on crate and kennel training and doing pretty well with both. He has never went potty in the crate, " but we also make sure he has went to the bathroom before he goes in and as soon as he gets out". He spends no more than 3 hours or so in the crate with out a potty break.

What is the best video that will help me to focus my high drive dog? Basic Dog Obedience or Building Drive & Focus with Bernhard Flinks.

I currently have Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months,Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet, How to Raise a Working Puppy.

Thanks for any help,
Dale

Patricia,

Your goal with puppies is to establish behaviors by making things fun and not over doing it physically or mentally.

This can be done in tracking if you stick with foot step tracking - using high value food treats, keepiong tracks short and not introducing too many distractions.

Handling distractions at this age is best done off a track and not in a training scenario. Introduce your pup to the YUCK command - ths is covered in my puppy dvd and my remote collar dvd.

It is not recommended to start tracking through drive (TTD) until a dog is 12 months old. There are so many things a dog younger than this can be exposed to through Foot Step Tracking (FST) when its done correctly. It makes the TTD go faster.

You just need to be careful to no over do things.

You may want to get the DVD I did on how to lay training tracks. This has some excellent indeas for trainers. A good training track will help a dog through difficult problems. A good training track teaches the dog to deal with problems. http://leerburg.com/207.htm

Good luck


Ed

Thanks ED for the advice this is my first high drive puppy and I would like to do the best job I can for him. My number 1 goal is for him to know I am the Alpha pack leader then for him to have fun and be a good working dog. I live in Alaska so my dog will be able to experience many different situations such as adverse weather conditions, different types of animals, and varied terrain. I have introduced him to swimming as we have water ever where up here. I really never saw in any of your video's on how to do this so I did research and found a way on how they train bird dogs at an early age.

I went to a local lake with a boat ramp and walked out with the puppy in my arms. I walked out as far as I could with my hip waders on and turned so I was pointing at shore. I slowly lowered the puppy in the water and had my hand under his belly as he started to kick so I could keep him level and walk with him until he could stand up. We did this 8 times and by the 8th time he was swimming on his own. It was only about a 4 foot swim to where he could stand up because we did not want to over due it. My wife Patrica was on shore with treats to meet him and encourage him.

Any advice is welcomed and as you can see from my past post I buy and follow your video's. I was kind of discouraged when I watched your how to raise a working dog on how you taught your dog to be aloof or ignore other dogs because we do not have a older dog to do this with. Well wouldn't ya know it that same day I found out one of our neighbor's has a perfect dog for that. They have a very docile lab that acts the same way your dog did in the video to puppies. So I have been training him with her and they both love it.

Thanks for all the help and advice,
Dale

 Quote: patricia lawyer

I was told by the breeder to get him out tracking ASAP. She said it is a great way for a high drive dog to bond and mentally tire out.

After re-reading this thread I need to clarify some of my comments.

 Quote: carol boche

11 wks is really a bit young to start tracking, AND there is a possibility of burning him out by the time he is ready to really start heavy training.

As I re-read the above comment of mine, it does read incorrectly...I should have added: "11wks is really a bit young to start tracking with longer tracks with distractions."
My apologies for confusion.

When I initially read this post, the above statement stood out to me as that was really the main thing you were concentrating on was tracking this pup.

I have no issue with making tracking fun for youngsters, but there are a lot of other things to be doing as well, like building a good reward system for future training, socializing, and just having lots of fun with letting the pup be a pup.
The one thing I do not agree with is pushing a puppy, if the pup starts showing a lack of enthusiasm, when it was enthusiastic before, I would back off and take a break from it. (after a vet check probably to make sure there is nothing medically wrong with the pup)

I do agree with Ed's statements as well.

Not sure why anyone would tell you that a dog cannot be trained as a cadaver only dog.
There is no reason that a dog cannot be trained to do both. But for some it may be a matter of preference. My Mal is cadaver only and I know that I could train her to do "live" find as well but I choose not to.
I have seen some great dogs that are dual purposed though.

Thanks for your comments and info

Dale